What a Risk Consultant at CFGI Wishes They Knew Before Entering Consulting
Bobbie, a Risk Consultant, wished someone had prepared her for the "steep learning curve" beyond formal education, highlighting the significant shift from objective academic feedback to the subjective, infrequent, and improvement-focused feedback common in consulting. The transition required Bobbie to redefine success, contextualizing performance within a business's goals rather than solely on personal achievement.
Career Development, Overcoming Challenges, Resilience, Feedback and Performance Evaluation, Workplace Transition
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Bobbie Hutchinson
Risk Consultant
CFGI, LLC
UCLA 2018
N/A
Economics
Consulting & Related Professional Services, Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Consulting
Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. The learning curve is steeper than expected after college, requiring continuous education and adaptation.
2. The feedback cycle in consulting is subjective, infrequent, and focused on improvement, differing significantly from the objective, frequent feedback in academia.
3. It's crucial to redefine personal success and separate self-evaluation from the business context to manage feedback effectively in a consulting role and avoid taking it personally
Transcript
What have you learned about this role that you wish someone had told you before you started?
I wish someone had told me before I graduated and started working just how steep the learning curve would be. I felt like I had gone through four rigorous years of education in economics and was just going to apply my knowledge in the world. I didn't realize that my education would continue, and perhaps even escalate.
It can be shaking to realize how much you still don't know, even after years of study. This really caught me off guard and was initially a confidence hit. If I had been warned, I think I could have adapted and not taken it so personally.
Another challenge was the performance feedback cycle. I wish someone had coached me through this before starting my role. The style of feedback in consulting and the business world is very distinct from college or K-12 school.
In college, feedback is often objective, like a grade on a test or paper. It's kind of this frequent external validation. In consulting, feedback has very much been subjective and infrequent.
Feedback tends to focus more on what you can improve because it's a business. The goal is consistently to produce more and better. There isn't as much praise for a good job; it's more about the things you need to do to improve.
As someone who came from external validation, like getting good or bad grades, this was hard not to take personally. You really have to recreate your personal definition of success, how you receive feedback, and how you evaluate yourself. We sometimes put too much of our identity into being a good student or excelling in a role.
In the professional world, you need to take a step back and put it into context. Realize that this is in the context of running a successful business, not always just about your personal success. I wish someone had taught me more about where this feedback is coming from and why it might feel so different from college. And that's okay.