New Hire: Please give me tips on how to manage my first few months

Question

Hello, so I've just joined an MBB as an associate. It's been two months but I find that I'm still having difficulties in the following:

- Delivering quality work fast, especially with regards to qualitative work and research in areas I'm not familiar with

- Communicating and presenting my thought process

- Obtaining all the required understanding and latest developments on the case, before planning and making my recommendations

Any of you have any tips that may help me out here? Tips in general on how you've managed your first year in consulting would be great too! Appreciate it

Answer 1

Hi Anonymous,

it is difficult to provide clear suggestions without more details; I have reported below some comments

- Delivering quality work fast, especially with regards to qualitative work and research in areas I'm not familiar with

I would try to see if there is any internal training/internal material already developed on the topic. Alternatively, I would talk to current consultants which you know are experienced on that particular area and ask if they could help you to improve on a timely delivery for research in that area

- Communicating and presenting my thought process

This point is quite generic and it would be necessary to understand which specific areas you are struggling with, ideally with an example

- Obtaining all the required understanding and latest developments on the case, before planning and making my recommendations

It is not clear whether that’s related to misalignment with the team or not sufficient research from your side, it would be great if you could clarify that.

You can also find at the link below some tips for the day-to-day life in consulting:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/what-should-i-take-into-account-during-the-first-days-and-weeks-at-mckinsey-3149

Best,

Francesco