I should define that question better.
By "encounter obscurity" I mean--how frequently are you asked to do something that you just don't know how to do?
When this happens, how do you face it?
In the world of intangibles known as consulting, one faces a daily bombardment with random assignments, which each take 4 times as long as they should because you usually haven't even heard of whatever it is before you were just touted to a client as an "expert" in the field. As soon as you get proficient at something, it's on to the next project/task. Drives me insane.
W/r/t consulting, you aren't being paid for your domain knowledge or your expertise (unless you're a PhD or you've been in the industry -- but that's not really the consulting we discuss on WSO). You're just a risk management tool. 'McKinsey signed off on this project, we're good to go.' The corporate world is all about covering one's ass. You, my friend, are cover.
W/r/t finance, the ambiguity comes into play in other ways. Sure you can get really good at making a financial model or finding the relevant information in financial statements. However, you're making a prediction about something that's ultimately un-knowable (the future).
No one is doing anything really important, man. Don't sweat it. Just deal with it the way the rest of the world does -- booze.
I am not in trading yet but I cannot wait to encounter obscurity. The best part of trading is guessing where things will be next.
Summer after freshman yr. during my internship at a AM firm, almost every other week i had something thrown at me that I had no idea what it was or how to do it. By the end of the summer Investopedia became my best friend.
It's interesting, the first 8 months in banking, it was like speaking a different language, people would ask me to do stuff and I'd have no idea what they're talking about let alone how to do it. After about 12 months everything just clicked, it's quite weird. There's pretty much nothing I can't do now. I've since moved n to ER and get obscure requests everyday from investors, and I can figure it out within a few minutes every time now.
The best way to get to this point is just ask a ton of questions, and slow down and think about how to do things. Google is your friend too.
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