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Career Tips for Aspiring Management Consultants and Accountants

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5 things you should do to stand out at a job fair (plus one thing to avoid)

 

Job Fair Hurdle

As many of you know, I recently attended the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Conference in Detroit. During the two-day job fair, I came across a lot of hungry young professionals trying to figure out this whole career thing. While there, I realized I’ve discussed the importance of showing up to conferences and job fairs and my own experience in turning a job fair into a management consulting job offer, but never really talked about what to do once you’re *at* the job fair. I’m going to change that now and share the 5 keys to job fair success. These have held true since I was in the recruiting process several years ago, and they are just as true today. [Read more…]

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Here’s why you NEED to take all of your vacation every year

It’s scary isn’t it?

But at the same time it feels pretty good.

You know what I’m talking about – putting up that out of office and going off the grid.

It’s interesting, it seems the more you move up the ranks, the more scary this is, until you’re the big boss. Read: partner in consulting speak. I think the campus hires often may not have enough responsibility to be concerned. Or the prioritization of career over vacation may be heavily skewed toward the latter.

If I had to visualize it, I think it would look something like this:

PTO

You might be thinking this is about to be another post about millennial entitlement or something like that but it’s not. It’s something entirely different. Instead, I want to talk about why it’s important to take that time off and why the new generation gets it right.

I’m sitting on a plane right now thinking about how I want to get this (vacation) right this time and more importantly why I NEED to, and so do you.

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Here’s the best way to secure that next promotion

Career Horsepower

What if I told you I had the answer to one the oldest career advice questions?

And that the answer shouldn’t be that surprising but it’s one you need to hear anyway?

Or that my answer applies to practically any industry, at least any job that requires you to interact with your customers or co-workers in person.

Even in 2018, that still covers… just about everyone.

So the question I’m talking about: what’s the best way to accelerate your career? [Read more…]

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How to Receive Feedback Like a Pro, Even If You Don’t Agree With It

how to receive feedback

What do you do when confronted with news that something you worked on missed the mark?

Do you try to immediately explain what you did before fully hearing the information being presented?

Do you discount the input as a difference in working styles or personal preference?

Do you listen and look for opportunities where you may expand on your repertoire?

Before we get into these, I want to share one of my favorite quotes: When you know better, you do better. I’m telling you that because it’s natural for people to fall into one of the first two categories.

After all, you worked hard to get where you are, right? You honed your mental agility with hours upon hours of education, and that should be respected. I totally get it.

As well intentioned as that action might be, it’s probably not going to work out the way you think it is. Let’s think this through for a moment. [Read more…]

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6 Ways to Give Directions So You Don’t Have to Give “Constructive” Feedback Later

How to Give Direction

The hardest part of managing people is…the people. Every person has a unique personality, a particular set of needs, and a life outside of work that can infringe on neatly placed work boundaries at any given moment.

And that’s not to mention that each people manager has the exact same elements in play.

What that means is that on any given day, there is a chance – hopefully, a small one – of each of those elements on both sides seeming to conspire against you to create “one of those days”. [Read more…]

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What the Atlanta Falcons’ Unprecedented Collapse Can Teach Us About Business

Atlanta Falcon meltdown has some valuable lessons

I’m just going to come right out and say it. The Atlanta Falcons gave us the most epic collapses in Super Bowl history, and possibly all of sports (this and this make it a tough choice). In case you’re not an American football fan, the Atlanta Falcons boasted one of the most prolific offenses in the National Football League all year and managed to get up 28-3 in the biggest many of them will ever play. It was announced during that game that no team up by 19 or more points in a playoff game had ever lost. This scenario had happened 93 times prior to this year’s Super Bowl.

Luckily for me, meltdowns make for more compelling writing than blowouts and as sad as that game was for anyone, who calls the Falcons their team, there are 3 important lessons you can draw from their shortcoming. [Read more…]

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What to do when you hate your project

Consulting Project Exit Plan

I can’t remember a time when I’ve seen so many colleagues leaving the firm. Some people are jumping because of a unique opportunity not available within the firm. Others quit go to a competitor (ouch!). I remember when I made a change to a competitor and there were a whole lot of questions about the why. Part of me just needed a change but I also knew that the firm’s timing wasn’t going to work for me, so I acted accordingly.  [Read more…]

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Life as a Consultant: The 10 Best Pieces of Advice I Ever Received

10 best pieces of consulting advice

One of the many things you learn in the management consulting business is there is no one path to success, so it’s interesting to hear what people remember as the most useful information or advice they’ve picked up so far. What better way to highlight this than to ask consultants from different firms what’s the best advice they’ve gotten. [Read more…]

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Three Things I’ve Learned in One Year of Management Consulting

 

Management Consulting Skills

Most people will tell you that college is the time in your life when you learn the most, but I have to disagree with those people. While I agree that college is an amazing time for learning (and a heck of a lot of fun, too), both in the educational sense and the social, interpersonal sense, the real learning comes after you walk across that stage.

While you may know how to calculate EPS or how to use Lagrange multipliers in macroeconomics, there’s so much more you need to know to be successful in your career. Being only one year into my management consulting career, I’m well aware that I have many miles to go before I can claim any real knowledge on how to attain career success. That being said, I’ve learned a thing or two in the past 12 months that I’d like to share for those of you who may be on the first few steps of your career paths as well. [Read more…]