First job out of graduation and I feel like I'm dead inside. Is it normal for my first year to suck this hard or am I depressed? (More)

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Have you taken a look at the world outside today? Pandemic, on going police brutality, to say nothing about ongoing climate change and the lack of any real progress on arms control and nuclear proliferation.

It is 100 seconds to midnight.

Edit: all of which to say— what you’re feeling is normal!

likefunny

I guess I can't help but feel like it's my fault for not being able to deal with and make the most out of what I have. I have a job, I have a project, I should be grateful but I feel like I'm dying inside because I can't change the situation I'm in

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2.5 years outta college and my manager still says I’m paying my dues and to slow down🙄🙄🙄🙄

likefunnyhelpful

Everyone has their agenda 🤷‍♂️ and theirs might be to keep you staffed on their project because you actually get work done...

My advice to younger consultants is to not buy into the paying your dues narrative. I’ve been paying mine for 9 years and I’m still a generalist at the mercy of staffing. Don’t be entitled, but also don’t be afraid to know what you want, set goals, work hard and go for it. I doubt great entrepreneurs have a pay your dues mindset. If you feel like you are off the path you want to be on try and take positive action to address it. The current times make it harder, but you can still take steps to own your career. I’m finally taking my own advice, and I wish I’d done it sooner. It’s never too early.

likesmart

Ahhh i too remember when i realized life isn’t going to be like i thought it’d be. It’s okay, you can slowly start building it to your liking. Patience is key.

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Been at Accenture for close to 8 months now. Consulting was my dream job; I worked so hard to get here and really pictured myself learning a ton and doing lots of cool work. I've been staffed since I started but on the same gov't project (not call center) since I've started. I used to be so motivated and ambitious to build my career but I'm not learning anything on my project and it's near impossible to get off (call center is the alternative). Don't know if it's because I'm not looking hard enough or there's truly no work out there but I have been so unmotivated and detached from my work. Don't really care and feel like I'm going through the motions. A couple of consultants told me that this is just the nature of your first year and that I'm "paying my dues".

Can anyone shed light on this? Does it get better? Am I depressed and is this my fault?

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Find the topic and people that you like. I felt that way doing a lot of IT work when my passion was sustainability. I put my foot down and said no to projects and am risking being promoted but I’m doing amazing work on topics that I care about. Never felt this good at my job.

Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.

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Call center?

funny

It’s very common to sometimes get stuck on a project or client you don’t like. It will end though, and as you advance in your career you will have more influence over what projects you work on, especially if you perform well and build a strong internal network.

What would ultimately make you happy, I can’t say without knowing you better, but I would suggest if you don’t know specifically what industry or type of work you’d like to do, take some time to think about it and at least come up with a specific one that you’d like to try next.

This is important because most people in your network who know and trust you would like to help you, but in order to do that, they need something specific and actionable. Saying you don’t like your current situation is not enough. If you let them know what specific industry or work you want to do, then they can try to help you meet people in that area and help get you involved with proposals or internal initiatives or client projects in that area.

I will say that personally I found government work among the least motivating, and much preferred commercial clients, and I have known many people who wanted to move from public sector into commercial for similar reasons. But even if that was your goal, you would still want to pick a specific practice or industry because that is how groups are organized at these firms.

I can’t say for sure that you would find other types of consulting work fulfilling, some people don’t, but I certainly wouldn’t generalize your experience on one project to represent all of the opportunities you could have in consulting.

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I find that consulting usually puts you below your ability. In industry i’ve had much better experience getting the roles i wanted and challenging work.

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8 months is a tiny, tiny blip on the radar in terms of your entire career. I was on an awful mortgage review project for 1.5 years when I joined the firm. Give it time, things get better, and you will have good projects and bad projects. If over several years you still don’t enjoy it at all, then you can always leave.

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You just have to push through, and have the attitude of “how can I add value” vs “what can this firm/job do for me”. That’s my biggest piece of advice for recent grads. It has served me well and I’ve been promoted early nearly every cycle as a result. It isn’t because I’m smarter than anyone else (ha, FAR from it), rather, I realize I am paid to do the job the firm needs me to do, and I do it well. Do this and attach yourself to highly respected leaders in your firm. After, and only after you have proven yourself (and I mean really proven yourself) for a few years, you should be able to play your trump card and do what you want. At that point, the firm would rather place you where you want vs risk losing you. You aren’t there yet but you can be soon! Of course, this is all assuming you want to be in consulting. Another thing to consider is that the work we do isn’t always interesting as it’s driven by market demand.

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This is what it's like to graduate into a recession. It gets better.

In the meantime, make sure you're taking care of the other aspects of your life to the best of your ability. Work might be miserable, but your relationships, physical health, hobbies/recreational activities, and personal growth objectives don't have to suffer.

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Thank you. I appreciate this.

First, ask why you wanted to be in consulting? Is it because of the prestige or client relationship or the ladder or you simply thought that with your ideas you could change the world? Based on your post, I believe that the last question is why you thought joining consulting. Since then, try to identify companies that will give you what you are looking for. The fact that right now a pandemic is on going it would give you more time to mature your thoughts before making the jump. I was in your situation for the past 4 years, I was literally dying inside and felt agonizing to the point that I was jealous of people that they were doing what seemed to me in the past minor jobs but they were content with their lifes. I wish I’ve done that sooner, thought things will get better but my first months bad experience were same as my last months bad experience. Good stuff happened in between, but to be honest it was not worth it. Sometimes the universe is sending you early on some signals, try to catch them as soon as possible.

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Rough starts are very common I had a very rough start and hated my job for the first 18mo.it got much better from there. I kept working hard and doing my best and pushing through hoping that they'd give me opportunities and they realized and gave plenty of them to me. Now I'm very glad I had that attitude and work ethic. I used to be in pain while doing mindless work and listen to rabbit run from Eminem for 10h a day and tell myself "if I have half a chance I'll grab it". And I did.

funny

My 1st 18 months here absolutely sucked; the rest have been better but I've had AWESOME jobs / work experience before coming here from industry. I was legit excited about most workdays, if not every day, before coming into consulting.

I'm ultimately leaving in the short - mid term, but please don't do something dumb right now with the current climate; if you truly determine this isn't the place for you, that's great! Some people don't figure out (or pay attention) to hating what they do until far later in their careers (there's also something to be said about necessity, etc.)

Just pay your bills, do good work, hang on to the good people you do meet, and keep your eyes open for what you really want / where you want to be.

But to answer your question: it's all a mixed bag. Not so much that your 1st job SHOULD or shouldn't suck.

What kind of awesome jobs did you have before consulting bthat you were excited to work at daily?

Watch some Gary Vee and correct your mindset.

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