What does a day in the life of a consultant look like? While no 2 days are the same, consultants often balance client meetings, customer interviews, and factory tours, while managing tight deadlines and coming up with big ideas to solve client problems. It’s a fast-paced, problem-solving role that offers variety and constant challenges, making it both demanding and rewarding.
Consulting is known for its dynamic environment, with priorities that shift as the team gathers data and better understands the client’s problem. Consultants must be adaptable, quick on their feet, and able to navigate different industries and client needs. Understanding what a typical day looks like can help you decide if consulting is the right career path for you.
In this article, we’ll discuss:
- The different types of workdays consultants experience
- A detailed look at a typical consulting day, featuring a real consultant’s schedule
- The key tasks and responsibilities consultants manage throughout the day
- 4 skills you must master to tackle a day in the life of a consultant
Let’s get started!
Contents
Different Types of Workdays in Consulting
Consulting offers a variety of workdays, depending on the stage of a project, client needs, and team dynamics. Here’s an overview of the different types of workdays you’ll encounter as a consultant:
Client-Facing
These are the days consultants spend at the client’s office, either collecting data, leading workshops, or presenting findings to CEOs. Client-facing days involve working closely with stakeholders to understand their challenges, dig into their problem’s root causes, align on the next steps, and ensure project objectives are met.
Early in the project, consultants might meet with the client to gather data or interview front-line workers who understand their challenges. Later on, these days might focus on facilitating workshops to drive consensus to solutions and then presenting the recommendations to the main client leaders. Throughout the project, client-facing days are always about collaboration, problem-solving, and relationship-building.
Example: The team arrives at the client to present findings from a 3-month market strategy project. The day involves leading a presentation to the C-suite, discussing market opportunities, and guiding the executives through key decisions to finalize the company’s go-to-market strategy.
Data Collection, Analysis, and Synthesis
Consultants spend a significant portion of their time gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing data. This work typically involves diving deep into the client’s internal data on costs, revenues, products sold, employee hours by activity, waste, and other data related to the client’s problem. External market research is frequently used as well.
Consultants spend hours working in Excel, building models to forecast trends, evaluating cost-saving opportunities, or benchmarking performance against industry standards. This phase is where consultants transform raw data and numbers into strategic insights.
Once the analysis is complete, consultants must synthesize the findings into a coherent story and actionable recommendations. Example 1 – retail client: analysis might reveal that labor costs are disproportionately high, leading to the recommendation to adjust staffing levels. Example 2 – manufacturing client: consultants might identify excessive waste in a production line, suggesting a need for tighter quality controls. These insights are then summarized into key takeaways and presented as part of a broader narrative that addresses the client’s specific challenges and outlines steps for improvement.
Before formal presentations, consultants frequently meet with key client stakeholders to share insights from the data and the initial hypothesis. These meetings are essential for getting feedback, ensuring alignment on recommendations, and avoiding surprises during the big presentations.
Example: After receiving data from the client’s supply chain department, the consultant spends several days analyzing inventory levels and shipment delays. Using advanced Excel models, the consultant maps out trends in order fulfillment rates and identifies underperforming suppliers contributing to delays. The findings are then translated into graphs in a PowerPoint deck, highlighting both quick wins and long-term solutions to streamline the supply chain. Before presenting the recommendations to the client’s COO, the team meets with the logistics leader to validate the data and gather feedback, ensuring buy-in.
Travel
Travel is a frequent part of a consultant’s life, especially for those working with clients in different geographies. Travel days can start with an early morning flight or a late-night arrival, and consultants use this time efficiently, catching up on emails, reviewing project documents, or preparing for upcoming meetings.
For many junior consultants, the travel aspect can be a perk. You can earn credit card points, access airport lounges, and find travel hacks to make the journey fun.
Example: A typical travel day might involve a consultant flying from New York to Milwaukee on a Monday morning. With a 7 a.m. flight, the consultant uses the travel time to review workshop notes and refine the agenda for an upcoming client meeting later that day. After landing, they head straight to the client’s office to kick off a day of meetings and presentations.
Consulting Office or Remote Days (including Recruiting and Extra Curricular Activities)
When consultants aren’t at client sites, their days are spent either in the consulting firm’s office or working remotely. These days are focused on project-related work like data analysis, team meetings, and preparing client deliverables.
Depending on the project and team, remote days mean plenty of virtual collaboration through video calls and shared online workspaces. These days can feel more solitary, but they are essential for digging deep into the analysis needed for high-impact client solutions.
However, consulting life goes beyond just client work. These days often include participation in firm-wide activities like recruiting, mentorship, and culture-building events that help consultants stay engaged with their firm. Firm culture is a big part of the office environment, with events like Friday happy hours, team lunches, or office celebrations being a common way to unwind and connect with coworkers. These moments help build the camaraderie needed for high-intensity projects.
One unique aspect of consulting is that even consultants early in their careers get pulled into recruiting and mentoring. You’ll be asked to represent the firm at recruiting events, conduct interviews, or help onboard new hires. Mentorship is another key component, where consultants regularly guide newer hires, helping them navigate client work and firm culture. These opportunities provide valuable leadership experience early in a consultant’s career.
Example: On Friday, the consultant starts the morning with a client update meeting. Following the call, the team gathers in a conference room for a debrief session, discussing feedback from the client and planning the next steps for the upcoming week. Then, the consultant heads to a lunch meeting for the firm’s social impact event planning committee, where they brainstorm ideas for an upcoming fundraising event. In the afternoon, the consultant shifts gears and participates in a recruiting event for prospective summer interns. They meet with students who are interested in joining the firm, sharing their experiences, and answering questions about what a day in the life of a consultant is really like.
Example Calendar of a Consultant’s Week
Here’s an example of what a full week might look like, showcasing the variety of workdays consultants experience.
As you can see, there’s a blend of external client work, internal collaboration, and consulting firm culture activities, which is what makes the life of a consultant so dynamic!
The week begins early on Monday with a flight to the client city, where the team hits the ground running with morning check-ins, client meetings, and workstream discussions. Throughout the week, there’s a strong focus on collaboration, whether through daily team check-ins or workstream meetings.
As the week progresses, the consultant continues juggling client meetings, analysis, and presentation material creation, often working late into the night to refine slides and review insights. After wrapping up with the client, the consultant catches a flight home on Thursday evening, using travel time to tie up loose ends and prepare for what’s ahead.
Fridays shift gears slightly, focusing more on internal consulting firm activities. The consultant begins the day with a big client update before participating in non-client tasks, such as planning the firm’s charity event or recruiting efforts like coffee chats. The week concludes with a company happy hour, a chance to relax with colleagues and reflect on the week’s achievements.
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In this article, we’ve covered:
- Different types of workdays consultants experience
- What a typical consulting day in the life looks like, including a real example of a consultant’s calendar
- The main tasks and responsibilities consultants handle every day
- 4 essential skills needed to navigate busy consulting days
Still have questions?
If you have more questions about a day in the life of a consultant, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s recruiters will answer them.
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