Research Links Volunteerism & Profits

Betty B. Stallings, a San Francisco-based trainer, consultant, and author who specializes in volunteerism, cites a 1993 survey in which more than 50 percent of businesses surveyed acknowledged a link between volunteer programs and profitability. Stallings states that research involving Fortune 500 companies demonstrates “an exponentially increasing number of employee volunteer programs.” These programs bring corporations and communities together as partners, and have been shown to be beneficial in attracting talented employees and in motivating staff.

Stallings points to General Mills, Federal Express, and Intel as examples of companies that have reported enhanced skills among employees who have participated in corporate-sponsored volunteer programs. Specific skills mentioned include leadership, teamwork, decision-making, communication, and time management.

“The employees themselves derive considerable benefits as well,” Stallings writes. “Through their volunteering, they have developed new business contacts, gained experience in strategic planning, [and] become involved with community leaders. There is a decided link, too, between physical and mental health and participation in volunteer activities.”

Volunteers Undervalue Experience

Surprisingly, many volunteers don’t realize that their altruism can result in acquiring highly marketable skills. Anita Collins, a licensed independent clinical social worker and life-planning coach, says people—especially women—tend to undervalue their volunteer experience simply because they don’t get paid for it.

“There is still a strong bias about volunteer work—that we shouldn’t list it on a resume because it’s not considered a real job,” Collins explains. “I encourage my clients to include it because they’ve brought value to an organization with the skills they were using and developing.”

Collins, who practices in Worcester, MA, suggests that one of the best ways to identify those skills is to analyze the volunteer activity as if you were writing a job description. What tasks were performed? What was accomplished? What goals were achieved?

“In my work, I find that women in midlife are really stopping and saying, ‘I have 30 productive years ahead of me, and I want to spend them in a way that makes sense to me and makes me happy,’” Collins says. “The challenge for me is to help them identify why they’re not satisfied now, and how to move to the next phase.

“Many of these women have had wonderful non-paid work histories,” Collins continues. “They run organizations, work on committees, address neighborhood and school issues, and put together major charitable events and fund-raising campaigns. The fact is, they have skills and experience to do just about anything they choose, and that information most definitely belongs on their resumes. I try to help my clients realize the value of their volunteer experience, and connect that with their careers. Without that value piece as an underpinning, they often have a hard time finding satisfaction.”

This writer can attest to the value of showcasing volunteer work on a resume. A few years ago, while in the throes of a career transition, I served as a volunteer board member for a patient-services program of The American Cancer Society. In helping plan a multifaceted event, I co-wrote a video script, helped produce printed materials, and organized a workshop on women’s cancer issues. The event was a success and the video earned a recognition award from a local ad club. Referencing this activity on my resume has led to several lucrative freelance assignments that I would not otherwise have been offered.

Perceptions Are Changing

Collins says it’s gratifying to see that the perception of volunteerism has changed. Unlike 20 or 30 years ago, the value of volunteer contributions is recognized.

When you think about what’s involved in, for instance, organizing a charity golf tournament, “you realize that it takes organizational, management, marketing, and public relations skills, as well as dedication, stamina and a willingness to work very hard,” says Collins. “Those attributes are attractive to potential employers. And they can open up entire new career avenues that you might not have considered.”

Ms. Ulmer, 56, signed on to be an intern at consulting firm Triad Communication in Washington, working alongside a college student who listens to hip-hop and frets about life after graduation. Laid off and looking for something to do, she jumped at the grunt-work opportunity. “It’s all fun money for me.”

This summer, the regular crop of interns has some interlopers in its midst: the over-30 crowd. From small businesses and restaurants to large health-care companies and public-relations firms, eager workplace veterans are lining up for a shot at the bottom rung of the ladder for little or no pay, just like those college kids. And companies are happy to let them in the door. While only 5% of internships were open to folks past their college years in 1995, that number has climbed to 20% today, according to career-information company Vault Inc.

Some of these aging interns don’t have much choice, with jobs scarce in a down economy. Others say they’re using internships as a convenient way to try something different, take a break from the job track or just dabble. In New York, there’s a 35-year-old ex-VP playing pastry chef at an upscale restaurant. A Chicago TV station had a lawyer running errands for the boss.

But not all of these graying apprentices are winning friends, of course. For out-of-work veterans, the notion of companies beefing up their ranks with experienced workers in short-term internships can be infuriating. Then there are the young interns forced to work side-by-side with condescending boomers. Jonathan Krause, a 22-year-old law student, found himself teamed with an older intern at a government office. The woman not only patronized him, but snorted whenever she heard him making after-work plans to meet his friends at a bar. “At first I was irritated, then I tried to provoke her,” he says.

Internships used to be just for kids, of course. Then came the dot-com boom of the late ’90s, when jobs were plentiful and labor was scarce, and some employers were forced to go outside the traditional intern mold to fill their slots. Now that the economy has slowed, companies from public relations giant Fleishman-Hillard to law firm Cleary Gottlieb are welcoming older interns. And why not? It’s a way to get better help for less, and without a long-term commitment. McKesson Corp., a health-care information company, has five over-30 interns out of a total of 40 at one of its units.

Thrill of the Kitchen

That’s all just fine with dabblers like Marissa Rothkopf Bates, who is starting a six-week internship as a pastry chef’s apprentice at a tony New York seafood restaurant. When she was laid off from her job as a vice president at Oxygen Media, she quickly signed up for cooking school and a follow-up “externship.” After following a chef around for a day and whipping up chocolate treats, she exalted in the “adrenaline thrill” of the kitchen. But once she’s done garnishing desserts, she figures she’ll look for another media job: “I don’t actually see myself becoming a chef.”

Michael Feldman, a 34-year-old former software entrepreneur, actually converted his internship into a cushy new job. After seeing his business go down the tubes last year, Mr. Feldman talked a friend into bringing him on as an intern at his online food-delivery service, arguing there was no downside since he would only get paid on commission. He then negotiated flexible hours to accommodate his morning triathlon-training schedule. “Sometimes I’ll roll in the door at noon,” he says.

While nobody’s expecting a gigantic rush of middle-aged interns, the summer workplace may well continue to get more mature. For starters, rules about workplace equality make it tougher for employers to consider age when hiring. Earlier this year, one Massachusetts company was forced to revisit its internship policy after rejecting an applicant for being too old (the would-be intern complained to state authorities). Plus, many employers like having older interns around. At McKesson’s information solutions unit, senior vice president Terry Geraghty says it’s a no-brainer to bring summer help with years of experience into the fold.

‘Stop the World’

Still, these May-September internships can have drawbacks for both sides. Experts say some boomers are more likely to worry about what comes next rather than the internship itself. Others may think it’s fun to try something new, but should make sure they aren’t just trying to avoid the commitment of a real job. Says Lynn Friedman, a clinical psychologist and workplace consultant in Bethesda, Md.: “I see a lot of ‘Stop the world, I want to get off.’”

Even if interns are excited going in, they may find the glamour fades quickly when they see just how little money they are getting. Alex Livingston moved to Los Angeles to serve as the unpaid producer for “Wide Awake in Nothing,” a film-student friend’s movie about a group of rebellious factory workers. He had a blast working 15-hour days for seven weeks straight, but then he jumped at a paying job — as a software engineer.

Starting Over

Companies and organizations vary widely regarding their approach to employing older interns. Below, a sampling of some of the programs:

Perks just keep getting harder to find. However, there are jobs for which perks are a part of the compensation package.

In healthy, happy mid-20^th century America, when the executive level was the career ideal to strive for, the key to the senior washroom stood as the symbol of success — the magical instrument that unlocked a secret door, behind which a select, beknighted few undertook decisions that moved and shook America. Gaining entrance to that chamber was a rite of passage signifying one’s advancement to elite status.

By the go-go 1980s, perks had become more diverse, more expansive and a little more fun. Condos in Vail, membership in exclusive country clubs, catered lunches, chauffeured limos, fully stocked bars, helicopters to the Hamptons, villas in Mexico — these were the goodies at the top of the corporate heap, the trickle-up blessings of Reaganomics. In time, those perks took on a life of their own. What began as symbols of success and as motivation on the climb up the corporate ladder, became benefits to be expected of the potential employer. What, no luxury box for the local professional football team? No corporate health club? No personal assistant? Sorry, I’ll take my career elsewhere.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the top — the recession of the early 1990s. Now the economy is once again prompting another wave of corporate belt-tightening. And, there are other factors that come into play, such as the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS is increasingly looking at perks and taxing the recipients, not to mention putting pressure on the companies to treat them as part of a taxable-income package.

Even freebies, the access to which employees see as normal and necessary to the work environment, can be recast as a perk by scrupulous financial officers. Writing implements may not seem like an amenity to an office worker, but one well-known company that places temporary computer operators charges its employees for extra pens if they lose the one they’re given. Similarly, most professionals view a telephone as an indispensable piece of business equipment — but does that mean employees must, or should, have unlimited access to it? Indeed, for many cost-conscious companies, access codes for each employee to the company’s long-distance service are becoming increasingly popular as a means of preventing abuse of phone privileges. Just print up a list of who called where, and a boss can track whether a call was made for business or personal purposes.

The perk isn’t dead, but it is being viewed in a new light — the light of reason in the cost-conscious, post-New Economy era. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman pointed out years ago, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. The money going toward perks has to come from somewhere. Might that money be better spent on something that more directly influences the bottom line?

Even the beneficiaries of presumed perks may start to see them differently. It’s common for sports teams to provide journalists with complimentary food and beverages at games, but most often the bounty isn’t of the healthiest variety — hot dogs, fried chicken, pizza. To someone watching his or her weight, the complimentary buffet isn’t a perk any longer. Employees of a company or nonprofit organization that seems to spend an inordinate amount of its funds on baubles to keep the workers happy may begin to question the direction of the company or the mission of the organization. And in the new hands-on corporate environment, some top executives are moving out of their plush, wood-paneled corner offices and back into cubicles out on the floor to become more involved in the everyday workings of the business and its employees.

As people re-evaluate their place in the world — both in their careers and in life outside the job — they may also begin to re-evaluate the worth and necessity of the freebies that have become part and parcel of the commercial environment. Whereas once it may have been common to accept gifts from potential clients or customers, the new business climate has begun to call some of that palm-greasing into question. We hold our elected representatives to high standards in terms of receiving gifts as a way to influence decisions. Should the decision-makers in the business world be held similarly accountable? You may be trying to decide between two companies with similar products or services. Is the value of those products or services truly reflected in the size of a company’s vacation retreat or corporate jet? Maybe the young, hungry company that hasn’t yet established itself enough to indulge in such perquisites is the one you’d rather work at.

Still, perks, amenities and benefits will continue to be a drawing card for professionals deciding on new careers or evaluating job offers. Our advice? Don’t let the glitter of those attractive baubles sway you from your prime concern, which should be: Is the job right for you? Will you enjoy doing this job day in and day out? Will you be personally rewarded — not just financially, not just with advancement, and not just with certain amenities and privileges, but with a feeling of self-fulfillment? That, ultimately, is the best perk of all.

Want a job that will wow them at parties? Then study the sciences.

That’s the message from the Harris Poll’s annual survey of attitudes toward a cross section of occupations. Of 1,011 adults surveyed nationwide, 51% said scientist was a job with “very great prestige.” Doctors were right behind with 50%, followed by military officers and teachers, each with 47%, and police officers, with 40%.

Of that top five, though, only the uniformed professions saw gains from the prior year. Military officers rose seven percentage points, while police climbed three points, moves that Harris attributed to the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan.

Scientists fell two points from last year, while doctors dropped 11 percentage points. Teachers saw esteem for their positions fall seven percentage points, Harris said.

Amid the corporate accounting scandals, at the bottom of this year’s list were accountants. Only 13% of those surveyed said they felt the profession carried “very great prestige,” down two percentage points.

Here are more highlights from the latest survey.

* * *

“For each of the following, would you tell me if you feel it is an occupation of very great prestige, considerable prestige, some prestige or hardly any prestige at all?”

** In earlier surveys Harris used the words “policeman” (now changed to “police officer”) and businessman (now changed to “business executive”) which may account for the changes from 2001 to 2002.

* * *

Trend for “very great prestige” from 1977 to 2002

NA not asked

** Questions contain reference to “man” in these profession titles reflecting how they were originally asked. They remain the same in order not to disrupt the trending of the data related to these professions.

* * *

Methodology: This poll was conducted via telephone between Aug. 15 and 19, among a nationwide cross section of 1,011 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults and number of voice/telephone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to align with population proportions. Harris Interactive estimates the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus three percentage points compared to results if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy.

Smart college students know their career futures won’t be stable. Most new graduates will work in several fields or jobs over their lifetimes and will be continually adapting to ever-faster technical developments.

But you can take steps to be ready for an uncertain work world. First, accept that your education doesn’t stop with college or graduate school. To be successful and rise up through the ranks, you’ll need to be a lifelong learner. Second, be ready for change. View new systems and processes as opportunities and volunteer to get involved with them.

“Students should get ahead of the technology curve and look at leading-edge fields, like augmented or virtual reality or nanotechnology,” says Glen Hiemstra, a futurist in Kirkland, Wash.

Despite all the flux, there will be plenty of jobs. Through 2012 U.S. employment is expected to increase 14% and the supply of workers will grow 12%. Jobs will be plentiful, especially for professionals. Due to shortages, employers will seek out women, minorities, welfare recipients, retired seniors and even prisoners to fill openings.

Currently, the economy is so strong that some students assume they’ll land jobs easily via the Internet and are neglecting college job fairs and other college recruiting events, says Craig Mosurinjohn, director of career services at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

“Student registrations at career fairs are suffering a little because they want to do it on their own,” he says.

For managers, skills in an industry will likely be less important than functional skills, such as leadership or communications, says Roger Herman, a management consultant and futurist with the Herman Group in Greensboro, N.C. “Employers are more willing to let people move from industry to industry,” he says. “Partly, it’s because they don’t have any choice.”

Five Tips for a Successful Future

Nonetheless, employment in some fields will be red-hot. Services businesses, such as personnel or health-care supply agencies or computer training and repair businesses, will account for virtually all job growth through 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. The nation also will become more dependent on technology. Between 2002 and 2012, employment in computer and data processing services will swell by 117%, faster than any other industry.

Public relations is an industry where employment is expected to grow 45% by 2012. This is good news for Cedric Bass, a master’s of business administration student at Florida International University in Miami. He wants to work in corporate PR after completing his degree by the end of 2009. While he didn’t choose the field because of its hot forecast, “my career prospects seem very promising,” he says. “The job market in the different regions is booming.”

While students shouldn’t pursue a career solely because employment is booming in that field, it doesn’t hurt to consider employers in fast-growing industries.

Five Tips for Young Professionals

When making forecasts about your career future, one thing is sure: it’s going to be buffeted by change. As a young professional, you can take steps to be ready for some likely twists and turns, says Glen Heimstra, founder of futurist.com in Kirkland, Wash.:

Get on a learning curve. Identify what you need to learn in the next six months and create a plan for accomplishing this goal. Continue to set learning agendas for yourself. As the world keeps changing, successful professionals will stay up with new developments.

Be technically knowledgeable. Virtually all work in the future will require technical competence. You don’t have to be a programmer, but you should be competent on basic computer systems and software programs and aware of how technology can be applied.

Improve your personal-interaction skills. More routine work will be automated, leaving employees to do what’s left. Young professionals will stand out if they can interact with and manage people effectively.

Be good at balancing work and life. As work spills over into life, and vice versa, professionals must know when work starts and stops and help other employees to set those boundaries as well.

Take time to look over the horizon. Be a futurist. Cultivate the ability to forecast what’s just around the corner, so you can prepare for it, says Mr. Hiemstra.

As a baby-boomer parent, I know too well the importance of landing a good job after graduation. And I certainly could open plenty of doors for my firstborn. But I hesitate to help him too much. A conflict of interest looms if I ask my news sources to consider him for employment. More importantly, cushioning my fledgling adult’s attempted leap into the job market could deny him the chance to soar on his own. On the other hand, I worry: Am I a parental failure unless I make sure my son succeeds? It’s a dilemma countless parents face.

Some go too far in trying to shape their children’s occupational choices. Certain Dartmouth students must pay for humanities courses themselves because Mom and Dad believe those subjects don’t prepare them for, say, an investment-banking career. “I can’t tell you how many kids I’ve met whose parents have pushed them into [the wrong] field,” reports Kate Wendleton, a New York career coach and founder of The Five O’Clock Club, a job-search strategy group. The result can be burnout by age 30.

Making Choices

Manipulative boomer parents often tout what they did when they started their careers. “They’re 30 years behind the times,” complains Marilyn Moats Kennedy, owner of consultants Career Strategies in Wilmette, Ill.

In July, a midlevel manufacturing executive demanded that Ms. Kennedy persuade her son, a fresh Ivy League college graduate, to accept a $45,000-a-year post with a major management-consulting firm. The young man preferred “to go to California and hang out with his girlfriend,” the career adviser recalls. She refused his request, feeling the son should make his own choices. The youth turned down the job.

When University of Colorado graduation loomed last spring, the anxious parents of environmental biology major Jordan McClelland repeatedly offered to introduce her to their pharmaceutical-industry friends. However, the Westfield, N.J., student wasn’t ready to job hunt — much less don a white lab coat. “I really like the outside. I’d rather not spend my time in an office or a lab,” the 22-year-old explains. “A job may pay $75,000 a year, but what good is it if you’re unhappy?”

Her stubborn resistance frustrated her parents. “I want her to put that degree to use,” insists her mother, Susan, a teacher of gifted elementary-school pupils.

For now, the biology-degree holder is living at home and working as a waitress. She intends to save money while exploring internships and outdoor-education graduate programs. “I don’t see any harm in that,” Jordan McClelland says. “But it [was] hard to get that across to my parents.”

Her mother, 50, agrees. “Pushing her into something won’t help,” she says. “It was a learning experience for all of us.”

Career counselors suggest parents should walk a fine line between doing too much and too little. Introduce your son or daughter to your fellow alums from college, for instance, rather than suppliers and customers, to avoid conflicts of interest. You might also offer reciprocity, agreeing to meet your friends’ job-hunting progeny if they meet with yours.

Just Enough Help

You can encourage your new grad’s initiative by recommending him to an acquaintance only after he makes the first call. Being a good parent “doesn’t mean you get him the job,” cautions Adele Scheele, career-center director of California State University, Northridge.

Ron Crompton, a Dayton, Ohio, Internet marketing executive and a 13-year veteran of Lexis Nexis, tried to strike a balance in assisting his daughter Kristin, 23.

He asked a former Lexis Nexis co-worker to talk with her after 100 resumes she sent seeking human-resources jobs elsewhere had generated few responses by the time she finished her Ohio University degree last November. His ex-colleague, an HR official, met with the young woman to discuss opportunities at the database unit of Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier NV.

Because Ms. Crompton lacked HR experience, the official forwarded her resume to the company’s customer-support department. In June, she started work as a customer-service representative there. Despite the six-month delay, Mr. Crompton avoided troubleshooting on his daughter’s behalf at Lexis Nexis. “I wanted to get her started off in a nice company so her outlook on life would be upbeat from the get-go,” the 51-year-old executive says. Once she became a serious candidate, he adds, “I was no longer in the picture.”

So what have I done for my confused college senior? I unsuccessfully attempted to arrange a get-together between him and a former boss of mine. I supplied the name of a prominent political consultant I know in Washington. (Our family link won’t be apparent because my son uses my husband’s surname.)

In coming months, Dan says he mainly will seek my help revising his resume and cover letters. “I would consider it a blow to my self-confidence if I was getting a [job] interview just because I’m your son,” he explains. “I want to be hired because of my skills.”

This may strike you as an unusual chore for someone who works in an office — a cool, air-conditioned facility, no less, with comfortable chairs, a refrigerator full of soda and a radio.

But my employer, an urban and regional planning firm in Oxford, Miss., had been giving me these jobs since hiring me as the gopher/college kid/general lackey. The help-wanted ad for the position stated, “Clerical work-Comfortable environment-Great for students.” A word of advice — don’t believe want ads.

Each week, I picked up beer cans, paper bags and half-eaten potato logs from the yard and mowed the grass. I cleaned the swimming pool a few times. I removed heavy air conditioners from windows for repairs. And all 5 feet 10 inches, 160 pounds of me served as a security guard when we visited a psychotic tenant who thought her neighbors were running a brothel instead of hosting a prayer breakfast.

I did whatever dirty work needed to be done. I thought I was used to grunt work but pouring concrete was the worst yet. When my foot got stuck in the mess, I remembered the “Roadrunner” cartoon in which the coyote becomes instantly frozen in concrete. Feeling as if I were sinking in quicksand, I wrenched at my foot. At last, it came free with a loud sucking noise.

Why Did I Do It?

For an English major like me to put up with these assignments may seem crazy. However, this and other crummy positions I’ve held have enhanced my career options. The key to taking advantage of a bad job is to create experience you can use to further your career.

For instance, the planning firm that used me as office slave creates written reports and documents for city governments, the state Supreme Court and high-paying private clients. After I’d worked there a few months, I asked my boss if I could assist in writing them. After all, I had an English degree and the the engineers and geographers at the company didn’t.

He agreed and started me off typing reports and correcting a few grammatical errors. But while typing a poorly written market-research study, I asked if I could rewrite it.

“I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes, but this could be written better,” I said. I reminded him that I had done a substantial amount of writing. My arguments proved convincing, and I was allowed to redo the report. It turned out well, the client was pleased and I gained impressive experience for my resume.

Later, the boss asked me to tidy shelves used to store reports. After choking on the dust, I ventured another proposal.

“Could I organize the reports and build a database on the computer?” I asked. This was a somewhat self-serving request, since I was tired of being asked to huntdown documents for other staffers. “This way, we could search the database and locate reports immediately,” I said.

Once again, he gave me the OK and I gained more experience for my resume.

Easy to Persuade

You’d be surprised how easily you can convince employers to give you more responsibility. After all, they want work completed at the lowest possible cost. Assume you have a marketing degree but are waiting tables temporarily. Why not ask your manager if you can help write newspaper ads for the restaurant? “But I’m only a waitress,” you say, as though it’s a terminal illness.

So what. Do you think your employer will say, “No, I’d rather pay Megabucks Advertising huge amounts of money instead of giving you the chance”? All you have to do is ask. By recognizing and seizing opportunities, you can gain valuable career experience from the crummiest job.

If you’re a management major, ask to sit in on meetings and observe how the senior manager directs the discussion. If you’re an accounting student, request permission to help with the payroll.

Every job–no matter how heinous–offers ways to gain career experience. One summer I worked on a farm cleaning horse stalls. Each day, I shoveled horse manure into buckets and dumped them into a wagon. But my resume notes the experience I gained helping the farm with advertising and promotion. I gained the responsibility because I asked for it.

When I list my exhausting planning-firm job on my resume, I don’t say I poured concrete. Instead, I mention the market-research study and computer databases I created.

The Ultimate Reward

Through my campus recruiting program, I arranged to interview with American Management Systems Inc., an information-technology consulting firm based in Fairfax, Va. I was the only liberal arts major invited to interview, and as I sat in front of the recruiter’s desk and glanced down at my resume, I knew why. He’d highlighted the items describing the market-research study and computer databases. I might never have gotten to see him if I hadn’t created opportunities for myself at that rotten job.

Despite having an English degree, I was offered a consulting position with AMS, which I accepted. I’m convinced that I was hired because of the experiences I’d gained from a whole series of not-so-hot jobs.

If I’d simply taken out the trash and shoveled manure, I might still be doing grunt work. While my consulting role doesn’t require me to describe the properties of wet concrete, my gopher experience benefited my career. There’s no such thing as a crummy job if you know how to create opportunities to gain experience.

New graduates usually join consulting firms as analysts or associate consultants, while M.B.A.-level hires typically receive the title of consultant. At the entry level, fresh out of college, you can expect to earn annual pay of between $35,000 and $50,000 to start, while M.B.A.s may garner up to $130,000.

But consulting is so demanding that it pays to look before you leap. Consultants are problem solvers — a kind of “outsourced” intelligence — hired to provide an unprejudiced, experienced view of a company’s quandaries and challenges.

“One of the best things about my job is that it’s constantly changing,” says one consultant. “We work on assignments that range from a month to a few years, and in different industries. Your knowledge and experience are flexible, and I appreciate that.”

Consulting firms usually fall under three broad categories:

• Strategy consultants work with senior management to assess such big-picture issues as whether to merge with another company or enter Asian markets.
• Operations consultants examine the internal workings of an organization and ways a client can reach operational goals by cutting costs, restructuring departments or allocating resources differently, raising product quality or other methods.
• Information-technology consultants help clients use or adopt new technologies. Information technology ando operations consultants often remain on site to ensure their recommendations and changes are enacted, which produces a steady income stream for their firms.

Working as a consultant has obvious benefits, including in-depth knowledge of companies and industries, prestige and relatively high pay. It also has a downside. Most consultants travel extensively, which is often viewed as a perk — at least in the beginning. Do you want to visit London, Singapore or Brasilia? As a consultant, you may have a chance.

“I’ve done some amazing things because of the locations of my assignments,” says one young consultant. “I flew the Concorde, was in Lillehammer for the winter Olympics, gambled in Monte Carlo, went to the opera at Covent Garden, had dinner in the Eiffel Tower, spent a summer afternoon at a beach in Nice, and the list goes on.”

But many consultants are required to be available for travel 100% of the time and are away between three and five days a week. At this pace, travel stops being a perk after three to six months, many consultants say. It’s especially onerous if you have a family or significant other.

Add to the travel grind a 50- to 80-hour work week, and you begin to understand why many consultants burn out after a few years on the job. At least ex-consultants have great career prospects and a wide choice of options because of their multi-faceted work experience.

Consulting firms hire graduates from all majors, from art history to zoology. While consultancies appreciate business and quantitative skills and computer experience, they’re primarily seeking intelligent, analytical, articulate and flexible prospects with a basic aptitude for business. Says one recent graduate: “We do a lot of numbers work, but we figure that if someone is smart, they can be taught.”

Interviewers at consulting firms measure aptitude through “case interviews,” which require candidates to walk through a business scenario, analyze the situation and make recommendations.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to be a consultant, review the following inside scoop on the 10 top consulting firms, based on surveys with thousands of employees at leading firms:

– Ms. Lerner is editorial director of Vault.com, a New York City information services provider for job seekers. More information can be found in “The Vault Report Guide to Consulting.”

Ten Top U.S. Consulting Firms

1. McKinsey & Co.

McKinsey is the most powerful consulting firm in the world. In boardrooms and corporate offices around the world, it is known simply as “The Firm,” the first recourse for advice when business woes strike. Such a reputation makes McKinsey consultants highly sought after and expensive to hire; its 4,500 consultants, citizens of 81 countries, generate an estimated $450,000 per person annually. Customers include some of the bluest-chip companies in the world, such as PepsiCo, AT&T, GE, IBM and General Motors Corps.

Since many ex-McKinsey consultants serve on company boards (up to a third of all boards, according to some estimates), the firm has long-term ties and relationships with CEOs at many major organizations.

Specialties: McKinsey is known as a strategy firm; its consultants usually are engaged to help create long-term strategic plans for a company, product or operation. In most cases, consultants work with senior-level executives at client companies.

Good: McKinsey tops most consulting firms for prestige and name-recognition; the firm is in a class of its own. The firm is consistently tapped for world-wide assignments, which means peerless opportunities for diverse experience and travel (65% of the firm’s revenues are generated overseas). Because of great connections, ex-consultants have excellent career prospects.

Bad: Not everyone makes it to the winner’s circle. Under the firm’s strict “up or out” policy, only one in 11 who start make it to senior partner. New associates have six years to make partner — and partners have six more years to make it to director levels. Insiders add that if you don’t like travel, think twice about McKinsey.

Ugly: Allegations of sexual discrimination still plague the firm. Former McKinsey associate Suzanne Porter claims the firm discriminated against her by not promoting her to partner despite outstanding reviews. McKinsey has since settled the suit.

To apply:

Recruiting Administrator
McKinsey & Co. Inc.
55 E. 52nd St.
New York, N.Y. 10022 USA
(212) 446-7993
(212) 446-7200 (fax)

2. Bain

After being plagued by lawsuits, layoffs and near-bankruptcy in the early 1990s, Bain has leaped back to the top of its game. The firm is ranked among the world’s most prestigious consultants, along with McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group — which once employed founder William Bain. Bain is rare among major consulting firms for having a woman, Chairman of the Board, Orit Gadiesh, at the top. The firm employs 1,500 consultants.

Specialties: Bain is a world leader in strategy consulting and has a strong international bent. Unlike some other strategy firms, Bain stresses that all its strategy recommendations must be immediately useful. Everything “comes down to what the client will do differently Monday morning,” says Ms. Gadiesh.

Good: Equal in prestige to its close competitors, Bain has a smaller, more congenial feel than larger rivals and views encouraging a friendly environment as a worthwhile expense. Among special touches is the “Bain Band,” an amateur assembly of Bain employee-musicians who serenade fellow “Bainies” at company events. Insiders say pay is generous and raises average more than 15% a year.

Bad: Bain employees must hew to conservative dress codes and travel extensively. Work hours are long as well — consultants can expect to spend at least one day per weekend working or at the airport.

Ugly: Some say (quietly) that Ms. Gadiesh’s purple-red locks and “over-the-top” costume jewelry lean toward “unsightly” considering she’s the head of a major firm.

To apply:

Bain
2 Copley Place
Boston, Mass. 02116
(617) 572 2000
(617) 572 2427 (fax)

3. The Boston Consulting Group

In an industry where some firms have been accused of using the same research and offering identical solutions to clients, The Boston Consulting Group prides itself on treating each client’s case as a unique problem with a unique solution. BCG is famed for its “BCG Matrix,” a strategy tool which explains the relationship between company profitability and market share. The company has 1,500 consultants.

Specialties: BCG is a strategy consulting firm, known for creating matrices and diagrams to clarify strategy issues. Since 1985, BCG has been especially active in Eastern Europe, advising companies on deregulation and privatization issues.

Good: BCG is known for its attention to quality-of-life issues; while considered as prestigious as McKinsey and Bain, it requires fewer hours weekly — about 55 on average — and consultants can expect a few weekends each month to be their own.

Bad: BCG’s “do-everything-from-scratch” policy can mean extra legwork for employees. The firm also bases bonuses on demonstrated actual performance, which means that when results don’t meet expectations, you shouldn’t expect extra pay.

Ugly: BCG’s graphs and matrices were unique when first introduced in the ’80s; now the firm has lots of competition and the matrix isn’t as glamorous.

To apply (undergrads: include transcript):

Boston Consulting Group
Recruiting Coordinator
135 E. 57th St., 22nd Floor
New York, N.Y. 10022
(212) 446-2800
(212) 754-4424 (fax)

4. Monitor Co.

Founded by Harvard professors in 1983 and inspired by the teachings of founding member Michael Porter (who first developed the strategy theory “Porter’s Five Forces”), Monitor is a congenial, prestigious 700-consultant firm in Cambridge, Mass.

All Monitor consultants have the same title — consultant. The firm prides itself on being a meritocracy and offers unusually large merit bonuses — as high as 50% of salary.

Specialties: Not surprising for a firm started by academics, Monitor designs theories and programs to ensure successful implementation of its strategy recommendations. For instance, Action Learning is a technique to help circumvent the objections of clients who balk at advice from outsiders and make sure strategic change is long-lasting.

Good: Monitor’s massive performance bonuses and collegial, “almost academic” atmosphere. The latter is especially conducive to personal growth.

Bad: Monitor’s feared interview process features a group interview where stressed-out applicants attempt to solve a problem together, while being silently observed by Monitor interviewers.

Ugly: Lousy typists may want to brush up — Monitor recently downsized nearly all its research and clerical support staff.

To apply:

Monitor Co.
25 First St.
Cambridge, Mass. 02141
(617) 252-2000
(617) 252-2100 (fax)

5. Arthur D. Little

The oldest consulting firm in existence (founded in 1886), ADL is especially known for attention to technological issues and has a staff of innovative engineers and environmental scientists. ADL also runs a patent service, which shepherds inventors through the patent process in return for half of the proceeds. Consulting employees number 1,800.

Specialties: ADL has a more scientific bent than many consulting firms. It’s renowned for environmental consulting practice and operations and information technology consulting. The latter includes recommending appropriate technologies (including e-commerce) and program structures. ADL also has a strategy consulting practice and makes long-term strategy recommendations.

Good: ADL is an “entrepreneurial” firm where all employees hold stock. Consultants say they “enjoy working on small teams with scientists and other experts.”

Bad: ADL is a hawk about costs; many consultants complain about having to fly coach.

Ugly: Insiders say ADL’s headquarters looks “like an underfunded community college.”

To apply:

Arthur D. Little
25 Acorn Park
Cambridge, Mass. 02140
(617) 498-6933
(617) 498-7140 (fax)

6. Booz Allen & Hamilton

Booz Allen is especially renowned for consulting to government agencies, but also does more than its share of pro bono work with charities and nonprofits. The firm makes a point of integrating client management into its consulting teams and spends about half of its time on implementation — ensuring that recommendations are put into place and work. Booz Allen has 5,900 consultants.

Specialties: Booz Allen offers integrated strategy, operations and information technology consulting to solve “CEO-level” problems. It is well-known for consulting to government agencies and has several specialized government practices, including defense, environment, transportation, space and international government.

Good: Employees at Booz Allen love the “lack of bureaucracy” and resulting flexible schedules and career paths; travel perks also are reputed to be “exceptional.”

Bad: The flip side of independence is “lack of structure and support”; insiders say it’s “difficult to progress without a mentor.”

Ugly: In the past, Booz Allen’s working environment was considered “macho” and “frankly repulsive” to women, but efforts have been made to correct this image.

To apply:

Director of Recruiting
Booz Allen & Hamilton
101 Park Ave.
New York, N.Y. 10178
(212) 697-1900
(212) 551-6732 (fax)

7. Mercer Management Consulting

Mercer is aggressive and in a hurry to reach the top of the consulting industry. This young, fast-growing subsidiary of Marsh & MacLennan has acquired dozens of smaller firms in the last 14 years. The firm is young; as a hybrid offspring of Temple, Barker & Sloan and Strategic Planning Associates, it took the name Mercer Management Consulting in 1992. The firm has 1,200 consultants.

Specialties: Mercer has four major areas of expertise: financial services, transportation, communications/information/entertainment and a catch-all, mostly manufacturing group. While Mercer is primarily a strategy consulting firm, it often draws on the expertise of consultants from other Marsh & MacLennan groups, including William M. Mercer Cos., National Economic Research Associates and Lippincott & Margulies, involved in, respectively, human resource, microeconomic and identity consulting.

Good: As a subsidiary of a major, publicly traded insurance company, the firm offers “unusually diverse and generous” health-care benefits, says an insider. Other perks, such as stock options, are “juicy as well.” Mercer also gives new consultants the responsibility that can help them grow in their jobs.

Bad: Mercer’s quick growth and frequent acquisitions mean “the bureaucracy is growing almost as fast,” say employees.

Ugly: Mercer employs “case-team associates” — assistants to consultants with less prestigious undergraduate degrees, and tensions have arisen between assistants and consultants of similar age and educational levels.

To apply:

Mercer Management Consulting
2300 N St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037
(202) 778-7000
(202) 293-1371 (fax)

8. AT Kearney

In 1995, AT Kearney merged with Plano, Texas-based juggernaut Electronic Data Systems (EDS), recently detached from General Motors Corp. Industry observers were skeptical about the success of the union, but the resulting consulting giant, with its strategic and info-tech expertise, has been a resounding success. AT Kearney has 4,700 employees, including 2,700 consultants.

Specialties: AT Kearney offers strategic consulting but is especially well regarded for aerospace, financial, health-care and retail industry specialties. The firm has a strong operations consulting niche and a good track record, deriving more than 75% percent of business from past clients. Its acquisition by EDS, a global information services firm, has vastly improved AT Kearney’s information-technology capabilities.

Good: With its new interest and expertise in technology, the firm is poised to profit from the information-technology boom. Percentage gains in revenues have grown by double digits for 14 years running.

Bad: Straightlaced CEO Fred Steingraber forbids casual days; consultants must wear suits every day.

Ugly: The dearth of women at AT Kearney is “embarrassing” to firm consultants; only five female vice presidents are employed there.

To apply:

AT Kearney
Corporate Recruiting
222 W. Adams St.
Chicago, Ill. 60606
(312) 223-6030
(312) 223-7548 (fax)

9. Mitchell Madison Group

This new, fast-growing consulting firm was founded in 1995 by refugees from McKinsey & Co. who were frustrated at what they saw as the wasted potential of many good employees. In three years, the firm has grown to 750 consultants from fewer than 50 in 1995, mostly through proficient financial consulting work.

Specialties: Mitchell Madison has made a name by saving companies money. Using its track record in financial institution cost reduction as an entree and concentrating on deregulating industries, Mitchell Madison has won assignments in the automotive, media, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, telecommunications and electronic technology sectors. Major growth areas are health care, chemicals and high technology.

Good: Mitchell Madison’s newness means that dissension and independence aren’t only tolerated, but encouraged; decisions are made in “round table” vs. “hierarchical” fashion.

Bad: Consultants at Mitchell Madison report working extremely long hours, even for management-consulting standards. Having to work 15 hours a day, six days a week, plus half of Sunday isn’t atypical, say employees.

Ugly: A lack of training and clerical support means “you’re out there on your own,” say insiders. And Mitchell Madison has grown so quickly that glitches are inevitable and “somehow become your fault.”

To apply:

Mitchell Madison Group
520 Madison Ave.
New York, N.Y. 10022
Recruiting hotline: (212) 372-9100
Recruiting fax: (212) 372-4408

Ms. Ellis married at age 19 after three years at Vassar College. For the next 40 years, while her husband built a company he started in a garage, she did the scattershot work of home and family. In the early days, she kept the books, raised three children and did the school volunteer work so typical of the 1950s.

After her last child had left the nest, she applied to Princeton University to finish her degree. She was accepted as one of the first candidates under its continuing education program. “Because I had met all my requirements before leaving Vassar at the end of my junior year, I was free to roam through the Princeton catalog,” she says. “My interest in the Bill of Rights led me straight to Constitutional law in the Woodrow Wilson Graduate School, an evening seminar with the historian Eric Goldman in historical writing, a seminar with [reporter] Don Obedorfer, on leave from the Washington Post, plus a couple of other courses.”

The year was absorbing and demanding. The dean had said “You better do well, you’re one of the first and they’ll be watching.” Because she’d met all her graduation requirements at Vassar and had been doing alumnae work for her class of 1951 there for years, she chose to take her degree from Vassar when the year was through. In the spring, Ms. Ellis became an official member of the class of 1951.

With three children gone and what were to be eight grandchildren arriving, she and her husband found they wanted different things out of life: he to travel full time and she to work. After five years of floundering, they ended their 40-year marriage in a “thoroughly amicable” divorce, and have pursued their own interests independently.

Ms. Ellis always had loved both movies and writing and decided to put the two together. But becoming a critic wasn’t easy. “Getting published so I would have clips was the challenge,” she says. “Finally, a local paper took me, then another, then another.” She’s now a syndicated columnist based in Middletown, N.J., writing up to three reviews a week published in seven newspapers in three states. “Once you get published, even in the smallest paper, you get the chance to prove your reliability,” she says. “There’s a good deal to be said about meeting commitments in older age.”

Her life is a “terrific mix” of movies, writing, friends, family and working outdoors, she says. “The weekly deadlines of the reviews are demanding. But they keep the mental muscles moving while I think about several other writing projects I want to undertake. A screenplay has written itself in my head but not a word has yet made it to the page. I’m interested in documentary film, a short memoir, and finding my way into writing about life in the later years.”

Ms. Ellis says she “almost can’t bear it” when she hears someone her age say, “I’m too old for computers.” Her view on aging is quite different: “the only bad thing is the shrinking time frame to try new things,” she says.

This attitude extends to other aspects of her life. For example, after years of being an average skier, at age 65 she had a major breakthrough in the sport. In Aspen, Colo., a ski instructor showed her how to dive into her turns. “For some reason, I saw it for the first time in my skiing life,” she says. “At first I thought it was about having ‘nothing left to lose,’ but later realized I’d simply figured it out intellectually. It’s been all pure excitement from that point on.”

What’s the bottom line for college students and recent grads considering a career in the accounting industry? A very good shot at a steady job for life. In fact, the accounting and auditing job category is ranked 12 out of 44 categories among recent grads seeking jobs on Monster.

But, like any billion-dollar corporation with a balance sheet that squares everything to the penny, accountants and auditors have plenty to think about, the most tumultuous year in accounting’s institutional memory.

The Andersen Effect

The accounting scandals engulfing Enron Corp., Arthur Andersen LLP and other corporate giants will affect generations of finance professionals, especially those in public accounting.

“Professionals who have made the transition from Andersen are on a very short leash,” says Richard Fisher, partner at Eisner LLP. He believes Andersen refugees have to prove themselves quickly at their new companies or expect to be shown the door. But some insiders say the chronic dearth of experienced accountants is more important to the career prospects of the failed firm’s former employees.

In a September 2002 statement, Barry Melancon, president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs, portrayed the accounting industry at a turning point. “Our profession was part of the problem, and it came to embody the public’s perception of the problem,” said Melancon. “Now we intend to be a part of the solution.”

Reforms May Boost Employment

Ironically, one of the greatest business scandals in American history may actually benefit the many accountants’ careers. President Bush’s signing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act “will require more accountants, better records and different types of records,” says Fisher. For example, the Act requires various additional disclosures in periodic financial reports.

“Because concerns about fraud are greater, there will be expanded work before audits are signed,” says Len Miller, a senior vice president at Century Business Services Inc., a Cleveland-based supplier of accounting and related services.

Supply and Demand

For those considering careers in accounting, the outlook remains very good, although not as bullish as in the late 1990s. “Hiring activity has slowed from the frenetic pace of the past several years, allowing companies to be more selective when adding staff,” says a report from staffing firm Robert Half International Inc.

But at least one of the Big Four accounting firms still standing says it hasn’t slowed its efforts to staff up. “Our hiring outlook continues to be strong,” says Lisa Young, Americas Director of Recruiting for Ernst & Young in New York City. In the coming year, “we’re looking for at least as many recent grads, if not a slight increase.”

Recent Grads’ Experience

“There has been a shortfall in accounting students,” says Miller. But the recession and slow-motion recovery may have cancelled out any benefit to students who labor to complete their accounting education, which now requires five years of study for a CPA in most states.

“I think college students have a fairly steep challenge finding that first position,” says Eric Archer, president of staffing firm Spherion Corp.’s US recruiting group. The need for accountants in their first year out of college has softened a bit even while demand for more senior staff has continually increased. This is partly due to the widespread use of sophisticated accounting software.

But don’t tell that to James Greenspan, chair of the Department of Accounting and Taxation at Seton Hall University. “Everyone in our five-year program had jobs before they graduated [this year],” says Greenspan. Even among those electing Seton Hall’s four-year program, 85 percent to 90 percent accepted an offer before putting on the cap and gown. Now that’s a good bottom line.