How to change industry or practice?
Consultants often find themselves pigeonholed in industries or practices they don’t like. This post is for those who want to break out. You will learn the real mechanics of firm mobility.
A McKinsey consultant texted me on LinkedIn and shared his frustration:
I joined Digital Practice, but now I work exclusively on Oil & Gas projects.
Now I feel stuck. If I want to progress in the firm, I need to double down on my current industry. But I don’t want to do it in my post-McKinsey career. It’s an impossible trade-off.
And I can’t move to Digital because I don’t have any connections there.
He blamed the staffing team for not staffing him on the projects he wanted.
I feel his frustration.
It’s not the career he wanted. It’s the one he was given. He works really hard, but he doesn’t get the results he hoped for.
It’s like running on the right road, but in the opposite direction.
That reminded me of the time when I joined McKinsey.
The whole staffing process didn’t make sense to me.
Why hire expensive professionals with unique experience, and then not deploy them on the right projects? It felt like a big waste.
But when I became an AP, I understood the underlying logic.
Staffing at McKinsey is a free market.
Supply and Demand forces are in play.
And the promise is strong:
No one can force a McKinsey partner to staff a consultant they don’t want.
Partners want to be successful. They want to get the best talent available. That’s why they always try to staff high performers.
This creates immense motivation for consultants to perform well.
But it’s a two-way street.
If you are a high performer, you have multiple staffing options, and you can choose the best projects. That’s how you steer your career in the firm.
But here’s the harsh truth:
If you get pigeonholed in the industry and practice you don’t like, it means your reputation lacks the thrust to get you where you want to be.
The more you delay, the harder it becomes to break out.
Let’s be honest, some industries and practices are more glamorous and sexy than others. If you want them, the chances are other consultants want them too. This makes them highly competitive.
That means that partners have a privileged position here. They can choose the best consultants. Of course, they become picky and selective. And for you to make the cut, you must stand out from the crowd.
So, if you can’t get what you want, it means you are not competitive. And it’s not because you don’t know the right people in those industries. Even if they know you, it still will not help much.
I know it’s a harsh truth that is hard to accept. It’s much easier to fall into bitterness and blame the poor staffing and the rigged system.
But I wish someone had told me that when I was a consultant.
I needed that cold message to take full ownership of my own development.
Then, I could have focused all my efforts on improving my performance, rather than trying to control things I couldn’t really control.
How to improve your performance?
It’s a million-dollar question, quite literally.
For a long time, I believed my performance was fixed. I thought I was not smart or talented enough to achieve high performance.
But then, with the right coaching, I could progress so fast that I couldn’t imagine it before. And there are so many levels of high performance I had no idea existed when I was an average performer.
And the biggest insight for me was that I realised how doable and quite technical that was. Not a mystified thing, depending on unique talents and intrinsics as I imagined. Yes, it will require you to change how you work. But it’s not rocket science, really.
If you are an MBB consultant and want to improve your performance through personalized coaching support:
We will discuss your pain points, challenges, and aspirations. No strings attached, just straight answers to your biggest questions.
If you want to learn more about my coaching program, read this post:
The coaching program for MBB consultants.