Hooray - taking my CV off 'hold'?

If business is quiet, then a new consultant often sits unused for a period of time, waiting until a chance comes along to get his hands dirty.  Beyond this point, work tends to lead to more work.  Until this point though, it's a lot of waiting around and helping out with rather less demanding work.

 

One such chance has come by - for the last 8 weeks or so I've been leading a large government sales proposal.  I feel as if I'm beginning to leave the waiting stage now.  I'm very excited about this, most happy.  I'll be happier once I'm on a client project mind you, but it's a step in the right direction.

 

It's been extremely frustrating not having a client assignment to work on.  I may well be employed, but it's the client engagements I need to write on my CV.  Factors for the long wait (12 months indeed) include language, being new to the company, and also a big aspect of the growing / emerging nature of my company - which has developed greatly over time.

 

It's frustrating, but I do have to accept it.  I'd have loved to stay 2 more years in the UK, get another promotion to management level, and then move to China once the consulting market is properly up and running.  But alas I needed to get my mandarin up to scratch, and so I have moved over early.  The lack of client engagement experience is somewhat made up for by improvement in Chinese, and also most of an MBA.

 

Fingers crossed for a good overall performance on this sales bid, and if it successfully sells, then my first real project in China.  That'll be interesting!  If it does sell, I'll have a central government department as my client for about a year, working out of Beijing.  It would be easier to start with a multinational here, but I'm excited about the prospect nonetheless.  Once I am a couple of months into a client project, then I'll really feel as if I am up and running in China.

 

If it goes through, a question is what I'll do with the rest of my MBA.  I have largely elective courses remaining.  Would I fly back and forth on weekends to attend classes still?  Or postpone completion of the MBA until next year?  It'd be great to get it out of the way, but juggling work and study just isn't easy.  I suspect the answer lies in the middle somewhere - to fly back for some, but not all of my courses.  That would put off my graduation for another year, but if I can at least study a couple of courses, then that's a couple less I have to study later.