Need to learn skills in the ample free time, I have before starting at an MBB. What should I do?

Hello!

Congrats of that offer!

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

Hi there,

Congrats on the offer! You are in for an amazing and hectic consulting life (in Dubai I suppose).

As a Business Analyst, I think it will be helpful if you already start working on the following:

1) GCC market knowledge (very important):

• Read about all the gov. transformation programs of the GCC countries (mainly Vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia) - read about all its objectives, projects, etc....you projects will definitely be around those topics
• Read about the biggest gov. sovereign funds (e.g. PIF) and about their latest investments (they will be your clients)
• Read about the industries you are interested in, specifically in the context of the middle east (example: if you would like to work in automotive, read about Saudi Arabia's latest investment to build local automotive capabilities and the challenges it is facing - if you like e-commerce learn about what are the local players (Noon.com) doing to compete with Amazon)
• Know the KPIs for the favorite industries (example: if you like oil and gas, learn about product cost per barrel and fiscal breakeven oil prices per country)

2) Excel skills know/how:

• Pivot tables and data tables (when and how to use them - how to add calculated fields, how to manage your databases)
• Interactive dashboard design (there are many youtube videos on that topic)
• Medium/advanced formulas and functionalities: index/match, data validations, array functions, etc
• Once you mastered all the above, learn to do them without using your mouse :) ... not joking, you actually need to learn to navigate excel without using your mouse!

3) Financial modeling and analysis:

• Learn how to create nice looking P&Ls and how to link that model to the other financial statements (how to model a balance sheet, cash flow statement, etc.)
• Learn how to analyze P&Ls and Balance Sheets (what are the typical KPIs/ratios that are used and what do they mean)

Feel free to reach out for any additional specific points you have in mind.

Best,

Khaled

Hi,

Congrats for the offer. I could think off a couple of things that you can do:

1. Read articles from your future firm that describe the framework,tools and thinking being used / developed. This might help you in solving problems in your future projects
2. If you have not, brush up your financial analysis skill and knowledge
3. Learn the technique / logic of developing a financial model - Not the excel formulas/function but the actual logic of how to structure a world class financial model
4. Learn the basic excel formula/ functions (This could support point no 3)

If y ou can divide an 8 hours day into 2 hours block of the above activities I think you should be fine. Remember discipline is the key.

Lastly, don't forget to also enjoy your free time before consulting :)

Hi there,

Since you would be joining as Analyst, the most important skills you can practice now is excel (including modelling) and PPT writing.

On top of these hard skills, you can read the MBB articles to see how they approach an issue, what the latest trend / thinking is, etc.

Last but not least, chill and have some fun! Life would be tough once you start, so enjoy it now. :)

Best

Emily

1) Daily Reading

• The Economist, The Financial Times, BCG/Mskinsey Insights

2) Industry deep-dives

• Learn, in-depth, how the industries/companies your office advises, work. (PM me for an industry overview template)

3) Analytics tools

• Alteryx, Tableau, etc.

4) Excel

• Like everyone below has mentioned​

5) Powerpoint

• Best practices/standards
• Different layouts
• Quickly editing/updating slides
• Thinking in PowerPoint

6) Presentation skills / sharp communication

• There are some online/virtual classes for this

Feel free to reach out - I can provide you resources for all the above and/or spend time training you in them!

Dear A,

y congratulations to your offer! It's a first great step in your career!

For the candidates like you I have developed a specific program which is called "Get ready for your successful career". for the first 100 days and long-term career planning.

See details in my profile, where I'm covering all the aspect, skills and mindset which you will need to develop in order to become a successful consultant.

I, myself, was promoted from the consultant to the project-manager within 3 years which is extremely fast in terms of consulting, so I've put all my experiences in this programm, so I'm happy to share it with you in order to help you to build a successful career

If you are interested, drop me a line, and we can have a call with you to meet your objectives.


Best,

André

There is a lot of merits in understanding the ME market and culture(s). In terms of a hard skill, Excel is simply the basics, but this will not make you stand out. If you are looking for a USP, you can invest some time into programming or data visualization.