Hi all senior consultantI'm just switch to consultant role and found some people don't have any work skill but very welcome in the company and got very good pay. They always brought food to treat people, chat through online web, not serious with their job, sometimes watched movie in the office. Is it consultant = sales people? Instead of some one has expertise to provide advice or solutions?Need your advice on the "meaning of consultant"Thanks

I suspect that as a new consultant you are over acting the role based on some preconception you held about how a consultant should behave. Maybe you expected everyone to be huddled around the FT debating minor shifts in the gold standard or where counterparty valuation adjustment can be reconciled with Mifid 3.And as you have just switched to a consultant role, are you sure you have the insights of what being a consultant is to make the judgement about whether they have any work skills? Piece of advice - relax a little, stop taking yourself so seriously and get involved. you will have a happier life in the office, and learn more about being a consultant

...and don't call me Surely.

I have worked with her for sometimes in a project, she bluffed client, she critiqued customer at the back, she made a mess in a project, she asked team member to perform stupid task until the PM has to stop this, she went on leave a week every month for vacation during project. Why? This is the way of being consultant?

Shirley - are there any jobs going at this place? it sounds awesome.

Can any one tell me the "true meaning" of consultant?Why I did my work I was accused by people?My peer made the mess, went vacation every month during project.....etc. she was very welcome in the company. I heard she provided gift to the management ,this is the true meaning of consultant? Why? Why ? Why?

Hmm, your first post made me think "oh no, here's just another idiot". However, your subsequent posts have been illuminating. I can understand what you're going through.This is not an uncommon experience in consultancy. I have, over the years, had to work for many an idiot. People who can't do the job properly but somehow always manage to move on before the SHTF. You just want to do a good job; she just wants to throw her weight around (and will invariably "escape" by emigrating or joining a different firm before people start to notice that she is all talk and no trousers). My advice? Get away from her FAST. She is toxic. Think of her as being a walking lump of diarrhoea that wants to slop all over you. Try and gracefully find yourself a way to work on another project. Let her wreck her own project - and without then having you to use as a scapegoat. Let her burn up the project budget by getting people to do pointless work and then have to explain it to the client. You sound young but like you have a good attitude (despite the weird way your question was phrased in your first post). Sadly, consultancy doesn't always reward those people that do the best work. I can remember on one of my first projects, I basically wrote half the deck on my own, yet when it got added to our intellectual property library, everybody on the team (20 people!) was acknowledged EXCEPT me - just because I had a big blow up with the "principal" on the project (a guy that looked like a muppet and who was a truly nasty piece of work... I honestly still wouldn't think twice about pushing him off a cliff if it were legal and I was allowed to). I look back on that and think what a pointless place to work it was. I'm glad I got out of there! They paid quite a lot but frankly my sanity is worth more than that. You sound good - you still have a positive attitude - so don't think you owe your boss any loyalty for treating you like this, brush up your CV and get out there and find a better job! And in the meantime, just think of your current job as being a necessary chore to pay the bills while you look for pastures green.

The work I have completed was kept changing by my team members. At first I didn’t aware that this was a bad intention and I was just rectifying back. Until one day one of my peer who was not in this project teasing me that “you think you will be the first one to complete your assignment, you won’t be completing your assignment before “her””. I talked to the senior manager of this project, he said “work is all about relationship”. I didn’t know what kind of relationship “she” has established with the bosses and same with the rests. At last my reporting manager transferred me out from this project. After half year, people from this project were resigning from this company and one of them told me the management from this project was put the blame on me. I became a scapegoat even though I was not in the project anymore. how you build your relationship with your boss? gift?

[quote]how you build your relationship with your boss? gift?[/quote]- make them look good via your work- be positive and helpful around them so they have no reason to avoid you- socialise - join in team drinks after work, given them a 1:1 update over a coffee etc- not gifts in UK culture; just embarrasses people at best and at worst looks like a bribe

they were asking for iphone and I was ignoring them that why they made difficulty on me. I just didn't understand, they were managers and if i completed tasks on time they would get the credit and why they still wanted to ask for personal benefits from subordinates?

Do you work in the IT department? Why were they asking you for an iPhone? Do you mean they expected you to give them your own privately-owned iPhone and let them keep it permanently? Or do you mean that they wanted to borrow your telephone to make a call or something?

Are you sure they weren't asking 'do you have an iPhone?'

Mr A said "B, you don't have iphone", Mr B said "ya, I need an iphone". Mr A always told me "I always give gift to my frens whenever they birthday and also buy home appliances to them" They also told me Mr C (the newly promoted team lead) had been bought home appliances for them.

Are we back in the 1960s again?

I think we may be in the middle east...Shirley, I'm not sure what the accepted cultural practice is in your part of the world, but here in the west we don't buy our bosses gifts in exchange for promotions. And besides, an iPhone contract could get very expensive and would be an on-going cost, not a one-off gift.I don't think you should be buying them gifts. It sounds like you agree with that?

I don't know whether I'm more perturbed by the bribery, or the remarkably paltry nature of the bribe!

you should have offered them a Nokia 3310...with the interchangeable front AND back covers!!

Are there any contractors looking for work at the moment? I need a new PMO and a Project Manager.PMO day rate is at the junior end so I would only expect a minor electrical gift - steam iron, radio-alarm clock, etcThe PM role is really quite senior, so pays well. I'm hoping for at least a tumble drier or even a fridge freezer.

Cool, how much to get a team of 5 in there? New conservatory?

Hmmm. Sorted out my conservatory requirement when I took on a E&Y team to run the PMO ar my last place.Quite keen on one of those spiral wine cellar things you can get dug into the floor of your kitchen...

hi Bushy Eyebrow PartnerI never agree with them, this was the reason I encountered a lot of hardship there. At the end the project was not moving well and they pushed all the blame on me though I was not in the project anymore. It caused me a lot of hardship also when I was looking out. A lot of people said I'm not suitable to become a consultant, while that "walking lump of diarrhea" is very suitable and they never explain frankly with me but I was knowing well the reason. I wrote this post is to find out the truth from the fellow consultants.

Since no one has asked, I will.Where IS this?

[quote]Are there any contractors looking for work at the moment? I need a new PMO and a Project Manager.PMO day rate is at the junior end so I would only expect a minor electrical gift - steam iron, radio-alarm clock, etcThe PM role is really quite senior, so pays well. I'm hoping for at least a tumble drier or even a fridge freezer.[/quote]I am looking for a senior PM role as it happens and I can get a discount on Bosch appliances through a relative so looking peachy. Do you prefer Bosch, Neff or Siemens?

Sorry president B,Not my decision, but my current client has a "no Accenture" rule.Too many promises of Bosch fool owed be delivery of Candy...:-(

Hi SmithyAPAC. Fellow consultants, may I know which of the following countries have "accepting gift" culture?1. Indonesia - Yes/No2. Singapore - Yes/No3. Malaysia - Yes/No4. Thailand - Yes/No5. Brunei - Yes/No6. China - Yes/NoThanks

[quote]Sorry president B,Not my decision, but my current client has a "no Accenture" rule.Too many promises of Bosch fool owed be delivery of Candy...:-([/quote]My days in the big A are numbered I think, currently looking at contractor positions anyway! Or does the rule apply to ex Accenture people too?!

I am Cool.I am Consultant.So, I am Cool Consultant :D

Any one can reply me?

They forced me out from the industry. I have applied to other companies, most of interviewer know them.I don't know what I can do now?

I was only kidding - cheap shot at acn's sell big, deliver low reputation...Generally ex-Accenture on a contractor CV I s a positive thing. Clients feel they are getting all the positives ( training, rigour, work ethic) without the politics and selling.Just be realistic about rates. Best that your first contract is of a decent length, rather than a month at a stratospheric rate.

Cool,Contracts are 3 or 6 month ones, right? Then renew? Or do they offer longer 12-month or 24-month ones? If so, how is this different from fixed-term contracts?

[quote]I was only kidding - cheap shot at acn's sell big, deliver low reputation...Generally ex-Accenture on a contractor CV I s a positive thing. Clients feel they are getting all the positives ( training, rigour, work ethic) without the politics and selling.Just be realistic about rates. Best that your first contract is of a decent length, rather than a month at a stratospheric rate.[/quote]Are you seeing rates dropping at the moment, a couple of years ago ex colleagues of mine were getting £600ish a day with 8-9 years PM experience but I'm being told that isn't too realistic these days?

Does anyone find me annoying?Lol, don't worry, the hectic schedule will resume soon. Just bear with me for another day or so :D

Different banks take different approaches, mainly depending on how much hassle is involved in extending a contract versus serving notice on a longer one.Also depends on role. BA contracts are often 3 months at a time, as at testers. Programme managers might often be 12 months.Fixed term contract is usually employment on a salary. Even when I sign up to 12 months + (aligned to the project duration) it's on a self employed day rate basis.

600 is still achievable in investment or corporate banking if you have a good pedigree.In retail banking the competition keeps the mass rate a bit lower, around 550.Both rates are for London. Knock if 30% as soon as you go outside the M25

We seem to have strayed slightly from Shirley's original point?Although, due to it being almost unintelligible I have no idea what it was.

I would say that consultants are not just the sales people as you say. Global consultancy company may help the professionals and the business in many forms by suggesting the competent measures that improve the performances at various levels.

I am Consultant.

You claim to be many things Camster :)

Yes. I am Cool.

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