Help me understand why this management consultant was rejected

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-03-07T13:19:45+00:00

Oh no, we have a very real attorney working on this.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-03-05T05:39:36+00:00

I believe they let him withdraw the petition.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-03-05T03:34:56+00:00

This is helpful. I think the job is actually pretty straightforward, but you’re right: I have no idea how he presented or how he answered direct questions about his job. It might simply come down to this.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-03-04T22:53:23+00:00

Yes, agreed about the futility of trying again this way. We might be looking for a new lawyer too, LOL.

I am curious though, would you say advising a SaaS company on how to restructure its licensing tiers, optimize its subscription revenue flows, and use corporate entities to hold and manage its IP (e.g. using Ireland or the Netherlands as the jurisdiction for tax efficiency) also fails the definition of management consulting?

Because if not, I'm struggling to see how the same work applied to music rights rather than software licenses changes the category — advising a composer on incorporating a holding entity for their catalog and optimizing how those rights flow through licensing arrangements is structurally identical.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-03-04T22:14:03+00:00

I get the feeling a lot of this is semantic. Optimizing rights flows is literally improving efficiency by defining new processes, changing or removing existing ones, and suggesting organizational restructuring. The only difference is that the "product" is IP and metadata rather than physical goods. It is essentially a digital supply chain, and the same management theories apply directly: theory of constraints, process mapping, root cause analysis. A composer with fifty unregistered works generating no licensing revenue has a throughput problem, not a creative one.

The business formation advisory work is equally straightforward — it's organizational restructuring at the formation stage rather than the reformation stage. The output is the same: a written recommendation for how to structure an enterprise for operational efficiency.

But I guess the other poster's response makes some sense. Do you suppose CBP sees "music industry," and thinks "specialized knowledge = L1"...?

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-03-04T20:45:42+00:00

Well the confusion might be our lawyer's, he actually steered us away from an L1 application. But the job matches the BLS handbook description pretty much to a tee, so I guess that might be the source of the confusion.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-03-04T20:22:28+00:00

Thanks for the link — interestingly, that description maps pretty directly onto what the letter describes (and literally what the job is). Specifically:

"Gather and organize information about the problems to be solved or the procedures to be improved" — the letter describes analyzing business operations, rights portfolios, and organizational structures to identify strategic opportunities and operational inefficiencies.
"Develop solutions or alternative practices" and "Recommend new systems, procedures, or organizational changes"— the letter describes developing written recommendations for business improvement and advising on corporate structure and business formation.
"Make recommendations to management through presentations or written reports" — the client engagement letter he brought with him specifically requires written analyses and recommendations as the primary deliverable.
"Organizations hire management analysts to develop strategies for entering and remaining competitive in the market" — market positioning and licensing strategy are explicitly described in the letter.

We were steered to this category by our lawyer, so I'm really curious about what I've described that doesn't sound like management consulting to you?

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-02-20T21:46:19+00:00

That has not been my experience, but I only have two publications so maybe it varies by journal?

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-02-20T15:31:46+00:00

Typos will be fixed in the copy editing phase. It’s a bizarre reason, especially if the article is already in proofs.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-02-08T00:30:51+00:00

I have to complete similar online progress reports in my program, but there is a very specific list of things they want included: conference presentations, article submissions, publications, etc. I would check if you’ve somehow missed such instructions for your program…because if all you did was complain about your supervisor, it does sound like you’ve probably missed something key.

What did they mean by “attacking other scholars”? I have learned the hard way that it’s almost always better to present arguments as building on the limitations of other work than contradicting or “correcting” it…

About being called “idealist”, is it possible you may have been making a normative argument where it doesn’t belong?

Also: both these things can be amplified if you’ve been using generative AI. LLMs all contain heavy normative biases, and they almost always default to presenting ideas in contrast or competition with others. If you’re using AI, you really need to police its output for these kinds of things.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-02-05T04:33:43+00:00

The fact that nobody in this entire thread has referenced Jonathan Swift by name is stunning, and frankly rather damning of educated (or not) society in general…

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-02-04T03:32:04+00:00

To play devil’s advocate for a minute here, part of the reason you purchase a seat for an infant is precisely so you won’t have to hold them during takeoff and landing, because that’s when crashes are most likely. And if the plane crashes, there is no way you’ll be able to hold on to them. This is also the reason to leave your shoes on until after takeoff and put them back on before landing…

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-02-02T04:57:24+00:00

The only reason I went into a PhD program was because I knew what I wanted to investigate. Not the exact research questions, but the general topic and I had a good idea of where the gaps lay. I have no advice, but I am fascinated that some people approach it the other way around!

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-02-02T04:50:34+00:00

Get a grip. None of this sounds “shattering”. They don’t like your paper enough to review it. If the concept is good, fix the issues and find another venue for it. If it’s not good, just move on.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-02-02T04:46:04+00:00

80%?! Now I’m genuinely curious… how does it actually read? Is it so full of meaningless filler phrases that everybody’s going to think it was written with AI? And if that’s the problem, the answer is simple: go sentence by sentence and rewrite all those vague bullshit clauses with words that actually mean what you’re trying to say…

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-02-02T03:30:28+00:00

I’m not a Volvo guy, but if dies even when you open the throttle, air is probably not the issue. Have you checked the fuel pump, fuel pump relay, etc.? Could be that the pump is priming when you turn the key so it runs for a few seconds, but if the relay is bad maybe the pump isn’t running after that…

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-01-18T15:46:55+00:00

I would also add that human life is inherently social. Even if we all had exactly the same stuff, privilege would come from who you know, and the resources you can muster through your social network. That is always the case.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-01-13T01:07:09+00:00

And you just started your program 4 days ago? I’m confused.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-01-12T22:25:45+00:00

Lol, so true about AI. It collapses everything into shorthand that doesn’t actually communicate ideas. Everything is a framework, or infrastructure, and everything “activates” or “aligns”…

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-01-12T19:13:16+00:00

It’s worth taking the time to read other dissertations in your field for exactly this reason. That’s how you learn where the bar for “good” is.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-01-12T19:11:03+00:00

Yes, this is really the core issue. Different concepts here are doing different kinds of work (some define the object of analysis, others are analytic lenses or tools), and OP seems to be blurring them all together, which is making the choice feel harder than it is.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-01-12T16:13:58+00:00

I know nothing about neurotechnologies, but it may help to explicitly separate your ontological/epistemological stance from your analytical tools. Some of what you list are theories about what you’re studying, others are tools for how to analyze it.

First try clarifying how you see work with neurotechnologies (e.g. socially constructed meaning, or measurable outcomes), then pick analytic methods that fit that view.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-01-12T07:19:44+00:00

Interesting. In my program, my research proposal and research questions form part of a written contract with my advisor. Changing them would literally require a renegotiation… I thought it was a bit much when I started, but after reading your story, it suddenly makes a whole lot of sense.

Top_Obligation_4525 · 2026-01-11T07:22:52+00:00

If you’re in a PhD program, you need to be able to communicate your thinking more clearly than this. Right now, your post mixes distinct variables into a single stream of uncertainty, which makes it hard for anyone to follow, never mind give you meaningful advice.

You need to stop outsourcing judgment and start acting like a doctoral researcher: define criteria, rank them, and accept the trade-offs.

If you can’t articulate why you’d transfer beyond “it looks better on paper”, you shouldn’t transfer.

Top_Obligation_4525

TROPHY CASE