Sorry for the delay in the posting, the project has been a bit hectic lately and I have been indulging in ‘mindless fun’. I digress;

Here I will mark somewhat of a departure from the typical ‘trip report’ and comment on the life and times of a Consultant. Sure, there are airports involved along with many nights in hotels, but rather the atmosphere of excessive travel is what dominates my mood this evening.

Last we spoke I had barely made it into work after a rather unpleasant debacle at DFW. The work week was long, hard and unproductive. Consulting at times can be difficult work (I know, try to contain your laughter). It seems that the stigma of consulting often puts managers and employees at odds. The memory of the all too many lay off’s in recent years past has had an adverse affect on my ability to deliver work. If you think about it, consulting is one of two things; telling other people how to run their companies, or actually running them for your clients. I am currently doing a mix of both but mostly, running them. More specifically I am undertaking a large migration project at a multi-national mortgage lender. So my day to day work consists of part PMO (project Management Office) part roll up the sleeves technical work. This requires much interfacing with the day to day operations of the client.

Remember that I make mention of recent lay off’s and my ability to deliver work. This is where it plays into my daily activities. Everyone I work with view me as a perceived threat. It is the view of everyone I interact with that I am either there to outsource their job, or to replace them. NEITHER of which is true, but my firm has been known to do those things in the past. Needless to say, I am not a popular man nor a well liked one among those not in upper management. Breaking the ice and blending into the environment is always the priority of a consultant. You don’t want to stand out in any way. So you have an e-mail account from your client, a phone extension, and for all intents and purposes you become an employee of your client. I do not dare bring anything with my employers name into work, none of my business cards, my official work e-mail is always hidden on my desk top, all in an effort to blend in.

THIS is where it begins to affect one’s self. No one I work with (other than the others from my firm and a few select clients) has any idea what my life is like. They have no idea where I live 1,500 miles away from where I work, no idea that I live in a hotel, they have absolutely no way to relate to my way of life. Which I have found to be an ever increasing theme of my life. No one I know, nor anyone I have ever known, can even wager a guess as to what my day to day life is like. I have successfully alienated myself from my friends and family by choosing of a career and being a ‘road warrior’. Sure, it has it’s perks, don’t get me wrong, but those debts are dearly paid. I’ve scarcely watched the years go round. When I started I had someone very dear to me whom I very much intended to marry. Such is no longer the case. But such is the influence of power and money.

I know some of you are taken aback by that; Power? Well, yes hear me out. I’m 26, only an industry like consulting would ever put me in a position to direct an entire division of a multi-national mortgage lender at this age. This is something that may take others their whole career to achieve. On a usual project I will answer to 2 people, the CIO or an Executive director, and the Client Partner. So I talk to my friends from college and others my age and they have no idea what goes on in my life, nor do they have any hope of relating to what exactly it is I do. Often times their confusion is diluted by the absurdity of my lifestyle. The concept of ‘living in Austin, working in L.A.’ is so abstract to anyone I know it is absurd. Everyone has pleasant memories of staying in hotel rooms on family vacation or, flying to some exotic place. It is often difficult to separate flying from exotic places and hotel rooms from vacation in the minds of those I encounter.

Anyways, (yet again) I digress;

Work was long and hard and fruitless this last week. I flew home for the weekend. It was nice to be home for the 39 hours I was there. I got to watch my house flood in time for me to hop a flight back to work. (Austin flooded just a bit this week incase anyone was wondering) I sat coach, no clue what my seat number was since it was all too much like the 60 flights before it . Nothing special, I spent some time in LAX, hopped a flight, blah blah blah, read someone else’s trip report if you want to know what color the tile is.

Getting home was good, I spent some time with my friends who don’t know who I am. I have noticed a trend with those who I choose to spend time with; either they are much older than myself or they are still in college. I’m still trying to figure out why this is. But such is the case.

I flew back to work Monday morning. Rather uneventful again. Flew in First, had another AA southwest omelet. Nothing unusual to report except the crazy weather here in SoCal. As I was flying in and looking out the window, I could not help but notice the unusual amount of SNOW! ...?! Uhm, ok, California is a strange place I don’t understand but hey, I guess they have snow too. Well, not only that but it’s COLD here! I Packed for SoCal, not AZO! So I am freezing my nuts off this week, but it’s supposed to warm up. I hope it does soon because business casual is not necessarily warm.

I know that this post was not of the caliber of the first, but all I have to say is just wait. I have what is sure to be a great entry to come soon. I am strAAnded on the west coast for Thanksgiving and am planning the absolute craziest road trip I could possibly think of to kill 5 days (I will also explain why I an strAAnded here). I’ll give a teaser and say that it involves a Jaguar, some other FT’ers, wine country, and what is sure to be a self-destructive-reconstructive 5 days.