Experienced Hire as Senior Consultant @ Deloitte

Question

Hi All,
I have been offered a Senior Consultant role in Deloitte, Singapore . A head hunter tracked me down on LinkedIn and setup the partner interviews and case interviews and every thing went well. I had to compete with MBA's and other experienced hires for the role. My base pay increased by 60% and gross pay increased by 23%. I am happy with the numbers after negotiations.

Now, I am feeling excited and nervous and I have a feeling whether this is a right move for me as I have no consulting experience before or an MBA. Imposter syndrome has creeped in.

Is this normal? Any one who had similar experience or any tips to tackle this would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi there, and congrats for the great accomplishment.

Impostor syndrome is very common, and almost a rule. The career is very accelerated and you are always questioning if you “deserve” being in that position. As an Associate Partner, I have friends that made it to Partner in MBB with the very same feeling.

Having said that, what you have to avoid is allowing this feeling to consume you and prevent you from doing good work. Few tips for you:

a) Give yourself the benefit of the doubt: since you received the offer, you already showed value - give yourself some time to continue to show it

b) Bear in mind everyone has been there: this feeling is inside everyone, welcome to the club

c) Dont hesitate to talk about it and ask for help: one consequence of the impostor syndrome is being afraid of asking for help/guidance/support. Please, don’t go there, since you have no previous consulting experience, you WILL be lost in several moments, and very often in the beginning. Ask for supervisors help and guidance. Get close to peers and ask them for support as well. As well as the consulting prep journey, this should motor be a lonely path.

Hope this helps! Wish you good luck with your first steps in consulting :)

Best,

Afonso

Answer 2

Oh boy is this normal! I don't think I've met a single consultant who didn't have impostor syndrome!

Don't worry, you got in through an intense vetting process - you are worthy!

In terms of navigating it, just “own” it so to speak! Relax in knowing that you are not alone!

If you don't understand something, ask. If you're looking to learn, find ways to do so. But, remember that the consulting toolkit is a massive one that takes years and years to train (and even as you do, you will always have further to go).

Continuous learning my friend :)

Answer 3

Hey there! You interviewed, passed and you DESERVE to be there just as much as anyone else who got offers. Congratulations!

To give you another perspective, I had followed the traditional consultant path (Undergrad - Consulting - MBA - Back to Consulting) and I always admired (and envied!) experienced hires. Do not have your personal context, but experienced hires would usually have deep expertise in an area or an industry. This expertise that my team members brought allowed for generating quick rapport with clients and having a real understanding as to how to craft a recommendation that is feasible. I learned most on my projects from experienced hires and or experts.

In short, be proud of your previous experience, OWN it, it is clearly valuable for Deloitte and share your knowledge and always keep an open mind to learn from others :-).

Answer 4

Hi there,

This is totally normal. It's an experience everybody goes though when they start in management consulting.

I recently wrote an article on PrepLounge about the challenges people have when they join consulting and how to overcome them. Hope you'll find it useful - https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/entry-level-consultant-what-is-it-like