Hi there,

I always hated this feedback. Honestly, it makes no sense. How can you be confident if you don't know what the heck you're talking about?

My honest view is tell them “yes yes you're right I'll work on this” and then focus on learning. As in, learn the content. Learn the client. Learn the consulting toolkit.

It's ridiculous to say “be confident” without knowing anything…that's called ego/arrogance!

Rather, build up those skills + knowledge as fast as you can…the confidence will naturally follow once you actually know what you're doing :)

Hello,

Great question, and it's certainly an issue a lot of us have struggled with! My recommendations would be:

- Learn as much as you can, as fast as you can. Ask your colleagues questions, observe how they demonstrate executive presence, etc.

- Be proactive on the job: volunteer to take on certain tasks, make suggestions on how to take your workstream forward.

- Try to become an expert on your own workstream, as Clara suggested.

Hello!

I totally feel you, this is a feedback that almost everyone of us got, particularly at the beginning (and those without consulting or similar experiences). 

Reality is that it comes with practice, and with time you are going to get so much better. Something that truly helped me was owning my piece very well, so I could speak with full confidence when it was about something related to that. For big presentations, rehearsing with someone to be more top-down and to the point also helps. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Hi there, 

you are at the consultant level given your performance during the recruiting process and your expertise. Now you have to just feel confident with what you know and accept that you will learn what you still dont know about the firm over time. I guess all it comes to the healthy self-esteem, which from my experience as BCG internal coach can be an issue. I would be happy to support you if you would want to explore the topic during 1 coaching session. 

In the meantime I would encourage you to write down all your achievements and all of what you are proud of until now (professionally speaking). Include all that YOU are proud of even if nobody recognized it. This may help you to boost your confidence. 

Good luck

Lucie

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This is not feedback on your knowledge, but on your communication skills. 

So let me share a quick hack to solve this. To sound more confident, you should SPEAK LOUDER. While a a bit faster may be an issue, usually is just a matter of volume. If possible stand up and be a bit more energetic (speak faster), but what is a must is that you SPEAK LOUDER.