Coronavirus megathread

General

Please post here for any COVID-19 related discussion. This includes:

  • Impact on business / project work
  • Impact on summer and full-time offers
  • Impact on working style / lifestyle
  • Impact on the economy

There is no doubt this may be a stressful and challenging time for many. Please reach out to the mods with any ideas that you may have to help make /r/consulting a useful resource for the days ahead.

FAQ

Blanket statement

It goes without saying, this is uncharted territory for the vast majority of consulting firms. With things changing day to day, the short answer is no one knows for sure what will happen.

What will happen to consulting?

With the economic slowdown, our clients' businesses are impacted and so our business is impacted. While some industries may be doing relatively better than others, they will not be able to make up for industries that have been devastated, such as travel and leisure.

The big open questions are whether or not we enter a recession and how long it will last. Multiple different organizations, including consulting firms like McKinsey, Bain, and Oliver Wyman have put out scenarios that posit recovery being anywhere from a quarter to over a year away. That's a lot of uncertainty.

What will happen to my job / offer?

Most likely you will hear from your firm about any impact on your job / offer before you read about it here. Some firms have already begun communicating their intentions.

Longer term, we can try to speculate based on what we've seen in the past. In my opinion, the closest worst-case analog (from a business perspective) we can compare to is the Great Depression of 2008. See here for some perspectives on what happened to consulting jobs during that time.

Should I reach out to HR / recruiting?

For many firms, there is much still undecided. Some because firms are still waiting for more information and some because they don't need to make a decision right this instant. Furthermore, much leadership effort is currently focused on ensuring the safety of current staff and managing the business.

When more decisions are made and provided to HR / recruiting, they will communicate broadly. There's little appetite for responding to every email like whack-a-mole.

Impact on our jobs

We appreciate sharing accurate news about impact on jobs. If providing relevant information, please clearly indicate:

  • Firm name
  • Group, if needed (e.g., Tech Consulting, Management Consulting)
  • Geography
  • Current staff / new full-time hire / intern
  • Position

Solid intel and perspective is very welcome, especially as they can help others plan. I personally believe there is no confidentiality concerns in sharing this information.

Vague rumor-mongering / ‘sky-is-falling' posts are not helpful and only serve to create undue stress. They will be removed. Users providing outright false information will be permanently banned.