Class of 2019 のShoです。
今回はインタビュー第四弾です。
このインタビューシリーズをやろうと決めた時、インタビュー相手として真っ先に思い浮かんだのが、今回インタビューしたコンサル出身のRachaelです。
彼女とは、MAPやElectiveのグループワークで一緒でした。MAPで初めて彼女と一緒になった当時、私はコンサルティング業界を考え始めていました。その時、抱いていたコンサルタントの理想像にぴったりマッチする人が彼女でした。彼女からは多くの事を学びましたし、コンサルティング業界を真面目に目指そうときっかけになった人です。
彼女は、社費生であり元の会社に戻る予定との事なので、戻った後Rossでの経験をどう活かすか、などを中心に話を聞きました。
今回は、インタビューした人の人柄が伝わる様、最後の質問のやりとりの動画をアップしました。見ていただいて、ちょっとでもRossの雰囲気が伝われば幸いです。
では、本題に入りましょう。
1.Profile of the classmate
Name : Rachael
Hometown : Kansas City, Missouri
Undergrad : Kansas State University,
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
Work experience : Consultant at Deloitte(4yrs)
After Ross : Deloitte
To know more about Rachael, checkout the video below↓
2.Main questions I asked
-Why did you decide to go back to Deloitte?
-How will the Ross experience change the way you work after graduation?
-What do you think you were able to share to the classmates?
-What kind of advice would you give to yourself when you were an applicant or coming before starting the program?
-What is the definition of MBA to you?
3.Interview
(Note: Rachael(R), Sho(S))
<After a greeting and some conversation, in one of the study rooms at Ross.>
S: So I know you decided to return to Deloitte. So I want to ask you again the reasons of why going back to Deloitte.
R: Yeah. It's a combination of things. So coming from Deloitte originally, I was working in a combination of M&A and healthcare. That was something that I really enjoy doing, it gave me a good variety of experience. It's not something that necessarily I wanted to go into the future. I was really more interested in customer marketing and since Deloitte has restructured since I've been gone, I'm really excited to come back in to a kind of more expanded inclusive customer marketing practice and get my feet wet in that. So that was one reason. And then, this is definitely true about Deloitte but also consulting firms in general, they really give you the opportunity to apply your expertise broadly and that's something that why I'm interested in kind of one functional area specifically. I really want to be able to use those skills across variety of clients, a variety of projects. I'm so kind of the combination of what I want to do, but not so focused and so pigeonholed into that area.
S:I see. Well next question is, I'm curious of how the Ross experience will change the way you work.
R:Yeah, absolutely. So before coming to Ross, I'd only worked at Deloitte and so I worked with only Deloitte consulting people.Coming to Ross, I had the opportunity to network with, a broad variety of people. I even had one team member, who is an opera singer previously. So I really had the opportunity to get that diversity of classmates that I've worked with and I think that's really going to make me better both as a team member but also especially in working with the broad range of clients that I get to work with just having that experience the different working styles.
S:Can you elaborate more on that?
R:Yeah, I think that really being able to pull kind of examples and frame works from other industries that aren't traditional consulting frameworks. For example the opera singer that I worked with, being able to present marketing as almost a performance and in really kind of connecting and entertaining the audience that way. Really kind of stepping out of the consulting box and being able to pull from many different disciplines as I deliver my work.
S: That's interesting. Were there any other things you learned from other people that you feel like you can apply to your work style?
R: Yeah, I think it's really interesting kind of looking at the Michigan Model of Leadership*, how you've got the four quadrants and the things that people tend to focus on and I tend to be kind of more of a blue, let's take action, let's get it done type of person. While that's really good, what I tend to be bad at is taking a step back and looking at things strategically and I think both within classes and also just with some of the folks here at Ross. A lot of them are very kind of big picture brand ideas especially with folks who are starting their own businesses have. Just these visions that they see and being able to figure out where I fit into that to the point where they can help me take a step back and see, "Okay, what are we actually doing? What's the broader lens on this?", whereas I can help them and say, "Okay, you have this brand vision. How are you actually going to do it?", and kind of matching those together.
(*補足：Michigan Model of Leadershipの詳細についてはこちらをご覧ください)
S: I guess basically you work style wouldn't change, but I think you've improved your workstyle from the experience at Ross I guess.
R: Yeah, I mean I'll never be the one who has these grand tenure visions for anything, but I think that I can get better at stepping back and understanding in general why am I doing this? What's kind of the broader range implications? What are some other disciplines or groups of people that I should pull in to make this more successful?
S: That's interesting. I've asked you before on how you became a consultant and what you liked about it but that's a thing I've never heard. So I've asked you on how classmates impacted your future work style. How about for classes?
R: I enrolled in a data and analytics concentration last semester. Before that, I don't consider myself quant stupid, but it's never been something that I'd considered to be my strong suit. I think going through the classes that I've gone through, the quant in the modeling now is a lot less scary just because I have the practice and all the tools in my toolbox that I feel like I can now do it effectively on a client engagement.
S: Next thing I want to ask you is what do you think you were able to share to the classmates? For me I learned a lot of things from you and also you were one of the reasons why I got interested more into consulting. From your view point, what were you trying to deliver or share with the classmates?
R: Yeah, I mean I think definitely a third of Ross eventually goes into consulting and I wanted to be kind of the resources, as much help as I could so people who didn't want to go down that path either actually kind of walking with people that are just talking about my experience to give them a realistic expectation of what it's like.
Beyond that I think especially within kind of work, I really try to be there's just so much going on at Ross at any one given time and I think really trying to make the process very efficient, very planned, very organized, well also balancing out kind of making it fun and enjoyable because I feel like the less time you're spending on when are we meeting? What's the room? Who needs to do what next? The more time you can spend on actually getting into the meat of the project and getting to know your classmates better.
S: I strongly felt that when working with you. On the other hand, not only me, but some classmates felt a bit sorry for you because although the tasks itself doesn't take that time, if you accumulate that it becomes quite a workload. I was working with you in two groups and I felt that you were doing more than average which we felt thankful of, but also felt a bit sorry. It's a ambiguous question, but did you feel something about that?
R: Honestly, this is gonna sound really weird. I am fundamentally a lazy person which the reason that matters is because if you do all that work on the front, what it saves is kind of scrambling on the back end. I was actually willing to put in that little bit of effort on the front so that we're not staying up for three days in a row trying to consolidate and figure out what's going on. Also, just coming from consulting, that's ingrained in you so it's something that I naturally do.
S: Okay. That makes sense. Just to confirm, after you go to Deloitte, you will be in a different role or position?
R: I will. As analyst and consultant are typically folks without MBAs and then senior consultants, managers, senior manager and then partner/director is the progression, so I'll be coming into the lowest level that has MBA.
S: This is just a random question, but for consulting, getting an MBA is kind of mandatory to get promotion from my impression. What is the situation in Deloitte?
R: When I started at the firm, you had to get an MBA. It was up or out. I think the first year after I started, you could either go the GSAP route which is kind of the sponsored MBA route or you could go with what they call continuous career path which is where you just got promoted up and didn't go for your MBA. That was more for folks who were very specialized in something and just knew this is what I'm good at. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life and there's no point in getting the rest of this. It's still not very big just because with Deloitte, getting your MBA paid for is a really big deal. More and more folks are choosing to go that way just because they know exactly what they want to do or for whatever reason MBA isn't right for them at the time.
S: Just to confirm but were you self-sponsored?
R: No, I was sponsored by Deloitte. There a timing issue between different consulting firms. Some consulting firms pay you up front or pay the school for your tuition. With Deloitte, you have to front the money, but then they pay you on the back end so you eventually get paid for it. It's just the timing issue between different consulting firms.
S: Okay. Is Deloitte pretty open for company sponsored MBA students to look for other opportunities?
R: Yeah, absolutely. You actually are required to have a non consulting internship so they really want you to kind of see what's out there both as an exploratory mechanism, but also kind of rounding out your experience being on the client side and seeing what that's like. It's a very, they definitely do want you to come back. They're paying for it because they think that you're a good asset, but they're very open to conversations. There's definitely no hard feelings to folks who do choose not to come back.
S: What is the rough ratio of people coming back in and people who get out?
R: Off the top of my head I think of folks who are sponsored is something 90, 95% go back.
S: That's pretty high.
R: It is. I mean, Deloitte's a great company and the financial package is really nice.
S: I see. I think another thing that a class a company sponsored maybe is the flexibility of the company I guess.
R: Yeah, absolutely.
S: This is a basic question. What kind of advice would you give to yourself when you were an applicant or coming before starting the program?
R: I think that there were a lot of different experiences that I knew about on the periphery, but I never really investigated seriously. I went to Story Lab* last night and I'm kind of regretting the fact that I didn't do that so maybe kind of taking some of the effort that I was putting into academics and recruiting into some of these more maybe not like immediately relevant extra curriculars. Either just general development type leadership extracurriculars or just join the whiskey club or like these really off the wall extracurriculars that don't really have an immediate purpose, but you'll never have the chance to do again. I think basically don't take it so seriously. Grades doesn’t matter.
(*補足：Story Labの詳細についてはこちらをご覧ください)
S: Yeah, I agree. Although we feel that grades doesn't matter,we tend to focus too much on grades sometimes.
R: Yeah, exactly. I try to hold myself to a high standard, but I feel that slipping rapidly as I get closer to graduation.
R: This will be probably the last question and it's really broad. What is the definition of MBA to you? In other words, what does MBA mean to you?
R: Wow, okay. What does MBA mean to me? I think it's kind of funny because I mean literally MBA is master of business administration so theoretically when I graduate, I have like mastered things. I feel like I see the 50 thousand foot view of what the breadth of business is, but I know nothing really at this point of kind of like any of the depth. I guess what it means to me is being able to understand the landscape, but also understanding that you have a lot more to go. That's what it is to me.
S:Okay. Go it. Well, thanks so much for the interview!
R: You’re welcome!
