For what it's worth (FWIW) - I just ran across this Blog Index (Alpha). Not sure when this was introduced (perhaps vintage 2008?). I don't fully understand the scope and rankings yet, but I find the discovery interesting given my time away from actively being involved in the corporate blogging space. Notes to self: one consulting firm (Accenture) on the list at #18 of 48, heavy tech in top 10, and mixed industries in top 30.

Kevin Gao conducted an interview with me about management consulting (targeted as those seeking to learn more about the field and/or gain employment as a consultant). The interview is posted here at his blog, Management Consulted.

ConsultantNinja has an older but excellent post painting a picture of the prospect for jobs in the consulting market. The upshot of his annecdotes are that demand (for candidates) is down and supply is up. (Note: ConsultantNinja also has a later post that characterizes the current market as "the worst time in the last 20 years to try and get into consulting").

It's been over a year since my last post. At the beginning of 2008, I basically burned out on blogging. My hands hurt, I developed other interests, there were too many blogs out there, and I needed to spend more time with my family. None of that has changed for me, but outside of those areas there are some things that have changed that are making me reconsider blogging again on a more regular basis:

Situation for consultant #1:

When I first started as a management consultant back at Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath, one of the hardest things for me to grasp was the concept of "client facilitation". Many of the consultants I knew where eager to apply standard MBA frameworks like Five Forces (for competitive and profitability analysis), NPV and financial analysis tool, statistical regression, and the marketing 3Cs/STP/4Ps, but few talked about client facilitation in explicit terms.

I just ran across Kellogg's Post MBA Program, which is targeted at people that have MBAs that have aged more than ten years. This is an interesting market to target, and not one that I've seen before.

A more detailed curricula is outlined in their brochure, which is prefaced by text including the following:

Here Comes Another Bubble (for the entrepreneurial startup types)

Evolution of Dance (I wish I could dance like this)

Ford Harding has an interesting post entitled, "Is Selling Practicing Your Profession?" He takes the side of the argument that those who sell (e.g., partners in professional services firms, senior engineers) are indeed practicing their profession. But there are those that may argue (e.g., in the case of an engineer) that such and such a person is no longer an engineer because he or she now sells.