Traveling consultants opt for homelessness

[Herman Munster]

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/0215vagabondworkers0215.html

NEW YORK -- Stacy Goodman was working with clients in multiple cities for Deloitte Consulting and paying $2,500 a month for a Chicago apartment she used only five nights a month. Tired of wasting money, she rented a storage locker, changed her permanent address to a friend's place and became a drifter. The way Goodman figured it, when she was home, all she would do was run errands and pay bills. Now, she stores two weeks' worth of business clothes at the homes of her parents and a friend in Philadelphia, and leaves one of her nearly 15 suits at the dry cleaners at each of the hotels she frequents.

"I'm a high-class homeless person," the 33-year-old said with a laugh. "I'm a homeless person who lives in four-star hotels." Like increasing numbers of young analysts at consulting firms, Goodman opted to become nomadic. Consulting has become a popular vocation for recent college graduates, a group for whom the memory of ever-changing dorm rooms is still fresh. "Consultant" was listed as one of the top 10 jobs based on the number of employment offers made to college graduates, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which tracks graduate employment information.

Frequent flyer miles, free meals and cash for "incidentals" like toothpaste make consulting a money-saving experience for graduates eager to start paying back college loans. When assigned to projects, consultants typically arrive on Monday and stay through Thursday. Then they fly home or wherever they can find an equivalently priced airline ticket for the weekend.

In their quest to live cheaply, these gypsies are changing the concept of home. "Home is wherever you can plug into the Internet," said Anne-Marie Jeannet, a first-year analyst at Accenture. She originally thought her $1,200-a-month Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment would give her roots, but then decided not to renew her lease because she felt no ties to that community. Jeannet does cost-benefit analyses for work, and did the math on her lifestyle, too. "I ran the numbers, and you just don't get enough of a return on your investment," she said. "It's not worth setting down roots."

[live love laugh]

1. This makes a lot of sense. Why should they pay rent when they

are away from home the majority of the time? I can see only a few problems with this: vacations and that inevitable question: "where do you live?"

[dysfunctional press]

2. why would vacations be a problem...?

with all the money they save on rent & utilities, i'm sure that they can afford to go someplace very nice.