Day In The Life - Headstrong Consulting

On Wednesday, November 14, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a Day in the Life with Headstrong Consulting. I drove to a client site on the edge of Ann Arbor where three consultants, two of which were former UMBS graduates, were working at a client site. They were performing project management work to prepare DTE Energy's transmission subsidiary for inclusion into a regional transmission organization. The project had been going on for a few months and was nearly completion. I was extremely excited to meet, talk and witness the consultants at work on site.The morning began with an introduction of Headstrong from Beth Morrison, a BBA graduate in 2001 and Enterprise Engineer. She presented a very nice and thorough presentation of Headstrong's substantial growth in the previous years and their corporate goals for the future. I was extremely impressed, to say the least. Beth made ample time to answer many questions I had not only about Headstrong but also about the BBA program in general. She helped give advice about classes, handling the workload and interviewing. She was a great spokesperson for Headstrong.

I next met with Lisa Roseland, Senior Enterprise Engineer, who spoke to me about the benefits and disadvantages of working on site. Lisa, who worked in the Chicago office, commuted to Ann Arbor every Sunday evening and stayed in a local hotel before she returned home to Chicago on Thursday evening. She said that working on site and out of town can be hard at times; however, Headstrong's management makes an effort to help their engineers find clients closer to home if they desired. Lisa had made it to a Senior level in only a few years and despite the travel loved the work she was doing.

The third member of the project team I met with was Ben Gabriel. Ben, also a BBA graduate in 2001 and Enterprise Engineer, spent time showing me some technology related aspects side of Headstrong. He showed me many of the resources that the Engineers have on hand to help complete work for clients. Headstrong has an enormous website devoted to information for their engineers; most of the information is posted by other engineers and a great deal of advice and recommendations are passed between employees. Being a new employee, I had asked him if there were ever moments he felt he was lost because of the extensive work they do and he said that the information posted there was extremely useful, when and if he needed it.

Lastly, I met with another Headstrong project team that was working on a more technical project relating to a billing system. They showed me how they created both the backend and the front-end for a user-friendly billing system. They had spent a few months working on it and were nearly complete. Witnessing the team complete such a massive project was interesting. They worked both independently and as a team to complete both parts.

The day ended with a lunch at Rio Bravo near the client site. We sat at lunch and talked about the BBA program. Both Ben and Beth shared some stories they had and gave me some tips about classes which have proved very beneficial. My visit with Headstrong was much more than I expected it to be. I felt like I had truly seen a Day in the Life of a Headstrong Engineer and left without any questions about what their jobs entail. I would strongly recommend spending a DITL to anyone considering IT consulting; it is an extremely worthwhile experience.