On the beach

In consulting, this refers to any period during which you aren’t staffed to a project. Although you won’t necessarily see any sunshine here, you also won’t have to be anyplace in particular. So there’s a chance you’ll be able to leave the office early, do your laundry, pay your bills, and maybe even see your honey.

Onsite

Working at the client’s offices.

Operations

Refers to all of the day-to-day tasks associated with the running of a company. In a manufacturing company, this includes the buying and processing of raw materials and the sale and distribution of the final products. Many consulting firms do a big business providing operations advice. At the simplest level, this just means they help clients run their businesses better.

Outsourcing

To reduce overhead expenses, lots of companies are turning to outsiders to provide many of the functions and services traditionally done in-house. Popular candidates for outsourcing include accounting services, marketing communications, payroll management, and data processing. Increasingly, public firms are turning to these services because they create stable revenue flows, which their investors like.

Pain point

Refers to a recurring business problem or challenge that inhibits an organization’s ability to achieve its objectives. For example, a pain point for a pharmaceutical company might be navigating the regulatory environment in an effective manner. For most consulting hopefuls, the dreaded case interview would constitute a pain point.

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