In conversation with Nana-Ama Asabre-Adegbite

“My career allows me to constantly test and refine every facet of my personality and skills - and ultimately develop critical problem solving and leadership skills - which are great transferable skills to have!”

- Nana-Ama Asabre-Adegbite

This month we are talking to women who work in consulting, we have a series of intriguing interviews with inspiring women currently working in the sector.  

Image: Nana-Ama Asabre-Adegbite

Nana-Ama Asabre-Adegbite has been a Financial Services Consultant for the past seven years and is currently a Manager. Whilst she has worked at two different consulting firms during this period, she has always focused on operational excellence and strategy projects – predominantly in the financial services (FS) sector.

What types of consulting projects have you worked on?

Mainly operational excellence (e.g. cost reduction and target operating model) and strategy (e.g. market scan analysis and cost-to-serve modelling). I have had a few programme management roles for technology delivery projects too.

What does an average working day look like?

My day often begins with checking my emails and looking over the to-do-list that I created the day prior. My to-do-list then informs my priorities and activities for the day!

This will typically revolve around preparing for / running meetings, completing client deliverables (e.g. PowerPoint slides or Excel analysis), managing and coaching junior colleagues. All of these activities will be completed in relation to my client responsibilities, and internal responsibilities - as most consultants at my level have leadership roles within their firms or are contributing to an internal initiative, for example, go-to-market propositions.

How did you get into consulting?

My dad was a consultant and always said he thought I'd be interested in it! So, one day I took his advice and started applying. I applied to a recruitment firm that specialises in helping ethnic minorities secure professional jobs in the city (SEO recruitment) and once I secured a place on their programme, I was fortunate enough to be put on a fast-track through the EY recruitment process. Following this, I secured a job on EY's Financial Services Graduate Programme. 

What do you love about consulting?

Most definitely the variety of projects and responsibilities. Gaining different perspectives has always been something very important to me (from a personal and professional point of view) as it ensures you're constantly learning and growing. So naturally, I gravitated to consulting which - in my experience - has given me this.

I've had the opportunity to work in a different sector (including Insurance, Banking, Financial Technology, Health, Sanitation) every two months and carry out different roles - ranging from design to delivery execution.

My career allows me to constantly test and refine every facet of my personality and skills - and ultimately develop critical problem solving and leadership skills - which are great transferable skills to have!

How is the work-life balance?

Variable - given how challenging consulting is, and the fact that it's client facing - it's never going to be a walk in the park! It is more demanding and fast-paced than some other jobs, and it requires a lot of fast thinking and intellectual agility which often translates into time-pressured and busy days.

However, work comes in peaks and troughs and everyone understands this. I have often been given the advice to enjoy the down-time when I get it. So as you can see it's hard to give a specific answer but if I were to try, I'd say on average working hours are between 9 to 12 hour working days - but these will naturally be less the more junior you are, how good you are at managing your time and how bold you are with protecting your time. For example, I generally have a rule of thumb to stick to 10 hour working days and I only ever go over that if it's absolutely critical.

What is the biggest misconception about consulting?

That you need to have an MBA to succeed!

Whilst it helps and is favoured at certain consulting firms, it absolutely isn't a must have - especially in the UK where the MBA culture isn't as strong as it is in say, the US. Experienced hires that are transitioning from other industries into consulting may feel the pressure to do an MBA - which is fair as an MBA can give you core business acumen and critical reasoning skills that will get you more familiar with the consulting way of life.

However, I'm very sure experienced hires have developed these skills in their previous jobs (albeit maybe to different degrees) - so it's all about how you sell it, and making sure you do this confidently. To succeed in consulting you need to be results driven, good at building relationships, innovative and have a critical problem-solving ability. So just be strategic and thoughtful if and when you are trying to sell your skills to a consulting firm!

Would you recommend consulting to a young person, and why?

If you love variety and are intellectually curious - absolutely. Consulting will really help develop you into a well-rounded, learned, versatile professional who can succeed in any environment. So actually, it’s especially great to start off in or move into if you don't know what you want to do, as you get to build such key transferable skills that will be relevant wherever you go. Plus, consulting could even help accelerate your career as many industries rate the business acumen and strategic skills that consultants typically have.

What do consulting firms look for when recruiting candidates?

Entrepreneurial drive (i.e. can you come up with new ideas and see them through), academic and extra-curricular accomplishments (to show you're a high achiever) and evidence that you're a team player (as projects are often staffed with 2 or more people).

But if I were to choose one key thing - it's showing you have an opinion, and have the mental tools to critically assess it, and respond to challenge if and when challenged. Consulting is basically all about trying to find an answer (when you don't always know everything) so having composure, maturity and intellectual horse-power when trying to figure things out is so key. I would say this is the most important skill to demonstrate in an interview or when working on a project.

For more resources click here to discover all about the Women In Consulting (WIC) organisation. It is a dynamic organisation of seasoned professional consultants in a broad range of more than 30 specialties, ranging from engineering to financial advising and marketing to web design. 

WIC was established in 1998 as a collaborative community to help foster successful consulting practices and to build stronger businesses. They provide education and enable the sharing of best practices, resources and expertise.