The Guru Speaks: Consulting Advice

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development  

Hardly eight years ago, smart, aggressive consultants were raking it in. If you were very technical, had a couple of college degrees in hot disciplines and also held some impressive managerial jobs, you were set. But the times have changed, and consultants find they have to work a lot harder than they did in the past.

To get the inside skinny on the consulting game, I went to Tom Rodenhauser, the "consultant to the consultants," as he is known in the biz, president of Consulting Information Services LLC, in Keene, N.H.

We pulled Tom off the pretty New hampshire slopes to get this exclusive consulting-career update. Find out what he has to say. You won't be disappointed.    

How has consulting changed over the past five years?
TR: The greatest change has been the dissolution of several major players, specifically the consulting arms of the Big 5 accounting firms--Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, Andersen/ Arthur Andersen. These firms were the largest consulting operations in terms of revenue, and the most technology-intensive compared with traditional consulting companies. The subsequent dispersal of talent, due to acquisition or restructuring, represents an "inflection point" for the industry (to use a consulting cliche).

Wasn't consulting a fairly orderly industry?

TR: Absolutely. Now it's made up of a …

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