Viewing 28 posts - 41 through 68 (of 68 total)
  • In your experience, is the word 'consultant' just shorthand for…
  • chrismac
    Full Member

    As far as I can tell Consultant is used when directors want someone to blame for them getting a decision wrong rather than using their own and their staffs expertise to make a decision and be accountable for it.

    Most of the conultants I have to work with charge a lot of money to take what you already know, reformat it into their corporate colours and then give it you back

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Consultant is so last century, its Architect now darlings.

    That’s me **** then. I’ve got Architect in my job title…..

    epicsteve
    Free Member

    In the bigger firms (like the one I work for) it’s only the junior staff that actually have consultant in their title.

    vickypea
    Free Member

    I found myself sitting next to a “change agent” at a works “do”, and after half an hour’s explanation I was still clueless about what he actually did 😛

    hora
    Free Member

    Most of the conultants I have to work with charge a lot of money to take what you already know, reformat it into their corporate colours and then give it you back

    Sounds like a friends experience working in a council. The Consultants drill the staff for ‘ideas’. Then present it as their own ‘findings’ and recommendations. I think these consultants are on 800+ each a day.

    nedrapier
    Full Member

    lilchris
    Free Member

    Doesn’t the media refer to them as “experts”?

    mudshark
    Free Member

    Bit of an odd thread as there are all sorts of consultants – I’m an IT consultants and worth every penny…. I suppose the OP means business consultants. I’ve worked with strategy consultants and change management consultants, easy to burn cash with them but potentially capable of significant results.

    lilchris
    Free Member

    Expert of course being made up of;

    Ex: Something outdated/defunct,
    Spert: A drip under pressure.

    mrmonkfinger
    Free Member

    I found myself sitting next to a “change agent” at a works “do”, and after half an hour’s explanation I was still clueless about what he actually did

    I’d imagine they probably applied agile incremental innovative solution based work paradigms improvements to underperforming and immobile process problems.

    hora
    Free Member

    I found myself sitting next to a “change agent” at a works “do”, and after half an hour’s explanation I was still clueless about what he actually did

    If you were sat next to a Recruitment Consultant you’d have probably been blown under the table then found your wallet missing?

    chewkw
    Free Member

    Some are genuine others are cowboys.

    Now, let’s start with some Innovative Management ideas … 🙄

    It is far more worthwhile if you are getting consultant for special technical advices.

    If you want Management Consultant(s) I am your man. Hire me as your Management Consultant and I will make sure those zombie maggots in your company will be stepped on in no time.

    😈

    toys19
    Free Member

    I am an engineering consultant-with a narrow band of expertise. If a client presents me with a problem outside that band I’ll tell them and do my best to point them in the right direction.

    My work involves doing calculations that other people cannot/willnot do and the clients use those calcs to make decisions. I often advise them on what course of action is best. My clients keep coming back.

    aP
    Free Member

    footflaps – Member
    Consultant is so last century, its Architect now darlings.
    That’s me **** then. I’ve got Architect in my job title…..

    As a Chartered member of the RIBA it is quite annoying how many other jobs have co-opted the legally protected title that I spent 7 years in education for and pay quite a lot every year to maintain my place on the register.
    So, other industries believe that this name carries significant affirmative meanings, unlike my profession, where it becomes increasingly under pressure from others with no response from the leadership of the Chartered Institute or the ARB. 👿

    molgrips
    Free Member

    People who are Software Architects don’t call themselves Architects outside of work though. There’s generally no confusion, in my experience.. maybe not yours though!

    In IT ‘Architect’ often doesn’t confer any kind of skill or superiority – it’s just a job title.

    boxfish
    Free Member

    Recruitment Consultants are not consultants. They are liars sales people.

    vickypea
    Free Member

    mrmonkfinger – that’s pretty much what he said for half an hour!

    bearnecessities
    Full Member

    I’m seriously considering taking an exit package at the moment and going freelance consultancy.

    You can say what the **** you want about me then, I’ll be rollin’ in it.

    Real life experiences may differ. Self employed consultancy may bring constant insecurity, periods without employment and generally being disliked. Always read the label.

    Fantombiker
    Full Member

    Like any profession you have a mix of abilities….from genius to dangerous. I work in the SME sector advising on business turnarounds and I judge consultants/advisors on the impact they can quickly bring to a business measured in real sales and margin improvements.

    To be fair to the sector, advisors are often very poorly briefed and managed, and often their common sense advice is ignored for short-term political expediency or parochial interests.

    The best consultants are very smart people, with a wealth of relevant experience who add value very quickly to a business.

    cfinnimore
    Free Member

    A person who takes paid redundancy, starts a consultancy firm then gets hired as a third party by previous employer. Very clever.

    Or, someone who knows stuff.

    milky1980
    Free Member

    We had a Time and Motion Consultant in work a few months ago.

    He was getting rather annoyed with a few of us by the end of the second day so he lost his rag and went off in a strop for a while, leaving his name badge behind. It read:

    Ian Marshfield

    Consultant

    A bit of work with the tippex and it was an accurate description of what we thought of him by that point. He never noticed.

    jools182
    Free Member

    Yes, self important, bullshitting bags of hot air

    Really baffles me how these numb skulls get away with it and also earn 3 or 4 times my wages doing so

    I’m on to your game, all of you. It can’t be long before you’re rumbled 😉

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Really baffles me how these numb skulls get away with it and also earn 3 or 4 times my wages doing so

    It’s also clear when people start equating “What I’m Paid” with “What he gets they miss the real numbers.

    Whats your actual cost to the business? What is your internal charge rate (HR should be able to tell you, if the figure is not known they how do you know how much it costs you to do something?)
    My internal charge out rate 10 years ago was about 750/day bringing somebody in for a week to do something is still more cost effective than employing somebody. Also if you all have time to do all the stuff the consultants are doing you need to be sticking your hands up and telling your boss.

    buzz-lightyear
    Free Member

    So they peddle bullshite and get paid triple your salary

    Who’s being a numb skull?

    AlasdairMc
    Full Member

    My perception thus far is that business consultants generally listen to the people that the business do not. There tends to be some people in an organisation with very good ideas, but whose ideas are not adopted based on some perceived hierarchy or seniority. The consultant comes in, finds these people and presents back their ideas to the business as something new and revolutionary.

    If the organisation was inclusive enough and valued their staff enough, they wouldn’t need the consultants in the first place…

    Waderider
    Free Member

    I work as a consulting civil engineer in renewables (hydro power).

    The hardest part of the job is maintaining the confidence of contractors and clients that we know better than them. Because the contractors and clients have a lot of wooly ideas not based on science or engineering. Some of the respondees to this thread seem to have ideas based on the same feckwittery.

    Believe me, nothing viable would get made without us.

    coolhandluke
    Free Member

    I tweeted the other day that the name “consultant is just another word for incompetent.”

    I was asked to set out a design on a plot of land from the (reputable) consultants design in CAD format, no problem said as long as the coordinates are Ordinance survey which they replied they were.

    To cut a long story short, I did a survey of the land area and pasted it into their CAD drawing to ensure correct positioning (no station control) but my survey didn’t appear. Zoomed extents and saw a tiny dot on my screen some distance from the “design”

    Not only was their scale wrong with their 25m grids measuring 25,000m their design located it in Gloucestershire somewhere, not Yorkshire! 80km long, 16km wide and not 80m by 16m.

    I told the site agent he needs to demobilise his plant and head down the M5, oh how we laughed.

    slackalice
    Free Member

    £more per day than I earn in a week, generally. 😀

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