Lessons learnt

My friend Miss N quit consulting as well a while ago and she too decided to join an NGO (permanently). When I used to visit her and hear her stories I was in awe. Salary as good as us consultants? Business class flights? Top end hotels? Worldwide travels?! I was so jealous, and I looked forward to similar things when I decided to join the NGO.

NOT TRUE.

MANAGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS.

Miss N was lucky I guess, to be in a place where she was offered all that. But as for me, ... well lets just say here were a few words of wisdom she left me with

1) Nobody moves as fast as we used to

Its true. In my previous company e-mails get responded to within 10 minutes. Even less sometimes. When you send out a request you expect people to understand that its urgent, and that you will hear back from them soon. Processes are efficient. Reimbursements come on time (well, most of the time). There are very clear principles, and guidelines. Our knowledge management system is efficient and trying to find data could take a day at max with you leveraging every network research staff.

In the real world people take more than 10 minutes to respond. They are not all married to their blackberries. Why some of them don't even have one (WTH?????) Sometimes it takes a full day to hear back from them.

Sometimes the dont even respond (WTH?????!!)

Oh, and you are the master of your own googling for data, and research. Trust me, I learnt that the hard way.

That brings me to lesson number two

2) You are the master of your own universe

It can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing. But essentially it means you have control of everything. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Be it the ridiculous flights you are trying to schedule - while trying to work within set budget - except you can't really because nobody has responded to your emails on guidelines, to booking your own hotels and reading up on agoda.com and trip advisor and google maps because you want to be relatively close to your office whilst staying in a hotel that isnt used for prosititution. To of course your own work hours, your lunch hours, your meet with friends hours. Your sleep and exercise hours. The universe is yours.

Learning to shed your old life is entirely up to you. The new Associate (who is currently working with me) asked me politely when I sent her yet another email at 10:00 p.m. to finish up a survey if "it wasn't urgent, would it be ok to work on this tomorrow". I stopped. Paused. And thought.

"Tomorrow. Indeed, why couldnt this wait until tomorrow."

Welcome to my new work life balance.

3) Be prepared to not live 'the good life'

Say goodbye to your personalized butler service, five star St. Regis, ability to charge food, drinks, laundry, phone bills...

Hello to cute little hotels (without windows) which are actually not that bad.

Learn to appreciate the other aspects of life. Like the fact that you get to stay in boutique hotels. Cute little non-chains which truth be told are unlikely to be any terrorist targets. Like the fact that you need to learn how to budget, to not spend every penny. To meticulously assess all your actions. To remember to count your own blessings

4) Be prepared to be thrown into the deep end

Dont know much about the topic? Dont really understand whats going on?? Leverage your consultant know how to ramp-up and speed up on topics at hand to be the expert you're meant to be. Which trust me can be quite challenging without your usual arsenal of consulting tools to pick up from

And lastly...

5) Stop speaking in bullet points

Stop using words like 'key' 'leverage'... stop with the consulting jokes.

Learn to speak like a normal person again.

Then live like a normal person again.