According to data from Jobbuzz.com women professionals in the consulting sector are more satisfied to be a part of this industry than their male counterparts.
They are happier at their jobs than men working in this sector, and rate their organisations high on various satisfaction parameters like salary, work life balance, learning and development, corporate culture, reward and recognition.
Yeshasvini Ramaswamy, MD, e2e People Practices believes that, since consulting is still a nascent profession in India and mostly works on a "project mode", there is a high level of involvement and coming up with solutions is the key factor. This requires a mindset of empathy as well as the ability to look at the larger picture, skills that come naturally to a woman.
A large percentage of women professionals in the consulting sector, rated learning and development, followed by corporate culture, as the best reason for working in the consulting sector.
According to Varda Pendse, Director, Cerebrus Consultants, the reason behind this could be that learning and development is 'on the job' in this sector. Consulting companies, therefore, typically focus on collaborative working and continuous learning which is preferred by women professionals.
Ramaswamy added, "The need to work in this area and the satisfaction one gets when someone develops his/her skills and grows to one's own potential is the best. We become catalysts to this change and get to create it. What can be more exciting!"
She believes that a trend that emerges out of Jobbuzz.com data is that the consulting sector is emerging as a lucrative sector for women. "Being a well established consultant myself, I can definitely see this trend emerging." According to her, there are quite a few factors, other than money, that makes this segment lucrative - a few of them are the need for creativity, flexibility, diversity of clientele which makes the learning rich, and getting the opportunity to witness impact which is most rewarding.
Pendse says that most women prefer consulting sector due to the flexibility it offers, as it is largely project-based work. Thus, they can choose the kind of project that they want to work for, the kind of sector / client and most importantly, the time that they would like to work in.
Consulting sector offers greater flexibility in terms of managing work, as well as immense opportunities to interact with numerous people across diverse sectors and companies. These are some of the key factors behind women professionals being attracted to the consulting sector.
