Any of you guys work a job that keeps you on the road Monday thru Thursday night or Monday thru Friday, like a gig with a Big 5 consulting firm? If so...do you like the travel, or are you sick of it? Is it worth the cash? Yeah, I got a consulting firm pursuing me. I might do it for the right $$$, but I'm wondering if life on the road like that would kill me.
If you are young and have no family, do it for five years to save up some good money then change job.
My wife and I both travel in our jobs, but not full time. I am gone about 20 weeks per year and she is gone about 28 weeks per year. It works fine for us but we are nearly 50 and our kids are grown. We trust each other and we honestly get along better when we are not at home together 100% of the time. We are both home every weekend. The money is nice. You not only make good money, you are not spending your own money for living expenses. We both are almost always upgraded to 1st class on flights and get more free airline tickets than we can use. We will never use all the hotel points we have.
Well, I have no kids and I'm almost 46...I've just never worked at a job where I am on the road every week. And this one would be pretty much every week....at least 40 to 45 weeks a year on the road. Project based consulting. But the $$ they are talking is righteous. I might have to go for it and do it for a few years just to pump up the cash and retire even earlier. I'm lucky in that the only debt I have is my mortgage. The only bad thing is that a job like this would pretty much eliminate me playing music on the weekends, and I don't know if that would drive me nuts or not.
For me home is were the heart is. I passed up the big hours big travel gig and got a good job that keeps me home with very minor travel from time to time and I love it. I also have two young boys and a wife that I enjoy seeing, so it really depends on you. Sounds like this job is super heavy travel but if you can go without the comforts of home for long streches go for it.
My life is so much more than my job. I could not imagine giving up all I do thru the week for a job (no matter how much more money)
I'm not going to search, but this thread is like deja-vu...I swear I've read one almost exactly like it in the past. My opinion: Your net worth/pocketbook is not a determinant of your success in life. I have a wife, pets, children soon....so no, I would not do it. Depends on the stage of life, I guess.
I keep thinking dirty whenever I read the thread title. Yes, I do love my road jobs. Tex, if you're plan is to do it for only a couple years, but you're worried about not being able to play, I would do it and take a couple years off from music. Make tons of money, then comeback and you'll be able to do music more than you are now, it sounds like. Of course, I don't know how that would affect your gig with Carl Hayn.
I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride With sword and pistol by my side Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five But I am still alive.
Yeah. Sorry to sound like a broken record. It's something that I am occasionally confronted with because of what I do for a living during the day. Big 5 Consulting firms are very attracted to people with the particular IT skillset I have. I just don't know if I would enjoy all the travel or not. The money makes it very inviting. I also got a call today from a headhunter who wants to place me at another gig (no travel) here in Houston for about a 20% increase over what I make now. The road gig is a 50% increase over what I make now. So that's the deal. I'm just stagnating where I am now, and as we know in the IT world, if you're not learning, you're not earning. It's definitely time for a change of scenery.
i made the switch 2 years ago because i also felt stagnant where i was. now i get to cycle between projects every 6-18 months. and the travel for me always start at 90% when you join the project but as you become comfortable with the project and the client, it scales down. my current project, been on 14 months. started at 90% travel for about 6 weeks. then the client become comfortable with me and we worked out an agreement(love vpn). and since that agreement i have been traveling 50% of the time. usually 1 week onsite and 1 off, rotating. but sometimes i double up depending on certain project deliverables and schedule. client pm and my pm don't mind so long as the work gets done. i am not at a B5 that you usually see listed as, but i am at a fairly large consulting firm that competes with those 5.
I work for a Big 4 as a consultant, and the vast majority of my practice is on the road 95% of the time. It's part of why I joined the firm -- I wanted to give traveling 100% a shot. Now as for me, I joined in July and I've been gone exactly three weeks and it was for training. I was staffed on a local project as a temporary thing, and I've been on that project ever since (and it looks like I may be there indefinitely). Most everyone I know in the firm is on the road 100% though. Most folks tend to like it well enough at first, but a lot of people are itching to be local after six months on the road. All in all, it ends up being a very different lifestyle. You work an awful lot, but you become pretty close with your team members. Some of it depends on your engagement. If you get on a client that lets you fly in on Sunday night and fly out on Thursday afternoon, you'll enjoy the travel a lot more than if it's Monday morning through Friday night. Our engagements are usually fairly short -- 2 months or so, but we also have long engagements that last for much longer. Out of curiosity, if you don't mind saying, which Big 4 are you looking to join (KPMG, EY, PWC, or Deloitte)? If I had to guess, I'd say Deloitte Consulting, since it seems to have one of the larger pure-IT consulting practices. BTW, if you have any questions about working for a Big 4, feel free to email me through the board.
I traveled 90% for a year when I worked with Sprint Paranet. I hated the travel. I hated being away from my home and my wife. And that was before I had a kid. Now that I do there is no way I'd take a job that had more than 15-20% travel. I hated seeing the same airports. The same hotels. I gladly gave up my 1st class seats and upgraded hotel rooms for being home each night.
One of my top 5 fave songs of all time Cash's part was the best: I'll fly a starship Across the universe divide And when I reach the other side I'll find a place to rest my spirit where I can Perhaps I may become a highway man again Or I may simply be a single drop of rain, but I will remain, and I'll be back again... and again.... and again....
I used to work for Deloitte and the travel was pretty easy handle. All of my engagements were Monday-Thursday and I rarely worked on Fridays. On the road, the hotels were always close to the client site so there was no commute to speak of and of course you don't have to cook or wash dishes so life was pretty easy. My concern for you would be that you are almost 46. Most people in Big 5 consulting make senior manager by their mid-30's. Most of the consultants and senior consultants are in their 20's. Good luck!
I got an entry-level job as a consultant, not with one of the Big 4 (Navigant), and will be starting in August. The travel is not always going to be 100%, but they told me to expect anywhere from 0-100%, depending on which project I'll be assigned to. I'm really excited about it, but then again, I'm only 22.
