Your first year is usually a mix of analysis, slides, meetings, research, note-taking, quality checks and frequent feedback. The exact balance changes by project, but very little of the job is just sitting alone and solving a clean business problem.

Early on, the biggest adjustment is speed and ambiguity. A manager may give you a rough question rather than a complete task, and you need to clarify what good output looks like, work through the analysis and communicate progress before the deadline becomes a problem.

You are also learning team norms: how files are organized, how to prepare for client meetings, how to respond to feedback and how much detail is actually needed. Reliability often matters more than trying to look unusually sophisticated.

Expect a steep learning curve and plenty of small tasks. The people who progress fastest usually ask good questions, check their work carefully and improve visibly from one iteration to the next. For more detail, see the what management consulting work looks like.

The first year sounds way more like lots of small deliverables and feedback loops than one huge strategy problem, imo.