​In the consulting world, becoming partner is seen as “the pinnacle of a professional’s career”. Rob Thomas, in a LinkedIn article in November 2017, described it further as follows: “Making partner is about getting as far as your skills will take you, and being rewarded for it.” Rob is from Cavendish Stuart, and is an “executive search consultant specialising in partner and team acquisitions” which gives him broad understanding of the professional services market, and specific insights into the journey to becoming partner.

This post shares thoughts from Rob’s article, as well as Protagion’s experiences in working with our members from professional consulting environments, including at the Big 4 (Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC) and more broadly at other major and specialist consultancies. It is intended as a resource for those who are currently working in a professional consulting firm and those who are considering moving into one (recognising that it can take many rounds of discussion, interviews and vetting to join).

The appeal of becoming partner can include:

• responsibility for the success, growth and profits of your own business area/line
• significant financial rewards – Rob shared that the average Big 4 partner in the UK earned almost £700k, roughly six times what a director received; other sources shared that junior partners start from around £350k, with more senior partners earning substantially more
• the title, and the associated status
• more autonomy
• the ability to set a vision and build a team of exceptional and committed people to execute your vision

Among potential drawbacks are:

• the continual pressure of sales targets
• long hours
• stress
• financial liabilities, including the shared obligations with other partners in your firm

Rob cautions: “I’ve even heard it suggested, a shorter lifespan and increased marriage failures!”

Last month I completed reading a book called "Sprint"* which is about quick prototyping of new ideas, and testing them with customers to gauge their reactions before spending too much time or money on building them. This agile process allows course-correcting based on market reaction. The book is written by three guys from Google Ventures, and is very much focused on business innovation, and how to speed up the learning process. It contains a range of examples, including Slack, FitStar and Savioke. While not the authors' intention, the section on prototyping-in-a-day sparked my thinking about careers, which is what this post is about.

Prototyping
First, some additional detail on prototyping. One chapter described building a prototype like a movie set. In effect, this is hacking a solution that offers just enough so that it appears real to target customers i.e. temporary simulation rather than long-term quality. It must be realistic to prompt genuine reactions: a level such that the customers you're testing it with forget their surroundings and just react (like a movie audience). The book shows this "just enough" in the form of a steep cumulative graph, where, within a day, you can get to a product / brochure / service experience that isn't perfect, but also doesn't take the huge time investment to improve it further. It is an application of the 80/20 rule or "Pareto principle".

Learning new skills
I began thinking about this in the context of learning and applying new skills, and the career distinction between being (i) a manager and generalist or (ii) a technical/functional specialist. As a manager, you need to be familiar with a variety of different disciplines. This is both to support your own team members who deal with each specialism, and also to see opportunities across disciplines and interface with varied functions across your wider organisation. In this context, it can be dangerous to be too wedded to your own discipline that you started from as you can miss the bigger picture. As you rise in seniority, you need to be willing to learn new skills at the same time as trusting those who work for you. The new skills also help you to know enough to challenge where necessary. I worked with someone who wore his lack of knowledge about some of the areas he was responsible for as a badge of honour, proudly declaring his disdain for expertise in those functions. While he probably saw this as bravado, you can imagine how those in his team with that domain knowledge felt when their leader spoke that way...