TLDR: I am a new consultant who doesn’t love my firm and am afraid of getting pidgeon-holed. Advice appreciated
Thanks for reading this. Some background, I graduated from a SEC school in 2018 and started at my firm in January. In the US we only have limited operations and are mainly a European firm. Since then, I have been staffed on two projects. While I liked both, neither are what I expected. When I joined the firm I figured I’d use my background in finance and economics to learn more about different corporations and pitch them on strategy. This hasn’t been the case at all. I am basically a SQL/SAS data analyst and will only work at one client indefinitely. My project length is interminable, and I don’t think I’ll move to a new project for another 18 months at the very least. While I don’t hate my job, I know I wouldn’t want to go down this path long-term. I want to work with financial statements, analyze companies, and solve problems for a variety of clients. I’m fine with combining the skills in SQL/SAS that I’ve learned so far but I want that to be a part of my overall skill set, not the defining characteristic and what I use everyday.
So now, I’m asking for advice. Despite the above griping, I think a career in consulting is still something I’d enjoy. Should I try and lateral to a B4 firm? Put my head down and grind for another 8-12 months? I also had an internship for a small IB and really loved it. Should I try and pursue the IB career path? I truly appreciate the help and looking forward to some great advice below.
Hi Dr. SBWM, no, I never sleep and so I can respond to any lonely threads (like this one) at all hours of the night. Impressive, I know ;-)
You're welcome.
My one quibble is the “pitch them on strategy” idea. I’m not sure that’s realistic. That’s what we call a “hard sell”.
Everything else is good, though. You’re doing just fine at the moment. All you need to do is act like a rat and jump off this sinking ship. To advance your career, especially at this stage, you have to hop.
You have nailed the situation. You ARE being pigeonholed. You WILL stagnate by grinding on. There are oh so many consulting companies that can get good use out of you: basically rational person who can do some math.
Advice re skills: please upgrade from SAS. SQL will always be useful - it’s a basic query language and DBs are everywhere. SAS is a stagnant also-ran language and is basically in the tar pits at this moment. Proprietary languages are dead donkeys.
Please learn Python etc (not R!) of you want to keep crunching them numbers for money.
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