Do Consultants Travel a Lot? Unpacking the Reality

I recently saw Avenue Q (the cheeky puppet musical that tells the story of new college grads) and one of the characters was a lovable, unemployed comedian who was having a hard time finding a job and figuring out what he was good at. At the end of the play, as things started neatly wrapping up for the cast, (spoiler alert) we find out he found a job as a consultant. The NYC crowd in attendance went wild: The insinuation was he had no idea what that meant, but it paid well, and heck, even this wanderer could fit in there. As a consultant, imagine my indignation! While consulting might sometimes be portrayed with stereotypes, it’s a demanding profession, and a common question people ask is: Do Consultants Travel A Lot? This article explores the reality behind the consulting lifestyle, particularly its significant travel component, and what else the job entails.

Honestly, consultants can have a bad reputation. From a luxury brand consultant making a grand entrance on a reality show via helicopter to the popular phrase “consultants take your watch and tell you what time it is”—the image isn’t always positive. However, the industry has survived despite these stereotypes and it still continues to attract top talent across the world. Why? While there are many reasons, a key one is the way consulting develops its people. Consultants are exposed to a wide variety of experiences and are taught how to apply lessons learned in other situations to the ones at hand. Moreover, consulting instills in its recruits an extraordinary amount of discipline and technique that they would be hard-pressed to gain at such an intense and focused level elsewhere. Consulting can offer incredible experiences and career prospects—but it does also ask for a significant investment of your time and energy.

The Truth About Consultant Travel: How Much?

So, Do Consultants Travel A Lot? The short answer is yes, significantly. It’s one of the defining characteristics of the job for many roles within consulting firms, especially in client-facing positions that require being on-site. Travel is not always glamorous. While it can be fun at times, you have to be prepared that your Monday–Thursday are no longer entirely yours to schedule as you please. This often means leaving home early Monday morning and returning late Thursday or Friday.

You will learn to methodically plan your Friday–Sunday to squeeze in family, friends, doctor’s appointments, haircuts, and any other semblance of a personal life. If you’re in a relationship or have kids, it makes it even harder to leave that physical environment behind every week. While some firms try to accommodate special circumstances or offer more opportunities for remote jobs you can do while traveling, travel is still a major part of the traditional consultant job description.

Group of business consultants collaborating around a meeting table

The consistent travel means navigating airports, hotels, and different cities frequently. You’ll likely become intimately familiar with airport security procedures (the TSA agent might indeed know your name!) and learn the ins and outs of various airport terminals and travel plaza stops. You find ways to make it work, though. Frequent flyer miles and elite status with airlines and hotels become valuable assets, offering perks like upgrades and lounge access that slightly soften the edges of constant travel.

Flexibility is Key When You’re Always on the Move

When working in other industries, you might have a predictable daily routine or project list. Fast forward to consulting, and you can barely plan your schedule for the next week. This unpredictability is often amplified by the travel component. Your location changes, your team might change, and certainly, the client and project focus change regularly.

Consulting requires immense flexibility – not only with your time but also with your aptitude and work style. One week you might be deeply immersed in financial analysis, the next you could be assessing IT infrastructure or discussing healthcare regulations. This constant adaptation is challenging but also offers a unique opportunity to gain expertise in a wide range of areas relatively quickly.

Communication and Connection: Vital On and Off the Road

Consulting is really the art of making connections—not only in terms of the work, but perhaps more importantly, with people. Developing solid networks, both internally at the firm and externally at the client, is crucial. When you’re frequently traveling and working with different teams and clients, the ability to quickly build rapport and trust is paramount.

You are constantly convincing (and proving) to new people that you are and would be a valuable asset to a project. The job requires you to share ideas, explain concepts, and present findings almost on a daily basis. You’ll often be working on teams of people you may have just met, but you must present a united front to clients to ensure their projects are executed seamlessly. This means ensuring everyone is on the same page, even when dispersed across different locations. Being able to calmly and concisely summarize complex information, whether in an elevator pitch or a formal presentation, is a skill you’ll hone rapidly.

Starting Your Engines: Managing Your Time

This one isn’t consulting-specific by any means, but it’s important to highlight in the context of a demanding, travel-heavy job. It can be easy to get lost in the mass stampede of ambitious personalities typically found at consulting firms. To set yourself apart and manage the workload exacerbated by travel, you have to be a self-starter and know how to efficiently manage your time.

There’s no shortage of opportunities within firms waiting for you to seek them out—somewhere to volunteer, a proposal to write, an article to contribute to—but that, combined with your client work and the logistics of travel, can equal late nights and long weekends. It can be intense and overwhelming, and it’s easy to feel burnt out quickly. But finding the balance between asking for new experiences, managing your time, and preparing for the occasional long night or weekend will help you take full advantage of consulting without being completely consumed by it.

In conclusion, if you ask, do consultants travel a lot? the answer is unequivocally yes. Travel is a core component for many, shaping the lifestyle, challenges, and opportunities of the profession. Consulting will help you develop a great number of skills and expose you to diverse industries and people. You will be constantly challenged and asked to do things that you may never have done before. But remember, contrary to what Avenue Q might suggest, it requires more than just the desire to succeed; it demands discipline, adaptability, strong communication, and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, travel-intensive environment.

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“Is Consulting Right for You?” was originally published on The Muse.