When I talk to my friends in consulting (across all firms and types of consulting), it amuses me that the early career mistakes we have made and witnessed are eerily similar across the board. I want to share four of them to help you avoid the most common mistakes and possibly course correct if you realize that you are heading down the wrong path.
1. Overcommitting to too many things
Consulting is sometimes like Disney World where there are simply too many interesting and fun experiences and only so much time available. Between genuine interest in multiple opportunities and FOMO (fear of missing out) anxiety, it is easy to get channeled into too many responsibilities beyond one’s bandwidth. That can be a real danger because something has to give. Either everything lowers in quality or you drop the ball on some responsibilities in order to give attention to the more urgent or important ones. Having a reputation for being mediocre or a poor performer in any area (even more trivial activities like virtual happy hour planning) can stain your reputation and scuttle future opportunities.
2. Poor work life balance management
Everyone in consulting knows of someone who could probably dedicate more time to their own personal life. Ironically, such colleagues are often the ones that openly joke about how they don’t focus on their personal lives enough. Granted there are always rough patches in consulting whereby a project can have a stretch of late nights. However, there is a lot to be said for proactively managing your time so that you can take the vacation, preserve weekends, and make time for personal self-care (exercise, family, etc.). If your life, week after week, is nothing but work, that is a clear warning sign that you are on the track to burn out. Burn out is real and dangerous because eventually it can get to a point whereby a person simply isn’t productive and their performance stalls.
3. Having an overly narrow network
Networking is talked about a lot in consulting and most people aggressively network in the beginning. However, it is common for some new consultants to limit their networking to a narrow segment of colleagues that they think they would like or be interested in. This can manifest in different ways. Some only network with those within a certain narrow specialty that they are interested in. Some show favoritism for a certain undergraduate or graduate school alumni affiliation. For others it is about hitting the magic number (be it networking sessions attended or friendly colleagues identified) and then stopping altogether after that. Having an artificial networking cutoff can be problematic because it narrows opportunities to learn and discover new opportunities.
4. Being too picky about projects and tasks
The thing about consulting is that there are usually lots of interesting projects to choose from, but they might not always be accessible to you. There are consultants out there who make it known that they will only work on what sounds appealing to them and try to avoid everything else. This is a very easy way to gain a bad reputation for being obnoxiously picky and potentially not a team player. Also, it is can mean missing out on valuable learning opportunities and blessings in disguise. Sometimes, engagements that sound highly appealing end up being less than great experiences. Of course, the reverse is often true as well. Some of my best consulting engagements have been on projects that did not sound exciting at first but ended up being great experiences.
The bottom line
The bottom line is that consulting can be a fun and challenging career that offers tremendous learning opportunities. However, just like any career, there are pitfalls to avoid, especially for newcomers who oftentimes don’t know what they don’t know. I hope this gives some perspectives on things you should watch out for. At the end of the day, every firm and practice is a little different, so it is smart for each new consultant to adapt to their firm and practice.
Hall Wang is a dual degree MBA and Master of Public Policy graduate from Georgetown University who has recently matriculated into a major management consulting firm. He has worked at America’s most innovative companies including Blue Origin and Facebook, as well as having done two combat deployments as a US Army Officer.
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