Things you wish you knew before entering Consulting?

Hi,

I would break this issue down into 6 sub components:

1.  Be a problem solver
2.  Improve time management skills
3.  Build a professional presence
4.  Build a strong internal network
5.  Develop the right hard skills
6.  Manage externally

Be a problem solver:

• Always propose a potential solution to problem and never approach your senior colleagues with just a problem statement 
•  Learn the balance between figuring out how to approach a problem yourself and asking for help (there are just 24 hours in a day and you need to find time for sleep, spent x minutes on the problem yourself and then approach senior colleagues)

Improve time management skills:

•  Develop a list of tasks and keep it as simple as possible
•  Prioritize task based on their urgency and impact
•  Always ask what the deadline is on any request 
•  Don't volunteer for extra work: All this does is get you overwhelmed

Build a professional presence:

• Own your projects: Be proactive and work to identify problems and solutions before they happen. What is the big picture or the main idea of what you are working on?
• Don't draw attention to yourself with non work related staff (If you are doing great work and are a great performer, others will bring the attention your way)
• Don’t be too talkative and attention seeking
•  Avoid typos as they can cost you reputation (Hit F7 on everything you get)
•  Always properly work on comments (When you receive comments or a request, print it, and take a highlighter to check off each comment/request as you do them)
•  Note your mistakes: It's ok to make them, but it's not okay to make them 3x

Build a strong internal network:

• Never eat alone: Make an effort to walk out to lunch with senior colleagues that you are working with on projects 

Develop the right hard skills:

• Emails - Each live project has its own, single folder that contains everything related to it, read your inbox top down so you are not behind on threads, before you go home each night, look at your to-do's pane and make sure that you've cleared out everything that you need to clear, and that you know when everything else in there is due
• PowerPoint - Master your PowerPoint skills with shortcuts, Customize quick access toolbar, collect as many templates as possible
• Excel - get proficient with your firm’s add-ins, learn the basic shortcuts and formulas, format all of your excel sheets in the same manner, use conditional formatting checks, never have a model with external links 

Manage externally:

•  Do not let this job consume you - find time for hobbies and interests 
•  Don't forego relationships with family and friends for the sake of work
•  Go to the gym
•  Improve your sleep habits

Best,

Anton

Hey there,

For me personally, its exactly the same as the reasons for people to leave/not join consulting. Here's my answer from another Q&A thread (https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/reasons-not-to-join-mbb-8369):

1. Constant feeling of insecurity : Generally everyone is as smart or smarter than you are, so you end up feeling on the edge a lot. There is pressure to be liked and prove yourself. Over time people become very edgy and transactional and sort of stop being themselves. Self promotion is through the roof- just look at how people behave on Linkedin :)

 2. Dreaded work-life balance & pace: Not much to say and am sure you know enough about this

3. Death by powerpoint: Life revolves around making mind blowing PPTs and its just overdone in my view. Many times it become style over substance. Things are changing but its slow

4. Up or Out: This may not be a formal policy but most consulting firms dont want you if you are not getting promoted within a certain time window

 I spent 9 years in consulting and overall thoroughtly enjoyed it. It transformed me inspite of all the difficult moments/weeks/months I faced. I have no regrets but having said that this is not for everyone.

1. Lack of work-life balance
2. High stress levels
3. Death by powerpoint

I also wish I had read this consulting survival guide :P

https://www.spencertom.com/2018/01/14/consulting-survival-guide/

Hello!

That is a great question for future consultants!

For me, it´s SO CLEAR. 

If there is one thing I wish I had done before joining McKinsey, that would have been Excel. It can really be a game changer, so I would really focus on that (more than pptx, industry knowledge, etc., that are nice-to-have, but not deal breakers).

Excel skills are part of the core skill-set of consultants, and it´s great that you want to practice them. PFB a list of the most popular commands:

• Basic operations: SUM, SUMPRODUCT
• Text transformations: CONCATENATE, LEFT, RIGHT, & operator,
• Connecting different datasets: VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX(MATCH(),MATCH())
• Conditional-based operations: SUMIF, COUNTIF, SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, COUNTA
• Learn how to analyze data using Pivot Tables

There are plenty of online materials:

• Microsoft Support: https://support.office.com/en-us/excel
• Kubicle: https://kubicle.com/personal (go for the 7 days free trial - Excel for Business Analytics)

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

I can count same reasons like poor work-life balance, high-level stress, a lot of travels and unregulated weekends.

BUT, there must be one or two major reasons or motivations that will work for you sepcifically.

If you need any further help, feel free to reach out.

GB