Pre-MBA Employment: Procurement Strategy Manager, Alcatel-Lucent, Paris
Post-MBA Employment: Senior Consultant, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, London

After graduating from the University of Sydney with a degree in electrical engineering, I started off in the telecoms industry working for Telstra in Sydney before moving onto telecom equipment manufacturer Alcatel. After a year in Australia I was offered a position within Alcatel’s global headquarters in Paris, France. After working in several roles, my final position with them was as Manager of Global Strategy for Procurement of Software where I oversaw purchases of over EUR 100 million. I decided to pursue an MBA to learn further business skills in the areas of finance and marketing.

After completing the MBA at Oxford, I was offered a position as Senior Consultant with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in London.  My job currently involves advising firms in various sectors and working with private equity houses on acquisition targets.

The job opportunity came about indirectly as a result of a summer consulting project (SCP) that I undertook with Roland Berger as part of an MBA team. Roland Berger has regularly sponsored Oxford MBA summer projects and for mine our team undertook a project analysing the UK energy market.  This was a big advantage as I was able to understand their work practices and office culture before I started the interview process. Obtaining a very good result in the SCP (the project was selected as one of the top three in my class) was an added bonus in securing the position.  All in all the SCP was an excellent way of experiencing at first-hand a company that I was interested in working for and an opportunity that should be taken full advantage of.

I am really enjoying my current position but for those contemplating the switch into consulting you need to be aware that working in consulting is very different from working in industry and a very different skill set is required. It is also imperative to be prepared for the strenuous interview process at the major consulting companies, especially through case study preparation.