Takeaways from the first year in Consulting
It’s not frequently in life that the things fall in place for better.
Recruiting for the first time from my college, I had no alumni to connect and discuss the role.
For someone who had been involved in case studies, finance and economics for a major part of his college life, taking up an irrelevant, developer job would’ve been a weird shift.
But this was the choice I took during my campus placements — let’s take up any job as long as it’s at a reputable firm.
Let’s not go into debating my decision, that’s a different line altogether.
Halfway through a pile of interviews, I decided I was not being hired for software development because I was not relevant to that role and vice-versa. But I got placed after being rejected at multiple developer roles.
What I anticipated to be a developer role, turned out to be a pure strategy consulting one.
This was a great deal for me a year ago.
Completing a year as an analyst in the strategy consulting division at a prominent professional services firm has given me enough reason for lookback and dig some takeaways for a general audience, specifically aspiring consultants.
Lots of numbers and decks
One thing for sure you would be bombarded is with sheets with thousands of lines to be analysed and decks with tens of slides to be filled.
Making sense of what those numbers mean will only make your work easier and importantly help you distinguish yourself from peers.
Presenting information in a concise, engaging manner is crucial. As much as people would go ranting about spreadsheets and presentations, they’re integral out here.
Learn, learn and keep learning
Thrown into a new place is enough reason to learn, but learning is probably the best way to make sense of numbers and statements you make and pitch to clients.
Learning at a quick rate is definitely beneficial. Agreed that one may not be mastering it overnight, Be it getting a hang of technical terms or getting a hang of industry trends and coming up with acceptable points/suggestions and getting it refined is crucial, especially at lower levels.
The best part of consulting, you end up learning while doing it. One hardly gets spare time to refine skills technically or even soft skills like how to storyboard your deck to refining them to appeal to higher executives.
Juggling
Nope, not the actual act of juggling but rather multi-tasking.
Most consulting firms have both client projects and firm initiatives, which a practitioner is expected to participate in.
Both give you an opportunity to explore new domains and contribute to them. But juggling both the deadlines, especially if you’ve opted for a multiple of them at once in diverse domains, is something everyone has to display and in fact master it.
At one end you’re coming with a new strategy for the digital transformation of your client, at another, you’re developing a report for a new technological trend/approach. Amidst all these, you’ve to organise an event for training or someone’s visit. All these require a different set of skills, summoned at almost parallel times. Now that’s something.
Networking and Personal branding
Right from Day 1, talk to people get to know them professionally and leave behind an impression.
Leaving a positive impression is part of personal branding. With every meeting, you only add new facets to your impressions on their mind or bolster the existing impression
Be it peers to managers and partners, everyone is a crucial contact.
While this may not be easy for several, at consulting you do find a lot of examples where people have taken up this initiative to make quality networks and make their way to the top.
With staffing onto client projects and initiatives usually reliant on your network. It’s of paramount importance to surround yourself with positive peers and you leave a positive impression on their minds.
Find your mentor(s)
You’re probably surrounded by good folks who seem helpful, few weeks into the firm you know who’s good/reputed at what? It might just be your vibe or general word of mouth.
Keep everyone connected, but people mentioned above closer. Consider them your mentors, establish good relations and seek guidance at the professional level on how to overcome your shortcomings, new relevant skills to learn, handling deadlines and even emotions.
Surround yourself with such peers to get feedback regularly and improve self
Putting your point in an appropriate tone
One of the recurring themes of feedback in my early days, taking an aggressive tone while pointing out some loopholes or ultra-defensive while someone else points out flaws.
Mastering replies and tones, not only ensures your relations being proper but also protects work harmony.
This becomes paramount while dealing with client counterparts.
Conclusion
Consulting is great if you know what’s incoming. Yes, it does have dull phases, bad projects, negative people etc. But that’s the bet you place anywhere.
For me, well, so far so good. Let’s see how many years of consulting I have within me ☺
If it’s your career choice, I really hope you get what you’re seeking.
If you’re exploring, well let me know if I could be of help
If you’ve reached till here, I’m sure you’re an aspiring consultant (or my works’ avid follower :p).
Either case, Thank you.
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