#Consulting101 — The Oldest Profession

A medical doctor, an engineer, and a management consultant were arguing about what was the oldest profession in the world.

The doctor started… “Well, in the Bible, it says that God created Eve from a rib taken from Adam’s body. This must have required surgery, and so I can claim with a high degree of confidence that mine is the oldest profession in the world.”

The engineer responded, and said, “But earlier in the book of Genesis, it states that God created the order of the heavens and the earth from out of the chaos. This was the first and certainly the most impressive application of civil engineering. Therefore, dear doctor, you are wrong: mine is surely the oldest profession in the world.”

The management consultant leaned back in his chair, smiled, and then said confidently, “Ah, but who do you think created the chaos?”

Our reputation for causing additional problems certainly precedes us. I once had a prospect tell me “We don’t want to bring in any consultant; if we bring in one, he will solve the problem and create a new one for himself”. I told him I was not like that.

Well, I did do my job and client was happy. But the result of my work/recommendation meant they had to bring in a different kind of consultant to fix it. So much for being different.

If you don’t like jokes, I do write really serious stuff sometimes. I work @ Seegad — were we do serious stuff like measuring client profitability and employee productivity.