Whether you are studying for your MBA, Ph.D., or J.D., graduate school is an incredible opportunity to learn as much as you can. You might be completing case studies, conducting experiments, and writing lengthy legal reports, all of which will prepare you for your career. As someone who recently completed graduate school and began a consulting career, I have learned what was useful and important during my academic career as well as what was a waste of time.
This article reflects on 4 activities that were common time sinks in college. I would advise my graduate school self to optimize the time spent on these activities to maximize output, or to reduce overall time spent on these activities to free up time for other more worthwhile pursuits. After a year as a thermal science engineering consultant, and reflecting on my graduate school days, I realize that these things wasted a significant amount of my time. If you are currently a student or thinking of getting a degree soon, keep these areas in mind:
- Conducting Literature Reviews
- Taking Extra Classes
- Striving for Perfection
- Pursuing Extracurricular Activities
1. Conducting Literature Reviews
I remember learning about how to carry out literature reviews as an early step in the research process. I was often told to read a paper 3 times: first time as a high-level review, second time slowly while annotating, and a final time to ensure complete understanding and focus on the key takeaways. However, as a busy consultant, sometimes we do not have the luxury (or sufficient time budgeted from the client) to conduct a lengthy review of articles. Instead, one should become an expert at quickly reviewing the abstract, methods, and conclusions of a paper, digesting the most important pieces, and then moving on to the next one.
I am not suggesting you stop reading articles in full, but while in graduate school you should hone your skills in rapidly digesting the significant bits of an article before entering full-time consulting. This skill will save you lots of your (and your client’s) time and money. For the time it would take you to read a single paper 3 times like I was taught, you could swiftly read through 6 of them instead (600% improvement!).
2. Taking Extra Classes
While in school, it seems logical to take as many classes as possible. However, do not go right to the registrar and enroll in every course you are interested in taking. I am a big proponent of diversifying your education. If you are an engineer, take a business course; if you are a business student, take a law course. But rather than fully enrolling, I recommended another option for securing your seat: sit in on courses and audit them. This allows you to learn from the lectures and associated texts while simultaneously allowing you to skip the assignments and exams that take up a lot of time.
When you get into the consulting world, your transcript is almost never looked at other than to ensure you earned your degree, so it will not matter if you audited or enrolled in a course. If you attend the lectures and learn what you need, you can become an expert in that material. Save the time that would be spent completing assignments which are unnecessary for your degree and use it to master new material in less time.
3. Striving for Absolute Perfection
This one was a tough lesson for me to learn. When it came to completing assignments, submitting journal papers, or creating slide decks, I used to always strive for absolute perfection. However, sometimes it pays to make something “good enough” and then submit. One common example of this is the 80/20 rule, which states that “80% of the outcomes come from 20% of the inputs.” This means that, for example, if you spent 100% of your week on one project, you would get it to 100% completion; but if you spent 20% of your week on 5 different projects, you could complete 80% of all of them.
Sure, when it comes to high importance term papers and dissertations, put all of your effort into it like you would a final report or slide deck for a client. But for other smaller items, the time you save from not attaining perfection will allow you to allocate that time towards something you would not have otherwise been able to complete. If used correctly, sacrificing a little bit of time on some projects can allow you to go a long way on other ones.
4. Pursuing Extracurricular Activities
In high school or as an undergraduate student, having a lot of interests and joining a variety of clubs is recommended, as it fills out your resume for the future. This focus changes in graduate school. Taking up many extracurricular activities and only pursuing one or two small leadership roles does not really prepare you for consulting, it just keeps you busy. When applying to consulting firms, recruiters and hiring managers care much more about the impact and value you have had on an organization.
For example, instead of serving as a secretary of 3 small clubs, only responsible for taking meeting notes and setting up meetings, try serving as President of one large organization. Create a new initiative, challenge your leadership team to accomplish a lofty goal, or move your organization in a new direction. Focusing on one or two clubs will decrease the amount of time commitments you have and will provide good material to talk about during your experiential interview questions.
The Bottom Line
By shaving time off lower value activities (literature reviews, additional classes, perfectionism, and minor extracurricular roles), you can apply that extra time to higher value activities (writing papers, preparing for job interviews, completing an internship). Not only will these suggestions improve your overall graduate school efficiency, but you will also develop useful skills for your future in consulting.
Ricky Hollenbach is a Thermal Sciences Associate at Exponent Scientific and Engineering Consulting. He solves problems in the thermal-fluids, heat transfer, aerospace, and turbomachinery fields. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Duke University.