The city's future rests with a 22 year old?? (Detroit: 2013, city hall)

[zthatzmanz28]

Detroit— City Hall’s estimated $1.4 million-a-month restructuring tab includes a consulting company billing $275 an hour for a 22-year-old financial analyst who graduated from college last year, according to records obtained by The Detroit News.

Gosh, do I feel so much better aboiut this entire PILLAGE of the city now.


BANKRUPTCY

[belleislerunner]

This is just sensational media reporting by journalists who have never worked a day in the life of any professional service firm. It's a nonstory and is more reflective of the ignorance of the journalist, Christine Macdonald. It would be akin to someone publishing an article on the reporter (Ms. MacDonald) and stating " I can't believe she makes X in salary, she's 37, only got her degree from Michigan State in 1998 and is clearly overpaid in her role as an investigative journalist. No wonder the quality of the paper and media in Detroit is so bad." http://www.linkedin.com/pub/christin...ald/30/524/455. This 22 yr old did nothing to deserve lambasting.

Any 22 year old who works at PwC, EY, Deloitte, KPMG, Plante Moran, Big Law, engineering firms, architects would bill out in the $150-300 range. These employees are supervised by managers etc - do you think the lead partners/Kevin Orr creates his own PPT decks or writes his own memos? That's all done by the 20-30 something crowd and his job is to review it. This poor guy (as in there is no reason for him to be publicly shamed) probably only makes around $50K/year.

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Because that money would be MUCH better spent on 11-person staffs for Kwame Kenyatta and JoAnn Watson.

[DTWflyer]

Stupid, inflamatory writing that shows the writers ignorance about how professional service firms sell and deliver their services. You wouldn't see such writing in the Wall Street Journal, but I guess we shouldn't be surprised at the embarassingly low quality now found in the Detroit News or Free Press.

The restructuring cannot be done for free, no firm is going to do it out of charity. The bill rates are in line with the industry and the hourly rate goes to cover a lot more than just the actual salary of the individual. The "professional" is the product/service that the firm is selling/offering to the client. The hourly rate factors in a fully landed cost - salary, benefits, overhead (SG&A), support personnel in the firm's office, laptop, cellphone, all the money the firm invested in training said individual, etc. This young guy is probably making about $60K a year.

Also let me tell you that 11 hour days are a "short day" for professional services firms. In high-burn projects, people easily can put in 14-16 hour days.

In addition, any work this guy is doing goes through multiple layers of reviews. The analysts typically do all of the research, data analysis, and build presentations. The managers do all the reviews, editing, and quality checks. The senior partners do the final reviews, final decision making, and lead the high-level meetings.

[geographystudies]

Edit: Being a business owner with an MBA, I know the costs in the industry. This would be sad if it were not so funny. The city dramatically overpaid.

[belleislerunner]

I'll donate $100 cash to the DIA for every 22 yr old financial analyst you find me that works for a reputable firm that the firm bills out his time at $20/hr.

Is that too low? Go ahead and name your own hourly wage.

Then do a google search and get back to us with the names of shops providing said services.

[313Weather]

I will post what I posted in another forum

Really?

I can understand if you're upset about the fact that the city's being billed so much money for someone to tell us our watch is broken. But what I don't understand is what the age of this guy has to do with anything.

You people *****, moan and groan about this backwater not having enough opportunities for 48% of our college graduate children who leave the state to never return, yet when this young man who's probably set for life doing consulting work for a city that filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in history is doing something most seasoned financial people wouldn't dream of doing until they're grey in the head and receding, you people chastised the poor guy because he's actually doing something that's quite rare for someone in his age in this state, and that's being successful.

It's not his fault the city's broke. He's just here, in theory, helping to clean the mess his parents and grandparents made with their purely idiotic decisions over the past half century.

This is exactly why the majority of Michigan's young and educated flee this state as soon as possible after graduating college, because of this toxic provincial mindset.

[Retroit]

I can give Detroit a financial analysis of the city for $1.

YOU'RE BROKE!

Now where's my dollar?

[belleislerunner]

Anyone can tell us the city is broke, but the more impressive question is - how do you fix it in 16 months?

[DTWflyer]

Or do the analysis and financial modeling that will determine what actions need to be done address the cost and revenue problems the city is facing.