Career advice after 1st year at MBB (Part 2)

Hello guys,

here comes part 2 with another 3 points…

The link to part 1 is: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-…

Build a network with senior people who vouch for you

In order to progress in your career (even early on) you need senior people to vouch for you and to support you. Most people are aware of this but still underestimate the severity of this. At least at the firm that I am part of, you can do the best job possible but if you do not have a network of people who are interested in your own career progress - you will have it difficult to be in a top-bucket. I would even dare to say that an average analyst with 2-3 partners supporting them will be placed higher than the best-performing analyst without that kind of support. In the end, it is people business! The best way to find such a network, in my personal experience, is to commit to a specific industry and to work with some partners that you also like on a personal level on almost all projects you have. They will request you for their projects since they trust you. Overall, it is a win-win since they will know you and will also be more understanding of personal requests you have (even like having a free Friday to attend a music festival).

Don‘t give up too early

Consulting is a stressful job, especially since you have not only long-hours but almost all hours are fully-filled with to-dos and time pressure. Moreover, the industry has quite enough toxic people to unfortunately have them as your project managers, partners, staffers etc. from time to time. Even if you do good work, it is not granted that you will always get the evaluation that you would have earned or needed. All of this can put you under a lot of mental pressure and sometimes in mentally dark places. Just keep in mind, you are not alone with this even though the industry is still too toxic to make it easy for people to raise such issues easily. Nonetheless, I would highly recommend not giving up to early and leaving the job for such reasons - often such a feeling will fade after a while (maybe on a new project, after vacation, working with other people). If possible, take time off and if the situation is really not sustainable for you, raise these issues with your senior managers. In the end, if you would leave otherwise, what do you have to lose?

Don‘t define your self-worth with your job

This is a very personal topic and most people might not have a similar issue. I have for a long time defined my own self-worth with my success at school, university and on the job. This can be really problematic since the older we get, the less control we have of success. At university, the input-output ratio was often quite straightforward. On the job, there are so many different factors that determine your success and also success is more difficult to measure than with GPA. This put me in a difficult place at the beginning but I have figured out that I am so much more than just the job. My friends literally do not give a fuck about what I am doing, most people think of KPMG when you tell them consulting and about their banking branch when you say you work in IB. They value you for your humour, honesty, your shared memories and so on. This is the stuff that should matter to you in the end. If you keep this in mind, you will be way more resilient against difficult times in your job. It still sucks to receive a bad evaluation for example but it will not make you doubt your self-worth. You are more than your job!

Part 3 will follow soon…