New Hire: Please give me tips on how to manage my first few months

Question

Hello, so I've just joined an MBB as an associate. It's been two months but I find that I'm still having difficulties in the following:

- Delivering quality work fast, especially with regards to qualitative work and research in areas I'm not familiar with

- Communicating and presenting my thought process

- Obtaining all the required understanding and latest developments on the case, before planning and making my recommendations

Any of you have any tips that may help me out here? Tips in general on how you've managed your first year in consulting would be great too! Appreciate it

Answer 1

Hi A,

Couple of ideas based on my experience

- Dare to ask: it's normal that you feel uncomfortable at the start of a study in a field you don't know. It's also completely normal to ask lots of clarifying questions at the beginning of a study. Nothing is worse than a team member rushing full speed before understanding what the study is about. Plan a knowledge coffee with your engagement manager, plan a 30-minute call with a research analyst or knowledge expert, talk to previous team members, look up primer documents on your knowledge platform etc.

- Work 80/20: don't confuse "quality work" with "nitty-gritty detailed work". A well-structured approach is often more impactful than a super detailed excel analysis which takes you hours to make. You will get much more traction by having something clear rather than too detailed

- Communicate top-down: a good consultant is not a consultant who can tell all the details of his logic. A good consultant focuses on a USEFUL so-what. So in your communication, focus on the real insight rather than all the steps you have taken to get there. It will make your communication much shorter, to-the-point and effective.

Hope this helps & good luck!

Maxim