Starting at MBB

Do enjoy the time you have now!

That being said, if learning and training is something you enjoy doing then here are some recommendations: 

Excel
Skills to focus on:

·       Basic Functions & their keyboard shortcuts: SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNT…

·       Intermediate Functions: VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, IF, SUMIF, COUNTIF, PivotTables…

·       Data Management: Sorting, filtering, data validation, and using Excel tables…

You will most likely never use advanced Excel functions.

Courses:

·       Excel Skills for Business Specialization by Macquarie University on Coursera.

·       Excel Essentials for the Real World by Leila Gharani on Udemy.

·       Advanced Excel for Business Analysts on LinkedIn Learning.
- Data Visualization: Creating charts and graphs 

PowerPoint Skills
Skills to focus on:

·       Basic Skills: Slide creation, using themes and templates, text formatting…

·       Design Principles: Effective use of colors, fonts, and images, slide layout…

·       Storytelling: Structuring a presentation to tell a compelling story.

·       Data Visualization: Creating charts, graphs, and infographics with ThinkCell. If you don’t have this just play in Excel.

·       Advanced Features: Master slides, animations, transitions, embedding multimedia…

Courses:

·       PowerPoint for Beginners to Advanced on Udemy.

·       Presentation Skills: Designing Presentation Slides on LinkedIn Learning.

·       The Complete PowerPoint and Presentation Skills Masterclass on Udemy.

Other tools
Data Analysis and Visualization: Tableau, Power BI.
Project Management: Trello.
Collaboration Tools: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace.

News Articles and Industry Reports

·       Financial Times

·       The Wall Street Journal

·       Harvard Business Review

·       The Economist

·       Bloomberg

But, if you want processed information for free, you can subscribe to the Newsletter by International Intrigue. Designed by former diplomats, they inform on latest events and include their perspective: https://www.internationalintrigue.io/

You can also read publications for specific industries on the Big 3 websites.

Books
1. The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel
2. The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy by Carl W. Stern and Michael S. Deimler
3. Case Interview Secrets by Victor Cheng
4. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
5. Measure What Matters by John Doerr
6. Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
7. Good to Great by Jim Collins
8. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

I hope this helps, but please only do a few of these for enjoyment and rest. Consulting is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

Hey there,

Congrats on the achievement!

If you are interested in preparing for your new role, I'd suggest the following:

When I got the offer some years ago I did the same. I reached out to people I knew in McKinsey and people who interviewed me to ask: what can I do to make the start easier? how can I prepare?

The answer from everyone was: Relax! Enjoy your time before you start and don't think about it. You will figure it out on the job. I followed that advice and it made sense to me once I joined.

When you start at in top tier consulting there are 2 ways to learn:

1. Formal training. The formal training sessions/ weeks/ days in the beginning, are nice, however, they are more for networking and meeting your peers. You learn some interesting concepts and get some useful tips from more experienced consultants BUT
2. Constant and implicit learning on the job is where it's at. No matter if you are a newcomer or a veteran after 2 years, you will always find yourself on a steep learning curve. As soon as you barely mastered one skill or the skills needed for one level in the hierarchy, you will take care of things, which are expected from a more senior colleague. This cycle never ends. You are expected to learn on the job, learn from your colleagues, your mentors, sometimes even the client. So basically a newly promoted Engagement Manager has the same 'struggle' as a new-hire Business Analyst. They both need to work in a completely new environment and role.

Knowing that, if we now go back to square one in your BCG journey it makes perfect sense to enter the firm with a blank slate with a lot of curiosity and eagerness to soak it all up and quickly learn the ropes.

Nothing matches the experience and the learning and this is a good thing (also the reason why ex-MBBs are valued highly on the job market).

You will learn everything you need to master while doing it. You will be thrown in the cold water and need to swim. However, your colleagues will always be happy to help you and mentor you. And for the rest, you will figure everything out along the way. The key here is always to ask for tips, shortcuts, feedback, etc. Don't be quiet if you get stuck.

Lastly, if you have no domain knowledge about a certain industry or topic, read through the internal library of documentation (which is endless) and call some of the firm experts on the topic. Usually, they are happy to offer you a short call to get you up to speed.

But here’s something extra: Since the question came up ever so often with my clients, I've authored a book titled "Consulting Career Secrets," specifically to guide newcomers like you in navigating this journey. The goal of the book was to answer all typical questions of entry-level consultants and show them the way to make the entry and the transition as simple and painless as possible. While no book or training can entirely prep you for the unique experiences of your first day, week, or project, it offers comprehensive insights to mentally prepare you, suggests essential tools and skills to acquire, shows you the ways how to do that, and strategies to quickly adapt and excel in your new role. You can DM me if you want to know more.

In any case, don't sweat the small stuff and enjoy the ride!

Florian

Hi there,

congratulations on your offer. Of course, you will learn the most important things on the job. You should also enjoy the free time you have before your job starts as this will be stressful enough.

 But here are some things you can do in the meantime that will be useful:

• follow news on publications of your new company
• stay informed about the macro environment (economy, geopolitical topics, etc)
• in case you already know that you will join a specific industry practice, monitor trends in that industry sector
• familiarize yourself with key Excel functions (i.e. pivot tables, V-Lookup, index match)
• familiarize yourself with the general PowerPoint functions and overall slide design - most companies will have their own PPT plug-in tools though that you will get training on once you join the firm. They also have their own templates and company standards for slides. So there is not really a significant headstart possible for you I would argue but you should know what a slide master is, where to find the alignment functions, how to insert graphs, etc.
• read up on the concept of “executive communication”

Best of luck

Hi,

Congrats on the offer and glad that you are enthusiastic about starting and doing well.

To be honest, and speaking from experience having spent ~9 years in consulting, just relax and enjoy your time before you start the job. 

Sure you can read those books recommended (they are good no doubt), but a large portion of what it takes to do well on the job involves aspects that you really can't prepare for or influence before you are actually in it. 

So for now - just enjoy your time, you won't have any once you start :)

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the offer!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

• While it is great to see how eager you are to prepare for your career start with your future employer, I would highly advise you not to worry about it. All major consulting firms will provide you with excellent onboarding and training that will prepare you for everything you need to know.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming role nonetheless, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen