Aleeya, 

Welcome to the staffing game! haha

Staffing is a rather mysterious process, especially in your first year. 

A few things I'd suggest

1. Make sure that you're in touch with your staffer (I'm pretty sure you are, but underlining it nevertheless). They should know what you're interested in and how flexible you are in terms of geography and topics. 

2. Subscribe to staffing newsletters and actively keep an eye out on staffing alerts. When you find something relevant, apply for it. And write a proper application. Tailor it and highlight your value proposition (especially if you have done any relevant work in the past). 

3. Reflect on what are the 2- 3 most interesting topics for you and then research who in the firm and within your region works on them at AP and Partner level. Request a brief call with these people to introduce yourself and signal your interest. 

4. Make sure that with each new project you do, you identify 1-2 people that you keep in touch with. These are people that you'd like to work with again. This network will become priceless in time. 

Sharing with you 2 articles that you might find useful that comprise my learnings from my first years in McK:

• Expert Guide: How to Become A Distinctive Consultant
• Expert Guide: How to Manage for Lifestyle in Consulting

Keeping my fingers crossed for you!
Cristian

1) You want to build a good relationship with your staffing manager!

2) You also want to build up a good reputation a

3) Network well inside the company. 

If you want to determine your own fate, you need to get to know the people you want to work with (i.e. either they're great and/or in the industry/function you like) and get yourself front and center of their minds when it comes to staffing their projects!

What do 1-3 really mean?

Network, network, network.

Unfortunately, you can't just reach out to seniors to express your interest...if they don't know you/your name this will serve no purpose!

You need to build stronger relationships with these seniors. "Water cooler chats" and firm functions are great ways to build relationships and get notified of opportunities. 

Put yourself out there socially in order to advance professionally. As a "bonus" also try to demonstrably develop your skills...if you're completely green, noone will take on that risk for you. If you can get certifications, side projects, etc. that show your ability to be a star in certain topics, then do so as often as possible!

Hi there,

Congrats!

1. Look for EMs, APs and Partners that work in areas you would be interested in. There is no need to just limit your networking to APs.
2. Send them an Email or get an intro via a common friend/colleague
3. When talking to them, ask for opportunities. Introduce yourself and your motivation/interests. All of them have tons of work that you could do (proposals, KIPs, actual client work)

All the best,

Florian

Hi,

If i think about this, the outcome of your networking is 2 fold:

1. Get the APs to know of your existence
2. Get the APs to want to staff you on their next project

#2 is of course the more important one, but its driven by 2 things

1. Them liking you
2. Them believing you are good

#B is harder to prove as you are new, but this is something you need to slowly build up and done well it is a snowball effect

#A is what you can only do now, so be genuine, direct and think of the other person - i.e. don't waste their time.

All the best!

Don't fret about it, but make sure to be talking to people about different types of projects, figuring out what you want to do, and reaching out to APs to understand the projects they are working on and the ones they have in the pipeline.