Life In A Social Sector Consulting Firm
In this post, I will talk about the different types of consulting firms, day to day responsibilities, growth paths and skills required by these firms.
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In my last post I had shared how you can become a freelance consultant in social sector. I recieved some very encouraging feedback on this one. And when a friend said “It will act as a guiding tool now ”, then all the hours spent behind each article felt worth the effort !
In this article, I’ll look at social sector consulting from the lens of a consultant/manager with 3-6 years experience, employed with a social impact consulting firm. If you are aspiring to move into a social impact consulting firm, then this article will be hopefully useful to you.
Before we dive in, sincere thanks to Payal Mulchandani, Co-founder, 4th Wheel Social Impact, Mayuri Mehrotra, a TISS alumnus with experience of working with different types of consulting firms for approx. 4 years, and many other friends from IRMA and my professional circles, for sharing about their day-to-day lives in consulting firms!
The Big Picture
What do Social Sector Consulting Firms do ?
In short, they do one or more of the following work -
Organization level or program level strategy development for central or state governments,CSRs or NGOs
Implementation support for programs
Monitoring and evaluation of programs
Research and publications of learnings from projects or awareness reports on important issues related to development agenda.
What types of consulting firms can I work with ?
In my understanding there are broadly 3 types of social impact consulting firms:
Big4 Consulting Firms/Corporate Consulting firms: Some popular names in this category are KPMG, Deloitte, E&Y, PWC, McKinsey, Grant Thornton, Boston Consulting Group, etc. Their social sector/government advisory verticals primarily work with central & state govt departments , corporates & large non-profits.
Mid/Large size Social Sector Focussed Research & Consulting Firms : These firms specialize in social sector consulting space, sometimes across all thematic areas, sometimes focusing on specific thematic areas like livelihoods, health, education etc. Some popular organizations in this league are Sattva Consulting, Sambodhi, Think Through Consulting, Samhita, Dalberg, Samagra and more.
Boutique Consulting Firms : These organizations deserve a separate category because these are not the most visible organizations, unlike first 2 groups, and their founders sometimes like it that way. The team size is relatively smaller, the intention is to conciously work with a lean team and take up a limited volume of good quality work. The Fourth Wheel Consulting, Niiti Consulting are some of the organizations in this group whom I know personally and they are doing amazing work without making too much noise about it.
You may be curious or confused, which type of consulting firm to join ? Here’s my undiplomatic view on working with different consulting firms. Read it with caution !
In short, I would recommend starting consulting career with the smaller/mid-sized firms to get good quality and in-depth learning & working exposure to various aspects of development consulting, and gradually you can move into larger/corporate firms. But, depending on your personality you may be suited more for corporate/process-driven environment culture whereas many may enjoy the creative, less hierarchial environment of mid-size/smaller firms.
Next, What type of projects do consulting firms typically take up ?
Their majority projects, depending on the client, may look like below-
For central government/ministries, conducting an annual assessment of various government schemes, their implementation on the ground, through pan-India field surveys.
For state governments, working on the design and implementation of some specific initiatives( eg: agriculture reform initiatives in Jharkhand) by bringing together domain experts, NGO partners and setting up Project Management Units, with a team of state/district coordinators for daily operations management.
For CSRs/Philanthropies, doing strategy development at organization/program level, conducting their financial audits, NGO partner background checks, need assessment studies, impact assessment studies, providing CSR/ESG compliance advisory, communication & brand building, and other aligned support.
For NGOs, strategy development at the organization level/program level, communications and fundraising support impact assessment studies.
Lot of consulting firms do independent or funded research and publications, to build evidence, inform and educate the larger ecosystem about various important areas, eg: How corporates can align with SDGs, Child trafficking issue in the state of Bihar, Case studies of best practices in WASH projects etc.
Many mid-size/boutique consulting firms specialize in specific domains, eg: Microsave (financial inclusion), NR Management Consultants (environment & sustainability), and others. Their work is around the same areas i.e. strategy/ implementation/ evaluation.
These are just sample use cases, a lot more exist in real world out there.
Ok, So What Are The Day To Day Activities In Which Young Professionals Are Involved When Working In Consulting Firms?
Managers/associates/consultants with 0-4 years experience are normally given the following responsibilities in consulting firms.
Proposal Writing
While there may be a dedicated team/person for outreach/partnership, its not uncommon to have proposal writing as a parallel task along with your routine responsibilities
Researching about the problem being addressed in the proposal, preparing graphics/flow diagrams to summarize the proposal, writing a compelling pitch about the company, doing proofreading or hygiene checks of the proposal, be ready for all !
Background Research For Consulting Projects
Research about client background, projects & objectives, preparing a brief of the available information for senior team members/project leads
Desk research about other similar projects or interventions by other organizations and sharing of insights, lessons which can be learned from them.
Prepare presentations and concept notes for clients.
Research Survey Preparation
Prepare or fine-tune research questionnaires for field studies.
Secondary data collection, eg: finding census data about the socio-economic status of the region, historical data of the program.
Note: Secondary data collection is often tricky because you don’t get data on all indicators easily through census data. Especially if the village or block is the unit of observation.
Planning logistics related to field studies I.e. travel plans, checking and finalizing accommodations for the team, coordination with local points of contact.
Training field surveyors on the nuances of the questionnaire and the key questions that they need to ask correctly.
Checking the surveyor’s challenges, motivation levels, and sincerity level during work is often ignored but one of the most critical parts of the data collection exercise. An untrained/demotivated surveyor can affect the quality of data beyond repair!
Survey Execution
Pilot testing the survey questionnaires and identifying any areas of change in it
Now offline data collection apps like MFORM by Dhwani RIS, Survey CTO, Kobo Collect are very commonly used for surveys, hence you may also be required to get the paper survey questions set up on the survey platform.
Visiting field locations for surveys and conducting FGDs, Qualitative discussions with respondents.
Monitoring daily progress of survey and leading the team debriefing meetings after daily round of surveys
Daily quality check of survey data, identifying any areas of support or feedback to surveyors based on data analysis
Data Analysis, Reporting & Strategy Recommendations
Cleaning up quantitative survey data once its available in excel
Getting transcripts of local language qualitative discussions translated to English language
Analyzing quantitative and qualitative data to identify key patterns insights
Summarizing the insights in PPTs or on Google studio/Tableau/PowerBI dashboards , improving them n number of times till client queries are satisfied!
Preparing case studies of specific beneficiaries and the changes in their lives due to an intervention
Coming up with new ideas, program design recommendations based on the insights generated
Presenting the analysis in form of Need Assessment or Impact Assessment Reports to the clients
Program Implementation Support
Coordination with various stakeholders like NGO field teams, vendors, local government officers, senior domain experts
Traveling to field locations for first-hand interactions with program beneficiaries and other stakeholders
Preparing and presenting weekly/monthly/quarterly progress reports to program leaders, for target vs achievement reporting
Identifying bottlenecks in target achievements and suggesting corrective actions in the implementation strategy
Other Routine Tasks
In the case of CSR clients, you may need to do the due diligence of NGOs i.e. asking them/ following up for their legal or financial documents. Often, you may need to visit their field offices for various discussions.
Business development/networking activities/social media activities are also the unofficial responsibilities you may be assigned.
Yes, this may be a lot of work, and there’s no hiding the fact it may be often overwhelming to manage many tasks parallelly.
Key Soft Skills, Experience Required To Work In Consulting Firms
Bachelors/Masters from a social sector academic stream/institution
Prior field experience always helps in planning, implementation, and M&E roles
Good problem-solving skills
Above-average writing and speaking skills
You need to be a multitasker, jack of all trades
Willingness and flexibility learn things at a fast pace in often stressful environment
Patience, flexibility, and diplomacy to work in teams and diverse set of stakeholders
You should be well-read about the latest laws/govt policies influencing the development work.
Technical Skills
Please refer the day-to day activities listed above. It’s self explanatory regarding the technical skills you’ll need for day to day work.
Growth Opportunities
Big4s/Corporate consulting firms - You start as analyst or associate consultant and grow up the hierarchy i.e. consultant, senior consultant, associate director, director and finally a partner.
Mid Size Consulting Firms - You start as an analyst or associate consultant and grow up to become consultant, senior consultant, project lead, practice lead/vertical head.
Boutique Consulting Firms - Since they often have a flat hierarchy, you may start as an analyst, become a project manager next, and then project lead. Growth may mean additional responsibilities in same role.
What You Should Not Expect
It’s not a chilled life with 9 to 5 job timing. You’ll have something or other pending at any given point.
Dont expect direct/immediate visibility of impact on ground, you are mostly not in middle of action on ground, you are now an impact facilitator not an impact creator on ground.
Overall, I would say it’s an interesting life full of daily surprises and learnings ! If you are looking for opportunities other than NGOs or CSRs, then consulting firms provide a very good career alternative with growth opportunities.
So this brings us to the close of this very long article. If you would like to add any point or experience, please do share in comments below!
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