Okay, so it was more like an hour. Okay, more like an hour-and-a-half. I was hungry after a lame pasta night, and by the look of the seductively covered chafing dishes, there would be some serious eats after the presentation. So I stayed the whole time, drank a Poland Spring mineral water, listened to management consulting yarns, and watched the backs of heads of pretty pretty people in suits. One guy had cool hair.

Now, why was I there in the first place? Well, at the time I was in a general career crisis, and when you're in a general career crisis, you don't rule out jobs that pay big bucks. The presentation didn't make management consulting seem like a particularly worthwhile endeavor, but the food most certainly did. They had the most delicious little breaded pieces of chicken with spicy hot sweet sauce, dumplings, green peppers, and raw carrots (my favorite).

I talked with an associate at the Boston office who told me that when you consult, you always look at the three c's--customer, competition and company. I was hoping he would say the three c's were carrots, chicken, and dumplings (okay, so dumplings doesn't begin with c, but consulting requires creative solutions. So work with me). I finished talking with the guy and said to him (in my mind): "Consult on, consulting boy." I got one last piece of chicken before running with the night, playing in the shadows.