How I Became A Consultant Despite Being A [Terrible] Student

if you ever thought of becoming a consultant chances are you've heard common phrases like to be a consultant you need awesome grades or to be a consultant you need the extensive relevant internships but is that really it should you give up on being a consultant just because you didn't meet these two requirements my name is Maddie and today I'm going to tell you how I became a consultant at PwC here in Canada despite being an average terrible student so if being a consultant is a goal of yours keep on watching I dreamed of becoming a consultant every since I attended my first career session in my second year in university where they explained the foundations of being a consultant a consultant travels a lot worked with a bunch of different people across diverse industries a consultant doesn't have a routine in fact his work constantly changes from projects to projects he solves interesting problems and his job is flexible and well-paid my eyes were like that I wanted everything that the guy in the session was saying but the question that remained was how can I become a consultant two main things popped out during the presentation and during my online research on average consulting firms hire the best students with the highest GPAs and the best most relevant internship experience at that point I decided to meet with my career advisor to get some help oh you want to become a consultant yes the meeting didn't go well they gave me permission to take your transcript I guess yeah [Music] I had a terrible GPA in fact if I did the math even if I got straight A's for the rest of my university I'd get a GPA far from what consulting firms were looking for can I take care of me sure oh and I only had a basic cell job on my resume at that time look I don't want to be harsh like the sorting firms only hire students with above average GPA and excellent experience and with your current grades and experience you cannot become insolvent but I didn't think of anything else I could do after I graduate what I didn't care I had to do everything I could to achieve my goal even if it appeared it impossible are you talking to my plan was simple I had to boost my grades and I had to get the best experience I could I had two years at that time we were in October 2015 and I expected to graduate in December 2017 so I started by working on my grades I took dressing decisions I changed my major from finance to information systems because I like the courses better so I thought if I like the courses better I would get better grades right I changed my habits studying late at night and early in the morning I said no too many chillings with my friends [Music] i prioritize classes I asked a lot of questions and I tried not to skip as many classes as I could it was hard alright I have to be honest I wasn't perfect at not skipping class then I tackled the second part of my plan my experience I looked online of what it consisted to be a successful consultant and among many skills it said things like ability to work in teams travel experience client management customer service flexibility autonomous analytical and presentation skills ability to cope with pressure interpersonal skills I realized that I could get all these skills in not-so-sexy jobs like sales and customer service therefore I took a bra ambassador role at Nespresso during the year where I learned how to be autonomous how to handle clients how to sell effectively I had to learn customer service everything that I thought was relevant to become a consultant one day the next summer in June 2016 I landed a part time job at Bombardier recreational products which was not an internship really I was just research assistant where I learned how to analyze and present data in an effective manner what remained in my list of skills was the travel experience and the interpersonal skills I knew based on my research and articles online that I could get these two skills by doing an international exchange program so I went to Nottingham University in my third year between January and May 2017 the rest like we say is history my CV started to become competitive I was being called for interviews for Hopkins internships during the summer 2017 just before my last semester no joke I had five interviews at that time and things were looking great but if you watched my master's degree video you know what happened next despite my efforts my grades weren't following up like I wished they would the experience I had got me many interviews just to be rejected in the last rounds I didn't get a single internship in the summer 2017 which was my last opportunity before I graduated in other words I would start my last semester without any internship experience even without the best grades or best experience I decided to take a shot and apply to consulting firms anyway I didn't expect what happened next my call for PC consulting firms were actually calling me for full-time opportunities but this time it was different I was passing tests easily I was passing interviews easily and in October 2017 I signed with PwC two months before graduating I discovered during my interviews with recruiters that it was never about my grades or internship experience it was rather because of my journey because of the process I took because of my personal development over these two the past few years I learned how to sell myself despite my lack of experience I learned how to craft an effective resume that got me lots of interviews I learned how to answer any of you questions I learned how to craft the best cover letter possible I learned how to be comfortable being uncomfortable but more importantly I learned how to set goals for myself and act on them that's what got me the job don't let grades and the lack of internship dictate the career that you really want yes those things are useful and will probably ease your way up but they aren't the only thing you should focus on the majority of consulting firms will look at your people skills your curiosity and your ability to work in teams they want people who aren't afraid to take new challenges being outside of their comfort zone and believe me you can get everything that I just mentioned without the best grades and without the best internship experience everything you dream of should start with a plan and then find small steps to get closer to that goal and then go all in thanks for watching this video it's a bit different from what I usually do in this channel I hope you liked it tell me in the comment section below if you want more videos like this one tell me your questions about PwC about consulting I would be happy to create more videos on this topic and so if you enjoyed this video hit the like button leave a comment because that will help this video get watched and this will give me clear indication if you really enjoyed this video and if I should do more videos on this topic so so I'll talk to you in the next video hopefully don't forget to subscribe for more videos like this one and yeah that's it I don't know how to end this video ciao [Music] you

Channel: The Independent Consultant

Views: 163,485

Keywords: big 4 firms, how to become a consultant, deloitte, kpmg, pwc, ernst & young, big 4 accounting firms, big 4, job at the big 4, how to get a job at the big 4

Id: dySCHZuTzqU

Length: 8min 0sec (480 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 26 2019