Management Consulting - Layoffs Expected to Continue


High interest rates, the housing market, inflation on the macro level and inside consulting firms the push to conserve cash. Those, weigh in posters on Fishbowl Consulting, portend more layoffs in management consulting on a continuing basis. 

In general there is no optimism. The advice is to do what it takes to hold on to what you got. 

If you lose what you got or seem on the way to that (e.g. have been PIPed) I recommend: 

1) Ensure a stream of income by picking up temporary work and gig assignments. Don't have magical thinking that you will bag a new opportunity in consulting fast. Now out there is the grim number of 500 applications and not one job offer. Knowledge Work is getting hit hard. 

Your new objective is to make ends meet and to prevent additional debt. 

 2) Consider a career change since management consulting seems to be a downsizing niche. That mirrors what had happened to middle management in Corporate America during the late 1980s. In addition, generative AI could further reduce the number of job openings in management consulting. More solutions could be produced in-house rather than farmed out. No, the shift of a career change is not easy. But it could be necessary. Here is the article I published on that in O'Dwyer's Public Relations.

Something to consider: Don't rule out Blue Collar career paths. One coaching client, locked out of pharma, reskilled for long-distance driving. After 3 three years that is still going well.

Data or the gut for your careers and communications? Both of course. Complimentary consultation with intuitive coach, content-creator, and Tarot reader Jane Genova (text 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com).


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