Milwaukee, the project (1)

I am going to spend a bit more time to describe this project. So, I arrived and got greeted by a big man with extremely black sunglasses, New York mafiosi type with a twist of Californian sunshine state surfboy. "Hey buddy, how's it going?". I was a "buddy", that was new to me. British English is different! The only thing missing was a "high five".

All the European project managers I knew by then were stiff and pretty much up their back. But hey, I was in the US and things were different here. So, the 2 of us started up the project. The other team members were to come later. What is definitely different between the US and Europe, American consultants tend to be older than their European counterparts.

I think this has to do with the role of a consultant. In the US it is more like that the client can rely on their "wisdom" and gets "hands-on experience", whereas in Europe a client buys "university high flyers", long hours at the job, and career orientated consulting sharks.

Needless to say, I was the youngest (and most experienced in terms of consulting and company methodology) on the project. This project manager got changed quite quickly and was replaced by 2 project managers who shared responsibility. The only highlights were Julie, who was then responsible for the US in terms of training, and Chad, who was the auditor.