Consultants -
I'm sure there are superstars in your office that blow away the rest of the team. What are they like and what sets them apart from others?
Firm description/type might be useful as well (MBB, small boutique, etc.).
Stories, input welcome.
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Yes, we'd be happy to reveal where we work. I think most WSOers are perfectly content with shedding their anonymity.
On a more serious note, the superstars tend to work the hardest and smile the widest when taking it up the ass. You don't want to be a superstar. They get overworked and, generally, abused. People can see how badly they want to please and, consequently, those people take advantage of them.
You need to learn how to be good / have people trust your work, while at the same time establish a reputation as someone who can't be pushed around too much. You need to be a great cocksucker in the beginning and build goodwill, but later on--and especially if you have a job lined up--you need to create a good life for yourself.
Sounds about right at the junior level. The superstar doesn't need to sleep,will gladly give up their weekend plans for less than pressing needs...it's less about skill differences and more about willingness to sacrifice.
Honestly, you just want to be good enough to get where you want to go. If I don't end up in PE or at HBS, I won't be crushed.
Huh. I totally disagree. You can be everyone's bitch and still just be average - in my opinion, it's all about taking one step further.
An example - if you're asked to work on something and it takes all weekend, fine - no one gives a shit and no one is going to give you points. You had work, you did it, sucks that it took the weekend. Where you differentiate yourself is in step 2 - you've already burned saturday and half of sunday, now go balls-deep (or... be gone into balls deep, I guess...) and push the work beyond what you were asked to do.
Made a database? Run all the initial analysis on it and send the model + 5 slides to your manager. Built a presentation with the client team? Send a version with presenter notes to your manager.
If you're giving up your time to do just bitchwork with no real value-add, though, you're doing something wrong. OR, sometimes there's no choice - you'll have a shitty manager who's going to rip you a new one on your review to conceal their own shittyness, or only trust you with bitchwork no matter what you do.
As you can see, being a rockstar sucks. A lot. It's not about being smart and efficient, it's not just pushing things a step further, it's also being LUCKY + smart about what you get staffed on & first impressions. You could be rockstar-potential but never be recognized for it because you only get staffed on backbreakers.
I work in economic consulting and agree with this 100%. I do think that hard skills (programming) is important in economic consulting, and being known as a go-to quantitative person will let you build a good career without ruining your life. But I still think that the above is extremely accurate. Hard skills are important, but luck (getting along well with some of your first managers and building momentum) and other things play a massive role.
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