Year 1 in consulting - tips, tricks, advice, and unspoken rules.

[Bigger edit: since this is getting some attention, I have put some effort into sorting the advice below into categories - did not change anything other than the order]

Laptop of choice is the company provided one for us.

As for tips, here are a few that may be especially relevant if you're younger / newer to working in general:

• Effective communication
  • Listening. Listen to your supervisor / project manager / partner on the case. Odds are that they'll tell you things that sometimes you'll think "But why this and not that?" or "Why not that way?". It is fine to ask so as to understand (although try to guess the rationale first by yourself), but realise that in a fast-paced environment they may not always have the time to spend 15 mins explaining everything for every task they assign you. Trust the process (but do be curious).
  • Meeting preparation. Always take 5-10 mins before a team meeting / a catch up with your supervisor / any interaction with someone above you to think about exactly (1) what you want to tell them and (2) what input (if any) you need from them. This will make you look good and like you are on top of your workstream like nobody's business. It will also make your life easier.
  • Replying to emails. Double / Triple / Quadruple check WHO you are replying to in an email. More often than not, even in consulting, more people are in an email chain than are necessary. NEVER reply all. Re-add people if you have to, but make 100% sure you know who is getting your email. It may contain sensitive / in progress information (or let's be honest, not great language at times) that could hurt the client relationship for your firm or your own reputation. It is never the case that everyone in an email chain needs the entire chain.
  • Teams chat. If possible do not message on Teams / Zoom the person currently sharing their screen. As for yourself, make sure to have the notifications show up only as "John/Jane Smith has sent you a message" in case you are sharing your screen and some friends are bantering with you or in a group chat you're in.
• Professional Growth
  • Defending opinions. It may be that on occasion, you may have certain beliefs (e.g., in a number or a trend or an approach) which may be backed by data but someone above you overrules you. Learn to live with it. You can't fight every decision you don't agree with, and there is often more to it than just the numbers (e.g. office politics, client mgmt). So, pick wisely when to make a stand, if at all.
  • Professional development 1. Set up regular check-ins with your direct supervisor to ensure you are on track and performing as expected. Ask them if they have any suggestions for improvements or for next steps. If possible, try to have 1 such meeting with the project manager too, even with the partner on the case (time permitting) for their general advice. You'll look more proactive about your career and you'll be able to get some useful insights about what they perceive as being good performance at your level.
  • Professional Development 2. Share what you'd like to learn / accomplish in the following weeks / months. Like learning how to do more advanced analytics or presenting to clients or managing a client relationship. State your goals, whether they are about process or content, and ask your supervisor / project manager for opportunities to develop them.
  • Upward management. Always update your supervisor about what you're doing, especially if you haven't spoken to them in more than 2h. It's not micromanagement, just that if the project manager / partner / client asks, your supervisor needs to be able to answer confidently rather than with "I dont know / They're supposed to be doing XYZ". Letting them know also helps make sure you don't go on a wild goose chase for 5h, only to be told the thing you looked for wasn't that crucial or existed somewhere super accessible.
  • Impact. Realise now that your actual impact will likely be minimal. We all said in our interviews that one of the reasons we wanted to join consulting was to "make an impact". This is partly true, but more often than not either your client will go ahead and do what they want anyway (or what you recommended, but wrong) or they will not even be able to get close to doing anything at all (through no fault of their own, like losing a bid for a buyout or CEO gets replaced in the meantime). Try to enjoy the work because of the process more than for the outcome.
• Work-Life Balance
  • Sustainability 1. Manage your sustainability proactively, because no one else will do it for you. Your team may be willing to accommodate / support your sustainability, but they can't guess how much is too much for you or what you individually need on a weekly or monthly basis to recharge your batteries. Communicate with them to let them know, work towards it, and be active with it. It is too easy to let months (years) go by and then losing all connections to your hobbies / interests / life outside of work.
  • Sustainability 2. If your supervisor tells you that you can go home, do it. There is nothing to be gained by "staying 2 more hours" to "get something done" if it does not need to happen on that day. You'll think it makes you look like a dedicated hardworking analyst. You will run the risk of others thinking this extra effort you are putting out is your default setting. There is always nore work to be done, you cannot do it all, regardless of whether you work 12h in a day or 18h. There will be more, always. If your supervisor / project manager tells you it's ok to log off for the night, just close up what you're doing / save any on going progress / make notes and then LEAVE.
• Supportive Collaboration
  • Supporting others. Always take 5-10 mins to help someone who asked you something, even if you're busy (even if the question is "how do I do INDEX-MATCH?"). That's my belief that however busy we are, we always have 5-10 mins at least once a day to answer a quick question from a colleague / friend / anyone else asking. You may not have the time to do it 10 times in a day, but you have the bandwidth for one time. Take the time to read it, and if you can help, do it.
  • Benefit of the doubt. Assume that if someone is rude / difficult, it's because they're having a bad day rather than them just being a tosser for the pleasure of it, so speak with them about why they think / do the way they do and accept that maybe that's just their experience. Then, do explain to them why you need what you need (e.g., if this was after you requested something) or why you took the time to ask them (e.g., if this was a reaction / behaviour that surprised you). If they do keep being difficult for the sake of it, then obviously escalate internally, but try the diplomatic way first. More often than not, people arent wankers for the fun of it.
• Technical Skills
  • Making backups. If you see something useful for your research (a number, an interview, a quote, anything): take a screenshot and copy the URL into a OneNote. Someone will ask you to look something up, you'll come back with "of yeah I found A, B, and C!" Then, half a day later they'll ask you "where did you see A, B, and C?" and you'll struggle to recall which of the 50 websites you saw that quote on, or which page of which annual report / analyst report / investor presentation of what year you saw the figure.
  • Excel. Obviously learn to use INDEX-MATCH with your eyes closed, but also be familiar with variations like XLOOKUP (sometimes helpful) and their younger wide-eyed siblings VLOOKUP/HLOOKUP (not more versatile, but sometimes faster if all you need is a quick output from a single reference list), also learn less obvious functions like INDIRECT (I use this one almost every time I make a market sizing model, for the summary calculation or output page), CHOOSE (although personally I prefer building DROPDOWN lists), etc.
• Emotional Intelligence
  • Dealing with frustration. If you are getting aggravated / frustrated by someone, do not reply immediately, instead take (at least) 10-15 mins before replying if you are able (e.g., not being asked face to face). Wait to calm down first and reply only a while later. Go do something else if you need: get a coffee, go for a 10mins walk, chat with someone. Just get your mind off things and then asnwer them. Odds are that you'll think there's no point in being antagonistic yourself and you'll just let it go (Elsa style).
  • Dealing with a bad supervisor. If you genuinely have a supervisor / project manager who doesn't know what they're doing (it might happen one day), be SUPER tactical about it: (1) ask them to clarify, (2) explain to them what the output they are asking for will look like (e.g., a business cycle looking like a straight line throughout Covid or some other nonsense), and (3) if they still insist, make sure whoever is the next closest person to your work is also aware of it and just do it (goes back to knowing when to make a stand).