Did too many cases & Losing Motivation. What do I do to recover?

Hi - great question and sorry to hear about the experience you are having.

First and foremost, make sure you take care of your mental health. Consulting is definitely not life and death, there are many paths into consulting, and there are many paths to be successful that are not consulting. Many of history's great leaders and businesspeople would probably not have got into consulting but were brilliant in other ways. Booking the trip to Croatia and taking a break are both good ideas, please do make sure you continue to find ways that work for you to take care of yourself.

In terms of your case performance, a view things to consider:
- Rejections are common, I would encourage you to persist (and try to get as much feedback as you can to help you improve)
- It is not uncommon for someone not to get an offer at a certain time, get another job that gives them relevant experience and builds their skills that leads them to be successful in consulting later on
- You are placing a lot of pressure on yourself and this pressure likely shows in the interviews. The best performances in case interviews are always the ones where the candidate genuinely enjoys solving problems and is almost excited to solve the problem together with the interviewer. Try to take some of the pressure off yourself and focus on enjoying solving unique and interesting problems (which is why many of us do the job!)

Hope this helps and please reach out if it can be helpful.

Kind regards,
Kurt

 

First thing to do: Stop

You're exactly right to take a 10 day break AND exactly right to fly to Croatia.

Not only are you burned out and de-motivated, but whatever you were doing wasn't working!

You need to take time to recover so that you can approach it again with energy but also approach it with a new approach (i.e. without the tunnel vision you had before).

Take and indeterminate amount of time off.

If you set a deadline, it will always be on your mind. 

If you set a deadline, that date might not be right. In fact it won't be right.

Switch off. Completely. Restart when you “feel” like it. When you've gathered yourself up, you'll know. Then, hire a coach (because self-study/prep wasn't enough!)

Hi,

You have answered it partly yourself..to stop this negative Thinking-Feeling loop. The way you think is the way you feel and the way you feel is the way you think. Most of us get stuck in this loop day in day out and sometimes for years. The same thoughts rush in when you wake up. So how can you possibly create a new possibility or future with this mindset?

Get away from this for a while & focus on doing things you like and that will re-charge you. Pay attention to this situation and understand what could be going wrong i.e. are you making the same mistakes repeatedly? Confront the question whether Consulting is really the right career for you? 

Get back into cases only when you feel sufficiently charged and genuinely feel like it. Anything else will be forcing it and there is no fun. If you are not enjoying what you are doing, why waste the time & effort? 

Have a look at this article for some guidance & tips- preplounge.com/en/articles/how-do-i-know-which-career-is-right-for-me

All the best and hope Croatia is fun :).

Hello there, 

sorry to hear about your journey so far. 6 rejection: is the reason the same or are you getting different reasons for rejection? I think every rejection is disappointment but also opportunity to understand what to improve and get there. 

I would recommend to 

1. Take a break and STOP thinking about it to reset your mind

2. Request detail feedback from each consulting firm and go through them to understand what is it that you need to improve

3. Evaluate if you want to keep trying consulting or just not go for consulting as there are other fun jobs that could satisfy you as well

4. if deciding for consulting, get a plan and at this stage you would benefit from a coach

5. if you go with a coach, ask for 1st session to mock full interview and to do a diagnostic to give you very detail where you stand, what chances you truly have and how long it would take to get there 

Wishing you all the best,

Lucie

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Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this. Sounds familiar indeed and you're certainly not alone.

The solution for such problems really varies as the problem itself is deeply personal (as are the circumstances i.e. do you work full time, are you a student, etc.?). 

That being said, a break of 10 days seems like nothing. It's not the days per se but rather what you do to reenergize, get a positive mindset and motivation to continue the journey (if that's what you really want - it may not be…).

In my case, I would go and do plenty of fly fishing with my son and mix that with work on some entrepreneurial projects and renovation work in my apartment. What energizes you and makes you happy???

Hope this helps a bit. Best of luck!

Hello!

So sorry to hear about that! Burnout is a thing, and when it hits u… all you can do is rest. That is fundamental to break that cyrcle!

I think you are doing the right thing: Croatia in the sun and nature will for sure help. 

Cheers, 

Clara

It doesn't seem like you did too many cases. If after 50 cases you still use generic approaches you are still at begginer level. 

It seems like you were taking the wrong approach to cases. If you're practicing the wrong way and with the wrong mindset, more cases doesn't help. It hurts.

So yes, definitely you need a reboot.

Regarding how to approach a case, here's a great answer from Coach Ian that should shed some light on how to do it: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-be-hypothesis-driven-what-does-is-really-mean-10327

I’m sorry to hear.  I struggle to comment to knowing anything about who you are and the situation you are in (E.g., looking for an internship, graduating and desperately need a job, experienced hire, etc.).  Taking a break sounds sensible but what you do from there I think really depends on what you’re after.  Feel free to DM me if you want to share more.

There is one tip, I hope it will work for you., Surround yourself with people who have the same goals as you. as Tim Ferriss quote says: "You are the product of the five people, you spend the most time with."