What's your job title? What did you study? When did you graduate?

I have been a Business Analyst for just under two years now. I studied medicine at UNSW, graduating in 2014. I then worked at Westmead Hospital for 3 years as a junior doctor, before starting training as an Emergency Physician. After a year of training, I decided to transition across to consulting.

Why did you decide on your current job position?

This was a big decision for me; essentially walking out on over 10 years in medical education and training. I spend a lot of time working with an Australian charity, and at the beginning of 2018 I was able to travel with them to see their projects in action. It was surreal to see the fruition of years of our fundraising and advocacy. But what was most eye opening was how their projects were so thoughtful in design and implementation. I grilled the CEO on how they had managed to extract primary data from rural villages in third world countries to build a program that was transformative.

I realised that medicine allowed me to have a uniquely direct means of creating impact. But this kind of work was large scale and able to reach so many more vulnerable people. I decided I wanted to learn those skills and work in a career of impact, and her recommendation was to investigate management consulting. In particular, she recommended Port Jackson Partners. I went through the motions of applications, but PJP stood out. I didn’t wait to hear back from the others, and started work a few weeks after returning from my trip.

Can you describe a typical work day?

I can’t say there has ever been a ‘typical’ work day. No two projects that I have been on have been alike, and the dynamic nature to our approach has kept me constantly on my toes. But broadly speaking, our weeks focus around set problem solving sessions that can be internal or with clients. During these meetings our partners, associates and analysts get together and further the thinking on our clients’ problem. Following this, we often divide and conquer our tasks. I might head off to call our client to work out exactly what data they have available. Or perhaps research what data or information is publicly available. In more advanced stages of the project, I might be building a financial model or synthesising our ongoing insights into written communications. Throughout this process, we continue to meet with our clients to work with them, learn from them and update them on the process. As you can imagine, project work gets quite busy!

What sort of person succeeds in your career?

Consulting requires a broad range of skills. And it is clear that successful people in this industry have developed diverse skill sets across the tenure of their career. Good consultants are great problem solvers; logical and clear in their approach. They are detail oriented, but are able to telescope to keep the big picture in mind. They are great communicators, in both written and oral mediums, and are able to understand their teams and the clients they work with.

What makes your job suit you? Which kind of task do you enjoy the most?

The core of this work is agility in our problem solving, and understanding our clients. Medicine indirectly helped train me in both, but I have had to learn to adopt those skills to be more appropriate in consulting.

I have always enjoyed how we approach problem solving in a collaborative and structured way. As I continue to learn, I get to take more of a lead on that process. Our partners are very accessible throughout every step of the process, and PJP is very true to its low leverage model. It is a very privileged position to be able to learn directly from leaders in an industry.

But at the end of the day, what I enjoy most is working with our clients. I love meeting new people with new problems and working with them to find the right solution. Although the stakes are different from medicine, I feel the essence of helping people who have come to you is ultimately the most rewarding kind of work.

What would your career be if you weren’t doing what you’re doing now?

Probably still in medicine, but perhaps pursuing non-clinical public health work alongside my ED training.

Which three pieces of advice would you give to a current university student?

1. Talk to people in the industry. Every work place has a different group of clients, approach to their work, workplace culture and opportunities for learning
2. Consulting is a broad and challenging career. Develop a broad set of skills to match! Read widely, participate in different groups and activities, and become as well-rounded an individual as you can
3. Entering consulting can be intimidating. The interviews are tough, and sometimes you miss out by an inch. Don’t be disheartened, keep at it, and you will find the place for you!