Biggest Challenges Faced By An Associate Consultant At Ernst And Young Parthenon
Hannah's biggest challenge as an Associate Consultant at Ernst & Young-Parthenon is the "unpredictability in terms of time commitment," a common issue in professional services where client demands and limited experience can lead to miscalculations of workload and impact personal time; however, the work-life balance is "much better than I was anticipating."
Overcoming Challenges, Industry Realities, Workplace Challenges, Time Management, Work-Life Balance
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Hannah Feller
Associate Consultant
Ernst&Young-Parthenon
UCLA, 2021
NA
Economics
Consulting & Related Professional Services, Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Consulting
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. High volume and unpredictable workload: Hannah highlights the fluctuating demands of consulting, requiring adaptability and effective time management. This is a common challenge in the industry that students should be aware of.
2. Balancing client demands with personal life: Hannah emphasizes the difficulty of maintaining a work-life balance due to unexpected time commitments and tight deadlines. Students should consider how they plan to manage this aspect of a consulting career.
3. Importance of experience: Hannah notes that her lack of experience sometimes leads to miscalculations in predicting workload. This underscores the value of gaining experience and developing strong anticipatory skills to succeed in consulting.
Transcript
What is your biggest challenge in your current role?
I think I touched on this briefly before, but a challenge is the unpredictability of the time commitment. In professional services, we cater to clients who often pay our firm more than they would pay to employ us for an entire year.
Because of that cost, there's a perception that we can work around the clock to meet tight deadlines. As an associate, I'm not always privy to all client conversations.
This can sometimes catch me off guard, and it's also likely due to my lack of experience. I don't always anticipate things as quickly as I would with more practice.
Sometimes I miscalculate when a week will be busy and when it won't. I find this challenging because I prioritize making plans after work, like spending time with friends.
This has led to some difficult situations. However, I do think it's better than I imagined it would be going into consulting. I remember people hyping up the number of hours, and it was much better than I anticipated, though it still remains a challenge.