I've had a great and interesting journey so far, and to be honest, I'm not sure what I want to do finally - we'll see how it goes.
I'm impatient, not detail-oriented, fun loving, not serious - none of the characteristics generally valued in banking or consulting. Yet I just got an outstanding review from my consulting internship saying I don't have any major areas that need improvement, and should I want to return to finance, have a standing offer from a former manager.
Things that have helped me a lot:
1) Going to a semi-target business school, where those management and marketing classes offer a lot that you can actually implement
2) First internship under a tough, emotionless boss at a small firm where I got to do a lot of work and my team was very reliant on a young intern. Also no one knew how old I was, so I was completely expected to act and perform like a first year even though I was about 18 years old.
3) A school club where I organized a large event with many professional sponsors and guests. It was a year long endeavor, very successful, and allowed me to make great impressions on tons of recruiters.
My strengths and tips:
1) This is not something I like, but as been said many times before, double and triple check everything before you give it in. Even if its simple edits and comps, be proud and committed of anything you do.
2) Partners/MD's whatever are not scary. Respect yourself. You are talented and have plenty to offer - act like it. Speak to them as an equal, be genuinely curious, find common ground (sports, schools, weather, news, their kids).
3) Feel ownership for your work.
4) Don't be afraid of people. They're all humans.
5) Middle school girls are great practice. You can say anything to anyone if you're tactful about how you do it. I do think women tend to be better than men at this.
6) Be positive. This site is so negative - is that really how you want to live your life? No one wants to be around a negative person anyway. Don't dwell on the bad, don't ruminate on things you can't fix right now. Be practical.
I don't know if this will help anyone, but the mental aspect makes a huge difference, so I wanted to put it out there. I don't think it's something that can be taught - it comes from experience, but at least this is a start.
I also want to add that I had a terrible experience with anxiety and depression junior year, and I am still on medicine for it. All I have to say is if this happens to you, please reach out immediately. The medicine made such a huge difference in my life. Some type of treatment is definitely better than trying to "get over it".
If you're checking things over two or three times, I would say you actually are detail oriented. I guess you thought we weren't detail oriented and you thought you could slip that by us?
"Everyone here has been soo nice to me" "That's because you have huge tits"
Sure! Just for an example from school: Sophomore year I was taking a speech and presentation class. The grading and feedback was highly subjective,and my professor was extremely flighty and changed his mind constantly. The problem with this was that our grade was entirely dependent on his opinion of 3 large presentations. I was in a group with a few guys and girls, including one student - let's call him Derek. One day we met to discuss our presentation and Derek was extremely upset. Turns out he had gone to talk to the professor about the irregular grading and the professor had ended up calling him an idiot and more or less threw him out of his office. I was really surprised because I had had the exact same discussion with our professor earlier that week, and it had gone fine. Lots of proof of what the prof had said in the past, "I understand you said this", "what would you like", etc . . . and no blatant anger. Two people. Same professor. Same problem. Drastically different results - I ended up getting a much better grade than Derek even though we both presented well and in truth had similar personalities - more analytical than artistic.
Anyone can benefit from being charming - think White Collar or James Bond. A lot of girls are expected to be "polite" in general, and it seems to be at least, being "polite" can more consistently get results compared to anger or being macho.