First Year Prep?

I’ll be joining Accenture this summer as a consulting and strategy analyst at their DC office. I chose that office because of the organizations I want to work with in the region and because my top grad school options are out there.

I’ve networked to the point that I think I may have a little bit of optionality once I start. For example, I was invited to a conference by the MD over the practice area I’m most interested in so I can meet him/the team formally and to get familiar with projects that they’ve got coming up. A couple others also said to get in touch once I start because of my data analytics, customer experience, and product background. Also hoping to schedule some coffee chats with members of certain practice area teams once I move there next month (start date isn’t until July).

I’m wondering, however—is there anything else I’m missing here? I’m taking formal/informal technical courses, worked multiple FT remote tech jobs while in school (to try to be competitive/attractive as a junior hire), and am still trying to build relationships at the firm to get involved with various extracurricular groups at varied levels of seniority.

One of the biggest takeaways from my new analyst hire day celebration was how MDs didn’t mince words on the topic of your first year in consulting. They said the hardest thing for new people to make sense of how much they have to steer their own ship when it comes to getting great projects, branding themselves, dealing with undesirable projects, and building/maintaining relationships.

They said these factors combined with ensuring you’re building core competencies + soft skills can set the tone for your experience of consulting, and is why some enjoy it while others hate it.

I’m trying to be exhaustive with my approach, but additional input here would be greatly appreciated. Is there anything else that I can do to prepare/curate my first year experience?