Over five and a half years ago, on my 22nd birthday, I started working at The Boston Consulting Group in Sydney. Tomorrow, now aged 27 and living on the other side of the world, I’ll be returning to BCG, albeit as a 2nd year Consultant in Chicago.

I am far more excited and far less nervous than I was the first time round. In 2014, my entry to management consulting had been driven as much by necessity (from being rejected by all the investment banks that I’d interned with), as by my desire to do really interesting work (and not just be writing company profiles and debt restructuring prospectuses at 3:30am). It was completely uncharted territory, but I was excited to be there. This time, I’m going back into the exact same role I was in before my MBA, a role that I was good at and absolutely love. The only difference will be an expectation that I slowly managing people, with an aim to become a Project Leader in a year’s time, and working in a different country.

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I love introspection. So of course this last week has involved me thinking a lot about what it’s going to be like to go back to BCG, and what the first year post-MBA will be like. But the reason this is more interesting than some of my other ramblings is that I know exactly what I expected before I started at BCG in 2014.

A week before I started at BCG, one of my closest friends (Ashan) recommended that I write down what I expect from BCG. Surprisingly, I not only listened to Ashan but I also managed to bring the notebook that it was written in to Chicago. So here’s what I was thinking the first time around, and how it actually panned out (original can be found here).

10/02/14 – What I expect from BCG

After speaking to Ashan, I’ve decided to write down some general thoughts about what I expect from BCG in order to compare them to reality at the end of the year.

1. I will love management consulting [YES - This actually happened]

2. I will get to travel, possibly even overseas [YES - I travelled to a small mining town in my first year. It wasn’t glamorous but it was exciting. Since then, I worked in Canberra, Melbourne, and the Middle East]

3. Average leaving time of 7:30pm [NO - This was ambitious at best. I think an average day was 12-14 hours in my first year]

4. I will get on very well with all the people and will like them [Largely YES - I learnt that you will never get along with all your colleagues or clients. But what is important is learning to work effectively with them, which I did not do well in my first year]

5. $5,000 bonus [NO - I think this was meant to equate to the top bonus tier, which I definitely did not achieve in my first year]

6. I get staffed on projects that I am interested in [Largely YES - I was staffed on 4 projects in my first year and effectively chose being staffed on 2 of those. These 2 projects that I chose accounted for 75% of the year and were amazing. The other 2 projects were not as much to my liking]

7. I get to gym/run to work most days [Largely YES - There were times that I slacked off but this was largely possible]

8. Great junior culture [YES - During my first year at BCG, I was a bit stand off-ish, not wanting to be one of those people who spent all their time with work colleagues, both in and out of work. When I got over myself, and became friends with my work colleagues, I enjoyed work infinitely more, and made some wonderful life-long friends]

 So here’s my list for this coming year. I will…

1. love my return to BCG

2. form meaningful relationships with my colleagues and clients across all levels

3. respond calmly to the ups and downs of the job

4. get staffed on the consumer-related projects that I am most interested in

5. stick to a morning routine that sets me up for a great day (6am wake up, meditation, stretching, exercise, breakfast)

6. run the 2020 Berlin Marathon in 3:15

7. build and maintain my relationships outside of work, especially with friends from my MBA

8. waste as little time at work as possible

9. cook at least two nights a week

10. read for 30 minutes each day

Given that I largely know what the job and BCG is like, my focus this time is on maintaining balance, in a more ambitious and proactive way. Instead of falling into my usual traps of getting carried away with the craziness of work, and falling into a hole of intensity and withdrawing from the world, I want to make sure that I prioritise the things that will make my next year survivable, and successful, - health, fitness, and relationships with others.

Even when it comes to work, I expect to focus a lot less on performance, hours, and the perks of being a consultant. I’ve increasingly come to realise that the quality of the relationships I made at work was a far greater driver of my success than anything else. Better relationships meant better mentors (who pushed me to greater heights and polished my rough edges) as well as peers who were better able to support me in times of need. Instead of a pure focus on hours, I want to focus on being efficient in my ability to do work, especially in prioritising what needs to be done/when, and what needs to fall by the wayside.

Let’s see how it goes!