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The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

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Re: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

#121

Post by shrikant »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #99

"Absent negative externalities or monopoly effects, a man receives from the free market what he gives to it, his material worth is a running tally of the net benefit that he has provided to his fellow man" I'm not surprised that someone whose ideology makes him believe that Einstein's contribution to society was smaller than that of the bosses of Lehman or AIG would be disappointed by reality. Or is it that reality i…

I'm not surprised that someone whose ideology makes him believe that Einstein's contribution to society was smaller than that of the bosses of Lehman or AIG would be disappointed by reality.

Would you care to clarify? I genuinely don't see where you are getting this from.

Re: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

#122

Post by shrikant »

ig1 wrote: post #108
Silhouette wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it really isn't. Not at any of the small businesses I ever worked for, where the guys at the top probably decide these things themselves. Not at a very, very large business I worked for, where the guys at the top probably didn't know the name of anyone in my building and everything was done by HR and Legal automatons. And not at any medium sized businesses I have ever worked for, either. The only time an agreemen…

It's pretty standard at both banks and large tech companies that when they make you redundant or fire you that they ask you to sign something similar. I'd be surprised if say Google or Microsoft didn't have something similar in their standard redundancy pay-out contracts.

I worked at a fairly large UK-based bank, and whatever I signed when I left the place had nothing of the sort.

But then again I left of my own accord, and wasn't laid off or 'made redundant', so the situation might be different then.

Re: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

#123

Post by gaius »

abalashov wrote: post #50
holdenc wrote: post #46

This story is written with a wonderful naivete. Consultants like BCG exist only to lend credentials and competent temporary labor. The companies who hire these consultants are looking for affirmation and peace of mind -- most of them too mired in bureaucracy or incompetence to draw even the most basic conclusions by themselves.

Still, it's hard to believe that peace of mind is worth paying 5 kids graduated 6 weeks ago in Political Science from Stanford to come give Powerpoints on meaningless, vapid crapola billed to you each at $300/hr, even where such figures don't make much of a blip on the bottom line.

The thing is, on an individual level, consultants really do work like sled dogs. If you have something in mind that needs a dozen fairly smart people to go to North Dakota and work 90 hrs a week for 3 months, consultants can do that and your regular employees probably can't (or won't).

However it's up to you to actually have something like that in mind in the first place... I can't think of anything offhand myself!

Re: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

#124

Post by api »

tomjen3 wrote: post #115
api wrote: post #68

"I got the feeling that our clients were simply trying to mimic successful businesses, and that as consultants, our earnings came from having the luck of being included in an elaborate cargo-cult ritual." WOW that is dead on. I get the feeling half the world is like that.

The problem is that it is not that simple, because just doing what others do works very well in most cases and you don't have the time to start questioning _everything_ - why do you shower in the morning? Why eat three times a day? I don't want to defend cargo-cults, but people copy because it works.

No, it's worse than that. I have seen this before. There is an entire portion of the business world that merely goes through the motions of being successful businesses rather than actually being businesses at all. It's really weird.

You could look at it as investment fraud with plausible deniability. Take money, hire consultants, look busy. The only thing is, I don't think it's that explicit or intentional. I think there's a breed of person out there in the business world who does not grasp the distinction between actually doing something and imitating the appearance of doing it.

Re: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

#125

Post by api »

edster wrote: post #72
GFischer wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't want anyone that has a clue and might therefore threaten them! (sadly seen this in my work) Edit: many of the other cynical explanations further down in the thread are quite valid too (scapegoat theory et al)

I've worked at so many of the largest companies as an employee, contractor and even overpaid consultant and this is completely true. These companies are completely mired in their own structure that there is nothing they can do to get out. Everyone is protecting their turf and their headcount that you almost have to have "Bob and Bob" come into, even though they don't know anything themselves. When I was working for a…

Human group social behavior is a liability in our modern society. It works pretty well when you're a tribe of 20 people hunting and gathering, but it doesn't scale.

Re: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

#126

Post by nekopa »

jrockway wrote: post #78
microcentury wrote: post #39

"At my salary level, and with my expected advancement path, I could comfortably retire in my thirties." I've heard this or statements like it in quite a few articles over the years, but I've never actually met a retired thirties business consultant. Do they exist and am I just missing them? The only ones I know are well into their thirties, working 70+ hours a week, and looking forward to making even larger boatloads…

Depends. If you are making $300,000 a year and live like you are making $15,000 a year (and save the rest), then you can retire at 30. Most people aren't willing to be this frugal, however. It seems some people making this much even have trouble "making ends meet", because they buy so much crap that they can't afford. Ah, consumerism. (In the interest of fairness, I am almost as bad -- I love buying stuff. I just sto…

The problem here is in the matter of status symbols. A quick tale for you: A consultant who gave me my start in the industry once had his car break down before an initial meeting with a client(Mercedes). He had to borrow his son's tricked-out VW boy-racer to get to the meeting on time. As he pulled into the meeting the clients were exiting their cars and saw him parking. He said the meeting never even really got started, as they had already pre-judged him.

Re: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

#127

Post by jacquesm »

kolya3 wrote: post #5

Great description of burnout: "What I learned is that burning out isn’t just about work load, it’s about work load being greater than the motivation to do work."

That sentence really stood out for me too, especially since I've been going through something close to that.

I always wondered what caused people to 'burn out' on jobs that you couldn't possibly call taxing by any stretch of the imagination, I think this is the key to the answer.

Re: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

#128

Post by jacquesm »

thwarted wrote: post #90
wyclif wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, John Deacon wrote one of Queen's biggest hits, "You're My Best Friend."

Not sure what that has to do with anything, "You're my best friend" was released 21 years before Deacon retired.

It contradicts that he didn't have a say in the creative direction.

That may not have been true at the time the gp indicates though.

Re: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

#129

Post by rbanffy »

jrockway wrote: post #78
microcentury wrote: post #39

"At my salary level, and with my expected advancement path, I could comfortably retire in my thirties." I've heard this or statements like it in quite a few articles over the years, but I've never actually met a retired thirties business consultant. Do they exist and am I just missing them? The only ones I know are well into their thirties, working 70+ hours a week, and looking forward to making even larger boatloads…

Depends. If you are making $300,000 a year and live like you are making $15,000 a year (and save the rest), then you can retire at 30. Most people aren't willing to be this frugal, however. It seems some people making this much even have trouble "making ends meet", because they buy so much crap that they can't afford. Ah, consumerism. (In the interest of fairness, I am almost as bad -- I love buying stuff. I just sto…

> If you are making $300,000 a year and live like you are making $15,000 a year

It's possible if your employer is paying for your relocation. In 2004 (IIRC) I went on training teams for clients of ours continuously for about two months (with a brief stop at home in the middle). Not only I accumulated a respectable mileage, I spent about a third of what I usually spend in my home town (São Paulo, Brazil).

I'm 40, married for the second time, with a 14 year-old boy from the first marriage and would not be able to reduce my expenditures to that level, but it's quite doable if you are in your 20's.

Re: The story BCG offered me $16,000 not to tell

#130

Post by jacquesm »

gaius wrote: post #110
microcentury wrote: post #39

"At my salary level, and with my expected advancement path, I could comfortably retire in my thirties." I've heard this or statements like it in quite a few articles over the years, but I've never actually met a retired thirties business consultant. Do they exist and am I just missing them? The only ones I know are well into their thirties, working 70+ hours a week, and looking forward to making even larger boatloads…

It's not true, is why. After 10-15 years at one of the top consultancies you could have completed outright the major capital purchases of your life (e.g. a house or two, maybe a boat) and could downshift to something much less stressful but you certainly couldn't stop working altogether. And these houses would be nice, sure, but we're not talking mansions with helicopter pads and servants here. Basically you would be…

To be able to afford something does not mean you can afford the upkeep of it.

If you live frugal a little goes a very long way.

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