A Day In My Life As A Management Consultant In Mergers & Acquisitions (THE HONEST TRUTH)

Matt | Personal Finance

Hi everyone - I'm Matt, I’m a Finance and Management Consultant and I’ve spent over 8 years in Mergers and Acquisitions, working for a big 4 accounting firm in London and managing teams on multi-billion dollar transactions. I now own a finance consulting company and I also invest in start ups and small businesses  In this video, I take you through a day in my life as a M&A Consultant in London. I talk you through what M&A Consulting is and what I do and my day-to-day life  I hope you find the video helpful if you're curious about exploring a career in Management and M&A Consulting  #Managementconsulting #Financeconsulting #Dayinlifeofconsultant #consulting #consultant #investmentbanking #job #work #lifestyle #income #M&A #Mergers&Acquisitions #salary #finance

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone, I'm Matt and I spent over eight years working in mergers and acquisitions for

00:08one of the largest accounting firms in London. And on this video, I'm going to be walking you

00:13through what a typical day might look like for me as a management consultant. For those who don't

00:18know what M&A Consulting is, it's where a consulting company provides support and advice to another

00:24company that might be engaging in an acquisition, a divestment, a joint venture, or even an IPO.

00:31The work can be very varied and different every day, whether that's because of different clients

00:36in different industries, or because of the type of work and support a client might need,

00:41or because you're working in a different geography or a different time zone. But that variety is what

00:46I love about the job. So let's get started on what a typical day might look like for me. Normally I

00:52wake up around 6am and I'll check my emails on my phone just to see if there's any urgent client

00:58issues that have come in or calls that have been scheduled overnight. I'll then try and do some

01:03short exercise in the morning. I personally like running, but I know it's not for everyone and

01:09particularly in the winter months. I find it's good just to get outdoors, get some fresh air before the

01:14day gets going. Otherwise it's quite difficult to find time again until the evening. I'll then have

01:20breakfast and I'll read the key news headlines to understand what's going on in the wider economy.

01:26I might also do this while commuting to the office or to the client site.

01:31Commuting to work can either be to my company office or it could be to the client site and it

01:35can often involve flying to another country. You're probably thinking that's a pretty long commute to

01:41do. Travel for work has changed greatly as a result of the pandemic. Before the pandemic,

01:47it was quite normal to spend Monday to Thursday at the client site and then on Friday either working

01:53from home or working from the company office. Whereas now it's more typical to spend two to three days

01:58at the client site. If my client is based in the UK, I could be traveling every week to their office

02:04to work with their management team. Whereas if my clients are broad, then I would typically go a couple

02:09of times a couple of times a month. I try to stick to my working schedule working on my phone. Obviously,

02:15you've got calendar emails, you can take all your calls and that enables me to remain as productive as

02:21possible while traveling. For this video, I'm going to base it on a day working at my company's office in London.

02:28So once I've completed my commute, I'll normally be in the office by around 8, 8.30 AM.

02:33And the first thing I'll do is review my work plan, tasks and calendar to ensure I'm prepared for the

02:39day and I can maximize every meeting that I'm attending. At 9 AM, I'll normally hold a team

02:46call with my project team so we can connect at the start of the day. I can check in on the well-being

02:51of the team and then each person gives an update on what they're working on and if they need any help.

02:57It allows me to ensure everyone's clear on the tasks for the day and we can also have a look forward

03:03at what's coming later in the week. Between 10 AM and lunch, I'll either be in client meetings,

03:09working on a client deliverable or preparing a sales pitch for new work with a new client.

03:14There can be a wide range of different types of client deliverables that I could be working on.

03:18For example, it could require technical work to perform analysis to go in a due diligence report.

03:24It could require report writing for documents to support the deal process. For example, a separation

03:29blueprint. Or it could require soft skills and program management to work with a client to

03:36develop and execute an integration plan or a separation plan.

03:40Then in the afternoon, lunchtime varies depending on workload. I'll try to get out for a short walk

03:46just to stretch my legs and get some fresh air. I find this particularly important if I'm working from

03:52home. And after lunch, I'll then spend most of the afternoon either producing or reviewing work by the

03:59team, attending client meetings or presenting to the client, or having catch ups on an individual basis

04:05or in small groups with the team. There is a big coffee culture in consulting as sharing knowledge and

04:12building your network is really important to be able to add value to the clients, but also in return to

04:18support your career progression. So I'll try to have one coffee catch up each day that I'm in the office.

04:25So once you're buzzing on coffee, it's back to work. I also had other responsibilities outside of

04:31client work, which included supporting the recruitment team to conduct interviews, holding performance

04:38reviews of staff, which happened three times a year, and delivering training on the basics of M&A to new

04:44joiners. I tried to carve out 30 minutes or so a day for this, normally at the end of the day,

04:51because that's outside of standard client working hours. As you can probably imagine,

04:56that's when there's the least amount of distractions. One thing to say is that working in management

05:01consultancy and mergers and acquisitions in particular goes in peaks and troughs. And by that,

05:07I mean, there can be periods where the workload is very high. I could be working 10, 12, potentially 14

05:14hours in a day. But equally, it's understood when work is quieter that you take the time out to recover,

05:21focus on your personal life and wellbeing. The company I worked for provided flexible working as

05:27long as you agreed it with your project. And I found that personally really helpful for me to manage

05:33my own personal work-life balance. Evenings can vary. Either I'll be at client site abroad and

05:39we'll go out for dinner as a team. Or if I'm at home, I'll come back, cook and take some downtime in

05:45the evening. After that, I'll try to spend 30 minutes to an hour if possible on projects outside of work.

05:53So that's a day in my life as a management consultant in mergers and acquisitions. I hope this video

05:59is helpful for those interested or curious in pursuing a career in either consulting or M&A.

06:06Feel free to add any questions in the comments and give the video a like and a subscribe.

06:11I'll see you on the next video. Take care and bye for now.

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