Getting Staffed When You're New
For those experienced consultants who have gone through this, what are your thoughts on going about the staffing process when you're a new hire?
If you could share your experience with this I'm sure it would help a lot of incoming associates.
+1 also interested
+1 same here!
Spent my pre-MBA days in consulting, so here's my thoughts. While each firm is different, generally staffing happens informally where people you've worked with (assuming you worked well together and did quality work) will want to work with you again. Since you're new, you're obviously not expected to have this kind of network. As such, your first project (or even few projects) will probably just be randomly assigned. It's really nothing to be anxious over or worry about. That said, there are some things you can do:
1) Recruiting Contacts - reach out the people who interviewed you. They clearly thought highly of you to recommend you getting hired and usually are happy to give advice. Get their thoughts on how staffing at your firm (and even particular office) works.
2) Alumni - you can also reach out to alumni at from your school who work at your firm. They'll likely be happy to help you too.
3) Staffing Manager - Schedule an initial meeting with the person in-charge of staffing. Get their take on how things work and also express your interests on which kind of projects and industries you'd like to be staffed on.
4) Proposals - Make yourself available for proposals (i.e. the pitch deck/presentation for potential projects). This can help you get staffed if the proposal ends up being a sale. In addition, it's a great way to meet people and learn about specific industries/project types.
This is a good post. The one thing I would add is to get involved with your local office.
I looked at my firm network in 3 big buckets of people. Your practice area, your co-workers from your current and past projects, and your local office. If you are new, the first two don't really apply yet, so try to get to know people who are around on Fridays.
Hi DMVbro, let me also give me 2 cents here.
I am now a BCG Principal but I joined BCG roughly 10 years ago (as a visting associate) straight out of university so I passed through this kind of doubts as well.
The first project is important because it will help you to position yourself in the company as a talent.
Back then when I joined BCG I spent huge load of time networking with 1st and 2nd year associate learning everything about PLs and Principals: who were the one giving the highest evaluations, the ones crashing the teams, the ones nice to work with.. so that eventually I managed to shortlist 2 or 3 of them and I engineered situations to let them know me and let them know I was willing to work with them.
Quite frankly this helped me to steer my first couple of staffing decisions even though I must admit I was also pretty much lucky; in fact a lot also depends on what project starts when you are available and in these cases you cannot do much to influence the staffing decision.
Staffing as a new hire is definitely an interesting and challenging task to go ahead with. It incorporates both positive and negative sides which one needs to face.
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What can I do about no new staffings? (Originally Posted: 11/24/2015)
I lateralled from an MM based in Chicago to an EB in New York about 6 months and for the last month or so have been getting no new staffings. I was on a few files which I got crushed on when I started but all of those have since subsided and I have 1-2 hours of actual work during any given day. I have asked my staffer for more work and he just nods and doesn't seem very responsive. People have been saying its not as busy but other analysts are still getting staffings. I was happy to have the time off at first but now I'm getting worried that people just don't want to work with me or my staffer just doesn't want to deal with me.
What can I do now? Should I try to talk to someone more senior than the staffer? Should I speak to my staffer again? Should I just sit back and work on other things / prep for buy side recruiting?
I was always told not to bother people for more work, so when I am not staffed, I use that time to catch up with the news online. How has your work product been? What type of feedback have you received? I lateraled from a boutique (not EB) to a MM several months ago, and there has been a very steep learning curve, but what is most important is showing that you care and have a good attitude. I wish I could offer some more help. Hopefully a more senior banker can chime in here.
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