How to prep for your first day in consulting

Before I started my job as a strategy consultant a year ago, I've been told there is no need to prepare anything and that I will learn everything I need to know on the job.

This was true to some extent.

On my second day, I was put on a huge proposal that had been in the works for the past six months and there were only three days left to go to submission.

Everyone was in a rush, there was still plenty to be done and since I was the only consultant, a lot of the work-work was on me. So, let me just say that being overwhelmed does not begin to cover these first few days.

I'm not saying that this is the norm. On the contrary - I think it was an unusual situation. But, reflecting back, I think I could have done a couple of things before I joined to prepare myself for a smoother transition.

Here they are.

1) Use the skills you learned for casing

I'm sure you can recall practising case studies. I don't know about you, but the case structure was everything to me - it defined how I would progress through the problem and I used it as a map I referred back to as I worked through the case.

When you have a strong framework and plan for getting from A to B, it gets much easier to solve the problem. If you don't have it, you are much more likely to get lost in the weeds, follow threads that don't really matter and sacrifice being quick and effective.

This also stands true when you work as a consultant.

Because of that, I think it is very helpful to work through a project or any assignment as if it were a case. You should always plan how you will tackle it by structuring the problem and thinking through how you would approach it if you were on the project on your own.

It will help you with a few things:

• It will allow you to have an opinion of your own and contribute to the discussion with your managers and partners.
• As you receive new pieces of information, a structure will help you understand where each piece fits instead of feeling overwhelmed by the volume of seemingly unrelated data.
• It will save you time because 1) you will be able to spot any errors in your approach at a thinking stage before you start executing and 2) you will be much more focused when executing because you will know exactly what you need and where you're going.

2) Understand the expectations and your responsibilities

You will, of course, learn this on the job, but I think having a basic understanding would have been helpful when I started.

When I started a year ago, I had no idea the good practices I knew from health sciences wouldn't be considered such good practices in consulting.

For example, when doing research for a written project in health sciences (and science in general), it is usually praised to present a well-rounded view of a topic, considering both pros and cons and being critical of the information you find.

In consulting, it would have been ideal to present this depth of understanding every time you're asked to find some information, but the reality is that there is no time to embark on a little research project every time. To balance time and quality, the research process is less rigorous, which is both good and bad news.

Good because it can save you a lot of time.

Bad because if you're unaware of the expected depth of research, you're going to drown in work, trying to do great work based on the definitions you have built up in your previous experience.

So, once you join, I think one of the best ways to understand the expectation is to follow someone of your grade for a day or two and observe how they do their job. This will give you a snapshot of what is required and it is much easier to mimic someone's good practices than discover what good practices look like.

Not sure how different consultancies would respond to such a proposition, but if you frame it the right way, I think they should be open to it.

3) Read up on some topics

Each consultancy has a niche.

There are industries they focus on and the types of projects they do.

Although it's not essential - like nothing in this article is - I think you would benefit from a basic understanding of these before joining.

You should be able to find this information on their website, but on top of this, you would ideally know these things from the networking conversations you had before your application (see this article for context).

If you don't, I suggest connecting with someone from your team (HR should be able to help with that) before your start date to understand their industry and project-type focus.

Then, study the general trends and main players within these industries in your location. I wish I had done that before my start date because there is little time to do it once the daily whirlwind of responsibilities begins.

When it comes to specific types of projects they do, I would try to understand different methodologies you can apply to these projects and look for specific frameworks or approaches that could be applicable. Often, consultancies publish their main approaches or frameworks, so if I were you, I would check them out.

4) Get familiar with PPT and Excel

It's no secret that you spend your days in PowerPoint and Excel when you're in consulting.

I know some consultancies offer training as part of onboarding, teaching you how to use these tools effectively. But if you have some spare time before you join, I think it would be time well spent familiarising yourself with them.

If I were redoing the onboarding process again, I would have taken some sort of course on PPT and Excel to learn basic functions and keyboard shortcuts to speed up my work. On top of this, I would have probably familiarised myself with what good slide design looks like to make the transition into consulting a tad easier.

5) Draft your SOPs

I said it a couple of times already - I like SOPs. SOPs are standard ways of doing things and apply to every area of life. It is just worthwhile to think about the best, most efficient way of doing things once instead of reinventing the wheel over and over.

This also stands true for how you work in consulting. Before you join, I would think through different scenarios of what you will have to do and think about how best to do it. One example is note-taking - you will need to take different types of notes in different contexts and I think giving it some thought to make sure you don't lose stuff or feel overwhelmed is worth the time. You can check out an article on how to take notes in consulting here.

Another example is starting new projects. Yes, every project is different, but there are some common components you can templify and reuse repeatedly. I might write another article on that at some point.

Conclusion

That's about it - I think if I had done these five things before or just when I joined, I would have experienced my first few consulting months very differently. As I said, these steps are by no means essential and you will be fine, even if you don't prepare at all (look at me). But, if you have some spare time before you join, going through these points will make it much easier to make the transition.

Hope this was helpful. Speak next week xx