Career Reflections
Notes on building a consulting practice, career transitions, and lessons learned along the way.
Five Years Independent: The Numbers and the Lessons
I started consulting in January 2021 with one client and no idea what I was doing. Here's what five years actually looked like, including the parts that don't fit the narrative.
On Saying No to Clients
Four years in, the engagements I declined have shaped the practice more than the ones I took. Here's what I've learned to turn down, and the ones I still get wrong.
Finishing the MBA: What Was Worth It
Two years ago I argued myself into starting an MBA while running a consulting practice. I said to ask me again in 2023 — so here's the answer, including the parts that don't flatter the decision.
Two Years In: What I Got Wrong About Consulting
An honest accounting of the assumptions I started with in January 2021 and which of them survived contact with actual clients.
Starting an MBA While Consulting Full-Time
Why I enrolled nine months into building a consulting practice, what the first month actually costs, and the honest case for and against doing both at once.
Week One as an Independent Consultant
What actually happens when you stop having a job — the admin nobody mentions, the pricing conversation you're not ready for, and the strange problem of an empty calendar.
Istanbul to London: What Transfers and What Doesn't
Notes from moving countries mid-career — on which parts of your professional credibility travel with you, which parts stay behind, and what nobody tells you about starting from a standing position.
I Left My Job in February 2020. Three Weeks Later the World Closed.
On career timing you cannot control, the difference between a pause and a setback, and what I did with a year that refused to go to plan.