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Coach
To be honest, it’s possible, but most of the people I see get there that fast usually don’t have the necessary skills nor experience to be able to handle it well. Breaking it down, most people take about 1-2 years learning consulting nuances and how to “job” appropriately. Your next 2 years are learning the actual skill sets required to perform well and identify solutions to potential problems. Your next round is doing the solutioning faster and more thorough with a thought process behind it. Mid way through that is direct C-suite interaction and being able to present to leadership tactfully. Then comes the relationship building with clients with the mindset of selling additional work and doing all the proposal work on top of your client work. And I don’t mean pitching in to help a slide, I mean leading the initiative.
I’ve always been a fan of operate at the next level and then you get it, as opposed to the promote early and see if you’ll make it.
With 4 YOE, I’d have to be really impressed that it’s sustainable performance.
This is incredibly spot on and accurate. I couldn’t have said it any better. I currently in that boat right now where I’ll be promoted to manager and feel like it’s too early and not happy about it.
If we didn’t add analyst at D it was possible as I did it in 4. It may be hard to jump to M with that experience but is possible. I would just apply to the other Big4. Accenture will be tough because they automatically feed out based on YOE. Even though I had M title I got auto rejected after applying based on what I believe to be the YOE question.
Coach
I know of one person who did it from college -> 4 YOE
Coach
This was also pre-analyst
I’ve tried to promote someone to manager in that 3.5-4 year time frame and I was blocked by a VP. The person I was trying to promote was a top 1%. She checked every corporate box across the board, education, skills, utilization, clients loved her, current responsibility level, black, woman, LGBTQ. She basically checked every box. She deserved that promotion. I argued it out with the VP. His response was she needs more client experience and 4 years isn’t enough. I said if we don’t promote her and she checks all the boxes for a promotion her next move is leaving. We’ll promote some that sits at the same level for a number of years, but we can’t promote a top 1% for excelling at her work over her peers in a shorter time frame. He said I’m inspired by your passion, but no. Come back next year. Which I fired back she won’t be here next year. I still put a 1 year promotion plan in place for her. She left as soon as she could. She now works at SalesForce and she got her promotion. Im happy for her. Good luck!
Coach
Not sure that “black, woman, and LGBTQ” are really checkboxes.
Also, your VP is probably right. It takes time and experience to be good, and with that it takes a lot of tough situations and failures. As G1 mentioned, you have to be ready for tough questions because there’s only so many times someone can say “great question, let me take that offline and get back to you” and retain credibility.
It’s better for her to keep learning and be at the top 1% at her level than for her to get a reality check and all of the sudden be on the bottom 50%. Could she also have excelled? Sure, but the risks associated with that are firm reputation lost, projects going side ways, staff don’t get appropriate mentorship, and she gets on a PIP anyways along with a lower salary band since it was a fast promote. Your VP has to look at the entire picture on a macro scale and make tough choices even when they aren’t popular.
It took me a bit of time to understand this as I was also young and chasing the next level every time, but now 12 years into it and experiencing it, the decisions make more sense now.
Accenture you can make manager in 4 yrs:
analyst to senior 1 year
Senior to consultant 1 yr
Consultant to manager 2 years
Yes, 4 years definitely possible. I know one person who did it in 3 (but was an experienced hire at associate level). Will depend ultimately how strong you are in Cyber skillset, and if you have partner support.
Yes, I made it in 4 at pwc. Director at 7. Hopefully partner at 11.
Subject Expert
Btw - I took the long route to manager and above...always 1-2 years longer than others. Upside of all of that was that when I made it to Mgr or higher...the work was super easy.
Which allowed me to do well against my peers.
There is an upside to taking the long route.
I did it in 4 and so did a few others I know - definitely possible