Going from Oxford to becoming a consultant was one of the wildest leaps I made. The difference in mental models is rather significant. You are going from a place that rewards your personal thinking and synthesis as the be all and end all to the workplace, where value must be created for someone else.
It’s worth a stint in consulting, since it builds that capability to deliver value faster and of higher quality. That said, I did have a steep learning curve, and I hope that I can give you aspiring consultants an easier way in. Here are the key lessons I’ve learned so far:
Mental Models
- Iterate fast
- Timeboxing
- Be annoyingly resourceful
Best practices
- Think about the slides first
- Master slide formatting
- Excel modelling
- Balance speed with attention to detail
Dealing with people and stress
- Avoid stress
- Adapt communication for stakeholders
- Build relationships with clients
Mental Models
Iterate Fast
Communicate early and often with your manager to avoid wasting time spinning your wheels. While you don’t want to appear overly dependent, it’s essential to put thought into your work and validate your direction with your manager or partners early.
What this looks like is making a sketch of a powerpoint in 10 minutes, or even a three line message with hypothesis and approach, before you begin. You should calibrate your approach with every new manager you work under, but always aim to get alignment when you can.
This will help you minimise churn. Churn, or the redoing of work due to unclear expectations, is often inevitable but can be reduced by iterating early. Share drafts and seek alignment frequently to avoid wasted effort.
Timeboxing
Tasks can expand to fill the time available; It’s a phenomenon known as Parkinson’s Law. To avoid this, allocate specific time blocks to tasks. This forces prioritisation and ensures you don’t get stuck in perfectionist loops, particularly with slides or models. You might also break tasks up into sub-tasks, like “30 minutes to outline, 90 minutes to build, 30 minutes to clean up”, as a way to force yourself to move onto the next step.
Be Annoyingly Resourceful
The responsibility for assigned work stops with you, regardless of challenges. While seeking help from your manager is fine when necessary, over-reliance on them for solutions reflects poorly on performance reviews. When stuck on a problem, first try three concrete actions before escalating: search internal drives or past decks, ask a peer who has done similar work, and check external public sources, then summarise what you tried when you finally ask for help.
Balance Speed with Attention to Detail
Before submitting slides, print them out for review. Viewing them on paper provides a fresh perspective and helps spot mistakes you might overlook digitally. Have a checklist of mistakes you’ve made in the past, and tick them off as you review each slide, because you do not want to make a formatting error twice.
Best Practices
Think about the slides first
It’s very exciting to dive into the slide. Unfortunately, it’s also very easy to get confused about what should go on the slide itself. Any deck should come with planning and sketches.
Approach slide creation as if telling a story to a friend:
- Define the objective of the entire deck
- Break this into objectives for each slide
- Write out the titles first to clarify the story structure before filling in the content
Meanwhile, crafting a single slide is like writing an expository essay:
- Header: State your point upfront – this matches your objective
- Body: Substantiate your claim below for those who want the details
- Ensure your slide is MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) to cover all bases logically
Master Slide Formatting
PowerPoint isn’t about being artistic; it’s about communicating effectively. You want to reserve enough time for making the aesthetic clean ups at the end after you’ve crafted the slide to speak the message you want.
Key principles:
- One slide, one message
- Emphasise key points using darker colours; use grey for less critical elements.
- Align everything—consistent fonts, box sizes, and a restrained colour scheme work wonders
- Set deadlines for slide content and formatting separately to stay on track
- Make sure the eye can follow a simple path, usually top left to bottom right, without jumping around
Excel Modelling
A good Excel model is intuitive and robust:
- Use tab titles and comments to explain the purpose and source of inputs.
- Colour-code cells: inputs (hard-coded numbers) should stand out and be easily modifiable.
- Design the output first—know what the final slide needs and build towards that.
- Structure your model with driver trees: outputs on the left, inputs on the right.
- Create dedicated tabs for specific purposes.
Dealing with People and Stress
Avoid Stress
Stress often arises from the gap between the problem and the solution.
Remember, much of corporate work doesn’t have a single “right” answer; the goal is alignment. Recognising this can help you stay calm under pressure. Furthermore, when you feel stuck, try to break up your current problem into smaller, more bite-sized problems to solve.
Adapt Communication for Stakeholders
Tailor your communication based on your audience:
- For busy CEOs: Provide a crisp message backed by detailed appendices.
- For middle managers: Include detailed analysis to reassure them they can relay your findings confidently.
Know your slides inside out and anticipate potential questions and rehearse your delivery. At the same time, be prepared for meetings to veer off course, whether due to inconsequential details or formatting concerns. Anticipate these tendencies and adapt accordingly. Before each meeting, write a one paragraph summary for senior stakeholders and a one page detailed note for working level people with all the details that have to be highlighted, and keep both ready so you can switch depending on who shows up.
Build Relationships with Clients
While some client relationships are best left to senior management, building rapport with your counterparts is invaluable.
Start transactional by providing obvious value to them, then grow the intangible fluffy warm feeling.
You always want to help make their lives easier, not harder. That means being mindful of their time when you call for meetings; No-one likes a consultant imposing their schedule when they have their own work to do.
Over time, take an interest in their lives and work at building a genuine connection. Clients appreciate consultants who are empathetic yet professional.
There’s a common meme where consultants just regurgitate what the client tells them to their bosses. However, validate critical inputs independently. Consultants must present well-reasoned, unbiased conclusions, even when client suggestions seem credible.
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Moving from a place like Oxford to consulting means you stop optimising for perfect ideas and start optimising for clear value, fast. The good news is you don’t need to be a natural consultant to survive. If you focus on iterating early, thinking in structured stories, and treating clients and teams like real people, the rest will come with repetition. Most of the job is learning to reduce churn, keep calm under imperfect information, and ship work that others can trust. If you keep doing the small moves in this guide every week, you will get better, your days will feel less chaotic, and consulting will become a place you can actually grow instead of just grind.