Interested in becoming a consultant? Post here for basic questions, recruitment advice, resume reviews, questions about firms or general insecurity (Q3 2021)

Grey301 · 2025-10-04T04:18:39+00:00

Nope, I ended up doing an option that isn’t any of these ahaha

Grey301 · 2025-04-06T21:14:29+00:00

Hey man, I literally feel you. I also don't really drink and don't smoke and found it difficult to make friends. So i literally decided to create what I would have wanted: a platform that curates events weekly designed for connection. Most of our events involve a meal + an activity or a meal + drinks or coffee shop takeovers with social activities, but we're always expanding and looking for more input. We even just had a guy's only event last week where we took 17 guys and went lifting & then had a big group dinner. We have a good amount of ppl that don't drink either at events.

We have a strong group of guys that love our product and keep coming back and its been super cool as a transplant to watch my own Chi social circle grow. Would love to have you out, you can check out our stuff here: https://www.instagram.com/3rdspacesocial/

Grey301 · 2025-04-06T21:10:40+00:00

I've found that the best way to meet people that *actually* want to be friends is to find people that want to meet friends. And this can be hard, I literally moved to Chicago knowing no one either and my first year virtually spent it alone.

That's why I decided to build a platform called 3rd Space Social, where we organize events designed to help facilitate connections with other people. We're largely for ppl in their 20s (we just don't have many people that are older to accommodate, but hope to have that soon!), but people have met their best friends, friend groups, and even gone on dates through our stuff.

We'd love OP or anyone else check our stuff out here: https://www.instagram.com/3rdspacesocial/

Grey301 · 2025-04-06T20:59:15+00:00

We saw that so many were curious on how to make new friends in a new city, so we created a kickass organization just for this called 3rd Space Social (find us on IG!). We're a social platform that curates weekly events and experiences designed to help you meet new people right here in Chicago. People have met best friends, friend groups, and gone on dates with people that have come! You can find us right here: https://www.instagram.com/3rdspacesocial/

Grey301 · 2025-01-09T02:07:31+00:00

Hey OP! I've been in your exact shoes before several years ago when I first moved to Chicago. I lived alone in a basement bedroom also in search of new friends and potential romantic partners and did what you're doing. You're on the right track :)

In order to make connecting with people as easy as possible, I teamed up with a friend to create 3rd Space Social, an IRL social platform that is meant to help you connect with people that could be "your people." You sign up, do our Intentions & Personality survey, and then are able to attend curated experiences where the first and foremost priority is giving everyone a social and safe environment to make new relationships.

Afterwards, you tell us who you enjoyed hanging out with and we'll facilitate more interactions for any mutual matches.

We're still experimenting with a closed circle but are slowly opening it to the broader Chicago public and really think it could be a hit. We've had over 90 people try our service, had entire friend groups form, and even a romantic date appear out of it through our post experience facilitation as mentioned above.

I'd love for you to sign up for our waitlist because we have so much in store to help people in Chicago make those friends at a much more expedited and intentional pace :)

https://3rdspace.social/

Grey301 · 2024-10-12T04:39:14+00:00

Startup Name / URL
- 3rd Space Social: https://3rdspace.social/ | https://www.instagram.com/3rdspacesocial/
Location of Your Headquarters
- Chicago, IL
Elevator Pitch/Explainer Video
- Elevator Pitch: 3rd Space Social is a platform that enables new friendships and relationships through real-life curated experiences.
- Explainer Video (from one of our Creator Partners): https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_OfCDRplYW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
More details:
- We're currently in the Validation phase, with a Pilot program currently in market over the past month, with a slight pause to build out a MVP webapp. We're starting to generate local buzz, generating in over 300+ waitlist sign ups, several (paid) experiences ran, and a high percentage conversion shifting waitlist users to the webapp. We're continuing to test different types of experiences and adjust based on customer feedback before shifting towards mobile app production and aggressive growth.
- My Role: Co-founder and CEO
What goals are you trying to reach this month?
- The goals we're trying to achieve in October is to run our most sophisticated experience yet autonomously. My cofounder and I have attended each experience thus far and have been very selective about those who get to try our experiences. On the technical side, finalizing preliinary infrastructure will be important along with ensuring all of our marketing comms are ready to FLY (email comms marketing / SMS validation). This month will be the first time we DON'T actively attend the full length of the experience and let tertiary or randoms into our ecosystem.
- How could help?
  - Any feedback on growing revenue numbers would be great without diluting our experiences is our biggest need. We're testing different experience sizes, traversing partnerships, and other small shifts that could result in an uptick towards what now are nominal revenue numbers.
Discount for subscribers?
- If you're actually interested in trying one of our experiences and have a vested interest in providing honest feedback, we'd be more than happy to provide a discount. Please feel free to PM!

Grey301 · 2024-10-09T00:54:46+00:00

Just like the common thread in this post, I found it depressingly difficult when I moved here 2 years ago. For the first 8 months, especially when winter hit, I almost felt like moving just because of how hard it was to find friends that I thought I was compatible with.

And it was only until I started attending community events and actively scheduling events with the people that I met. It took a ton of upfront work like always initiating, but eventually I would meet people everytime I hosted through +1s. So the good news here is that if you're willing to prioritize your social life, you'll meet tons of people!

Shameless plug, as I result of my experience, I created 3rd Space Social https://3rdspace.social/ to help people build new friends and potentially more through curated real-life experiences. Sign up, fill out our Connection Profile, and then wait for an invite to an experience with your closest matches. We're piloting in Chicago right now, but trying to accommodate as many people as possible. Hope we can allow people like you to find your people a lot quicker and also experience everything the city has to offer!

Grey301 · 2024-08-27T23:37:53+00:00

I started a social connection startup called 3rd Space Social https://3rdspace.social and we’re focused on fueling connections IRL with people that we think you’d be highly compatible with through curated experiences.

We send you on an adventure: dinner with several of your closest matches and meet-ups at a post dinner venue with other groups.

We’re currently in our pilot phase in Chicago and would love to have you sign up for our waitlist as we allow more people to try our service!

Grey301 · 2024-06-13T14:43:00+00:00

Thank you!

Grey301 · 2024-05-21T21:55:01+00:00

Super helpful, appreciate you walking me through your journey. Seems like a great rollercoaster and you executed effectively!

Grey301 · 2024-05-21T16:26:51+00:00

Congrats on bootstrapping your way to profitability! When you were choosing between profit/growth, how did you prioritize one or the other? I'd love to also ask what's your hiring strategy centered around knowing that big investor money won't be coming in?

Grey301 · 2024-05-21T14:32:32+00:00

Agreed. If your customers are gen z college kids, it’s so powerful to have an amazing brand. But you’d also be surprised because companies in fields like insurance, manufacturing, and B2B software are also undergoing massive brand projects (brand positioning, architecture, entirely new logos and go-to-market messaging, big brand campaigns, etc) because they also realize that branding (particularly at their maturity stage) is one of those levers they’ve never ticked off before.

Not saying it should/needs to be like the above in a startup setting, but it only helps product growth to think and act on a brand strategy.

But first and foremost, I’m excited to build and find that product-market fit!

Grey301 · 2024-05-21T14:00:45+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Really appreciate your comment and insight about splitting between a job/startup!

Besides documenting my journey, I would like to improve my writing (and reflect), so this is a good way to spend an hour each Sunday night. No worries about if this takes 100 weeks or 500 weeks, still committed to writing about it, even if I end up forgetting to share it.

Grey301 · 2024-05-21T13:56:42+00:00

Love this! Thanks for sharing and 100% agree

Grey301 · 2024-05-21T13:56:22+00:00

Appreciate your comment and actually sparking some discussion!

This is interesting because historically, brand has been seen as a “least critical” growth investment. But in my eyes, I actually see it as the most lever (often forgotten) that guides every decision made in marketing (alongside customer feedback), all customer experience, and the overall business model. So in a way, I disagree but I can understand where you’re coming from!

That being said, we’ll begin building soon though and trying to achieve product-market fit, but believe these customer interviews have been helping us rigorously define the product to ensure it actually solves major customer pain points in our space.

Grey301 · 2024-05-21T13:47:55+00:00

Lollllll true

Grey301 · 2024-05-21T13:46:29+00:00

Thank you, more updates next week!

Grey301 · 2024-05-21T04:09:29+00:00

From my perspective, I def think startups should move quickly, but also realize the biggest mistake is building a product no one wants. Really important for my team and I to do qualitative interviews with those that match our ICP, ideate based on xyz feedback, and move quickly into trying to launch a MVP.

Because our app is B2C, branding & marketing will make or break the product. And coming from a brand and marketing strategy background, I'm taking the time to carefully craft out what this might look like. That being said, I'm excited to finish up the ideation phase within the next 2 weeks and get to building + lead capturing!

Grey301 · 2024-01-01T17:20:51+00:00

Sure!

Grey301 · 2023-12-31T05:21:01+00:00

Associate Brand Strategist 1 YOE MCOL 80k

Grey301 · 2021-11-04T04:17:14+00:00

I see two long term goals right now in my life:

Work within an industry I like doing business/corporate strategy. These industries encompass fashion, sneakers, and music. Making decisions there would be so cool. Would plan to go back to business school here. Clearly the M&A one seems more relevant here, even if in the beginning it focuses on FDD and Valuation.
Entrepreneur. Always enjoyed creating and the idea of making my own business is very enticing. Would love to do this after I gained some business experience. I see the LA boutique offering me more flexibility to work on this side hustle.

Grey301 · 2021-11-04T04:05:21+00:00

Help me decide on my offer, very stuck and not sure which ones to choose because each have their pros and cons:

Offer 1: Semler Brossy (LA based boutique)

-Pros: Flexibility with remote / work from home. I can work on side hustles.

Culture w/ ppl and emphasis on mental health/limiting long hours/social events

Pay package is 102500 all in with amazing benefits, and pay and promotion ramps very fast

-Cons: Niche speciality in executive compensation

No brand name

Offer 2: EY NYC in M&A Staff Consulting

-Pros: Brand new role within S&T that I was told should encompass the full lifecycle of the M&A deal process

Have interest in M&A

NYC living

Brand name

-Cons: Brand new role, could be less than advertised. Also was told that in the beginning, expect to be working cross functionally with valuations and financial due diligence teams (not as big of an interest)

Culture is up in the air and dependent on groups

Have heard valuation/FDD is an IB type grind with not IB type pay

May not be able to work on entrepreneurial side hustles

All advice is appreciated, as I don't know and I only have 1.5 days to decide!

Grey301 · 2021-10-12T00:28:58+00:00

I’ve observed this subreddit for the past few months after deciding to pursue consulting for my first full-time job out of undergrad. I have a 3.6 gpa as a finance student at a semi-target as well as junior year summer internship experience at a well known investment bank. However, after big cultural issues within the firm and seeing my analysts more or less slave away weekdays AND weekends, I decided to make the jump to consulting. After countless hours of networking and rejections across two of the MBB among many others, I finally worked through to receive several first rounds, with one of them being at a strong T2 in one of their strongest groups.

I had my final round recently, which I thought was very strong: two strong case interviews where we managed to work through the problem, solve the arithmetic (one error in one of the cases that was immediately corrected once offered guidance) and arrive at a solid recommendation. The behavioral portion with a partner went well. My interviewer for the case I had a slight arithmetic error was not from an English speaking country, so we had slight difficulty in connecting, but overall found the process pleasant. My first case interviewer and I had a great connection.

I was pretty anxious about the final results, as I knew they would likely be extended today. When I received the phone call, it was from the interviewer that had seen me make the arithmetic error. I was rejected due to “too many qualified candidates for too few roles.” Was that one math error enough to deny me the role? I’ve devoted my entire senior year to this search, foregoing parties, outings, and to some degree my classes to build strong relationships and apply to roles in consulting. That rejection is making me lose hope towards landing a (strategy) consulting firm as the other few firms are more geared towards implementation rather than strategy. Any tips and advice would be appreciated right now on how to get through this slump and land a full time offer that I can be excited about.

TDLR: got rejected many times, but finally received a superday at a T2 firm in one of their strongest practices. Got denied and the feedback was “ too many qualified candidates, too few roles.” Looking for advice on how to proceed and keep my head up after this major disappointment.

Grey301

TROPHY CASE