Manager
Wavestone
My journey into consulting was a pretty typical one. I completed my Masters’ in Economics & Business in 2018 and chose Wavestone’s graduate programme to challenge myself to learn about technology and help me better understand business strategy, which is where I initially wanted to pursue my career. Five years on, I can honestly say that I’ve had a great personal growth journey at Wavestone: I have learned to manage projects and lead consultants, I personally changed how the business operates, I’ve developed recognised expertise on operational resilience, and I have become a trusted advisor to multiple clients, all the while having a great time with my team and achieving a positive work-life balance.
As we all know, no two days are the same in consulting, it’s what keeps it interesting! However, in a typical week, I split my time across client delivery, sales, managing people and internal projects.
I meet with my project teams every day to help plan their activities, brief them on deliverables to be created, iterate on what they have worked on, or plan for upcoming workshops. I then spend a large part of the day hosting meetings and workshops with client stakeholders to gather input and feedback. When I can, I gather with my colleagues and clients in the office – I love spending time working together not through a screen.
I am directly responsible for the development of 10 junior consultants and thoroughly enjoy my catch-ups with them, guiding them on ways of working, challenges and long-term goals. I am proud to have created a strong relationship with them, and I was very touched when they organised a surprise to celebrate my promotion to Manager in April 2022.
I have also been involved in a variety of internal projects since joining Wavestone as an Analyst. Today, most of my focus is on promoting the global offering that I lead in WavestoneOperational Resilience. Speaking with my peers as much as I can is essential in order to stay current on the topic, sense check approaches and prepare for business development conversations and external conferences.
It has taken me some time to understand how to manage a healthy work/life balance. I am driven, ambitious and consistently strive to perform well, and as a result, am often the first point of call for new initiatives. A piece of advice given to me was to say no, but with solutions. This really helped change my mindset, becoming disciplined in giving myself a positive work life balance, and still producing quality work. I make a conscious effort of taking time out for lunch and was even awarded ‘Best lunch recommendations’ during our Winter Awards Ceremony.
I have two main pieces of advice for something who is thinking of a career in consulting:
- Be open-minded and enthusiastic – the more people you work with and the more diversity in the projects you get involved with, the more you’ll learn. You’ll also make friends along the way and gain new experiences.
- Don’t forget to take a step back – it’s easy to get sucked into a day-to-day whirlwind in consulting due to the fast pace of projects. Don’t forget to breathe, define your priorities well each day, reflect on what you’ve learnt each week, and ask for quality time from your colleagues to get their feedback.