r/consulting • u/Happy-Ad3503 • 15d ago
Feeling Completely Bamboozled and Overwhelmed
Hello.
I recently started in consulting after my MBA and my goodness I feel so dumb.
Got put on a 6 week revenue growth engagement, and the first two weeks was working 8 am - 11 pm. The last couple weeks have been able to leave office around 630 pm and have time to grab dinner and then get back on.
But my problem is I feel so useless. If my manager asks me to do something, I have to process for a few mins before I can even do it. Meanwhile, the analyst on my project, who is a year out of undergrad, built a 11 tab excel model in a week, and I understand about 10% of it. At a high level it sort of makes sense, but like how did he just know what to do?
They had me starting on deck work and competitive research primarily, which I have been able to do somewhat decently. But I just feel so out of sorts and swimming against the current.
Any tips for Excel/slide improvement? And any tips for just understanding wtf the client or my manager are saying a bit better. It feels like these people talk a million miles a minute yet understand each other so well, and I have to keep telling them to slow down and explain it to me because I just "don't get it" as well as they do. Ugh.
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u/DumbNTough 15d ago
A. Slam all of your project documentation into an AI like Copilot or Claude to the maximal extent allowed by your contract terms and use it as a knowledge base, use it to draft charts and models and dashboards etc. Nature of the game now.
B. Just start putting shit on slides and lay out what data you do have in Excel to get moving. Sometimes just looking over what you know, you will notice problems and questions emerge naturally from the information.
C. Refer back to your statement of work. What are you actually there do accomplish? Keep it in mind to avoid wasting effort when you can.
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u/MicksMaster 15d ago
Everyone saying AI everything but I’ll suggest a more old timey approach: when you don’t understand something, ASK!
If you feel like an idiot asking something, think of it this way: worst case you can look like an idiot once, early in the engagement when you’re getting up to speed (rare that anyone will think you’re dumb for asking good questions that will help you do your job though), or you can continue to actually be an idiot for the entirety of it. Which do you want?
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u/DumbNTough 15d ago
You should definitely ask questions but you should also be prepared with fallback options if your leaders are hostile or unresponsive to questions.
A lot of the problems in the consulting industry have little to do with expertise and much to do with people.
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u/Necessary-Truth-2038 15d ago
Sometimes you don’t even know what you don’t know. Knowing what question to ask is often the biggest challenge for newbies
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u/668071 15d ago
Hello.
I was in your place 6 months ago. It’s been 6 months for. I did another job for 2 years post undergrad and still felt I was at my wits end when I started.
A few things:
1. If you have never worked in consulting before, it will be rough for the first 6 months to a year. However, post that it does become a lot more repeatable as you seen enough projects and slides.
2. The learning curve the first few months is steep and I can assure you everyone has felt stupid. I literally made a post on this subreddit called “Am I dumb” which went viral
3. AI: sorry but AI is a game changer. The chatgot for excel is life changing. We just incorporated it. Before I had to ask AI and then incorporate the formula and trouble shoot. Now? I just tell the plug in what I want in simple terms and it executes seamlessly
A. Whenever I have a new project I input the entire KO Deck/ SOW into AI and ask it to explain it to me in simple terms, ask questions and make notes,
B. I have a pinned chat in AI (ChatGPT enterprise version) just for footnotes. Take a screenshot of a slide and input and it generates. Just set the format in which your company like the footnotes. Can do the same for Titles.
C. ChatGPT excel
D. Shamelessly using excel for any content on slides. Tbh I don’t remember when I last see my actual brain to come up with sentences. I take a screenshot of my floor slide and input and ask it to generate the text I need
4. Slide Polish
Personally think this is an outdated skill with AI, nonetheless I get paid and care about doing the job well right now. So developed this system
Numbers + FCAT + BCC
Check Title, Subtitle and Body
Numbers - Check all numbers your numbers cannot be wrong/ need to be trustworthy/ any currency conversions
F= Font
C= Colour
A= Alignment
T= Text
B= Bolding
C= Capitalization
C= Any changes from this slide that need to be carried over to other slides?
I made this system myself and honestly just quickly check each slide with this method. It has made things a lot easier for me
Thinkcell for alignment!!
I have done roughly 5 cases so far and made a format powerpoint of my fav formats I saw in decks. This has helped immensely. I just copy late any nice tables/formats in this master and I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. whenever I get a new slide I browse, copy paste from this repository and customise. The more you do the better you will get. (Just got complimented on this btw, on my slide crafting!) Keep some nice formats in mind, can also look on instagram/online for mats. I found AI to be inadequate for this.
Meetings- not sure how much you guys use AI, we don’t yet for meetings. For daily touch points I make a table of task, who is responsible and timeline and send, very useful and crisp. For client meetings: next steps for client and us and for partner touch points I just make point base slide edits they want
Making slides: I realised the ask is always going to be ambiguous, they just want you to take a pass and come up with something so you have to use your mind here and then it always gets reviewed multiple levels
You will make a lot of mistakes, it’s okay. Lean, make a note literally have a note and move on
Wins- I have low confidence and am very overwhelmed in consulting. I made a document with screenshots of any compliments and praise and honestly game changer, I now have documented evidence against my anxiety
Don’t take it personally. End of the day it’s a job, you are here because you get paid that is it. These people are not your friends. They are colleagues and will not care if you leave or die. If you lose this job, you will find another. Don’t let it define you.
Attitude: genuinely be very nice, humble and communicative to work with. Give compliments.
WLB Balance: honestly was shit at this when I started. Now? Nope. Everyday after work, keep your laptop away in a drawer where you can’t see it and switch off notifs. Friday night to Monday morning complete disassociation. Keep away any work related things away from sight and a big game changer was deleting outlook and teams for the weekend- genuinely gives me a complete refresh. But again, this is a muscle and comes with practise.
Eat nutritious food, sleep a lot and exercise. Also enjoy and be happy on weekends. Love your life. Tho admittedly I stared vaping to cope with the stress.
End of the day, this job is essentially a slide masking factory. This is all they care about. Just focus on this skill the most and that’s your product. Your job mainly is to make pointless slides all day.
Two screens really help me. When I stared I had never used two screens but a big screen has really helped me.
Be proactive. When you work on a project, write it all down. Eventually it’s all repeatable and start doing a lot of things without being asked.
If you hate it that’s fine, I see why. I find the work enjoyable but the hours and stress is so unnecessary. You can leave after a year and I can guarantee having consulting on your resume will help. Most people are here for the exit. Average tenure in consulting is 2.6 years.
Focus on the learning. One of the main reasons I joined here was because I love learning. That for me is a joy in itself. Whenever I feel low, I look back on even a month ago and how far I have come somehow. 6 months is mental. (The growth).
Think what you like from this job and what you don’t and in your exit look for that.
Also ask for advice and genuinely people give good tips/ even slides or models and just repeat. Most things I do here are just a copycat. I also keep a document of good advice.
Hope this helps and for more tips, feel free to DM!!
If all else fails, never ever let a job or anything else define you. You are valuable and will be fine.
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u/668071 15d ago
A few other tips I learned in consulting
- Always come with a solution oriented mindset: genuinely something I appreciate about consulting and learned here. If you don’t understand something or have a problem, always come with a possible solution. It shows you have through through the problem. Consultants call it the leading with a hypothesis. Just show your understanding of something first
- Consulting has the biggest asslickers and bullshitters I have ever seen. Genuinely. Like each level is sucking up to the next.
- Think what will make your managers life easier, literally emotional empathy and offer it, whether that’s a positive attitude, encouragement, protectiveness or actual tasks.
- Always have a rationale for why you did a certain thing. Write this when you make a slide (which it’s leaner/denser) shows your thought process
- This job is for extroverts who think they are solving for world peace
- Put some weekly time in your calendar that’s before a workday just for leaning. Whether that’s how to automate a task (a lot can be done now by inputting an old file and teaching AI) or practising shortcuts or attention to detail. For example, I have slotted Friday mornings for any new thing I want to learn. This way during the week I have scheduled time for any new thing I came across and want to add to my skill set, having dedicated time removes mental load as you have time to dedicate to it later.
- Attention to detail: this job requires high attention to detail. Stuff like eg is written as e.g. you cannot miss any dot. It never came naturally to me but the more you do the more repeatable it become and it will come. Practise with AI as wel and gamify it to spot mistakes.
- working with different personality types: consulting is a people business. Some people are more suited to you and some are not. Some have v high standards some are impressed easily. That’s just name of the game. I did tell staffing tho to never staff me with a particular personal because she drove me mad. Just insane expectations for everything.
- Despite all this, you might fail and that’s okay.
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u/KPTN25 15d ago
The main tip is 'care about getting better and then go figure it out, be resourceful, and put in the hours'.
That 1 year analyst wasn't spawned into the universe knowing how to build an excel model perfectly. They may have had more consulting-relevant classes, internships, or past experience, but generally this boils down to 'look things up' (google) and 'look at past examples', think critically, and self-critique your work on how it can be better.
This is a very common problem and real failure condition with post-MBA hires, though. If your pre-MBA work experience wasn't professional services fast-pace / analytical problem solvey work, it can be harder to pick these core consulting skills later in your career when you've already developed 'bad habits'. Compound that with many post-MBA folks have expectations around managing teams and playing more senior roles out the gate, can result in ego issues where they aren't able to learn as quickly (or quickly enough before hitting an up or out point).
You're doing the right thing by recognizing this as a problem and looking for how to get better. Try to learn from the analyst as well, even if they're more junior, they have more consulting experience than you.
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u/JKubU2k MBBussy 15d ago
Regarding Excel:
- Start by imagining the slide, then the required Excel output, then draft the summary tabs, and only then build the rest. Ideally draw it on paper first.
- Sources and assumptions -> calculations -> outputs, and arrange the sheets in this order. No hard inputs beyond sources and assumptions; everything else is linked. Keep the raw data as you got it.
- One formula, one logical idea. Same for rows and columns. Better to see multi-step logic than be proud of an overly complicated formula that does everything in one cell no one can follow.
- Learn the basic formulas: XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, etc. Given the AI extensions in Excel, I personally wouldn't bother memorizing anything more complex. Claude can do entire workbooks but they are still pretty shit and often too complicated. If you wanna use that then do steps (1) (2) and ask for (3) from this list to feed it to claude.
- Check your numbers. Reconcile totals back to the source, have a check cell that should be 0, and trace at least one row from raw data to output. Don't trust a number just because it looks right.
- Keep it client-ready from the get-go if it's a model or feeds into anything beyond a completely ad-hoc analysis. That means formatting, proper structure
- If you have a quant module, or you wanna position yourself as a quant wiz it's worth learning more advanced functions, shortcuts etc.
Regarding comparing yourself to associates... I was on the other side. Here since undergrad... You learn a lot in a year... 1-2 years mbb you're almost a veteran at most of the tasks. Give yourself time you'll get there too.
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u/KPTN25 15d ago
#3 is so important.
I go one further and enforce "one column = one operation". Allows auditing of each step (ie, your #5), lets you scale your analysis to more data, and reduces a ton of mental overhead because every spreadsheet ends up being laid out in a consistent direction.
This also helps with workbook performance since the excel calculation tree gets rebuilt from top-left to bottom-right. Also helps with "don't repeat yourself" since you can then build downstream calculations off of intermediate inputs, rather than repeating the full calculation in each subsequent step/cell.
Nothing worse than overconfident "excel wiz"'s that build up insane 4 line formulas referencing 50 cells. Inevitably there will be a QA error or something will need to change for an analysis update, and it becomes a week of work to rebuild everything.
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u/Arturo90Canada 15d ago
I remember this exact feeling.
Don’t feel too badly.
Firstly - the shorter the engagement the worse it is. The velocity is very very high and the status check ins are fast and furious
Secondly - it’s normal that there is a young gun who just is a crazy doer and fucks your perception
Lastly you just started the game is going to few fast but it will slow down
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u/EcureuilHargneux 15d ago
You can easily make a sophisticated Excel with copilot or Claude now. And you can ask the AI to explain to you what it has made
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u/Motivated_Sloth_749 15d ago
The learning curve is so steep - but keep climbing! After your first two projects, you will get it! It’s like learning a new language. Use AI to help educate you on any concepts or terms you don’t understand. You’ll get there!
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u/Alternative-You5403 11d ago
Download Muse and tell it what you want it to do. Just give it a general idea. It will build it out for you and make changes, as needed. Seriously the best AI tool I’ve used.
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u/Ill-Eggplant-9199 15d ago
The assumption isn’t you could do what the analyst is doing right away. The assumption is you could learn to do it and/or review it.
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u/Ok-Society2489 15d ago
AI tools like Alphasense excel plugins really help. But like the previous comments if that’s not available, utilise LLMs to explain things in layman’s terms and to help coach you!
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u/FicklePound7617 15d ago
AI everything slides excel formulas how to layout set up and even understand the ask. Honestly was the biggest efficiency upgrade I had in my career.
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u/nknappster 15d ago
There’s some good tactical advice in here, but I’ll add that it took a little while for things to “click” for me. Keep at it - it will come. And there will always be that analyst…they’re not better than you, they just have a different skill set.
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u/bulletPoint 15d ago
Make friends with the analysts and do leverage their past work. They’re the backbone of any analytics pipeline a firm has. Like with most things, the rest will come with time.
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u/Life-Ocelot9439 15d ago edited 15d ago
In addition to the other helpful comments, I'd suggest writing things down. It helps your brain absorb things better.
When asking questions, make sure you frame it round being different to the last task, e.g., we did X the last time, I assume you want Y, how can we go about this? Shows you're listening.
Use this engagement as a learning curve, and them focus your efforts on reading between the lines next time. Try to anticipate what your manager will need, and what the client will need.
That's what makes a great hire in the end, making your manager look good, and taking work off their plate.
Best of luck. My first few weeks in banking were hellish, but once the basics "click", you'll be fine.
Many people still can't communicate the ask after decades in the job. You are not alone.
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u/SingulaProfugus 15d ago
Honestly, if you are working from a mostly academic background, I would expect you to be lost. I was so very surprised by the general lack of knowledge from colleagues straight out of college compared to those who were career pivots and it was rarely an age thing.
Now that isn't to say there is anything wrong with that. Ramp up is very much a thing and repeated reps are what builds careers. But what that does mean is you should be looking to learn at every opportunity without giving clients the impression that you aren't worth what they are paying you.
My general advice to newer consultants - be curious, start with the end in mind, under promise-over deliver, and like a good research paper - don't overstate your findings/recommendations. That last one is huge, if you don't know, don't guess. And call out any assumptions or caveats in your work; getting them in front of a client rather than having to explain them in-flight makes for a much better conversation.
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u/Head-Gap-1717 15d ago
Make sure you read the SOW. You need to manage scope and the tasks they are having you do. Unless it directly contributes to the SOW you should be putting it in a future change order / backlog.
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u/Remarkable-Suit2313 15d ago
Use Claude as a personal assistant/coach. This will give you a head start. But don’t make the mistake to let do Claude everything as you need to be able to fully understand and explain the outcome.
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u/jencanread 15d ago
I do agree that AI can help tremendously, but if you don’t know excel you won’t be able to edit formulas, etc. Does your company have a Skillshare-type subscription? I don’t do consulting anymore, but when I did, my company had a learning tool to help consultants upskill everything from Excel to Python to sales. If not, look into Udemy classes. They’re cheap and will give you a good guidepost (lot of people used to recommend YouTube, and I think there’s a lot of helpful stuff there, but a guided course might be best to start).
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u/discoverstrategyco 15d ago
You’re not behind, two weeks into a first engagement is far too early to expect fluency.
When you receive a task, try closing the loop with: “What decision will this inform, who is the audience, and what does a good outcome look like?” That context makes the research, slides, and modelling much easier to prioritise.
Keep a small glossary of project terms, and ask for a short walkthrough of the model’s logic rather than trying to understand every formula at once. Much of consulting becomes pattern recognition through repetition.
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u/DBDEMR 15d ago
I did a consulting internship and was completely useless but loved it. I was useless because they weren't organised like MBB or big4 so didn't have good examples of output and their communication wasn't the best.
I went into industry in shipping and the finance. 10 yrs later after MBA, I was back into consulting. Still love it.
But... I flat out tell all new starters it isn't a career for life. It isn't for everybody. Some people get offended but it is the truth.
As a consultant;
- you are a resource for the consulting firm, a product
- you are a punching bag, donkey and scapegoat for the client
That's a reality. I've been on both sides, these are undisputable facts. I classify jobs into 3 buckets; clergy, prostitution and slavery.
I was clergy because I love the whole process and work. Then I become a prostitute because I had to do so many projects for the money but didn't enjoy. Now I am hovering between slavery and prostituon because if you don't jump into industry at the right point you will be stuck in consulting for life.
This is my framework for you :) Coming to your case.
This job isnt for you mate. Regardless of your generation and familiarity with Excel, it isn't rocket science. You aren't expected to be just comfortable you are expected to own the data across the project. You clearly aren't interested enough,.it isn't a matter of iq. I know plenty of clients who are super clever but can't deal with data (because they aren't interested in the mechanics or detail).
So go to industry is my advice. You need a job which is.feeling like clergy and if you can't master it you will drift from prostitution to slavery and fell terrible.
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u/zachmaudie 14d ago edited 14d ago
That’s normal in a new consulting role. Focus on the logic first. The Excel and slide skills will come with repetition.
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u/Intelligent_Tie_1109 14d ago
You have an MBA and didn’t receive high level excel and presentation building during that time? Where did you get your MBA
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u/DISRUPtitALL 12d ago
I tell new people who are feeling like you to build your board of advisors for the first year - people who you get to invest in helping you succeed. Specifically, find a jr. person who you can ask all your questions to daily. Find a peer, outside your project for weekly, and a more senior person like every other week. Just as example. Ask the right level person all the things you are here. People love to help if you’re kind and eager. You’re one team.
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u/amy_wenslow 12d ago
What is needed for consulting in different industries varies and based on the type of project so it's hard to answer specifically.
(For context - I've run a consulting agency for 18 years and we've been teaching AI and implementing it for businesses for 4 years.)
A "revenue growth project" will look different based on how much growth, desired over what time, stage the business is in, why they want growth, etc. The things that are holding back the growth could be across departments. That's likely what your team is looking into as well as competition and margins, etc.
You've already gotten lots of good tips.
To add a few specific ones:
1. Some actual stats that might help you. A new employee hire is not profitable for most businesses until about 90 days in. Until then you are a sunk cost to the business owner with zero guarantee that you'll ever be good at the job. So... Be as prepared as possible, show up like you care, study, don't be arrogant.
When asked what you think, do NOT just regurgitate some AI answer or use a bunch of big words you THINK sound impressive but you don't actually understand. Have a well reasoned answer or question.
Use recorded meetings to create a glossary of terms for yourself if you don't know them. You can also get a Plaud device for in-person meetings. You MUST make sure to disclose that the meeting is being recorded. Laws about recording meetings vary by state. Clear use of Plaud with the project head or your firm since it is an AI. Make sure it complies with your firm's policies.
Use the recorded meetings and glossary as a basis for a customized podcast to learn from while you drive or commute. Notebook LLM can do this for you. It will give you a two person podcast that discusses the concepts and words and gives examples of them.
Most of successful process design and consulting comes down to defining the core problem and what "done" or "successful" looks like. That's how to eliminate rework and eliminate a bunch of unproductive bunny trails.
Using AI well is fine but CHECK YOUR COMPANY's Terms and Conditions with Client Agreements. ONLY use it in approved applications and ways and on paid company accounts. Using a free personal account can open the firm to potential lawsuits in the future.
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u/Hand-Existing 10d ago
How long did they say the learning curve would be? When I started my current consulting job they told me in advance it would take a good 18 months before I got the hang of things. I truly thought I never would at one point, but I’ll be damned, those fuckers were right on par with that 18 month mark. At 6 weeks anywhere I don’t see how you would just plop right in and understand everything 100%.
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u/FreelanceMarketerPro 9d ago
You’re not a fit at that organization, sorry. It shouldn’t be that way.
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u/palakshpathak 9d ago
Honestly, I think a lot of consulting is just pattern recognition that comes with repetition. Once you've seen a few projects, you start recognising familiar problem structures, slide formats and models. Don't be afraid to learn from the analyst either, even if they're more junior. They might just have more reps at this stuff. The first few months can feel rough, but that doesn't mean you're bad at the job. A lot of what you saw your senior analyst do, is something they picked in the last year + constantly honing those skills through the countless tasks they received throughout this time. One excel tip I can leave you with, is to use Hotkeys. They're difficult to remember all at once, but as you keep using them, they'll become second nature. There are plenty of online playlists for excel and MS office in general, but at the moment I think you'll benefit most by just keeping your head in the game and having some faith.
All the best :)
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u/Intrepid_Dare6377 15d ago
Surprised no one has suggested this: this might not be the right field for you. I’d imagine you -can- do it (and others have given the advice on how) but you really ought to ask now if this is how you want to work and live for, well, as long as you keep doing it, and if what it takes is worth it to you.
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u/seeyalater251 15d ago
As an analyst who left because I was running circles around the MBAs making twice as much as me, I’m smiling.
What parts of the conversation are moving too fast? I understand not keeping up with the analyst cranking out spreadsheets (though I’m surprised you didn’t learn that in your MBA), but 10% of a conversation is surprising to me, especially with the mba.
I don’t know how to coach or train processing speed.
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u/hailtothevictors1234 15d ago
You gotta put in the hours. Get up at six and don’t finish until after midnight. Also block off your weekends as well
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u/Nickopotomus 15d ago edited 15d ago
Obviously from an earlier generation seeing all these AI comments. I am willing to bet the analyst has a workbook from another project and is using it as a template. That used to be the name of the game: collect / ask for good examples from past projects and then update with the current clients specifics
Don’t slow down the conversation between the manager and the client. BUT afterwards do pull your manager to the side to debrief on what the game plan is. That doesn’t mean you sit down and ask „what should I do“. You’re an MBA and they hired you because you can think through problems. So come with your understanding…double check that’s right…propose the high level story line of the response…get managers feedback and then build it.
Unfortunately being a good leader is not a requirement for becoming a manager. So if you have a manager that can not guide their team on delivery creation, you‘ll need to look within the firm and find some mentors / colleagues who are open to helping you develop