Consulting Career
How do I adjust from a nine-to-five industry job to consulting?
I've accepted a McKinsey business analyst role after two years in industry, where the workload was usually manageable and the day was closer to nine to five. I'm expecting a big change in pace and pressure. What helped you adjust to consulting life, and is it normal to feel overwhelmed at the start?
Ian’s Answer
What would you suggest for fast adaptation to the work environment and lifestyle?
Optimize time. Find everything you can to make things easy (healthy food delivery, automate payments, automate receipt tracking, have x # of identical shirts, always use x card for x and y card for y, always use x airline and x ride-hailing app)
Learn on others. Learn from everyone around you. Get help from your peers (emphasis: peers, not manageres)
Cut yourself some slack. You won't be perfect. Even after 20 years there. There will always be feedback. Have a learning and improvement mindset.
How was your experience? Did you have any cultural shock or felt anxious during first days?
It was terrible at first! First 10 months were so hard! Then, I learned and got used to things. Everyone feels this way…know that every single person around you feels inadequate, feels imposter syndrome, and has a dozen improvement areas. Realize that this is just the process and it's how we improve…