In conversation with Olivia Samuels

“The people I’ve come across in consulting are the best bit about the job for me; very driven, positive, intelligent and have loads of interests outside of work. It’s inspiring to be around.”

- Olivia Samuels

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: Olivia Samuels

Olivia is a 29 year-old, Management Consultant working in the Digital Transformation/ Marketing space. She had planned to move to Australia this year to continue her consulting career, but COVID-19 has put a halt to that for at least the short-term. In her free time Olivia writes about finding London’s best pizzeria, and bakes the best of what she comes across on Instagram.

What types of consulting projects have you worked on?

I’ve worked on a range of projects including growth strategy, platform proposition development, operating model, business design, sales, marketing and customer service transformation across the Financial Services, Infrastructure, Government, Technology, Retail and Media sectors.

What does an average working day look like?

Of course this has changed a lot during lockdown. The day-to-day varies a lot which is the beauty of the job. But I’d say an average day involves some workshops where we’ll be presenting back analysis or concepts to clients. We also do a lot of team working and brainstorming, in lockdown we’ve been using the virtual tool, Mural, which allows you to collaborate on a virtual whiteboard with coloured post-it notes. It works surprisingly well and is a lot less messy than in real life!

When we were in the office, I’d usually try and break for lunch away from my desk with colleagues or clients. I typically spend Monday to Thursday in the client office, and then go back to our head office on Friday’s to catch up with colleagues that aren’t on my project. Unfortunately, this often involves carrying two laptops around.

 How did you get into consulting?

I took a less usual route of working for my company in their in-house marketing team first, before finding out there was a team in the firm doing marketing consultancy and making my move across. Fortunately the team were very open to me transferring and supported this process as best they could. Luckily for me at the time they didn’t have loads of marketing experts – not sure that I can say I am one though!

I was taken in at the Senior Consultant level, one level above a graduate – they tend to take you in at this level if you’re coming in from industry and progress you quickly as it takes a bit of time to learn the consulting skillset, before you’d want to be leading projects at a managerial level.

What do you love about consulting?

I love the variety of the work. I work within different businesses and across different sectors to solve unique problems that they face. You also have access to very senior individuals within firms which is always a great learning experience and would be hard to get in another job at my career stage.

You are encouraged to think strategically and always keep an eye on how things can be done better. You’re given time to problem solve, again a luxury that you don’t often get in other jobs when you have a volume of work that needs to just get done.

The people I’ve come across in consulting are the best bit about the job for me; very driven, positive, intelligent and have loads of interests outside of work. It’s inspiring to be around.

How is the work-life balance?

It can be very varied which I think is the nature of working in a client facing role. I find that as long as you get the work done, you can work the hours you want – there just happens to be a fair amount of work, as you’re expected to work on client projects in addition to internal projects for your firm.

The work-life balance varies massively by project, so usually if I am on an intense one for a period, I’ll try and find something slower paced for the next one. I think all firms are trying to be more cognizant of instilling a good work-life balance and I’ve definitely seen a positive culture shift in this recently.

 What is the biggest misconception about consulting?

That we don’t add value or bring about positive change. I’ve seen consultants make big differences in the organisations that we work with. This tends to work better when we are there for longer periods of time and stick around to actually embed the recommendations we’ve made. Ultimately, we are trying to do the right thing and improve businesses, but change is always difficult and there can be resistance. The problems we solve are usually very complex and have multiple parts of the business involved. Challenging but fun too!

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

I’d recommend consulting if you want to work in business but aren’t quite sure in what capacity yet. This job is great for teaching you to think strategically, as you get exposed to leadership early on and you get access to the big picture, rather than just working in a particular area of a business. If you work for a larger firm, you will be able to build a good network of people who if they leave tend to go on to do interesting things!

What do consulting firms look for when recruiting candidates?

People that are confident, able to articulate themselves well and can handle change and uncertainty confidentially. Different skillsets are also really valued, so for me having marketing expertise was my selling point that differentiated me from others. Firms also love practical examples of running your own initiatives and showing you are a self-starter, this could be starting your own business, writing a blog etc.

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.