I think most people underestimated what it takes to work in consulting.

These 100 days, I have been challenged like never before. At first, it was challenging to navigate the environment, the working pace, even the conditions. But from this job I learned about working in highly stressful environments, meeting deadlines, expectations as well as working on my communication and negotiation skills.

I came out as more rounded person. What I used to know and have worked on was put to test these 100 days. I learned what it takes to survive living among coworkers with their differences that are more unique than what I used to.
As much as I would hate being put into these situations, I could finally see the silver lining behind it all.

In the end, I learned not to accept the bare minimum treatment from people.

The big lesson I learned is that if you’re setting the bar too low, that signals to others that you are willing to accept the bare minimum. I finally understand that it takes quite confidence in us to say no and not accepting the bare minimum. Otherwise, it will be easy for people to treat you like dirt.

In this line of job, we’re mostly in the room with narcissist and bunch of people high in their dark triad. This line of job is one of those high risks, high reward return too. So, typically, it’s not the kind of “soft-life” type of person that I am meeting around. At times, it can feel like everyone is out to get you and you must survive that.

I also learned to have more work-life balance, the actual kind of it.

In the past, I used to think that I enjoyed being introverted and in my own world. The thing is, I apparently love a good dose of interaction. I love the sense of being in a community and being a part of it. So, I am good with not working all the time and truly manage my time well. Though sometimes, in this job parts of my time are influenced by others too.

At the same time, my creativity is charged that I can write a novel at this point based on my experience living in this region. I might work on this too as a side “hobby” and get back into creative writing.

There will be more on-going projects in the future that I am interested in trying and since these past few months were transition period for me, I need more time to adjust and need to constantly make notes which something I am terribly bad at lately.