What the work actually involves

Each unit of work is a triplet: a realistic analytical task, a client-ready deliverable that answers it, and a rubric that explains why the deliverable is good. In practice that means you sit down with something like "size the addressable market for outpatient dialysis in Germany and recommend an entry mode" — a task you might have staffed in your first two years — then do the desk research, build the artifact in PowerPoint or Excel to the standard a partner would let leave the building, and write back the prompt with enough constraint that the task is well-posed but not so much that it hands over the answer.

The rubric is where most contributors underestimate the effort. You are not describing formatting preferences; you are articulating what an average consultant gets wrong — the sizing that double-counts, the recommendation that doesn't follow from the analysis, the deck that has fifteen slides and no storyline. Rubrics must be concrete enough that two reviewers reading the same output land on the same score.

What the screen looks for

  • Verifiable pedigree. One to five years in consulting with at least one stint at a leading firm. Expect questions about your firm, office, practice, and the kind of modules you owned.
  • Genuine synthesis, not framework recitation. MECE and issue trees come up, but the probe is whether you can decompose an unfamiliar question live rather than name the tool.
  • Craft in the artifacts. Whether you can actually build a bottom-up market model and a horizontal-logic deck, not just review one.
  • Confidentiality discipline. You must create or source deliverables that are authentic in form without carrying client-identifiable content. Screeners ask about this directly.

Logistics

Remote, part-time, contract, asynchronous — no standing calls, no client hours. Observed pay for this band is $100–150/hr, task- or hour-based depending on the project; treat it as observed rather than guaranteed. Most contributors work in blocks of a few hours and deliver several triplets a week. Native English fluency is required because the writing itself is the training signal.