As a new consultant, how to build up confidence (dealing with boss/client)?

Hi there!

I faced a similar issue when I first started (especially as an Asian male in the US). Here are some tips that I find helpful:

1. It's natural and we all (at least most of us) feel the same way. Consulting is a competitive industry (especially MBB) -- as a 22 years old, you are expected to be an expert in a field that you know little about and be able to persuade / lead a group of clients who have 20+ years of experience. It's natural for us to feel this way
2. Find a good case experience to build up confidence. It takes time to build up confidence and a good case experience is the best way to go. The key is to find a team and a topic that you are comfortable with. Think of a topic that you are familiar with (if you are a math wizard then find a more quantitative case) and managers / partners that you know. It's much easier for you to be confident in those circumstances. Use that experience as a starting point and slowly build up your confidence
3. Observe others that you admire. Are there project leaders/principals/partners in your team that demonstrate strong self-assurance and confidence? Overserve their behavior. Or better yet, schedule time with them and ask them to be your mentor (depending on the firm you are at, most people are willing to help)

Hope this helps!

Best,

Ziliang

(edited)

Hi, confidence is a long term goal made by multiple steps. Start by realizing that you are great and you have all the skills you need to be a successful consultant, since you've just passed a truly competitive admission process (in this period especially, even more competitive than usual). Start to participate more in problem-solving sessions and in discussions with management team: you add value and you are there for this.

Best,
Antonello

Hi Anonymous,

Thanks for openly sharing your situation - it's a common issue among candidates, but many of them don't feel confident enough to even talk about that. So good first step!

In my experience this won't be a big deal. You won't go to dinner parties with C-level executives alone on your first day, and consulting firms have a rather warm and helpful atmosphere (especially compared to investment banking), and this will give you some time to adopt and starting feeling yourself more comfortable.

Also, you will get tons of feedback (not always fun, but mostly always helpful!) and you will grow a lot, based on that.

More specifically for consulting now, your confidence will be in direct relation with the work you did behind the scenes. Nobody will fight about opinions and views, but you can challenge based on facts. So if you do your homework and you have a compelling case, you will be confident by default - problem solved :-)

Obviously I simplified a bit, but I hope it gives you the general idea clearly.

Hope that helps - if so, please be so kind and give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

Hello!

I believe it´s a common thing in consulting -the world of insecure overachievers-, so don´t worry too much about it, happens to practically all at some point.

Something that I found particularly helpful was to have multiple feedback touchpoints.

For sure they´re great to see improvement areas, but even more to see amazing points about yourself that you were not aware of!

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi there,

I've struggled with exactly the same issue!

I have a few tips, both short-term an dlong-term.

Short-term

• Figure out 1 thing you know or can add to each meeting. Decide it before the meeting and commit to saying it (if it makes sense).
• Commit to saying something the first 5 minutes of a meeting. If you wait, you'll never say anything
• Each morning when you wakeup, write down a sentence that will shift your mindset. You decide on the sentence, but it could be something like "I know I have value+input, and I will stand up for my views today)
• Power-pose in front of the bathroom mirror. This actually works and shifts your mindset. Don't let anyone see you doing it though :P

Medium to Long Term

• Get a supportive project lead! This makes all the difference...a great boss can build you up, a bad boss can unfortunately tear down the toughest of us. How do you find one? Figure out who has a good reputation, get to know them, make sure they like you + value your work, get staffed on their projects :)
• Go on a very long hike...solo. Something like the Camino de Santiago. If you walk for 5-10 days just on your own, you'll learn a lot about yourself and develop some inner confidence

Hope this helps!

Hi there,

It is difficult to find a quick remedy for these situations because there are a lot of variables that play a role in it.

What I can say is that as a new joiner, no one is expecting you to be vocal and interject in client meetings and the partner isn't expecting you to fight for your views just yet. So don't be in a rush to build confidence and end up choosing the wrong battle to fight.

Confidence will come with time once you get more comfortable with the ABCs of consulting (creating strong storylines, well structure slides, run smart analyses, etc.) - the more you work on the hard skills the more you can identify good ideas that are worth fighting for.

So for now, just focus on delivering what is asked of you and work the hard skills, and naturally, you will start hearing your voice more often in client meetings.

Believing in yourself and in your capabilities are pre-requisites for confidence.

I hope this helps

Khaled

Hi,

when you start a new job it's normal not to have complete confidence.

However, a consultant is expected to quickly show assertiveness in the communication. This inevitably comes with time and at the beginning you can force your nature a little through a very good preparation. Eg. in the event of a client meeting, or with your manager or your partner, do not hesitate to train yourself orally on the elements that you will present, and think in advance about all the questions that we can ask you about your slides, on your figures, on your analyzes ... and prepare answers.

Good preparation at the start will help you build confidence that shouldn't go away afterwards.

David