When I first became a consultant, I was coming from a corporate structure of a Fortune 500 company with regular 1-1’s, goal-setting, and performance reviews. Every year, I would provide my manager with a Word document titled “BW’s accomplishments” that would outline all that I had accomplished during the review period. I don’t know how much it helped with my compensation and bonus, but I always hoped that it made some difference. At least it provided a nice summary for the ol’ resume.

The consultant world is quite different. Yes, I have a manager who is a Senior Vice President at my company, but I only interact with him maybe once or twice a month at the most. My true “boss” is the person to whom I am accountable at my client where I have daily if not weekly interactions. If the client is happy, then my manager will be happy. 

My manager told me that I clocked just over 2,300 hours for the previous 12-month period, a personal record. For reference, 40 hours per week for 50 weeks (less 2 weeks vacation) is exactly 2,000 hours. 

I received the usual salary increase that is roughly around 3% every year, and a spot bonus above the amounts from the last few years. 

There is still some uncertainty about the path forward with the new company that bought our company. It’s nice to touch base with my manager who genuinely cares about his people and will be looking out for us.

Today was a good day. Lots to be thankful for.