10 definitive signs you are a consultant

Consultants get a bad wrap — I should know, I used to be one. As with any profession, there are those that operate in such a manner, they ruin it for the rest. Over the years, many of us even tried to “re-brand” our job title to distance ourselves from the negative connotation the word ‘consultant’ evokes.

That being said — here are 10 signs that you are a consultant:

1. Your daily rate charged to the client is akin to the that of a surgeon — but your work is just as important… right?
2. You gleefully spend a minimum of 15 mins responding to a question, without actually answering said question.
3. E.S.N.A.A — every sentence needs an acronym.
4. You have spent an extensive amount of man hours (billed to the client of course) to model out how best to maximize your per diem.
5. Even though you went straight into consulting after college, you have no issue offering your ‘counsel’ to the C-Suite on how they should be running their company.
6. You love PowerPoint more than your 1st born child.
7. If it’s not in PowerPoint, was it even a meeting…?
8. It doesn’t matter if the recommendation even makes sense for your client, your PowerPoint deck is a thing of beauty and needs to be admired by all who are lucky enough to lay eyes on it.
9. You don’t need to waste your precious time meeting with folks who have intimate knowledge of the company/industry, just repurpose the recommendations deck from a previous client (because your PowerPoint design was glorious).
10. It doesn’t matter if it the hotel is 2 hours from client site, or the flight has 14 connections — LOYALTY PROGRAM STATUS IS LIFE!