Beach !!!

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word beach? Is it vacation, is it the beautiful sights of sunrise or sunset, is it girls wearing a bikini and lying on the sand getting a tan, is it spring break parties and inebriated college students. Well if those were some of your thoughts you fall into the category of people called normal. If the first thing that comes to your mind is client billable hours and year end utilization, then my friend you are a consultant (and probably you have not been on a project for a while).

Beach in consulting jargon refers to the time between projects. It is suppose to be a time where consultants working 80 hours a week, work 45 hours a week and get back in touch with reality. It is a time which gives you an option to spend most evenings in a week with your significant other and friends (assuming the significant other is not a consultant and you have friends outside work).

Everything is not honky dory while a consultant is not on a project. After a week or two of being on the beach you notice yourself calculating your utilization on excel. It is still early in the game and I believe till about two weeks you still enjoy not having a project. However, with the start of third week things change, you notice some unexpected changes in yourself, you start sending nice emails to managers, you swore never to see again, and start attaching your resume to emails which have nothing to do with project staffing. Third week on the beach is also a good time to send your staffing manager (person who is responsible to get you a project) a meeting invite. With the beginning of the fourth week and no project in sight you slowly start missing the hotel room. I know it sounds weird, but come on, at least the bed is made for you with make believe fresh linens and towels are replaced everyday. You notice that delta.com is not in your browsing history for almost a month now and you don't see any "Its time to check in" emails in your mailbox.
If you are not staffed by the fourth week you feel it is time for 'dua and not dawa' (it needs supernatural intervention to get you on a project).

Beach for consultants is not the same as beach for everyone else. It can be good but usually the first thing that comes to our mind is Year End Utilization. For us sun, sand and palm trees translate to alternate travel. Well, thats a topic for another day.