The importance of attitude in an MBB

Hello,

Generally speaking, hard skills are a must (e.g., excel, problem solving), but what really makes you stand out from the crowd are the soft skills, such as attitude, executive presence, ownership, leadership, relationship management - namely as those are rarer and more difficult to improve.

Especially as your career progresses, soft skills will become of the outmost importance as your focus will shift from performing analyses to being a right-hand to the client and ultimately, managing the business relationship (i.e., selling). This will happen quicker than you think: 1-2 years in at a MBB, you will already be managing part of the client team (at a smaller scale, of course).

That said:

1. Make sure you quickly develop self-confidence on hard skills so you can build upon your good attitude:

• Practice as much as you can (e.g., search for excel tips and put them into practice)
• Ask advice/ support to more senior colleagues (you are an intern after all!), especially to the full-time consultant you are working with
• Ask for examples from previous projects to full-time consultants around the team - you are rarely doing something that other people haven't done in the past; it would be a waste not to pick up on built-up knowledge

2. Even though soft skills are harder to improve, my recommendation is:

• Observe and listen to your seniors (namely, partners, principals)
• Understand: a. how they act and b. what they want, in different contexts
• Then, actively reflect on how you can: a. improve your presence and way of working; and b. better align your output to their expectations 

Hi there,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! It’s totally normal to feel this way during an internship. Everyone starts out with areas to improve.

You can come a long way with a great attitude as an intern - it’s actually one of the most important things teams look for at this stage. That said, focus on improving the feedback points and make sure your deliverables clearly reflect that progress. In consulting, perception is reality, so actively show what you’ve learned. One great way to accelerate this is to ask team members (especially juniors or associates with strong technical skills) to run short team learnings where they share some of their skills. This can be fun, a good team-building moment, and a clear sign you want to grow. I used to do this for junior colleagues when I was a more senior associate, and it really helped.

Keep being proactive, improve your technical skills step by step, and you’ll put yourself in a great position to succeed.

Wishing you all the best!

Cheers,

Kevin
 

Hey :)

From my experience attitude matters a lot more than you might think at MBB. Skills like Excel and analytics can be taught quickly, but being proactive, positive, and eager to learn is harder to instill and is what teams value most in interns and juniors. When a supervisor highlights your attitude, it means they see strong potential and enjoy working with you.

As long as you’re addressing the technical gaps step by step, you don’t need to worry. Good attitude plus steady improvement usually translates into strong reviews and offers.

best,
Alessa :)

Hello,

Can you elaborate more on “(…) he listed a couple of points to work on and then ended with "overall, love the attitude etc". ”

Otherwise it will be hard to give a specific answer.

Best,

Mari

Attitude matters so much in consulting and in any job you do. If you are positive, happy to be coached and truly interested in the work, it goes a long way towards establishing your reputation and willingness of people to work with you.

Yes of course attitude on its own is great but not enough. So now what you need to do is demonstrate your ability to learn and grow. That means working on the issues on your own and showing progress that is identifiable. No one is perfect, at the end of the day if you have a great attitude and truly work on issues identified you will go a long way and are likely to get an offer.

Best,

Udayan

Hi there, 

It’s actually a big strength that people like working with you. If they value your attitude, they’ll be more willing to invest time in coaching you. That said, you also need to show you’re improving. The “free pass” only lasts so long before people start looking for returns on their investment in you.

My suggestion is to track your improvements against the feedback you’re given, and proactively check in with your supervisor to ask whether they’ve noticed progress. This way, you’ll show both a willingness to learn and the results that come with it.

If they don't observe improvements in you, then that's the time to worry.

Good luck!

Hi there, 

Having a good attitude is the hygiene factor / table stake to do well in consulting. Good that you've got tha covered. 

Next would be to follow up on the development areas that are mentioned to you. It might take time to address all, but keep up the spirit! 

Best,

Emily