Ask me anything: Consultant at MBB
Hi WSO,
I'm a 1st year consultant (Associate/Business Analyst/Associate Consultant) at a MBB firm.
I can answer any questions you may have on internships, breaking into consulting, networking, resumes (though I'm not directly involved with recruiting), tips for case or behavioral interviews, or what the job/industry is like. Don't think I can help that much for MBA candidates, but am more than happy to answer questions about T2 / transitioning from other fields or internships.
Try to leave comments so that everyone can benefit from the answers, but if you have really specific questions, my DM is open as well.
the consulting forum on wso isn't as well perused as the IB/PE section. I believe the forum on reddit /r/consulting would be a better route for this :)
Been on /r/consulting because I’ve heard this a few times. The quality of content there is generally lacking, the questions asked are uneducated and it’s about 60% lame ass consulting memes.
WSO for quality, experienced posts and constructive dialogs.
Trying to keep things a bit general so that they can be applied and be helpful to everyone. 1. The presentation they showed us had a number like ~75% for HBS and SGSB if I remember correctly. The info slide also said that ~90%+ applicants who applied to an M7 got in, so take that as you will.
Hotels, airlines, gyms, rental cars. Some places offer mobile plan discounts, while others might just let you expense them or give you a company phone.
I think my biggest time waster was trying to thoroughly read through reports I needed to craft a story, or getting stuck down the rabbit hole of browsing websites aimlessly in hopes of finding a relevant statistic. To save time on that, I've been learning to ask the knowledge/specialist team for help rather than being stubborn haha. If your company doesn't have resources like that, just get help from other analysts or your manager so that you can get things done. Chances are, someone's done it before.
At the beginning of the engagement, I talk to my manager/senior and let them know what my work and lifestyle is like. For example, now that my manager knows I'm more of a night owl, need 1 hour after dinner once a week to take care of personal things, and that I go to the gym right after work, they can trust me to work during the other hours that I have not carved out for myself. That said, my manager is also a pretty chill person so the "healthy boundary" that you spoke about can be more easily achieved. Being super transparent from the very start and level setting then really manages lifestyle balances going forward.