Tips on preparing for start date in consulting (post-interviews)
Accepted an offer from one of the MBB recently, and have been wondering what to do to prepare for the start (early next year). I have searched the Internet for tips and a lot of them tend to focus on improving technical skills (e.g. Excel, PowerPoint) and assembling a wardrobe and getting ready for travel. They also mentioned networking, but did not go into too much details into this topic.
So it would be great to get some suggestions and tips on networking. Would you recommend to reach out to people in the firm to talk about projects?
Many thanks!
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Hope that helps.
I'm also interested in hearing about this!
Bump! Would also like to hear.
Not sure but networking could either mean getting to know staff in your home office (consulting and support) but also staff around the office network for when you travel and have to pop in. In general whatever level you're at, it's a good idea to develop a good relationship with equivalents at the client company such as Fin Analysts or others on your project that aren't c-suite. Other advice:
Know your client inside out but focus on the area you're working on without getting to distracted. If you're doing a factory restructuring for a big food company you don't need to know the celebs they used in their marketing campaign for the last 5 years.
Know your client's main competitors and basic info about them (financial, strategic etc)
General things about the client's industry (structure, costs, geographies, regulation etc)
Access to past similar projects always helps so you can see outcomes, how it's done and anything you could potentially improve
Thanks for the detailed info! A follow-up question - how about reaching out to people in the local office to learn more their work experiences, projects, etc.? Is that something recommended for people who are about to start?
Based on some of the readings I had so far, it seems that networking is quite important to be staffed on projects in addition to performance and reviews. So just wanna hear some thoughts on that!
I would wait to do this after you start.
I can't speak for other firms, but at my MBB the first few staffing positions are unlikely to be influenced by your connections within the firm, and you're going to be staffed at a point way in the future in consulting time. The chances that someone you networked will help you get a project 10 months after you networked with them for your first few projects is extremely low for both reasons.
But mostly, you'll also get a reputation as the "over-eager analyst" which you don't want.
If you made friends with a first or second year analyst during recruiting who seems chill, it's probably a good idea to text them when you have random questions about your firm in the year leading up to your start date.
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