Related Posts
Community Builder
Bowl Leader
EY interview Experience
Pro
More Posts
I hear, strategist left FCB NY
Do you have a weekend getaway?
Conversation Starter
Community Builder
Kingdly share your view fishes
Additional Posts in Consulting
Chief
Rising Star
Pro
Is tableau a skill worth adding to your resume?
Pro
Best consulting firms without the massive ego?
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
I used to work 60+ hr weeks - you can't manage it indefinitely.
You need to be ruthless and cut things out.
I would get a cleaning service.
Cut your personal life to one day a week
Tell your partner that you won't have time for them anytime soon but its because you are working towards something better
That's about it
Outside of that - I would ask yourself will joining MBB make your life better?
I got to the confirming interview before I realized that MBB was a band aid to a bigger problem. It would have only made me happy for 3-4 months before I was back in my old spot.
I recommend you figure out what makes you happy and then go for that.
Hi Google 1, I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. As often as I tell myself to be more ruthless and cut things out, I feel bad doing so. But problems never stop coming up, so no matter how many fires I put out, as soon as one is out, another one starts to burn.
I’m lucky that I have a great support group comprised of loving people. I think it’s more of a me problem than a them problem. I am the one feeling bad.
I don’t have a problem with my work except for having to deal with some annoying people from downstream teams (which is as expected everywhere), and am pursuing consulting because of the desire to learn, to inspire and be inspired, to solve pressing problems, and to network with a wide range of people from various industries.
Long hours isn’t the problem. The challenges? I welcome them with open arms. In terms of happiness, if I can win the lotto and retire that’d be great. But since that’s not going to happen, I want to work in an environment that can provide me opportunities to learn and grow, not only professionally but also personally. I want to become a better thinker, strategist, and presenter.
I checked every box on this and I have a dog.
Here’s what worked:
- Still sleep a lot one day of the week cuz my body needs it;
- Exercise — your brain needs it and your body will thank you for it. I run while listening to some case interview demo
- minimum social — I just need to do what relax and recharge me the most, which is sleep in this case;
- yes the house is a mess but so what? Lower your stand for the moment. Also not having friends over eliminate the need of extra housekeeping.
- besides family cooking occasionally, I rely on food delivery and some meal service (freshly, daily harvest)
- there are some case interview coaching out there. Can be pricey but depending on your time and your learning style, it can be a good idea.
Good luck!
Also if energy is the main issue after work consumes you, try waking up early and protecting the first hour or two of your day to do a mock interview and etc. Find case partners is also a good way to commit to prepping when you are exhausted. I sometimes delay non urgent transactional work to late night and give the more focused hours to case prep.
I think formally 30 - 40? The first few are a waste of time honestly. What I found to be helpful is to quickly locate your weakness, and focus on it — for me it was the initial structuring, so what I did was to go through some casebooks, read the prompt and only spent a few minutes structuring, then look at the suggested answers to see what main areas I may be missing, then move on.
As a product manager, why are you trying to go into MBB lol? Those are two very different career tracks and many MBB consultants are exiting into product management.
Rising Star
I’m in the same boat. Maybe it’s a mental thing
Chief
If you have the money you can pay to clean your home, prep your food (or food service), while figuring out what’s really important to you for this upcoming sprint
Pro
My hunch is that you’re context switching too often and it’s causing you to drain more energy than you have capacity to give. My recommendations.
1. Ruthlessly prioritize. For the near future you’re going to be less present at home and have less personal time. It’s a temporary thing until you’re done with interviews. But do the important right now. Everything else can wait.
2. Time block your day. Don’t get distracted with a ton of different shiny objects. Block time to work on your current work, admin tasks, and if you have capacity some study time. Probably best to put studying on certain days if possible. For example, Tues/Thur/Friday from 1pm-4pm do interview prep (or whatever your schedule allows). But you need to be more singularly focused on what you’re doing during the time you’re working on it to stop losing cognitive energy. Lots of stuff online about time blocking.
3. If you can, hire out cleaning, do grocery pickup, etc. Outsource stuff like that at least for the time being
4. Try and get your needed sleep. Everything else will be harder if you’re energy is drained.
Pro
Awesome! I’m like that too where I struggle to say no, but if you block out time you’ll see how much time that you actually have and then you’ll be forced to say no haha.
I only work like 10-20 so that’s how I do it.
Efficiency > hard work
🤷♂️🤷♂️
Not hating - just questioning the sheer lack of empathy or awareness it takes to make posts like this. 😂 what level are you if you don’t mind me asking?
Rising Star
Can’t have it all. Seems like you’re not trying to make compromises in any part of your life which is why you’re stretched so thin.
One of the first things you learn at MBB is to prioritize and deprioritize things in your life; so in your case you have 5 variables which are sleep, work, social/home, adulting, and MBB prep which unfortunately means you’ll have to cut back on things that are less of a priority to you or pay to solve things (I.e., housekeeper, case prep).
Wise words and great advice. Thank you :)
Pro
If you can't do the 60 hours as a PM, you're going to struggle more at MBB.
Group VP I can’t say that’s not part of the reason lol
Hold up, you're concerned with 60 hour works weeks and want to work at MBB???
I appreciate you sharing your personal experience and thank you, I’ll need all the luck I can get lol. I may need to get back to working out. Have been cutting that out for the sake of saving time, but I’m feeling more tired actually.
Chief
Outsource everything you can
Hi all! Before DM-ing me about how I’m not cut out for this and such, allow me to better explain myself- I’m capable of working long hours. I don’t mind long hours. I just don’t want to compromise on my work performance for the sake of interview prep, but at the same time I don’t want to focus only on work and later regret it if I don’t do well on interview day because I didn’t devote enough time to prep. The struggle is finding that balance mentally. If I can just do one or the other I’d feel much better but life doesn’t allow that. My loved ones are understanding so it’s my own internal problem. And sorry for the OCD but I prefer to not be in a messy environment but have been ignoring the cleaning part as much as I can lol (hiring a cleaning professional is definitely something I’ll look into now).
It's ok I work 80hrs a s am associate but my SM works 65-70 hr depends on client