What will you do in your first year as an analyst?

As Ian said, the best way to get your answers is by talking to someone who is/has been working at one of your target firms…

Still, let me try to give you some simplified insights on your question:

Q1. Activities within the first few weeks

• You will get some initial training to help you understand mainly tooling and behavior as a strategy consultant
• Within your cases, you will likely spend most of your time learning how to get more efficient with standard consulting tools (Powerpoint, Excel, Tsomewhat, …) -
• Most tasks will be rather straightforward and simple (i.e. researching, build specific slides, building simple excel models, …)
• One of the most important things as a junior consultant is being diligent, even with “simple tasks”! If you can prove early on, that other people can rely on delegating tasks to you, you will quickly get other, more complex tasks

Q2. After 3-6 Months

• You should have mastered some of the basics so far (esp. tooling)
• Therefore, you will now focus on strategy "how consulting actually works”, ideally reflecting on things like project scoping, team setup and, most importantly, communication with clients, partners and (senior) managers

Q3. Initial year  

• In addition to your case work, you will get the opportunity to work on some other consulting activities - i.e. supporting some industry events, research and contributions for content / papers, or internal organizational preparations
• But still, the learning curve in your cases is huge - as you will see more and more projects, you will be able to transfer and use learnings from your initial cases

Q4. Second year

• You already gained some routines, and you internalized the efficient use of standard tools (pptx and xlsx)
• As you have gained experience with your first 2-6 Projects, therefore you will be able to take more steering within your tasks / projects and you will be able to initially leverage your gained project experience

(Your second question should be somehow covered in my explanations above)

My illustrations above are somehow metaphorical and can of course vary strongly from each firm, context or individual person. I think it can give you a potential perspective on “what you will do in your first year as an analyst”. 

Reach out if you have more (specific) questions!

Hi there,

These are big questions! There are so many different elements here that could be addressed.

I highly recommend you pick up the phone and have some networking calls with people - this is one of the main points of networking (to better understand the job. Some oversimplified answers are:

1. Training.

2. You'll be on a project learning on the job.

3. More projects

4. More projects

A second question: what are the main challenges that an analyst/ senior analyst faces, even at more junior levels?  

This is a 5th question ;). The challenges are going to be different depending on the individual. For some it's the quant side (excel, Alteryx, modeling etc.). For others it's the frameworking side. For others it's the client management side. For others it's the industry/business knowledge.

^You might see an interesting pattern here…casing prepares you for the job itself!

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LET'S ANSWER YOUR REAL QUESTION (LEARN TO BE MORE OBJECTIVE-DRIVEN/CONCISE) - HOW DO I PREPARE FOR THE JOB?

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Know that no-one can perfectly prepare for the job and that's the point: You will mess up, you will learn, you will be trained and supported. That's OK!

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First: I have a consulting survival guide handbook with 25 key tips for surviving the consulting world. Feel free to message me for it!

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Second: In terms of things you can learn/do to prepare beforehand:

1) Daily Reading

• The Economist, The Financial Times, BCG/Mskinsey Insights

2) Industry deep-dives

• Learn, in-depth, how the industries/companies your office advises, work. (PM me for an industry overview template)

3) Analytics tools

• Alteryx, Tableau, etc.

4) Excel

5) Powerpoint

• Best practices/standards
• Different layouts
• Quickly editing/updating slides
• Thinking in PowerPoint

6) Presentation skills / sharp communication

• There are some online/virtual classes for this

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Third: In terms of doing well in your role when you're there:

1) Understand the context/prompt (what role are you in, what company, who's watching, etc.)

2) Understand the objective (what, specifically, is expected from you...both day to day, and in your overall career progression)

3) Quickly process information, and focus on what's important - Take a lot of information and the unknown, find the most logical path, and focus on that.

4) Be comfortable with the unknown, and learn to brainstorm - think/speak like an expert without being one

In summary, there will always be a flood of information, expectations, competition etc. and not enough time. Find out which ones matter when. (i.e. be visibile and focus efforts on the things that people care about)

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Fourth: Here are some great prior Q&As for you!

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/what-makes-a-good-consultant-how-to-get-a-good-review-6790

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-hard-is-it-to-excel-in-top-consulting-firms-6762

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-become-an-engagement-manager-and-partner-quickly-6722

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/need-to-learn-skills-in-the-ample-free-time-before-starting-at-an-mbb-what-should-i-do-6774

Hi,

Sharing my perspective having gone through the ranks. 

At MBB and bigger firms, typically you would start with an orientation/beginner training. 

Your life will then become a mix of projects and proposals (depending on the pipeline), with some occasional office-related activities (e.g. maybe an offsite).

Typically as analysts progress, they get given more responsibilities and are expected to perform at a higher level with every year that they progress.

The main challenges IMO would be in terms of really demonstrating module ownership - this is what I see most of my analysts struggle with.

Happy to chat on this with anyone who is interested.