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Comment by lordnacho | Hacker News Reader

I went to one of those universities where a lot of people are hired by consulting firms.

I don't think I've ever met anyone in the business who thought they were doing what it says on the tin. This is a story you will hear over and over again: "The MD went and sold the project, but now a bunch of graduates are tasked with helping the company". I know someone who was advising a central bank, aged 22.

At best, the young consultants tell the company what they wanted to hear, and use the report as their excuse to do what they were going to do anyway.

You also have to wonder how much their public facing advice actually is based on experience, rather than being advertising. You often get these dressed-up white papers and pseudo-academic articles talking about some aspect of business coming from these firms.

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This feels like you don't actually have experience with consulting.

The amount of hierarchy and peer review is extensive and apprenticeship was core to my experience in multiple consultancies. One might say post-covid, in a pro-hybrid world, this has been hard. Still, as a new hire couldn't introduce myself to a group of clients without sharing my intro with the associate partner first and getting notes on my literal 3 sentence bio and then feedback afterwards. Every deck I've ever presented has been through multiple hands above and below me in the hierarchy. That 22 year old usually if not always has had a discussion, notes, notes reviewed, questions listed that need answers etc.

This feels like you’re applying absolutes to a massive industry with wildly varying standards for peer review and work product.

I was a consultant for years at a Big4 and I can personally attest to a lot of the stuff I was producing as a 22 year old going straight to the client leadership with zero oversight or review from my higher ups. Whether something got extensive quality checks was dependent on the type of work, notoriety of the client, and of course personal management styles of the partners involved.

In several of my projects, nobody on the team had experience with a particular topic, including the senior management, but the client was all told we did. The juniors on the project were then expected to put together product and deliver it, and none of it was reviewed by the higher ups (not like they had any expertise in it to provide feedback anyway).

You're not actually disagreeing with the parent, just providing more (useful) context for their comment.

> I know someone who was advising a central bank, aged 22.

I know a young consultant who, while consulting for a company during an internship (place by a big consulting company), saved the client millions in shipping costs.

Do you find that, say, the ECB did a particularly stellar job with the Euro? A currency that's in trouble since it was created? (do not forget that Greece already partially defaulted on its public debt).

When I hear someone like Christine Lagarde speak she doesn't strike me as someone particularly smart: just a regular politician doing what politicians do best (i.e. aim for well paying jobs). Typical french political career: we're not exactly talking about rocket scientist here (despite what mainstream media shall write about her).

I'm pretty sure a smart 22 y/o can be helpful.

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