You really have to work hard to separate yourself from your class pool. Its so often about who you know rather than how smart you are. The ratings process (scorecards) is not an ideal system. Plenty of average people go up the ladder and are rated well simply because they are liked or get along with their respective manager/partners. You have to constantly learn to sell and market yourself. Engagement experiences vary tremendously depending upon the team you work with and the client you serve. Its very easy to get burned out. Its crucial that you have a good Counselor that will stick up for you during the year-end meetings in which your you are compared to your respective class (all the peers at your level) (everyone is assigned a Counselor, and you always have a Counselor - even Partners). You really have to be the type of person that gets along with different personalities. So many average first-years are hiered and makes you wonder "who the hell interviewed them?". You will learn the hard way that intelligence alone is not enough - you have to be well liked by people who have the voice to stick up for you. It pointless to be well-liked by people who won't stick up for you during the crucial times (year-end ratings). The scheduling process by which you are put on an engagment is not the most ideal. The Schedulers have no clue whether you've been working 80 hour weeks on one engagment so they have no problem scheduling you on another difficult client/team. Somtime you just want a day or two to sit in the office and be unassigned. All they are trying to do is make sure that everyone is fully utilized and have the least amount of unassigned time as possible. Its a nerve-wrecking feeling when you are unassigned - because you're scared of suddley being picked up.
