Yes, I used to be THAT guy.
A dock. A noob. A Think-I-Know-Better.
I love my professional identity right from the get-go. I have always wanted to be a consultant. I never thought of anything else.
That shaped my decision in B-school. I took more modules necessary for graduation.
I absorbed everything about running a business.
So, I was prepared during the 5-round job interview.
No big issues. I passed round after round without much stress. I arrived at the final 7-panel member hot seat by week 5.
Yes, that was designed to be a hot seat because they wanted to assess the candidates’ stress tolerance.
I did not overthink their questions. I breezed through it. But one question stumped me. This is the one.
“What would you do, and how would you feel if you invested great effort and time in your work but not be rewarded for it?”
I admitted my social ignorance to the Managing Director. I had no answer. I thought it was okay.
But no.
The fool in me wasn’t ready for the real world.
And she knew it.
… in a different way.
I didn’t quite struggle in my job. I knew I was in a project running out of time. So, I dutifully did what I was assigned.
I worked on my tasks and resolved issues.
That was the expectation of a Year 1 analyst.
I went one step ahead to provide a root cause analysis to my team lead to facilitate his discussions with the client. Turns out, he liked it.
Soon, I waddled behind my team lead throughout the day.
Robert took me to,
- Client weekly status updates,
- Internal project milestone meetings,
- Cross-functional and technical team discussions.
