What does it take for some one to leave consulting? Burn out? Travel? Family pressure? Good opportunity at client's? RIF... Or meningitis? In my case, it was the last one. A call to 911, a few days in the hospital, a few more in short term disability, some thinking and a lot of discussion with my family and I was in a corporate job.

Like a romantic movie, only after leaving consulting I realized how much I loved it. Gone were those days when I spent hours trying to find the solutions to client's problems. People that focused less on corporate politics and worked together as a team were long gone. Lunches, dinners and nights out at bars were just memories of the past. Learning, knowledge sharing, mentoring… what are those words again?

Well, I am back… back to consulting!! Starting Jan 31, I have started working for a consulting company in Chicago. I am quite excited to working on a different 'job' every few months, to work under tight deadlines (I remember the phrases 'Deadline Oriented Design (DOD) and Bug Oriented Programming (BOP) from my past life). As one of the perks of consulting, I am also looking forward to those 'when are you coming home' calls from my wife after 6:00 PM.

Seriously though, in the corporate world, I did get a chance to see the 'other' side. Consultants are infamous for leaving a mess behind. They are good at producing deliverables, developing new systems, bringing in new ideas but they can seldom run things (people, process or systems) in daily life. I plan to change that now. I have a new vision to look at my work from "5 years down the road" perspective. I will focus even more on client mentoring.

I was always a consultant by heart but now there is a client inside me adding a different angle to my thinking, bringing a different perspective to my ideas and holding me accountable to keep the clients' best interest in mind every time… all the time.