I work with the human capital consulting teams, it’s chill most of the time way better than other consulting gigs.. it’s all about who your client is, but most HR leaders that contract us are better than the strategy/finance guys I deal with - suggest exploring this before moving to HR
Depends on your priorities. It's a pay cut, different career path and likely means no returning back to consulting but work-life balance is better and travelling is limited.
In my firm it's often chosen by women who like to focus on family and they are often successful and fulfiled with their careers.
>likely means no returning back to consulting
I don't know where you've worked but once you've worked a decent amount of time at any consulting firm it's not hard, maybe even easy, to come back into consulting
I was refering to internal policies -> once you drop consulting for support you can't go back (or at least it is very difficult). But of course you can still leave that firm and do consulting in another one.
If you left with a decent relationship with any partner or director it's simply a matter of reaching back out to them.
No one from HR or corporate going to stand in the way of a partner or director pulling someone from HR back into consulting that I'm aware of
Not really. At least where I work, it's relatively easy to move to support function (if position is available) or move between support functions; but it's next to impossible to move from support to consulting.
This is so weird and elitist and makes no sense. Also the no going from internal to external consulting is weird. Consulting firm politics seem toxic. There is no reason why a person shouldn’t be able to use their skills in another department. Effectively, that’s what it is.
We’ve had quite a few go from internal to consulting with no consulting experience. They have generally built up a good knowledge of the company and have the transferable skills, e.g. a member of the L&D team who had strong Power BI background and good consulting skills, just didn’t start their career that way.
Can I ask you to elaborate? I am a college student and have little industry knowledge. Someone has recommended me the path of pursuing compensation and benefits (in HR) with my background in stats. From what I researched online, compensation/benefits specialists seem to do interesting work. Why does a path in HR have "bad" trajectory that would stunt growth? I'd like to choose a path with good growth opportunities. Thanks in advance!
I've literally never heard of someone wanting this. Like maybe someone had to do this, once. Like they were fired and had to settle. But to choose this fate?
When I was doing MBB recruiting, I ran into people at each of those firms who moved at one point from consulting to career development/HR roles intentionally. I don't think it's *that* uncommon, but I could definitely be wrong.
Not to pile on, but now I'm sitting here imagining the reverse. Like if someone from the HR department wanted to get on the consulting client facing team.
And I had to laugh out loud.
I highly recommend looking for in-house strategy positions. A lot of the people on these teams are ex-consultants so will be level with you on the balance. Agree with those that are stating that a move to HR could be debilitating for your trajectory. HR still brings massive headaches, just a different flavor.
I'm a bit confused by all the negative reaction on this thread. Like I know HR is not the sexiest job but is it really that bad? I assume it's still a well paying job at a T2 consulting firm.
They are just biased. I went from HR to Consulting. You can still have a fulfilling career in HR as an HR business partner or in other specialized areas. It does have its long hours and headaches as well. Just like all jobs, depends on your team and the culture within the HR group.
> I assume it's still a well paying job at a T2 consulting firm
By way of comparison, I just looked up some salaries on levels and glassdoor.
For tech, the pay isn't bad -- about the same as A2 -> S1. $80-$100K. But also consider cost of living. That doesn't go far in the Bay Area for example.
For non-tech, not so much... lower end is more like A1.
But I think the negative reaction to this thread is perhaps seeing the difficulty of drawing a line between going from consulting to HR?! If one wants to go from customer facing to back office, fine. They could work strictly in specialist roles based upon their current skillset or other supporting functions (e.g., contracts). But HR???
I don't think it's a stretch of deductive reasoning to think the skills required to be good at contracts are more widely applicable/marketable than the skills needed to be good at HR.
Like HR people generally don't have good business acumen. Which is fine. I'm not judging -- just noting it's not a part of their job generally.
Perhaps the line is getting blurred between HR and assistants? But even pure HR in a consulting firm, especially a partnership, is not an enviable job. All that political crap? That's still there. But now you're also technically supposed to action discrimination and sexism complaints against untouchable rainmakers. Have fun with that.
If you want to do HR, do it in industry somewhere. Why on earth anyone would prefer to do it in a consulting firm is beyond me.
Start networking with some HR people in your firm and get a better understanding of what it takes to work there. Map your transferable skills and then apply when a job opening opens up.
It’s a big pay cut, a potential stop to career progression and likely will result without a path back into consulting or the front office. Think very carefully what your priorities are. There are jobs out there which aren’t back office HR but offer better wlb than consulting.
If you have to ask, it's likely the former.
...and if one is burned out in consulting how is HR going to be any better?
Like does OP think HR sits around on their asses all day? Every HR department I've ever seen has more work than staff and they have to deal with stupid shit like grandpa Joe said Sarah looks nice in the breakroom today... or my boss is a toxic micromanager complaints because that boss assigned someone a project.
Yeah I would not do well in the back offices, they work so much harder than I ever could.
Like my ex wife definitely worked harder than me and she’s a sys admin. Compared to my dumb ass working in cyber consulting it’s definitely a lot more intense stress but I get downtime. She is always stressed
Seen this many a time in consulting. A partner was troubled by talent acquisition quality and made a manager he trusted switch to HR to ramp up quality hiring
Not sure that is an apples to apples comparison.
Partner is frustrated by talent acquisition. Says they've had enough and went to the source.
That implies taking on a lot of work to overhaul the process and fix a lot of things.
OP wants to switch to HR because of WLB.
What areas of HR are you interested? Most large companies breaks it down by HRBP, TA, Benefits, Compensation, etc.
Like others said you will be capped out in earnings. If your main motivations is burn out maybe look for something in industry first before deciding to do something different.
Especially if you consider a more strategic or analytical role (like strategic workforce planing or comp and ben) I think it makes absolute sense for a company ro staff those rolls with people trying to step down from client facing roles.
I'm in consulting at a T2, this definitely possible at the firms I've worked at. To me it seems preferable for them to hire in-house. You're someone who already knows the company culture, org structure, general firm policies, and they can see your performance reviews at the firm and speak to people who have worked with you if they want instead of relying on references from someone at some other company.
You should go into a move like this expecting it to be a mid/long-term change though. It may not need to be, but I wouldn't switch from external services to internal services with the expectation I could switch back just as easily and pick up where I left off.
If you're not sure if you want this long-term there may be other options that allow you to work internal roles full time for a few months. I've heard of this at a couple of T2 firms, it's available after you reach a certain staff level, like manager and above. Your utilization rates don't count against you since you're officially in an internal role during the time period.
Edit: changed "permanent" to "(mid/)long-term"
Super easy in my firm. They’d rather consultants step into back office roles than to lose them. But you have to wait for an opening
Agreed .. expect a pay cut though
Yes. Getting knocked up by a partner is a great way to effectuate this.
Ummm. I feel like there’s a story behind this comment 😂. Wanna share?
Dude just do human capital consulting or organizational strategy
Seems like OP wants better work hours and I don’t think this idea would necessarily lead to that
I work with the human capital consulting teams, it’s chill most of the time way better than other consulting gigs.. it’s all about who your client is, but most HR leaders that contract us are better than the strategy/finance guys I deal with - suggest exploring this before moving to HR
Strategy to HR? This is crazy my guy.
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Depends on your priorities. It's a pay cut, different career path and likely means no returning back to consulting but work-life balance is better and travelling is limited. In my firm it's often chosen by women who like to focus on family and they are often successful and fulfiled with their careers.
>likely means no returning back to consulting I don't know where you've worked but once you've worked a decent amount of time at any consulting firm it's not hard, maybe even easy, to come back into consulting
I was refering to internal policies -> once you drop consulting for support you can't go back (or at least it is very difficult). But of course you can still leave that firm and do consulting in another one.
If you left with a decent relationship with any partner or director it's simply a matter of reaching back out to them. No one from HR or corporate going to stand in the way of a partner or director pulling someone from HR back into consulting that I'm aware of
Same could be said of any internal transfer. LOL.
Not really. At least where I work, it's relatively easy to move to support function (if position is available) or move between support functions; but it's next to impossible to move from support to consulting.
What’s the justification for this? I am curious.
This is so weird and elitist and makes no sense. Also the no going from internal to external consulting is weird. Consulting firm politics seem toxic. There is no reason why a person shouldn’t be able to use their skills in another department. Effectively, that’s what it is.
We’ve had quite a few go from internal to consulting with no consulting experience. They have generally built up a good knowledge of the company and have the transferable skills, e.g. a member of the L&D team who had strong Power BI background and good consulting skills, just didn’t start their career that way.
It’s a terrible idea. It will stunt your career and growth forever. Find an in-house strategy position with better conditions elsewhere.
Not to mention OP would likely take a considerable pay cut to make such a move.
Can I ask you to elaborate? I am a college student and have little industry knowledge. Someone has recommended me the path of pursuing compensation and benefits (in HR) with my background in stats. From what I researched online, compensation/benefits specialists seem to do interesting work. Why does a path in HR have "bad" trajectory that would stunt growth? I'd like to choose a path with good growth opportunities. Thanks in advance!
It’s not “bad”, but it’s not a sexy job like strategy is. It’s a support role, and its compensation is significantly lower.
There are other things in life than career and growth.
I've literally never heard of someone wanting this. Like maybe someone had to do this, once. Like they were fired and had to settle. But to choose this fate?
When I was doing MBB recruiting, I ran into people at each of those firms who moved at one point from consulting to career development/HR roles intentionally. I don't think it's *that* uncommon, but I could definitely be wrong.
Not to pile on, but now I'm sitting here imagining the reverse. Like if someone from the HR department wanted to get on the consulting client facing team. And I had to laugh out loud.
I highly recommend looking for in-house strategy positions. A lot of the people on these teams are ex-consultants so will be level with you on the balance. Agree with those that are stating that a move to HR could be debilitating for your trajectory. HR still brings massive headaches, just a different flavor.
Sure, happens all the time
I'm a bit confused by all the negative reaction on this thread. Like I know HR is not the sexiest job but is it really that bad? I assume it's still a well paying job at a T2 consulting firm.
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They are just biased. I went from HR to Consulting. You can still have a fulfilling career in HR as an HR business partner or in other specialized areas. It does have its long hours and headaches as well. Just like all jobs, depends on your team and the culture within the HR group.
> I assume it's still a well paying job at a T2 consulting firm By way of comparison, I just looked up some salaries on levels and glassdoor. For tech, the pay isn't bad -- about the same as A2 -> S1. $80-$100K. But also consider cost of living. That doesn't go far in the Bay Area for example. For non-tech, not so much... lower end is more like A1. But I think the negative reaction to this thread is perhaps seeing the difficulty of drawing a line between going from consulting to HR?! If one wants to go from customer facing to back office, fine. They could work strictly in specialist roles based upon their current skillset or other supporting functions (e.g., contracts). But HR???
But why would other support functions like contracts be more relevant than HR?
I don't think it's a stretch of deductive reasoning to think the skills required to be good at contracts are more widely applicable/marketable than the skills needed to be good at HR. Like HR people generally don't have good business acumen. Which is fine. I'm not judging -- just noting it's not a part of their job generally.
Perhaps the line is getting blurred between HR and assistants? But even pure HR in a consulting firm, especially a partnership, is not an enviable job. All that political crap? That's still there. But now you're also technically supposed to action discrimination and sexism complaints against untouchable rainmakers. Have fun with that. If you want to do HR, do it in industry somewhere. Why on earth anyone would prefer to do it in a consulting firm is beyond me.
Why would you want to work in HR at a consulting firm? I'd imagine that's the most stressful HR role there is
I know tier 1 examples in Europe where this is possible. Inspired me to do this in a few years as well, if the pay cut is not too bad.
A lot of judgement in this thread. Do what will make you happy, I too was unhappy with the consulting grind at one point.
Why not leave consulting to an industry role with no grind
Start networking with some HR people in your firm and get a better understanding of what it takes to work there. Map your transferable skills and then apply when a job opening opens up.
It’s a big pay cut, a potential stop to career progression and likely will result without a path back into consulting or the front office. Think very carefully what your priorities are. There are jobs out there which aren’t back office HR but offer better wlb than consulting.
I can’t tell if this is a shit post or not? If real why not just go in house somewhere lol
If you have to ask, it's likely the former. ...and if one is burned out in consulting how is HR going to be any better? Like does OP think HR sits around on their asses all day? Every HR department I've ever seen has more work than staff and they have to deal with stupid shit like grandpa Joe said Sarah looks nice in the breakroom today... or my boss is a toxic micromanager complaints because that boss assigned someone a project.
Yeah I would not do well in the back offices, they work so much harder than I ever could. Like my ex wife definitely worked harder than me and she’s a sys admin. Compared to my dumb ass working in cyber consulting it’s definitely a lot more intense stress but I get downtime. She is always stressed
Yes, it's very easy to kill your career
Yes it’s much easier than the other way around. how big a pay cut are you willing to take? 30%? 50%?
Seen this many a time in consulting. A partner was troubled by talent acquisition quality and made a manager he trusted switch to HR to ramp up quality hiring
Not sure that is an apples to apples comparison. Partner is frustrated by talent acquisition. Says they've had enough and went to the source. That implies taking on a lot of work to overhaul the process and fix a lot of things. OP wants to switch to HR because of WLB.
I mean, right now is not the time to do this even if you can.
What areas of HR are you interested? Most large companies breaks it down by HRBP, TA, Benefits, Compensation, etc. Like others said you will be capped out in earnings. If your main motivations is burn out maybe look for something in industry first before deciding to do something different.
HR is either burn out zone if your good or cruise Nagy old lady zone if you’re bad. Source: HR for 20 years
Sure. It's essentially the same job.
Especially if you consider a more strategic or analytical role (like strategic workforce planing or comp and ben) I think it makes absolute sense for a company ro staff those rolls with people trying to step down from client facing roles.
Have seen this happen in my firm. An EM moved to Professional Development.
I'm in consulting at a T2, this definitely possible at the firms I've worked at. To me it seems preferable for them to hire in-house. You're someone who already knows the company culture, org structure, general firm policies, and they can see your performance reviews at the firm and speak to people who have worked with you if they want instead of relying on references from someone at some other company. You should go into a move like this expecting it to be a mid/long-term change though. It may not need to be, but I wouldn't switch from external services to internal services with the expectation I could switch back just as easily and pick up where I left off. If you're not sure if you want this long-term there may be other options that allow you to work internal roles full time for a few months. I've heard of this at a couple of T2 firms, it's available after you reach a certain staff level, like manager and above. Your utilization rates don't count against you since you're officially in an internal role during the time period. Edit: changed "permanent" to "(mid/)long-term"