He joined BCG at 34...
Joining an MBB firm as an experienced hire is not easy. The learning curve is too steep. The pressure is unbearable. Read this transformation story from a BCG consultant.
Chris joined BCG at 34 (altered name).
He joined BCG after completing his MBA and having a few years of experience working in an engineering company.
As an experienced hire, Chris struggled a lot.
The learning curve was too steep. He was expected to completely relearn how to work, think, and speak. The consulting job was much more ambiguous and fast-paced than his previous corporate job.
He lacked the knowledge of unspoken rules and expectations. Managers and partners were saying one thing, while expecting something completely different. He was making basic mistakes without even understanding what he was doing wrong.
He felt constant pressure and stress. He worked in a reactive mode, always being behind without any time to think and learn.
He couldn’t find the coaches and mentors at work. All leaders were busy with their own survival. They simply didn’t have time to coach him at the level he needed.
On top of that, he was afraid to share his pains and struggles with managers and partners. He was afraid to look weak.
As a logical outcome of these struggles, he began to doubt whether he had made a good choice by joining consulting. He doubted his own intelligence and worth.
Here’s how he shared his pain with me:
I needed a mentor who had experienced a similar transition and understood the unique challenges of moving from a corporate environment to the ambiguity of consulting.
That was his starting point when he enrolled in my coaching program, the Hero’s Journey. This program is designed specifically for MBB consultants to achieve high performance and become confident and successful.
We worked together for a couple of months to rewire his consulting toolkit.
We quickly improved his slide-making. He used to make simple formatting mistakes that degraded his slides, leading to unnecessary churn, rework, and iterations. This was a clear result of under-apprenticeship in his early time at BCG.
Then, we worked on his problem-solving skills. He made simple logical mistakes that rendered his outputs incorrect.
He would misunderstand the problem, make incorrect assumptions, choose suboptimal solutions, and develop trivial and uninsightful outputs. That caused unnecessary iterations and friction, wasting precious time and killing his reputation.
He didn’t have a robust process for problem-solving. We implemented the process so he could work with more rigor, making sure he didn’t make any logical mistakes in his work.
And finally, we worked on his soft skills to make sure he was visible and valuable at work. We improved his communication, visibility, scope management, and other related soft skills.
Today, he leads projects with confidence. His partners respect and support him. He is confident in his own abilities and not afraid to work on the most challenging projects.
Chris says:
Rustem has been the best mentor and people developer I’ve ever met. His support and guidance helped me to navigate my consulting journey.
To read more client testimonials about my coaching program, visit this website: Client Testimonials.
The consulting journey is complex and treacherous. Walking it alone is extremely difficult.
It’s helpful to have the support of someone experienced (me, wink wink) who has gone through this journey and helped many others.
That is why I developed a coaching program for MBB consultants to help you achieve high performance and become successful.
If you are an MBB consultant and sick of struggling with performance and development, I would like to speak with you.
Book a Free 1-1 Consultation to discuss whether I can help you through my coaching program. There is no commitment, and you can ask any burning questions in a risk-free environment.
Read this post to learn more about the Hero’s Journey coaching program.
You know, I focus on a very narrow segment:
- active MBB consultants (generalists);
- experienced hires; post-MBA or post-PhD; in their 30s;
- second-year consultants (>12 months tenure); transitioning to an EM role;
- in good standing (no negative rating);
You joined MBB Consulting to radically change your career. That is why you can't afford to fail and waste your time.
This narrow specialization allows me to provide highly precise and practical advice to transform and accelerate time to impact.