I love the "Do Your Job and Don't Stick Out" advice. That just doesn't work at Conde. So many people that have jobs there don't actually work. They just show up to meetings, talk nonsense and take home a big check. The main function of these jokes is to have others reporting to them that do do work. And those suckers will be the first to go. In six months McKinsey will be more confused than the day they walked in.
True story: A long time ago, when Cheap Shot was a wee lad, his company got absorbed by a big old bad media company. They interviewed everyone for their jobs and pretty much everyone except 3 people got canned.
The person above me was supposed to be taken to the new company but was such a bitch that they went with me.
Moral of the story, don't be a bitch on your interview for your own job!
Where some see only dispair, I see opportunity. If I was a single male attorney at Skadden, I'd camp out in the lobby and wait for the sea of sad little Conde Nast girls who got the chop and offer to carry their cardboard boxes to the bar for them.
The BoD doesn't really do anything. In a large company sr management has NO idea who the people are that fill the cubicles. I've seen entire groups cut out and once a group was hired back - oops - 2 groups/same name 2 very different functions. They literally put up yellow stickies on a "war room" wall and then went to town. Slash/slash. The best business plan is to suck up from day one. To the BIGGEST boss you can find. One with low self esteem and a huge ego is a good choice. You won't even be on the list unless the entire group goes. In that case be sure YOUR biggest boss sucks up to the chairman - if he doesn't then find out which group is that and get in.
how about this as evidence of the genius that is management consulting: a very significant marketing entity with accenture as a client now has all of its work "evaluated" on a quantitative scale by an independent group in bangalore, rather than accenture's corporate marketing group. solutions for the 21st century, yo!
It's true. They actually tell a company what business it should be doing and what its strategy should be. Isn't that what management and the board of directors are supposed to be doing? If it ain't working, fire them. As an aside, when my company was acquired by another, a bunch of the new guys came over from Europe for "integration" meetings that were run by McKinsey. An officer whom I did not know from Adam leaned over towards me during the presentation and whispered "These guys are carrying out fees in wheelbarrows".
@depardoo: all too common those wheelbarrows. andersen was once a marketing client of a firm for which i worked. as a "professional exchange", they began to take up residence there, and never left. it turns out we continued to pay them for the privilege.
People need to stop trading in their lives for a semblance of security at these big firms. There is no such thing as a career in America anymore. Everyone is a mercenary, whether they know it or not.
@Motoko Kusanagi: Sadly, people at my former employer continue to give up nights / weekends / vacations / holidays because the scales have not fallen off their eyes. And these are people with 20-plus years at the same business. Sad, no?
Hearst didn't need to hire McKinsey to rape their publications. They did it the old-fashioned way. Drawing names out of a hat. It was just a coincidence most of those people turned out to be over 50.
well, it's kind of already too late to change your fate. ur either on ur manager's good list or bad list. the consultants take reccs from the managers. good=maybe. bad=dead.
(Per Hamilton's item this morning): Find out what Alessandra Stanley does to keep her job at the Times, and do that. Should make you damn near impervious.
@DontMakeMe: Mind control, right? She must have some kind of mind control power that prevents her from getting fired, but all that brain power she uses to keep her job intact means she's got nothing left for fact-checking or proofreading. Start working on your ability to bend a spoon with your mind, Conde Nasties.
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The person above me was supposed to be taken to the new company but was such a bitch that they went with me.
Moral of the story, don't be a bitch on your interview for your own job!
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Seriously, have the people at Conde Nast ever seen "Office Space?"
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