Rookie Consultant The Life of a New Consultant

What are my experiences? I have tons of stories to tell. Challenging, Educating, Entertaining and Exciting Experiences i like to share with you.

Project AlphaDeo is just a pseudoname. If it just happens that such Project exists/existed in the corporate world, it was unintentional.

• Different Folks, Different Attitude. This project is a nationwide implementation. We traveled from north, down to the southernmost part of the country. Since we are rich in different cultures, it has major effect during our implementation. I just observed that Visayas people are more hospitable, friendly, open to changes and has a very positive outlook in life. They always have a laugh, and smile even though they are stressed and pushed to work for their backlogs during our live day. Cebuanos are really friendly. I was in loved with the place and also Bohol. Ilonggos are passionate, performing and hardworking. The same with the people in Bacolod, Tacloban and Negros. In Mindanao, specifically the Zambaonga people, they are more lax and always procrastinate. That’s is why we are really having a hard time to finish all the cut-over activities during our implementation. The challenge was in our last leg of implementation in Northern Luzon  and Cagayan Valley, provinces like Rosario, Nueva Viscaya, Laoag, Solano, San Fernardo, Santiago and Tuegegarao. I don’t know if it’s just really a coincidence but majority of us considered it the worst part of our implementation. Conflicts between the end-users, the technical team and the management aroused during this leg. The people are hesitant, hard-headed, some users are incompetent, shallow-minded, and they have this crab mentality attitude. Am i being harsh? Nope i was just being transparent. I can still remember this lines, coming from one of the managers: “Welcome to our league!”
  

• Throw Back the Question. One thing i have developed during implementation is the ability to return the question. Let the client/user answer his own question. I really believed that the task of the consultant is to build the capacity of the clients to make their own assessments and answer their own questions.

• The Power of Beauty. Since we are in a working environment dominated by the male species, my female colleagues use their charms as their primary weapon to win the hearts of the users and specially the management. Haha! Others say that we are the group composed of good looking, talented and skilled consultants. Hey! I am not exaggerating on this one. The counterpart of it is that others see us a threat and i couldn’t blame them.

• The Pinpoint Compass. It is expected that some managers would not be man enough to accept their mistakes and makeup for their failures. They have something under their sleeves. Do you know what it is? It’s the pinpoint compass. And you will never know who will be blamed next.

• Art of Psychology. Directors really read human body language in order to reveal what’s on someone’s mind. I was just astonished. And then he eventually said “We can agree to disagree on somethings…” And then that was the last time he was able to talk to me personally.

• The Tipping Point. This job would really test your mettle. For how long can I rein my temper? Lucky them. Different people has different learing curves. Would you be pissed off for someone you teached (of the same instructions) for more than 5 consecutive times and still he doesn’t know what to do? I was also the one who created his simple tipsheet notes. I walked out and let him answer his questions on his own.

Posted under The Consulting Experience

Hi! Welcome to my site! It is still in beta phase so please bear with me. This is my first post and my first (serious) blog ever. I planned to have my own blog to work with, ages ago, but this is just the time i really decided to have one. Seriously, even though i do not really write from “streams of my consciousness” something has spurred me to do this. I want to share my experiences and impart learnings to others. This blog is primarily about my consulting experience, cause i am a rookie consultant.

Pictures taken during End-users Training

I am an IT Consultant. Others deduce i was really enjoying the flair. Well, I can say I was a  hell lucky yuppie who is still striving the challenges towards this so called ‘prestigious’ profession. I have an experience in system implementations. And with that, i encountered so many stories about different people, management issues, practices, culture, places etc. Everyday is a learning experience and the same goes on this kind of job.

I faced crossroads in my career years ago. So what made me love this career? First of all, i am afraid of boredom. I like variations in my day to day activities. I don’t prefer to have routine tasks. That is why i decided to take this career. I am an IT grad but during my stay in college i am already involved in software development and always at asked to play the role of the Project Leader, so i got use to do Project Management methodologies. I was never been a hardcore developer.

What is IT Consulting? Wiki defines it as a field that focuses on advising businesses on how best to use information technology to meet their business objectives. In addition to providing advice, IT consultancies often implement, deploy, and administer IT systems on business behalf. To make it short, us, consultants do earn through problems. If other people would ask what is my job, and  as soon as i spill those carefully chosen and simplified terms they will nod. But the truth is they never really understand what i said.

What are the qualities you need to have? I will just list few:

• Ability to learn quickly. Every client has its own business process. It is expected that you do not know everything, that is why you have to be a fast-learner.

• Be prepared and embrace challenges. This is a career that you really have to step out of your comfort zones.

• Love to study and crave for new learnings. Go ask an experienced consultant. He would definitely say there’s so many new things to explore.

• People Skills. Most of the time you will have to interact to different people at different levels. You will also do presentation and train them. You have to deal with clients’ queries.

• Team Player/Independent Person. Most of the time you do tasks in a team but you should also expect that you also have to work on your own.

• Sensible. Since you will always be interacting with the bosses of the client company down to the end-users, you do have to empathize them. Common sense is not common nowadays huh!

• In relation to the second, and since this involves implementation, you are required to travel. So if this sounds fun to you then this job is for you.

It was always been a struggle from the start. You really have to learn the client’s business process quickly. Even though there was an ample time for you to study and be trained, you must really possess a sharp learning curve. Stressful? Yep, this is a stressful job but would there be a job that wasn’t stressful? How about the perks? Haha! Of course for every hard work there will always be rewards and accolades. Consultants were always after the per diem. There would always be ‘birthpains’ but as the saying goes this too shall pass.

There’s a lot of different methodologies used in implementation. Example, in an ERP systems like Oracle, it is a standard to use AIM. Methodologies refer to list of standard activities or approach used by the consultants during and after the implementation. Basically it all starts with Project Scoping or Client’s Business Review where you will have to know the existing business process, identify and analyse the gaps. Then you have to map the business data and be able to test that business solution. You also have to prepare test scripts and use it in training the end-users. Down to migration and go-live day. There will always be post-implementation support.

The Wacky Consultants

An Idle Day

And now it’s time for me to move to the next level. It has been two months since I accepted a new post as an IT Consultant with a different Consulting firm. I was in Applications, specifically in the world’s leading provider of ERP Systems which is Oracle. At first I felt ecstatic. I do love challenges. But i am really missing my previous team. I can say that it was the best team i had. Good things shall come to an end. We chose different path to take to. Some plans to migrate and work abroad. Others went in a different field. There are some who chose to be in the same path as I. Now, going back to the context, i am honestly challenged. I have to manage my time very well. It is a day-to-day routine for me to travel at least 2 hours a day just to go to work, study different modules and concepts, read a good book (I love reading), time with my friends, family and loved one. But still i got managed to have a good laugh. I know it was exhausting but successful people really had moved out from their comfort zones just to be successful. I always look up to some people, just like my boss. He is the one who motivates me. I know his humble beginnings. He is my mentor. I just smiled on times he gave me lots of tasks to do. Even though at first i find it irrelevant. (Sorry Boss! Just my presumption at that time.)

“Let us go forth and syngergise leverage.” I was just moved by this statement. Try to define each term and chuckle.

One consultant, on her blog, defined what a consultant is (although some would not be applicable):

we’re type A (who, us?);
we use words like ’synergy’ and ‘leverage’ in sentences;
we know that “Decks” aren’t made of wood;
we drink wine, not beer;
we wear boxers, not briefs;
we actually like to travel;
we’re platinum elite with every airline and hotel;
we stay at the W (aka ‘the Dubbb’) whenever possible;
American Express drives us nuts;
we know where the best bars are in every airport in the world;
we know how to calculate NPV;
we can sleep anywhere, anytime;
we’re all about the per diem;
we’re all places all the time;
we’re crazy consultants.

Although i am considerably crazy,  i affirm on the last 5 lines.

Sounds fun and exciting? I hope i had enlightened you somehow.

So do you want to shift to a new career in IT. Please feel free to register and browse jobjoints.com. There are various IT and non-IT position posted by us and by our reputable sister companies.
BTW my boss is the founder of bloggista.com. Check out his article about ERP Consultants.
If you need services in ERP Consulting (Oracle and SAP), Open Source Software like LAMP, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Human Resources Information System, kindly visit the Products Section of erpbiz.net

Posted under The Consulting Experience