What's your job about?
I work as a management consultant at Nous, where we help businesses solve problems that they may be facing. (And this can be anything – think business strategy, workplace culture, customer experience… The list goes on!)
We work for clients in many different sectors, but most of the projects I’ve worked on so far have been for education institutions and government departments. As a consultant, I work on most of the detail-oriented tasks in my projects – depending on the type of project, this may include quantitative analyses, building out slide packs for workshops and other engagements, or doing desktop research to inform our final recommendations.
Given the breadth and fast-paced nature of project work, no two days are really the same. Our teams often rotate, we work on different tasks depending on the scope of each project, and we always need to be open to learning on the go. Our work arrangements also differ from project to project – we sometimes work from our own offices, other times at our client’s premises, and if it’s on a day when all our meetings are online, we’re also free to work from home.
What's your background?
I grew up in Perth, but have been living in Sydney since the start of my commerce degree at UNSW. Since my family knew quite a few consultants personally, I had always known about consulting growing up. I didn’t always plan to work in consulting though – I was pretty set on studying medicine for most of my high school years, decided to pick up commerce instead, and then wondered for a while about what career path I wanted to take with my degree.
I interned in a few different roles throughout university – social media strategy and graphic design, advertising, rotations at public accountancy, and two in consulting (one of which was at Nous). I loved the amount of variety in the work that Nous offered, as well as their commitment to workplace culture, so I decided to continue as a consultant in their Sydney office after I graduated in late 2022.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Most definitely! We have people from all different educational, professional and social backgrounds at Nous, and I think this diversity is what makes our workplace so enriching and exciting. We’re always learning something new from our project teams and broader network, and there’s always something that every one of us can contribute by reflecting on our prior experiences. If there’s anything that our consultants need to have, it’d probably be two things: a willingness to learn, and a natural aptitude for teamwork!
What's the coolest thing about your job?
I think one of the coolest things about Nous is being able to constantly work with people from other offices. For example, as a Sydney-based consultant, it’s an everyday occurrence for our project teams to span across multiple Australian offices, and sometimes we get to learn about what our UK and Canadian colleagues are doing too!
What are the limitations of your job?
I guess the main limitation with consulting is that you can’t walk in expecting a standard 9-5. There are definitely times when we have lighter workloads, but on the flip side, there are also times when we need to put in the extra hours. Our workload fluctuates with project cycles, so it’s best to just enjoy the phases as they come and go! Also, the thing that helps at Nous is our freedom to work remotely, and something we call “self-managed time” – which means that we can easily shape our work hours around other commitments in our lives.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
Take your time – uni years do go by quickly, but there’s no need to rush. Sometimes it takes time for us to figure out where to go