A year as a Junior Consultant
Promotion
My careers advisor just called to let me know that I've been promoted from Associate to Junior Consultant. I knew that I was doing well from my recent project reviews, but it is great to have all my hard work recognised!
A new project
I've just finished the retail banking project that I was working on, and have immediately started a new one – this time working on an IT strategy for a European retailer. The case is London based so it looks like I'll be able to make football in the park and should stand a good chance of making a team for the football tournament in Madrid.
I had thought that I was already doing a Junior Consultant role on my last project, but I'm beginning to find that there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. It's not that the type of work is different, but the bar has moved in terms of how I am expected to interact with the rest of the team. I've got much more responsibility for planning the work as well as executing it and my Project Leader expects me to be much more independent than I have been previously. It's beginning to sound like I've got a lot on my plate. They weren't joking when they said this was a stretch role.
Secondment
I recently started a nine month secondment at the Carbon Trust, working on their 'Product Carbon Footprinting & Labelling' initiative. BCG were very supportive in helping me find an opportunity that was both interesting to me and would provide me with a good development opportunity. As only my second job after university, I was slightly apprehensive about what it would be like to start at the Carbon Trust. However, I quickly found that the skills I had acquired at BCG were very useful in my new role, and that it was really just like starting a new project. By my first afternoon I was already up at the white-board helping the customer & project managers to formalise the approach to calculating the carbon footprint for one of our clients.
As my secondment progressed I began to work in areas that I wouldn't be exposed to on a normal consulting project. I led commercial negotiations with our biggest client regarding their use of our Carbon Reduction Label, working closely with their communications and marketing teams to ensure suitable messages accompanied the label.
Business school application
Time has just flown by. It seems only yesterday that I started at the Carbon Trust, but now I've only got a few months left. With this in mind, I've finally made a concerted effort to begin my business school applications. It turns out that BCG has a wealth of information to support the business school application process, right the way from helping to understand which business school is right for me to providing advice on how to sit the GMAT exam and write the entrance essays.
Back to BCG
My secondment finished last week and it was straight back to BCG to find out what my next case would be. I was encouraged to find out that I would have some down time during my first week back, giving me time to settle in to my new desk, meet all the new joiners and prepare myself for my next project.
It is incredible to think that it has been a year since I was promoted – I've done so many new things and learned so many new skills.