Related Posts
Enthusiast
What are exit opportunities like in S&O?
Anonymous User
Looking for a position in Las vegas !?
More Posts
Anonymous User
Conversation Starter
Conversation Starter
Job-Hunting reach-out to VC from previous fundraising effort for own startup
I have e-mail archive from 1y ago of my reach-out to 65 VCs in London: we had video calls, they might remember me still, who knows.
I want to send a reply/forward message to the same e-mail thread from abc@gmail.com, saying that I am looking for roles within their VC firm. Is that a good idea?
Or shall I just start new email thread and mention how I know them?
Additional Posts in Consulting
best restaurants in pasadena, california?
Anyone from Bain - referral for AP roles?
Better title or more money?
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
I think you are looking at this all wrong. Leverage it to build an opportunity with the SM so he supports you and admits you ran the entire project. This is how you get promoted. If there is a delivery issue than it is a completely different conversation.
To me it sounds like you are just frustrated he isn’t doing much but it could be because there is a capable team...
Most of the time, we’re not dedicated to just one project. Our bill rates are too high for most projects to support full time, so we split time and supplement with other firm development/BD work. Chances are he/she has more pressing issues to deal with, and since your team has things under control, SM is going to put their focus elsewhere.
Also, remember that the SM probably sold the work, so without him/her, you’d be on the bench
^Huh?
Type faster
I've been there and agree with Director 1. Take it as a growth opportunity. If the team is capable why should the manager spend more time?
SMs and Ps are there for escalations, direction, reviews, and other such things. They’re mostly a quality control SMs don’t need to be involved more unless there’s a problem
Who says the SM is supposed to be involved in the delivery elements?
Listen. The world is bigger than you, and your scope
I never ever expect a senior mgr or partner to contribute very much outside of ppt review. Any hours they charge are basically a shake down that is part of the consulting game
My experience has been that there are two types of partners (broadly speaking) in management consulting. First type is beholden to pushing or selling products that have already been built and can be delivered in a repeatable fashion. This type of partner pushes these products but doesn’t know much about what they do and almost never has the ability to modify the product on the fly to meet some unique circumstance at the client. I suggest that this lack of depth and knowledge (beyond what the firms service catalog tells them), limits these partners to the role of fly by consulting and knit picker. They show up, shake hands, call out some trivial change to a deck or otherwise and go about their way. The second partner is quite different. These partners dig into the engagement, well beyond perhaps the scope to help understand the problem statement and by using what is usually industry gained experience, customize the output of the engraftment to fit the uniqueness of the client. These partners engage at all levels, offering coaching, content, suggestions and most importantly, are open to other ideas from all levels of the engagement team. These partners by the way are the ones who are budgeted for 3-5% of their time yet give you 20% - 40% of their week when necessary. Perhaps those two examples are the opposites ends of the range of partners and many follow somewhere in the middle. I would suggest though that you could correlate the above behaviors with stats around profitability, associate satisfaction and client retention.
EY1, definitely makes sense. There is a big balancing act. I don't know how to treat other SMs, I've been lucky in that every one of my SMs have been high performers ended up making PMD. We're they shuffling work between their teams? Yes. But they were leveraging and delegating. That is part of their job description.
Sometimes there is a misunderstanding on taking credit. Do I take credit for a project running smoothly while I'm not there full time? Hell yes. I sold the work, I put together a great team, and I provide weekly guidance and a ton of client air cover. Most of the time it is the air cover that the teams really don't see/understand. That said, I give credit where it is due. I push to promote my people, I remind PMDs how great they are, and I try to advertise the fact they are really the lead, I'm just the "PMD in training" while they are the "SM in training."
This mentality causes issues and friction at times as it leads to potential confusion on roles/responsibilities. But it puts us all in the position to ascend together.
.. Why.. provided no ideas. Rarely any valuable inputs. And acts all partner type in last minute feedback and useless comments. Am I won't if I escalate him to my real ok partner? Feels like he is just getting a free ride off of a capable team
Unfortunately team building is one of the lower priorities at the big 4. Since we are easily replaceable. We all been in that crappy situation. Best is to roll off as soon as possible. Just remember your career road that you don’t copy the bad leaders you encountered.
Well.. as a capable manager of a capable team.. I make sure no balls are dropped. If SM did his bit too.. it will make all our life a bit easier too.. less 18hr days maybe!
No one project gets you over the top, this project well done will get you a slightly more important project next time
And with everyone stuck in multi year tenure cycles.. not sure on how this 3 month project will help my progression any bit
This can be a dangerous situation. I’ve had an SM phoning it in most of the time/semi-leading the rest, but led the PPEDD to believe he was driving. Eventually the SM was found out, but the negative impact rolled downhill. The unspoken expectation is that you’re leading to fill-in the SM gaps. It is worth a conversation with SM or PPEDD to clarify. Also document everything!
So hey... I would have assumed that you're on my team, but the facts are slightly different.
You can escalate this, but you will likely lose. Maybe you win and soil the name of your SM in their last years before principal. For what? The project is running well. Moreover, why shouldn't they leverage the success of the team to sell more work or work on a pet project.
Most teams have little understanding of what their SM is going through. Why not take a totally different tact. Leverage it for the next SM role. The posts above are so spot on.
Some food for thought reaction to SM3:
-The project is running well...until the client starts asking “what value has SM delivered for 32 hrs/wk"
-Is SM really on Partner track or just biding time until leaving?
-Sadly, phoning it in is not uncommon and EY’s lack of 360 reviews hides low performers
-Difference between “escalating” to soil someone and having a convo to clarify, get guidance etc that results in some head scratching “huh, what’s going on here” scrutiny
-Talk to other teammates to see if they have the same observation...in my case this led to the realization that SM was just shuffling work amongst us and taking credit
@SM3 - I would be glad to be in your said scenario and definitely know the give and take this job entails.
What is bothering me most about my current SM is his nonchalant way of just acting like a PMD (and he is just a year into SM🙄).. has worse client relations than I have .. and provides hardly any guidance or reviews on even weekly basis. Just there to act as SM on project