Which Excel, PowerPoint and business skills should I learn before starting consulting?

In terms of things you can learn/do to prepare beforehand:

1) Daily Reading

• The Economist, The Financial Times, BCG/Mskinsey Insights

2) Industry deep-dives

• Learn, in-depth, how the industries/companies your office advises, work.

3) Analytics tools

• Alteryx, Tableau, etc.

4) Excel

• Pivottables

• Working with data

• Key fuctions (vlookup, Index match, count and sum if/ifs, sumproduct, concat, etc.)

• Hotkeys (i.e. use keyboard more than your mouse)

• Financial modeling

5) Powerpoint

• Wireframing

• Lead-in titles

• Best practices/standards

• Different layouts

• Quickly editing/updating slides

• Thinking in PowerPoint

6) Presentation skills / sharp communication

• There are some online/virtual classes for this

In terms of doing well in your role when you're there:

1) Understand the context/prompt (what role are you in, what company, who's watching, etc.)

2) Understand the objective (what, specifically, is expected from you...both day to day, and in your overall career progression)

3) Quickly process information, and focus on what's important - Take a lot of information and the unknown, find the most logical path, and focus on that.

4) Be comfortable with the unknown, and learn to brainstorm - think/speak like an expert without being one

In summary, there will always be a flood of information, expectations, competition etc. and not enough time. Find out which ones matter when. (i.e. be visibile and focus efforts on the things that people care about)