Hi there,

Congrats on getting that offer! Especially during a time where so many are convinced these firms are on a hiring freeze :P

First, recommend you read this before (and every so often during) your role:

Consulting Survival Guide - Tips for Your Consulting Career

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One common tactic for people who want to learn/advance rapidly is to jump straight into DD (Due Diligence). They ask to get ring-fenced into the PIPE practice.

^If your goal is what you said, this is the best

But, there is a cost here (time, sanity, stress, health, etc.)

The other way is to try to get on shorter term projects - but this can often be luck of the draw.

Hi there,

You should consider a couple of factors for project selection:

• The industry
• The reputation of the client
• The project scope/function
• The reputation of your leadership and team members
• Travel arrangements and logistics
• …

Especially if you start out, I would try to go for a longer-running project in an industry/function that is not workload-heavy, combined with a solid team and simple travel logistics.

You want to learn as much as possible early on and it's easier in a more relaxed setting (still working 60+ hours per week) where the team also has time to mentor you, than in a complete chaos project. You can always scale it up later on once you have learned the ropes.

If you want to learn more, check out my book Consulting Career Secrets where I discuss how to kick off your consulting career, get an early promotion, and keep it sustainable.

All the best,

Florian

Hi there,

this sounds all very ambitious and good but you should approach this step-by-step. “Best leaders” and “highest level of success” are highly subjective terminologies and mean different things to different people. Ultimately you have to like what you are doing to have longevity. 

I would recommend to try out some different industries that you feel an initial inclination towards. Some might be heavily geared towards B2B clients whereas others have more B2C exposure. 

In your first years you will have to excel as a consultant, not at selling project work or business development. So you want to stick to the areas and topics you have a personal interest in for it to be more enjoyable for you - amidst all the typical stress and frustration you will inevitably experience.

Best of luck 

In case you don't have a preference, just tell the staffer that. 

It's more of a formality that they ask you. Typically, they staff you on whatever they can in the beginning because you don't yet have a value prop. 

So if you are indeed fine with any industry, then tell them so and show that you're flexible. You can then align to have the call again once you sample a couple of industries to tell them whether you'd want to go deeper into a particular one. 

Best,
Cristian

I don't think there's a specific “best industry”. 

You should network within the office to know which projects or partners are the most interesting to work with - and you have to consider YOUR OWN PREFERENCES. Both in terms of industry and type of work.