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Career Advice

First Six Months – Adjusting to Consulting Life

Is a job in consulting really what you expect it will be when you are a student, knee-deep in case prep and coffee chats?

In this series, we hear from new consultants who were recently in those shoes, and what their experience has actually been like during the transition from the dream to the day-to-day reality of consulting work.

Bill Nielsen graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business last June, and began working at Bain & Company in Chicago in September 2018. He shares some thoughts on his first months as a strategy consultant, and gives a few tips on how to make the most out of your business school time – beyond the hours of case prep.

Bill, how did your first week on the job go? Any highs or lows?

The first week was mostly training and orientation. It was a great way to meet and get to know my start class, learn more about the office and tech, and finally settle in. The worst part about that first week was being back at work after a full summer off!

What were the most useful things about business school that prepped you for your consulting role? Is there anything you wish you had done while you were a student?

I’d have to say that Cost Analysis and Microeconomics were by far the best classes I took at business school to prepare me for life as a consultant. I do wish I had done more modelling while still in school. That being said, while the quantitative skills are certainly important to learn, the art of storytelling is really important to put those numbers into a context that will mean something to a client.

Is there anything that you thought you knew about the job or your firm that turned out to be different in reality?

Honestly, for me, I think for the most part the transition into the role has been pretty straightforward. What you see is what you get in consulting, and after spending time interviewing with the people, understanding business case analysis, and researching the firms, I knew what I would be getting into at Bain.

What was the biggest lifestyle change (positive or negative) that you had to make after starting your job? How have you dealt with that change?

I’m on a local assignment, and while I may be around physically, the workload isn’t necessarily any lighter than it would be if I was travelling regularly. Calibrating my expectations with my fiancé’s to the new job and my availability after being a student took a couple of weeks. Though I can’t be around all the time, at least on the local assignment I get to come home and sleep in my own bed.

Do you have any pieces of advice that you would like to pass along to people who may be pursuing a consulting role? 

The cases really are key – make sure you like doing them, because they aren’t just important during the interview phase. So many of those concepts and practices spill into the work; if you don’t like the prep work to land a consulting role, you probably won’t actually like consulting. And definitely take Cost Analysis!

Shelby Wenner is passionate about making a lasting social impact through her work. She worked in government and nonprofit consulting in Washington, DC and Chicago. She is currently a student at Chicago Booth School of Business and a business analyst at UChicago Medicine.

Image: Pexels

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