Hi, I'm kchoi! Welcome back to my channel
It has been five months since I
have sat down to film a YouTube video
That might be the longest streak in a
really long time. The past three videos I uploaded were all from my Paris
trip back in January so yeah it has been a while but let's not dwell on the past
we're here today to film a video and I'm gonna do a Q&A I posted on my
Instagram story asking you all to ask questions about anything really most of
them were about consulting some about education and travel so I'm gonna try to
answer as many as I can and after this video I have lots of ideas for videos in
the future about consulting I know that's what a lot of people want to hear
about so don't worry I am planning and writing all of that content and super
excited to finally make it so if you want to be updated on those videos
please do hit that subscribe button and the notification bell to get post
notifications I would really appreciate it and let's just begin I typed up those
questions from Instagram so that I could sort them by topic and we're gonna start
with consulting / work
How difficult is it to get into consulting?
It depends on the company and how competitive that is it depends on
what you studied beforehand and more importantly what your work experience
was so it really is a range and it also depends you know are you an independent
consultant are you gonna work at a firm there's so many factors
Do you need a
really high GPA to get into consulting? Again that depends it doesn't hurt and I
think especially for some of those bigger firms a high GPA is kind of a
standard requirement but of course I think all companies take the full
picture into account. Do you have a lot of pressure doing this job are people
competitive? I would say there's a fair amount of pressure there's pressure from
the client there's pressure internally if you're leading a project making sure
you're leading the team well being clear with everything making sure you're not
screwing anybody over in terms of people being competitive at least where I work
I don't feel that it's competitive I feel that everybody supports each other
I think in other firms I know I've heard you know if you want to get on a project
you sort of need to bid for it or apply for it so in that case it
might be competitive there. How to enter consulting as a graduate student? Summer
internships, consulting club at your University, if you're in the UK, graduate
schemes are a big thing that people will apply to if they're coming straight from
school whether it's straight from undergrad or from post-grad. On a related
note, to be a consultant do you need at least a master's degree? no I would say
you wouldn't need a master's degree but lots of consultants do end up getting
their MBA and then go back into consulting or some people might have
worked in a different industry, gotten their MBA, and then entered consulting
that way but it's not a requirement. How much international travel do you do
in your job? I haven't been on any international projects except for one in
Canada so I've done some travel to Canada but lots of my co-workers have
gone to places in Europe in Asia Middle East yeah so it just kind of depends on
what project you get put on. Do you ever get tired of traveling for your job? I'm
not tired yet I think definitely people who have a family or whose family lives
near them might find it more difficult. For me I can kind of live pretty
independently at this point so I'm not too tired of it yet and the travel perks
and points and miles and things like that make it worth it for now. Do you
enjoy your work? I love my work I'm a change management consultant and we
focus more on the people side of change I don't want to go into too much detail
because I think I will do a video about what change management is so stick
around for that What do you wear for client meetings?
this depends on the client some of them are a bit more formal so I'll wear
slacks and a button-down shirt or something other ones are very casual so
I'll literally wear jeans and a t-shirt. Any tips for a fellow Cal English major
hoping to get into consulting? first of all, go bears, second of all there's a few
other questions related from other people so how do I get into consulting
with a digital marketing background? I majored in mass communication can I
start a career in consulting? will I get accepted into consulting when I don't
major in business or econ? Yes it is possible I majored in English I worked
in public relations there's people at my company who have backgrounds in the
sciences it really is about painting the story of you know why this next step is
right for you. I actually have a video on my channel called
how to change careers and I talk about how I went through the process of
switching from public relations to consulting so do take a look at that if
you are concerned about getting into consulting with a different background
Do you have a vision for your future self that's career related? I would love to
work with more nonprofits and work more in the social impact space one of my
colleagues and I are actually trying to figure out how we can make that more
part of our business model at the company we work at. I got several
questions about motivation and managing stress so the first question is how do
you keep yourself motivated? to be honest I'm a very competitive person so in
terms of motivation when I see other people doing things and doing cool stuff
that inspires me to get my shit together however it's never good to compare
yourself to other people but I try to keep it in check. in terms of balancing
things I honestly don't think I'm so good at that right now. for me it's kind
of easy because I like don't have any friends where I live and then the other
related question is more about how do you manage stress or deal with pressure
I feel like I've done a lot of work on myself to manage stress in general I'm a
pretty high-strung anxious person a lot of people think the opposite about me
but that being said I've made a really conscious effort not to let stress
get the best of me. it's little things that add up like taking time to
take care of yourself, prioritizing the things you have to do so you don't feel
overwhelmed by like an entire list of things but you can just focus on the top
two or three that need to get done, and then just you know talk to people about
it and don't just bottle it in not a good idea. is a master's degree worth it?
watch this Q&A video. I'm also an English major switching to a master's in
management any advice for admission? use your
writing skills to write a kick-ass personal statement. any tips for
beginners in traveling? download airline apps and hotel apps keep your clear
pouch of liquids at the top of your bag so it's easy to take out and don't feel
pressured to cram too much into a trip I think if you're visiting someplace for a
first time it can be very tempting to try to do lots and lots of things but
take a step back and slow down sometimes how can I overcome my anxiety
when flying? I want to travel the world. I think it's just that let your desire to
travel the world be more powerful than your fear of flying and also flying is
safer than riding a car so think about that. What is a travel / airport hack?
take an empty water bottle through security so that you can fill it up like
a Starbucks at the terminal and not have to pay five dollars for a bottle of
water something like that. least-favorite American Airport? maybe like Houston or
Atlanta they're like kind of spread out. Favorite books during travels / book
recommendations? I can probably do a whole video of book recommendations or
books I've read this year right now what I'm reading is this book called make
time: how to focus on what matters everyday I just started maybe can help
answer some of those questions you all had about balancing work and personal
life and all of that. next travel destination? next travel destination for
pleasure will be Seattle I'll be going there in just about a month. battery is
running low and we're in the homestretch of some miscellaneous questions let's
see how fast I can answer these. warriors or Lakers? Lakers. what's your current
favorite quote? this one it means everything happens for a reason. Do you
still keep in touch with and/or live near your college friends? I sort of live
near some of them who live on the East Coast
I definitely keep in touch with my college roommates with our chat group
and all of that. what's your favorite Korean food?
doenjang jjigae or fermented soy bean soup planning on going plant-based
vegetarian vegan? I don't know if I will ever go fully vegetarian or vegan. when I
cook for myself I usually cook vegetarian or plant-based when I go out
to eat it just kind of depends I think when you travel for work it can be hard
to keep a strict diet so no plans as of now but I do still try to be mostly
vegetarian. do you miss London? all the time. I think you can see here that's a
little vintage Tube map of London that I look at to remind me of my time there
and last question when are you coming back to London? Well
wouldn't it be great if I was announcing that I was coming back to London but I'm
not. I have no idea when I'm coming back to London I hope it's
sometime soon I hope I get put on a project that's in London that would be
awesome but as of now no idea what I will visit London again I feel like when
I do go I want to go for a sort of an extended period of time like at least
two weeks just to be able to you know see enough people and do enough things
so we'll see. alright those are the questions thank you so much for watching
I hope this was informative especially some of the questions about consulting
I'm definitely going to be making more videos on that topic and more videos
about travel, career all of that. let me know in the comments what other videos
you'd like to see because I am feeling myself on this roll and I just want to
get lots of ideas and get started. thank you so much for watching, thanks for
sticking around even though I haven't uploaded in a couple of months, thanks
for subscribing even though I haven't uploaded in a couple of months I really
appreciate it and can't wait to start making videos regularly again alright
I'll see you in the next one bye