Identify your "Consultant Type"

Consulting as a profession has been growing steadily with more and more firms setting their base in India. Consulting landscape has also been helped by maturing of Indian business set-up as well as growing popularity of professional courses like MBA. But joining a particular industry, sector or a profession, is just the beginning. After all, our professional career could well span over 35 years. Similarly for consulting, while problem-solving skills, analytical capability and a consistent academic record may help you join a good consulting firm but it doesn't ensure that you would enjoy your stay as well.

As I complete my first year in consulting, I have tried to come up with a framework, based on one's interest areas, to suggest what lies in consulting for him/her. I have tried to simplify it by using two major focus areas and I would once again reiterate that it doesn't talk about the capabilities that you need to excel as a consultant.

Three types of Primary Interviewees that Consultants come across

As they say, consultants are not scientists; they largely thrive on collective wisdom. And one of the major sources of this collective wisdom is “primary interview”. By primary interview, I mean the one-to-one interactions that you have with people who may be SME (subject matter experts), competitors, customers or other stakeholders. I must say that these primary interviews have been one of the most reliable sources of information for me especially with the secondary data sources being inadequate or simply unreliable.

In this post, I will discuss three types of interviewees that I have come across quite often during my exposure to consulting. Surprisingly, I have come across at least one of each type, during each of my project. I will also try to come up with recommendations that may help you ace the interview or make the most of it.