All beginnings are difficult.
I remember when I started at BCG in 2001, I was so overwhelmed of the exciting work, the rich input I received, and finally the devastating long working hours. My girlfriend took me for a hike in the Swiss Mountains on a weekend and I fell asleep in the chair lift!
But what also made it a bit hard in the beginning was the lack of understanding of my family, friends, and fellow students from university. For an engineer it was not so common to start with a consulting firm. I had to cope with lot’s of prejudice and criticism. Okay, some of the stereotypes and jokes about consultants are probably right.
“Son, what are you doing with your life?” was a common comment. I collected all the sceptical views on the consulting lifestyle and puzzled them together as new lyrics for a famous German song, originally performed by “Die Ärzte”. Together with 3 colleagues we performed that on the Christmas party of BCG in 2007. See the picture of our hippie-style stage performance. I’m the guy on the left with the guitar.
Check out the song here. It might be worth a good laugh. Take it easy!