New career in consulting

Hi, I have been reading the threads on this site with interest over the last few months and thought now is the right time to seek opinion.

I have worked for a major UK bank for the last 9 and half years and have decided now is the right time to move on. For my sins I have chosen consulting and am starting with one of the Big 4 in a couple of months.

I am going in Project Management consulting at a Manager level. Now I have worked with many of the large consultants during my time in the bank and am sure I can excel in this role. However I know I will be up against peers who have worked their way up the consulting ladder.

What is the best advice you can give me in order for my transition to consulting to be a success? Where should I focus my energy in the short term?

Apologies this is a vague shout out for any help whatsoever, I'm really looking forward to my move and any help you can give will be much appreciated.

Thanks

Learn how things are done in your new firm asap. Experienced hires at manager and above levels tend to be immediately spottable by the homegrown crowd, mainly around things like communication efficiency & style (spoken as well as written), attitude towards 'requests', escalation approach etc.

Ask for feedback, often.

Thanks for the good advice much appreciated, any more out there?

Be quietly confident, network efficiently but without showing off, use your deeper subject matter knowledge. Identify the partner who owns your ex-bank as an account and offer to help behind the scenes on any upcoming pitches. You should not betray confidential info, but you can help tweak language so that pitches include principles and terms that resonate within the bank. Do NOT offer this to peers! You have few chances to get brownie points from this. Make sure you get them from someone that matters!

I worked with a good bank PM, in his late 20's who went into Deloittes a few years back at Manager level and he made SM in two years. Two reasons - he's good, and also he was moved straight into a banking project where he could step up and over deliver from day 1.

Honestly, many of the home grown guys will be much more (secretly) intimidated by your industry knowledge than you will be by their knowledge of internal processes. You catch up in six months. They won't.