I was a consultant at BCG who struggled to land a project. Here's how I turned it around.

Jonathan Chan, a former consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), shares his experience and offers advice to new consultants seeking their first project. After five years at BCG, he initially struggled to land a project. To remedy this, Chan created a pitch deck, a PowerPoint presentation highlighting his background, strengths, and work samples.

He sent the deck to influential individuals within the firm, including partners, principals, and project leaders. Although he wasn't immediately staffed after sending the deck, Chan spent about three months unstaffed in total. Once he secured a project, he was never benched again. Chan emphasizes the need to productively utilize unstaffed time, such as reading the firm's knowledge base, attending trainings, and connecting with partners.

The deck he created helped him clarify his identity, skills, and goals. Today, Chan is the cofounder and chief product and technology officer of Pear, an AI platform that assists independent consultants in finding strategy projects. His deck served as a foundation for Pear's onboarding process, which leverages AI to compile a consultant's experience into a personalized deck.