Do Consultancies Create Dependencies?

The useful part

Sometimes being a consultant feels like providing advice, but also chasing the raw materials needed to give it. As I approach the four-year mark of my current job helping high school students with their college applications, I have, unfortunately, become a bit more cynical about what "helping" entails. As much as the job seems to be rooted in collaboration between the knowledgeable advisors and youngsters motivated to absorb the knowledge and put it into action, the reality can sometimes be a bit different.

How it works

• Specifically, the amount of following up I do as part of the job is surprisingly high.
• Somehow the consultants are still ultimately on the hook for providing the results?
• Had previously pointed out that college applications can sometimes involve manufacturing motivation where none exists.
• Even to fake something, one needs to be motivated enough by the ideal results.
• What if the counterparty cares so little about the results at all that they don't even bother to put in the minimal effort to keep lines of communication open?

What to take from it

Then the advisor becomes a chaser and scheduler, pushing and pulling for anything, and sometimes just...