Consultant's Typical Day
Each consultant's working day depends on his and her particular expertise, the clients with whom he or she is working and the stage his or her projects are at. Take a day in the lives of Rocket Science Consultants, Farrah Meherali and David McNeill, for example.
- 07.00 Farrah's awake, takes a shower, has breakfast of yoghurt and muesli. In the office all day today so no need for a jacket. Black trousers and a top is smart enough.
- 08.00 David's alarm goes off. Slower start than usual but lots of travelling ahead.
- 08.30 F gets into work. 'Hi' to everyone. Gratefully accepts offer of a cup of tea. Checks e-mails, reply. Looks over a couple of invitations to tender.
D , meanwhile, is at home checking e-mails on laptop, drinking coffee and keeping one eye on the morning news. - 09.30 F working on report for Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley on in-work skills and learning. Looks over notes of the 35 interviews they did for the project before writing a chapter on the difference between employer and employee perceptions. D gets on a train at Haymarket heading for Newcastle.
- 10.00 D reads through the Community Plan for Perth & Kinross as part of background research for developing a Youth Strategy. Jots down some notes of the key impacts on young people. Terrible cup of train coffee.
- 11.45 F meets Richard (Director) to discuss a proposal for a new contract. D gets off the trains and jumps in a taxi en route to a high school in the West End of Newcastle. Conducts focus group with young people during their lunch hour as part of evaluation of youth health project. Young people are pretty lively and have a lot to say.
- 13.00 Lunch. F grabs a baked potato from a local take-away. Has lunch at her desk while catching up on her emails. D has a sandwich on the hoof, walking to health project from school. A much longer walk than anticipated.
- 13.30 F carries out two telephone interviews about the Newcastle SRB6 programme. Some interesting similarities in the answers. Meanwhile, D arrives at the youth health project to interview the project coordinator.
- 15.00 D gets to the train station just as one arrives bound for Edinburgh. Great timing! F busy with research.
- 16.00 F joins the rest of the Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley project team at Café Antipasti, one of many eateries near the Edinburgh office, for an informal meeting about the key messages of the project, work outstanding and structure of a presentation next week.
- 16.30 D arrives back in Edinburgh and walks back to the office. Writes up detailed notes from the day's focus group.
- 17.30 F finishes for the day. D has a brief chat with Richard (Director) to discuss ways to improve the company website before heading home.