Hey guys,
So I'm 2 months into working for a top consulting firm. I know people's names, who the partners are, who are the rising stars in the firm, which Exec Assistant is the nicest, etc. More importantly, I've been staffed and already completed a project, and am active on my 2nd one. I guess I would like those who are in consulting to maybe talk about things they might have done differently if they could go back in time to being just 2 months old in consulting.
What would you improve on? Would you suck up more? Less? Would you expense more shit? Would you take the time to learn a programming language? Or just any language? Any insight would be welcome!
Cheers!
Work harder and get the GMAT out of the way now (although those things contradict each other a little.)
Suck up more - in your older bosses' eyes, you'll never be polite or "clean-cut" enough because you use things like facebook and use the word "cool".
The biggest lesson i've learned is that for a given project, be a chameleon and adapt to your manager's personality and style.
Other tidbits: Pick up VBA if possible...it can really make you stand out from the crowd if you can quickly whip up macros that will save time, provide repeatibility, and cut down on errors.
Go in depth versus breadth when it comes to firm initiatives, and always make sure that there is direct visibility of your work by partners so you don't end up doing things in vain.
Work your a$$ off on the first few projects as they will likely determine your reputation and how much leash/flexibility you have within the firm/office.
Great answer, but the above makes me sad. VBA is so unpleasant.
Interested in this topic as well, will be starting soon.
In no particular order:
Quickly learn how to make good estimates of how much time a given task would take you so that you can underpromise and overdeliver - easy and efficient way of making a good impression
Be positive (or pretend to be positive) about the project you're staffed on, even if you're completely uninterested in the topic/industry
Don't do stuff you're not told to do without getting a "go ahead" from your supervisors first - although there is a small number of people who would appreciate it as "being proactive", most people secretly find it very annoying because it creates work for them (they have to check your work) and 95% of the time it turns out to be unneccessary
When on a travelling case volunteer to organise weekly team events like dinners, drinks, bowling etc. Find out good places to go out in the neighbourhood
Try to become THE expert on the team in the small area you're working on
Read articles on your client and its industry
Double-check your work before showing it to your supervisor: forget about formulas and just look at the numbers to see if they make sense; sense check calculations by inputing very high or low numbers to see if the results move in the right direction; check whether slide content, headline and footnote match; print your work if it helps you
Amazing advice buddy...I have heard this before, but it makes so much sense now that I have actually begun work. Thanks for reinforcing it.
Good info. Question on the team-events line (sorry to the OP for going a bit off-topic): I know this typically falls to the most junior person on the team. But on a team with a SA, is it expected of the intern or is that usually left up to the FTs?
Just thought of one more - Be overly anal when it comes to the useless details of a deck, such as formatting, alignment, etc. However, don't bother wasting time on storyboarding or wordsmithing. Chances are your case leader/partner(s) will end up changing the story/content a million times that by the time he's through with the deck, you won't even recognize it anymore.
btw, LOVE the underpromise/overdeliver comment...DEFINITELY use it to your advantage. Also, if you have to work late on Fridays or weekends, might as well have the key deliverable(s) sent out late at night to amplify your sacrifices. I've set my email to send out key deliverables on Sunday morning at 3 am before just to exaggerate the crap that I had to do over the weekend.
I agree with everything Enid said, and here's my extra two cents:
Network: there's no time like the first 4-5 months to randomly reach out to senior people and say you are new and want to meet them for coffee/lunch and learn more about the practice/group/office/their experiences, whatever the crap sounds legit to you. Connections like these will help you get staffed on projects later on and better yet, get staffed on projects you may actually want to be on industry and function-wise
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