Wrote this post in 2018, still applicable today.

Mentors are critical

One of the biggest mistakes I made early in my career is that I did not ask for advice. I plodded along, thinking I knew best, and did not get advice from others. B.I.G.M.I.S.T.A.K.E. Now, getting feedback from other people is something I relish. Feedback either makes you feel great (read: compliments), or make you a better consultant.

One of my (future) mentors interviewed me for a role at a big 3 consulting firm in 2004. During the interview, we talked about a lot of different things (behavioral interview, not case). Among the things he mentioned was this framework.  I still remember it 14 years later.  “When you think about your career, think of it in terms of 3 questions”

3 Questions to always be asking yourself

• What are you doing (strategy)?
• How well are you doing it (performance)?
• What have you learned (continuous improvement)?

This is something I’ve kept and still remember 5,000+ days later.  When I was in (seemingly) dead-end projects, I would ask myself. . . those same 3 questions.

Here is a sample of projects over the last 12 years: 

• Northeast ERP support project. Great team, polite client, but increasingly boring work. Getting great reviews, client liked me, but eager to roll off the project. On a 1-10 (best) scale, it would look like this: What (5), How (8), Learning (6).  So, not the greatest fan of what I was doing, but doing a pretty good job. Honestly, learning more than I thought.
• Midwest technology strategy project. This was a short-but-sweet project. Really excited about the innovation-orientation of the project, but kinda getting dragged along the work. Sure, I did good work (lots of late nights), but was probably a little eustress uncomfortable the whole time.  My numbers looked like this: What (9), How (5), Learning (9).
• Southeast financial modeling. Not sure how many 1am nights I spent on this one. The work was new-ish, and we definitely followed the right (consulting) steps to get to the final answer. Data was crazy messy, and there were multiple consulting firms involved (yes that happens). My ratings: what (8), how (8), learning (6).
• West coast process improvement. How can you argue with 35 days of sunshine on a 36 day project? You cannot. Great weather. Nice client. Super-defined scope. The client knew what they wanted. What (6), How (8), Learning (3)
• East Coast cost reduction. Did a lot of sourcing and procurement in my day. We hit our savings targets, but the client was still in a bad shape. Team was crazy-fun. What (6), How (9), Learning (7).  Early in my career, so lots to learn.

So what?

If you have read this far, the key takeaway might be that every project, every job, every class you take at school, has it’s good and bad. There is a balanced scorecard to consider:

• What is the content? Is it what you are interested in?
• How well are you doing? Are you a rock star at it?
• Is this making you a more valuable consultant?

No project, job, situation is perfect

Careful of FOMO. Find the best in each situation. Don’t fall victim to it. Do great work, learn a lot, and position for great (future) project. Don’t expect the job, project, class to give you satisfaction.