If you are a first-year, lateral-hire MBB consultant, this is for you. Transform from a struggling, stressed, and lost to high-performing, confident, and fulfilled consultant.
Learn to work smart. Boost your productivity. Work on exciting projects. Solve the toughest problems. Build strong sponsorships. Secure your next promotion. Create a sustainable lifestyle.
Finally, enjoy yourself working in consulting.
Sounds too good to be true?
Well, what if I tell you it is possible?
But first, let me tell you that I feel your pain.
I experienced it myself when I joined consulting at 34. The first two years were extremely challenging.
No one talks about it, so let me spell it out for you.
The consulting industry faces an unprecedented crisis.
Overhiring has led to a massive imbalance in supply and demand.
This continues to radically reduce client work for consultants.
Staffing has become extremely competitive.
In this situation,
Lateral hires have become the most vulnerable group.
They lack strong networks, struggle with work, and are too expensive.
There is no time to ramp up and learn the ropes.
It's an impossible situation.
They must compete with younger, more tenured colleagues.
Younger colleagues fill in all available staffing opportunities.
Lateral hires can't work and learn on client projects.
Inevitably, they fall behind in their development, becoming the first victims of continuous layoffs.
I highly recommend joinig Rustem’s MBB coaching program. There are three aspects that sets his program apart from others: 1) Unique content 2) Great personality 3) Community of people. Rustem gave me exact specific set of advice that I needed to focus on building on my strengths and kickstart my momentum. Rustem has a fantastic personality. He is an incredibly knowledgealbe friend who is always there for you, who is trustworthy and great to work with.
Tanush Jagdish, Associate @ McKinsey & Co, Boston USA
But even if they do survive and overcome these impossible obstacles,
Consultants fall into the trap of average performance.
In MBB firms, being average is extremely uncomfortable.
These firms are inherently competitive, rewarding high performers disproportionately.
Average performers feel like second-class citizens scrapping for leftovers.
As a result, they miss out on great opportunities and experiences.
If you are an MBB consultant and want to achieve high performance, please Book a Free 1-1 Consultation to discuss how exactly I can help you. You can ask any burning questions that are on your mind.
Breaking out from being average is extremely hard.
Consultants work at full capacity, but it’s never enough. Expectations grow every day, and they can’t keep up.
They don’t have enough hours in the day.
Working hard doesn't yield any meaningful results.
It feels like running in a hamster wheel of never-ending mistakes and iterations.
No matter how hard they work, the wheel spins faster, generating more useless work.
Consultants can't have a break or score any meaningful wins for months and years on end.
For insecure overachievers, it feels like torture.
Rustem became my confidant, mentor, and friend who I could use as a sparring partner through mental blocks and difficult project situations. I would highly recommend Rustem’s content, as well as Rustem as a coach and a friend, as you take this journey.
Parth Reddy, Project Leader @ BCG, Malaysia
On top of that,
The stakes for lateral hires are much higher.
They join consulting at the age of 30-35.
They made a strategic bet by radically pivoting their career track and making big sacrifices, hoping to achieve more in consulting.
And many of them already carry significant obligations such as family duties, loans, and visa requirements.
This applies tremendous pressure that younger folks have yet to experience.
Being fired would have a devastating impact on their career and lives.
That's why losing is not an option.
You combine all these problems, and you get
A perfect storm of stress, pain, and anxiety.
Their self-confidence gets destroyed.
Insecurities take over.
They start doubting their intelligence and worth.
They can’t stop thinking about work.
Then,
Negative feelings creep into personal lives.
Their life partners are affected as well.
They can’t help but witness excruciating pain.
All these troubles poison personal relationships with close ones.
This inevitably takes a toll on physical and mental health.
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have Rustem as both a mentor and friend, particularly during the early stages of my career with the firm. His invaluable tips and tricks have saved me significant time that I would have otherwise spent learning or discovering on my own.
Over time, the consultants start realizing an unspoken truth.
You can't win in consulting by brute force.
You must work smarter.
But, when they decide to break the status quo, they discover unpleasant surprises.
Great coaches, mentors, and sponsors are not readily available.
Most leaders are busy fighting for their own survival.
They don’t sufficiently coach and mentor junior colleagues.
On top of that, the competition for limited leadership attention is fierce.
The best leaders like to work with high performers.
If you are an MBB consultant and want to achieve high performance, please Book a Free 1-1 Consultation to discuss how exactly I can help you. You can ask any burning questions that are on your mind.
Existing training programs teach useful skills but don't teach how to become successful.
They are often fragmented and far from practical realities.
There is no single source of truth or clear manual.
Consultants must piece it together, working with many resources.
They reinvent the wheel all over again.
But given limited time, it’s not effective.
Rustem has helped me deep-dive into the root causes of some challenges and provided me with practical advice. This has translated into me working much more productively, enhancing my performance review scores, and creating an overall more enjoyable consulting experience.
What I appreciate most about Rustem is his ability to break down abstract, complex concepts into structured, easy-to-follow steps and his genuine care for his ‘mentees.’
Dennis Leong, Associate @ BCG, Singapore
Consultants struggle to understand the real reason beneath their struggles:
The root cause of all problems is poor performance.
Well, average performance also doesn't cut it.
Consultants simply can't stand out from the crowd.
They struggle to access the most scarce and valuable resource - leadership support.
Having friendly partners is not enough.
You need leaders who will pound the table for you.
Partners who will advocate for you in staffing and evaluation conversations.
Rus not only gave me very actionable feedback on my core consulting toolkit (client handling, making slides etc), he taught me a series of soft skills on navigating the firm - to name a few, how to manage leadership expectations, how to manage a team, how to set myself up for designation - all things that are not written down anywhere in black-and-white but very crucial to know in the pressure cooker that is the consulting industry.
Achieving high performance will resolve many issues.
The staffing problems will disappear for good.
Partners will chase you and offer many projects. You will get to choose topics you are passionate about.
You will work with inspirational leaders and great mentors. They will invest more time in coaching you, and you will become even better.
You will feel confident and get addicted to constant winning. You will become a more ambitious and inventive problem solver.
It’s much easier to work with supporting people on great projects.
Over time, it all results in a better career path and exit options.
Finally, you can enjoy yourself working in consulting.
Working with Rustem during my time as an Engagement Manager was pivotal for my growth, helping me succeed in that role and later as an Associate Partner. His mentorship and guidance were instrumental, equipping me with skills that continue to drive my professional journey.
Nikita Lavrentiev, Associate Partner @ McKinsey, New York
Achieving high performance is doable.
It's a solvable problem and a teachable skill.
Yes, it's a complex issue with too many variables.
But we are consultants. We should be able to figure it out.
The fastest way to achieve that is to get help from people who have gone through this journey.
Even better from someone who has trained dozens and learned from their experience.
Consultants are smart. They can learn fast if provided with proper guidance.
But how do you learn to achieve high performance?
What is the secret recipe?
The recipe is to learn how to kickstart, sustain, and amplify momentum.
Momentum is like a powerful wave, making your work much easier with more impact.
To kickstart it, we need impressive wins.
A win is when you do something right, create an impact for your clients, impress your leaders, and exceed their expectations.
With every new win, your confidence and motivation increase.
Leaders and clients start trusting you more and cooperate willingly.
All these favorable factors create more opportunities to win.
Then, you can repeat it again and again.
These strong momentum waves carry you to unimaginable places and unbelievable achievements.
But, learning how to start and sustain momentum is not easy.
A good analogy is surfing.
It looks effortless when professionals do it.
But learning it from scratch is extremely hard.
Super high-impact and actionable advice and guidance turn chaos and randomness into a clear process, both on micro and macro levels: “How to make good slides—follow steps 1, 2, 3,” “How to earn trust and autonomy—focus on A, B, C,” all with a deep understanding of the underlying reasons and how it all fits together. This guidance helped me stop engaging in practices that made the work unnecessarily difficult and painful.
Ramazan Yeltay, Junior Engagement Manager @ McKinsey, Kazakshtan
Talking to more than 130 MBB consultants inspired me to develop a solution.
Introducing...
The Hero’s Journey! 🦸🏻♀️🦸🏻♂️
The Coaching Program for MBB Consultants to Transform
from Struggling, Stressed, and Lost
to High-Performing, Confident, and Fulfilled
The main goal of this program is to make you a high performer.
Only then do staffing, sponsorships, and exciting projects come to you.
They are functions of high performance.
In the program, you will go through three main transformation stages.
If you are an MBB consultant and want to achieve high performance, please Book a Free 1-1 Consultation to discuss how exactly I can help you. You can ask any burning questions that are on your mind.
Junior consultants make many basic and unforced mistakes.
As a result, they receive too many comments.
They go into a reactive mode, don't have time for proactive thinking, and make more mistakes.
An avalanche of new mistakes, comments, and iterations.
They also destroy relationships with their leaders.
After that, it all goes down the hill.
I call this stage - stop the productivity bleeding.
It has the same damage and urgency as bleeding from an artery.
We must stop it immediately.
As a first step, you will fix your slide-making routines to reduce basic mistakes.
This will give you your time back.
You will think and problem-solve better.
You will start producing decent, meaningful outputs.
That will be the first time you will feel a sense of relief.
Leaders will stop providing you with negative feedback and share positive ones.
You will start feeling much better, and your confidence and motivation will improve.
Your personal relationships will start to mend, and you will feel much happier when you go home. Your work-life balance will also improve because you will work less hours.
How does this sound to you?
You will be ready to start the second step.
2. Accelerate - learn to win
To become truly successful, you must impress and overdeliver.
MBB firms are so competitive that it is not enough just to do a good job.
You must learn to win in this profession. Produce impressive outputs and find unique insights.
Only then can you stand out from the crowd and get noticed and supported by leaders.
To learn that, I will help you to push your problem-solving skills.
Expand your ambitions of what's possible and what you can achieve.
We do it by completing many exercises where you will stretch yourself to your maximum.
Then, I will show you best-of-class outputs - a proverbial quality bar.
I will also provide you with tactical feedback on what you can improve.
Practice shows that if consultants are given clear expectations and guidance on achieving them, they will get there.
You will also learn how to navigate firm politics, prepare for performance reviews, and build stronger networks for effective staffing.
These hard and soft skills are critical for ensuring that you are visible and recognized.
As a result, you will learn to score impressive wins.
You will feel the rush and excitement of doing fantastic work and impressing others.
I have to warn you, this feeling is very addictive.
Once you feel it, you will seek to repeat it again and again.
3. Outperform - achieve consistently high performance.
The final stage is to teach you to score wins in any situation consistently.
It can be poor leadership, a bad project, and a nasty client. Doesn't matter.
You will become immune to these external factors.
We will push your problem-solving to an even higher level.
The trick here is to start teaching you a manager toolkit.
That way, you will always be a few steps ahead of your leadership.
Everything you do will feel like it is out of this world for them.
You will earn the complete trust of your leaders. They will listen to your advice and trust you to lead projects independently.
Coincidentally, this will be time for your EM/PL promotion. It will happen naturally.
How does this sound?
I know it might sound impossible from your vantage point.
But that's the typical transformation consultants go through.
Don't trust my words.
See what other consultants say.
What do consultants say?
I coached dozens of consultants as part of my consulting work and in this program.
As a result, they have become extremely successful.
Most importantly, they have achieved their career goals, freed themselves from stress, and become confident.
Here is what consultants say about the coaching approach and their results.
I target this program specifically to first-year, lateral hire MBB consultants.
This segment needs the most help adjusting to the consulting profession. I certainly did need that when I was a consultant myself.
I leverage my own experience to design the best product. I developed the program I would have benefited from 7-8 years ago.
The best time to join the program is 6-12 months tenure.
By now, these consultants will have learned a lot but haven't damaged their reputation beyond recovery.
Despite this ideal targeting, I still have clients with earlier or later tenures.
Sometimes, I make exceptions for consultants from non-MBB firms. For example, I have clients from Roland Berger and Oliver Wyman.
We have to determine the fit for each case based on individual circumstances.
Time is of the Essence.
Every day of average performance makes it harder to turn around your case.
It's better to have zero reputation than an average one. Reputations are sticky and hard to change once they settle.
The ideal time to start the program was when you joined consulting. The second best time is now. Early adoption can significantly enhance your performance and career trajectory.
Understand that the battle for your EM/PL promotion starts 12 months earlier. In these tough economic times, only high performers will get a manager promotion.
The Hero’s Journey is an invitation-only program.
I want to help consultants as much as possible.
But I want to be sure that I really can help you.
That is why I conduct discovery calls.
We will discuss your current situation, challenges, and aspirations. Then, we mutually determine whether this program is suitable for you.
If I can't help you, I will honestly tell you, and we can problem-solve what you can do next.
If you are an MBB consultant and want to achieve high performance, please Book a Free 1-1 Consultation to discuss how exactly I can help you. There is no commitment, and you can ask any burning questions in a risk-free environment.
All consultants are busy—this is a given. But they also understand that to become better, they need to invest time in learning.
All lessons can be accessed via video, and all practical exercises can be completed when they have time, such as on the beach.
How long is the program?
Active learning lasts 6-8 weeks.
During this period, students receive playbook lectures and execute the practical exercises. Then, they attend coaching sessions to discuss their questions and progress on their journey.
Consultants have lifetime access to the program. All future updates and improvements will be available for all members. The program will grow with consultants and adapt to their new challenges.
If you are an MBB consultant and want to achieve high performance, please Book a Free 1-1 Consultation to discuss how exactly I can help you. You can ask any burning questions that are on your mind.
What is the chargeback?