Monday, May 11, 2009

Same old story

There are two things on a consulting project that will always happen.

First, a client will start a conversation aimed at finding out how much consultants earn. Answer: probably less than you suspect, but enough to compensate for the hard work and time away from families.

Second, someone will tell you the watch joke, which is the consulting equivalent of the kind of jokes that pop into my head when I'm talking to a gynecologist. Definition: a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time, then keeps the watch. There's some truth in this, but it's more like finding your watch for you, fixing it with your toolkit, then charging you. The answers are usually there if you know where and how to look.