Hi everyone,
It’s been a while since my last post, and I've wrapped up two projects since then. Most recently, I attended a week-long training program called FLITE, which is for business analysts who are at their one-year mark. I’m still pondering how I'm now a second-year, especially as the new BA class is starting! I've had many exciting adventures and revelations since my last post, and the training program gave me the perfect opportunity to reflect on them.
Throughout the week of training, I had three takeaways (not at all because McKinsey loves things in three…) and made more than three friends (see photo above, which shows me, Brian from our New York office, Eddy from Philadelphia, Al from Sydney, and Zoha from Dallas).
In this post I’ll share the first two learnings from FLITE:
1. I'm continuously blown away and grateful for how much the firm invests in people development, on both the professional and personal fronts.
On the professional/skills side, I had the chance to re-learn concepts and practice solving problems the McKinsey way, and to assess my own conflict resolution style.
On the personal side, the outcome of programs like this is even more rewarding. This is one of the few places where you could indulge in open conversations about your aspirations beyond the company while you're working there and with your coworkers. In fact, they set aside time and had external coaches to help us think through our paths.
2. Time at the firm passes at a different rate, and McKinsey time is approximately 3.2X normal working time (this stat is completely made up by me). Even though I talk about how fast time has gone, and how it feels like just yesterday I was a new BA, all of us look at the next year as if by the time we are 2+0 (how we describe tenure at the firm: year+month) we'll be old, wise, tenured members of the firm. Perhaps it's the rate at which we learn and get things done at the firm, and perhaps it's the short amount of time many of us stay at the firm before we venture out.
We also treasure our time as if we live dog years. Any project longer than 8-10 weeks is a careful decision for me, as it's more of a commitment…quite different from most jobs!
In my next post, I’ll share my third key takeaway and what I did for my last vacation.
Jane
It’s been a while since my last post, and I've wrapped up two projects since then. Most recently, I attended a week-long training program called FLITE, which is for business analysts who are at their one-year mark. I’m still pondering how I'm now a second-year, especially as the new BA class is starting! I've had many exciting adventures and revelations since my last post, and the training program gave me the perfect opportunity to reflect on them.
Throughout the week of training, I had three takeaways (not at all because McKinsey loves things in three…) and made more than three friends (see photo above, which shows me, Brian from our New York office, Eddy from Philadelphia, Al from Sydney, and Zoha from Dallas).
In this post I’ll share the first two learnings from FLITE:
1. I'm continuously blown away and grateful for how much the firm invests in people development, on both the professional and personal fronts.
On the professional/skills side, I had the chance to re-learn concepts and practice solving problems the McKinsey way, and to assess my own conflict resolution style.
On the personal side, the outcome of programs like this is even more rewarding. This is one of the few places where you could indulge in open conversations about your aspirations beyond the company while you're working there and with your coworkers. In fact, they set aside time and had external coaches to help us think through our paths.
2. Time at the firm passes at a different rate, and McKinsey time is approximately 3.2X normal working time (this stat is completely made up by me). Even though I talk about how fast time has gone, and how it feels like just yesterday I was a new BA, all of us look at the next year as if by the time we are 2+0 (how we describe tenure at the firm: year+month) we'll be old, wise, tenured members of the firm. Perhaps it's the rate at which we learn and get things done at the firm, and perhaps it's the short amount of time many of us stay at the firm before we venture out.
We also treasure our time as if we live dog years. Any project longer than 8-10 weeks is a careful decision for me, as it's more of a commitment…quite different from most jobs!
In my next post, I’ll share my third key takeaway and what I did for my last vacation.
Jane