I started my careeer in consulting 1 month ago and I am currently on my first project and I am doing research etc
However, I am afraid my next projects can have financial modeling or programming, as I am not particularly skilled in any of these hard skills, even after the training sessions.
What did you do, experts, back then when you started your career?
Hi! You just have to be clear about what will be expected in a project and whether you have skills/experience in this field. If not, just be candid and clear about it. Then the partner/project manager can decide whether they still wnat to staff you and give you corresponding coaching and guidance. Just make sure that you don't allow fear to take over and exclude opportunities just because you're not sure whether you have the right skills. That's what pre-staffing communication is there for.
Cheers, Sidi
Hello!
At the beggining, none feels ready for anything (have you yet heard about the theory of the hiring mistake? Every feels like that at some point the first weeks).
Truth is that in consulting, you will learn how to walk by running. So don´t worry, since you will get up to speed as soon as your are staffed in an engagement that requires something like that.
In the meantime, something that you can practice if you have bandwidth is Excel and PPTX. This will give you speed (i.e., hours of sleeping) in the future.
Hope it helps!
Cheers,
Clara
Dear anonymous,
Dont worry about it. It's not given that you are an expert of excel or other advanced software. When I was on my first project, I was not able to do even a pivot table on excel. They know that you are at your first project and they will teach you everything that you need.
The only real requirement is to be able to learn everything really fast, since you won't have the time to excercise or study material. If you feel particularly weak about this, you can use inverst your free time in some online courses that are usually available in the intranet of the company.
Best,
Luca
Take it easy, you are not supposed to be an expert from month one and everyone has learned by doing.
Best,
Antonello
