Help Needed ..Going back to work

Society Business and Career
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Salam all,

I graduated with an mba - finance and started working for an extremely small consulting firm, the place was nice and ppl were great but sadly not a lot of learning going on… coz my seniors were busy trying to consult… I did have offers while working there but passed them hoping that things would get better here (hindsight is 20/20) in terms of learning. The top guys are really smart but as things turned out the top guys were busy trying to keep the company going and I was being neglected in terms of training. I was let go and now even though my resume says I have experience I don’t… and all the stuff that I studied or should’ve known I don’t … I am trying to get another job but most job offers I get from headhunters now expect that I would be on top on my game yet I am not… Can anyone help me and guide me as to how I can get a job and keep it knowing that the past company did not give me any training so I’m basically a fresher right out of college…

I do not want to badmouth the company… I respect the ppl I worked with…

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Re: Help Needed ..Going back to work

What kind of offers you are getting ? Your MBA should have taught you enough to go out there and provide consultancy services. After all what consultants do ?

A joke about it just to cheer you up and give you some food for thought.

A tourist walks into a pet shop in Silicon Valley, and is browsing around the cages on display. While he's there, another customer walks in and says to the shopkeeper, "I'll have a C monkey, please".

The shopkeeper nods, goes over to a cage at the side of the shop and takes out a monkey. He fits a collar and leash and hands it to the customer, saying "That'll be $5,000". The customer pays and walks out with his monkey.

Startled, the tourist goes over to the shopkeeper and says, "That was a very expensive monkey, most of them are only a few hundred dollars. Why did it cost so much?"

"Oh", says the shopkeeper, "that monkey can program in C with very fast, tight code, no bugs, well worth the money."

The tourist starts to look at the monkeys in the cage. He says to the shop keeper, "That one's even more expensive, $10,000! What does it do?"

"Oh", says the shopkeeper, "that one's a C++ monkey; it can manage object-oriented programming, Visual C++, even some Java, all the really useful stuff."

The tourist looks round for a little longer and sees a third monkey in a cage on its own. The price tag round its neck says $50,000.

He gasps to the shop keeper, "That one costs more than all the others put together! What on earth does it do?"

"Well," says the shopkeeper, "I don't know if it actually does anything, but says it's a Consultant."

P.S: I became a Management Consultant fresh out of college with an MBA degree to back me up. All the management consultancy is in the books. You go there, identify the problem , research for the solutions and present it to the clients. If it works, well and good if it does not you go back to the drawing board.

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First things first - experience is exeprience meaning doesn't matter if you were making coffee - you were employed right?

Okay - there is no need for you to embelish on the fact that you did not learn anything. You goal is to LAND the job.

No one is expecting you to know everything. Most employers are looking for what Mirch mentioned above. Ability to solve problems and issues.

In your interviews - they are going to ask you well miss Sadi79 - what were your responsibilites in your last position?

And you tell them about the accounts/projets/tools (the company used) that you were given and what you worked on. You can even tell them about some larger projects that the firm was working on.

Good luck with everything. Don't focus on what you don't have - focus your answers on what you do have and what you CAN offer the employer

GS Apprentice - TEAM 1 (Task 2)!!!!!!
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Thanks mirch and njgal.... for your input and advice...here is the thing I wasn't given anything to do... I mean everytime I went to my senior to work on something I would be handed a book to read (no doubt the books I read were good but not connected in any way to consulting directly) and the snippets I was given to work on ... were mostly not right ... the research and stuff and when I do for interviews and employers ask me what projects I enjoyed the most my mind comes up with a complete blank... This is the prob I am facing...

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Re: Help Needed ..Going back to work

How many years did you spend in this firm? The thing with consulting jobs is that you’re pretty much expected to be moving up the Grinders (Associate) –Minder (Managers/Team Leads) – Finders (Partners/Executives) corporate ladder with a couple of years in between the first two stages and a little more between the latter two.

So from the sound of it, you’ve pretty much been working at the Associate level for the duration of your stay with your employer – right? Even so… you must have learnt something significant about the business of your firm, it’s consulting engagements with clients, and what is at the core of the billable hours for your firm’s various projects.

You need to tap into the skillset that you were expected to possess when you were hired in your last job and build more on how you’ve progressed over time in advancing those skills or added to your portfolio of skills. Explicit training isn’t the only channel that you would have learnt from. On the job experience… interacting with other people – esp. your own colleagues and indirectly learning about projects through them will help you devise a better job profile for what you’ve been doing. In case you’ve been at the same entry-level consultant role in your firm, try to focus more on the Associate level skills e.g. analysis, modelling, processes etc.

Wish you all the best with everything!

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That is what has been concerning me.... at the associate level I wasn't exposed to the projects my firm was working on and there was no interaction with the client so no idea how that works. I guess I'll just have to start working on developing skills I should've learnt at the firm on my own. Thanks all... your comments have been helpful :)

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Re: Help Needed ..Going back to work

You need to exgarate (not lie) a little on your interviews. If they gave you research and books to read to do - then you call it "Creating a new strategy"

if you did not have client interaction - not to worry - you can say the best part was to help your manager figure out soultions for clients....

yada yada yada....

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Wow, You are a genius. :D I would like you to be my strategist.

Jamaat e Islami
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Re: Help Needed ..Going back to work

Hi Sadi , am in simialr situation. Had such a great job and was in a big compnay too but had to leave work for some personal reasons and now looking for one. It's not that ez to find the right job. Best of luck for ur job hunt:)

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njgal, loved your ideas thanks....pls if you don't mind helping me out on this angle. my resume looks good with all the yada yada stuff.... but when it comes time for a personal interview and I get asked questions like what projects did you work on? which project did you like the best? Why ? I can't seem to recall anything (coz I haven't done anything) How do I overcome this problem.

thanks

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Re: Help Needed ..Going back to work

Sadi - you should pull this stuff right from your resume. You need to know your resume back and forth If you are doing phone interviews than have your resume in front of you so you don't forget. DO NOT TALK BAD ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYER AND THAT YOU DID NOT DO ANYTHING.

Question: Sadi 79 so tell me about some of the projects did you worked on?
You: I worked on numerous little projects while I was with Company XYZ. The most recent project that I worked on was (emblish a little) to help my team (or my manager) acheive XYZ. The project would have this impact ont he company. I was responsible for managing research of "this and that" aspect of the project. It was interesting because I could use "this" part of my MBA etc.

Question: Which project did you like the best? Why ?
You: I really liked project XYZ because it was a great leanring experience. I had never worked on a project of this magtitude (or complexity). The research part of this project was really hard because I had not worked with this subject before so it was interesting to work on something brand new.

OR

I really liked project XYZ because it was a I could use my MBA or other skills that you have. I had never worked on a project of this magtitude (or complexity). The research part of this project was really interesting and I could bring my expertise that I learned in school or previous job to the project.

In interviews - most people are looking for how you solved a problem in projects and not a skill set. They don't care that you worked on project XYZ.

They can always train someone to aquire skills but they are looking for your personality and ability to work through issues.

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:) We should all be experts in "guppain marna"

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Naaaa it is beyond guppain. It is super genius stuff. You are very creative. :mash2:

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Re: Help Needed ..Going back to work

Thanks Mirch! Always happy to help someone...