Seeking advice: how to ramp up consulting skill and sector knowledge after joining?

Question

I’ve joined my new firm (small firm focusing in one industry) as a consultant recently, and I feel quite pressured due to 2 reasons, which might not exist at MBB firms. Keen to learn from your experience and advice:

(1) My boss expects me to be able to “lead juniors” as soon as I joined, no matter whether there’s a manager above me or not. It’s pressuring since I don’t have much consulting experience.

I’ve heard that for MBB, entering as a consultant, it’s more often to work on your own work stream (without needing to lead juniors) before you get promoted and start to manage people. Is it true? If not, how did you ramp up consulting skill set and start to lead juniors as a consulting newbie?

(2) I have moved from another country (where the market environment is very different from the current one where I work at). Besides, I don’t have much experience in the sector my company focuses at. My boss strengthened that it is important to learn the local business environment and sector knowledge as soon as possible since consultant need to manage client.

For MBB, I would imagine consultants (or associates at McKinsey) work in a wide range of topics / regions / industry, is industry knowledge critical at this level? How did you overcome this barrier and equip sector knowledge really fast to be able to handle clients (especially for those that joined as MBA or experienced hire, covering different industries which you don't have experience) ?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Answer 1

Hi there,

You're in a tough spot, but don't despair.

There are many things that you can do. Just make sure you don't try to do all of them at the same time.

In terms of leading juniors - leadership isn't only about having more knowledge on a particular topic or even about experience. Leadership is also about initiative, self-control, maturity, courage, sacrifice and many other things. Try reflecting on what are the things that you have or know that you could teach others, i.e., the juniors. Then leverage those in the relationship with them. In return, try and learn as much as possible from what they know. Perhaps, if they've been with the firm longer, they can help you learn more about the industry.
In terms of learning about the environment
- Ask questions - your best bet is to ask as many questions as early as possible. While no doubt this might make you feel stupid in the beginning, it's definitely the winning strategy over the long run. The alternative to this is hiding your lack of knowledge and having it discovered later on when you won't even have the cover of being the newbie.
- Check the firm's database - most firms have a knowledge database with useful articles on each country / industry / function / topic. In McKinsey they were called ‘knowledge nuggets’ or ‘primers’ and you could find one on virtually anything. Check whether your firm has anything similar.
- Press search - make a list of the questions that confuse you the most and then take a couple of hours on a weekend to research them. Try to make it fun and approach it with curiosity. This might help you accelerate your learning quite quickly.

Best,

Cristian

Answer 2

Hi there,

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

Answer 3

Hi there,

this sounds like a stressful situation to be in and it seems like you are somewhat overloaded very early on.

The exciting thing about working for a boutique consulting firm is that you get to wear many hats and you can play multiple roles and see all sorts of different facets of the business. On the flipside, it is exactly that which might make it especially challenging for a new joiner in consulting.

Larger firms have dedicated kick-off training camps for their new consultants as well as an established training curriculum throughout the different career levels to make sure that the employees are equipped with the essential consulting tool box (including how to best manage team members).

As for industry expertise, this is typically obtained through different avenues, e.g.

you already have background in it based on your university degree or prior work experience
you get a 101 intro from your colleagues/partners who are experienced in the space
you access the internal intranet database where you find a lot of market reports, prior project documentations and general industry know-how
you worked on a few consulting projects in a given space (leveraging the above) and thereby acquired the fundamental knowledge

I think you need to schedule a dedicated discussion with your boss to set up a development plan for you that includes target setting for the next months but also provides you with a set of resources to leverage and tap into

Who in your firm can give you material on the industry sector you are supposed to master?
Who can give you an initial voice-over and point you towards the essentials so you can get up to speed?
Can you propose a format (e.g. weekly coffee chats) in which you can have subject matter related Q&A sessions with the respective experts?

It sounds like there needs to be some expectation management with your boss and he/she is the one who has to give you some guidance - or nominate someone else in the firm to serve as a kind of mentor for you. After all, how are you supposed to effictively lead junior colleagues if you are still figuring out your own role?

Feel free to chat more if that would be helpful

Answer 4

Be pragmatic. There is no need to ask (and answer) your questions about the differences between your current situation and MBB, since the situation you are facing, requires a quick solution.

I have some recommendations to ramp up your consulting skills:

Plan your work and your juniors' work in detail
Ask yourself what is the most important thing you need to accomplish and go relentless for that
Prioritize ruthlessly (as I have done ignoring your unnecessary question on MBB)
Gain knowledge on your firm sector by talking with people on LinkedIn, reading MBB reports, watching YouTube videos, etc

All the rest is priority 2.

Answer 5

1) Leadership is not about having the technical skills. Leadership in this case is about “owning” the deliverable (i.e., you are the ultimate responsible for making sure it happens, it is zero-defect, it has good insights, making sure you communicate ofter with the manager on project status, etc.). This is about MINDSET.

Of course, you are in the tought spot of having to acquire technical expertise from your juniors. Well, don't be shy and ask them for their help as well.

2) Regarding industry knowledge… it is usually not an issue. I learn new industries in record time. That's the skill you need to acquire (how to learn new industries in record time). And yes, that requires reading a lot. A lot of intelectual curiosity, good research skills, and putting the time and effort.

Shortcuts? Talking to experts. That's the biggest accelerator out there. But please notice that experts can be within your own team and firm. Go and reach out to them, and have 30/60 min conversations to absorb as much as possible from the market.

Another shortcut is to read previous project work done by your firm (if they don't have other/better type of materials).