Beijing EAPs Consulting Inc. (BEC) is a rapidly growing consulting company whose number of employees has increased from six to 16 in just one year. BEC has adopted a new project management system, using project managers to coordinate several employees from various departments. Due to the heavy workload, most employees must work on multiple projects. Collaboration between projects and department managers is not very smooth. The chief executive officer must decide how he can improve the collaboration efforts across the company's different departments.
Michael Aniballi is facing a major career transition as he completes his executive MBA degree. He attempts to evaluate three very different job offers by engaging in a thorough self-assessment.
In this supplement to Michael Aniballi (A), product 9B04C035, Michael Aniballi describes how a thorough self-assessment helped him make a difficult career decision.
A top student in an MBA program had been pursued by the top-tier consulting firms that were recruiting at his school. Impressed by the prestige of the industry, he decided to choose a career in management consulting. After less than a year in the profession, the recent graduate is disillusioned. He is offered a marketing position that pays much less, but may be a better fit for him in a number of ways. He considers whether he should leave his lucrative career, whether he should accept the offer for the lesser paying position and whether he could be making another faulty career decision. In the case supplement Jack Harris (B), product 9B03C038 the former consultant reflects on his career decision-making.
A former consultant explains the reasons for his decision to leave a successful position in a prominent consulting company. As a result of stress on his family and personal life, and a growing dissatisfaction with certain aspects of his job (see James Reed, case number 9A95C025), he describes how he came to a decision to make a significant career transition. The role of self-assessment and the analysis of fit with potential opportunities is described as it pertains to this decision.
An extremely successful consultant is having difficulty balancing his career and family needs. He is mid-career in a demanding job requiring increasing amounts of time and commitment. The pressures to produce from his boss and clients are becoming more difficult to manage and his family life is suffering.