Oliver Wyman

What's your job about?

I’m a senior consultant at Oliver Wyman, a global strategy consultancy with over 5,000 staff across 70+ global offices. Oliver Wyman works with clients to provide strategic advice on how they can optimise their business and accelerate their organisational performance.

As a senior consultant, I am responsible for owning the structuring, execution, and completion of work modules within a project (only staffed on one project at a time). Most of your time is typically split across four types of work:

• Excel – Excel modelling tends to be the primary method of quantitative analysis (although Python and other tools such as Geospatial modelling are becoming more prevalent). In the past, I was responsible for owning a cost and profitability model for a new transportation route, used in the context of assessing market entry
• Stakeholder Interviews – This is one method of gathering primary information for a project (others include consumer surveys and desktop research) and can be with clients, independent industry experts, or global Oliver Wyman partners
• Whiteboarding/Ideation – This is one of the most enjoyable parts of the job and is where hypotheses on potential problems are formed (usually consists of brainstorming and prioritising ideas with your team around a whiteboard)
• PowerPoint – This is the way consultants articulate their findings and hone their messaging. It tends to be the output of the above three steps

While these are the main elements of the job, plenty of time is also spent on getting involved in firm-wide social activities.

What's your background?

I grew up on the outskirts of Brisbane, playing squash at a competitive level and enjoying the laid-back lifestyle that Brisbane is known for. I was fortunate enough to travel abroad to both Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Zagreb (Croatia) for 2 semesters during my time at university, which formed an interest in travel and a desire to seek out new experiences (two things that get fulfilled in my job!). Back at my home university, I also got involved in social impact clubs and case competition teams, which led to my interest in consulting.

Following my graduation, I moved to Sydney with my partner in 2021 to work in corporate finance at a large bank. While I learned a lot and enjoyed my time there, I still had an interest in consulting and decided to seek out a new role after about 12 months. This led to me joining Oliver Wyman in March 2022.

Could someone with a different background do your job? 

Yes! The beauty of consulting is that every time you start a new project in a new industry, everyone starts from zero (Projects that I’ve worked on include the review of an airline network planning process, commercial due diligence on the sale of telecommunication towers, and the creation of an operational risk framework for a global microfinance not-for-profit). This means we have a variety of backgrounds (e.g., politics, arts, maths), and everyone is supported through formal and informal learning. The main criterion for success is a genuine curiosity about the problem at hand, and a willingness to be coachable.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The coolest thing about the job is that you’re working on challenging, high-priority problems. The tangible outcome of your work may manifest itself as a presentation to the CEO of an ASX100 company or as a headline in the AFR, but either way, it motivates you to produce your best work. It’s a bonus that along the way you have access to the cumulative expertise of industry veterans that would be off-limits to almost anyone else, allowing you to learn constantly and be stimulated.

What are the limitations of your job?

The downside of the job is the intensity which it can sometimes necessitate. While the pace of work and hours logged aren’t any worse than peer companies in the industry, it can take its toll over time if you don’t look after yourself. Fortunately, this has been a big focus for the industry in recent times, and there are many initiatives in place to support a sustainable work-life balance, while also providing plenty of incentives to ensure that people are rewarded for their hard work (e.g., work offsites, team dinners and extra leave)

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

• Make the most of your opportunities at university. If that means taking an extra year to complete your studies, then that might even be a good thing!
• Don’t feel the need to rush into your perceived ‘dream job’ – there’s value in taking a winding path to reach your destination, and there’s no better time to explore career paths than straight out of university.

Make sure you periodically take the time to understand what motivates you. The corporate world exposes you to many motivated people with different aspirations – don't get caught up working towards someone else's goal.

What do you do? 

Before becoming a Consultant at OW, I was fortunate enough to work for some of the world’s largest companies including Amazon, American Express and several other global management consulting firms. As a result, the question I’ve been asked most frequently in my life is undoubtedly ‘So, what exactly IS consulting?’

In a nutshell, consulting is about coming together to tackle an organisation’s toughest challenges. Since OW works across a variety of industries including Financial Services, Transportation, Energy and Retail, you quickly learn to become an expert in an industry that you might’ve never interacted with before. Since no two projects are ever the same, you’re constantly being pushed to learn and grow. 

What made you pick Oliver Wyman?

Honestly, when I got my first consulting internship in uni, I picked it for all the shiny reasons. I wanted to work with smart and interesting people; have a different project each quarter; and of course, travel was always a big plus. However, after working in consulting and broader corporate strategy for over 3 years now, I’ve realised that the industry and OW, in particular, has a lot more to offer.

The key reason why I picked OW is because of the impactful work that we do. From a project perspective, we work with leading organisations to deliver game-changing strategies whilst on a social impact level, there are so many amazing volunteering events and pro-bono projects to get involved with. To me, OW is the place where you go not just to fix a problem, but to really build something new. The culture has a huge emphasis on challenging conventional thinking to help chart new futures for our clients and communities. 

What are the people like and how is working in a post-COVID world? 

As an off-cycle hire, I was able to strategically time my start date at OW in late November, just in time for the Christmas party season. During my first few weeks, I was surprised to find how welcoming and friendly everyone was! There were plenty of social events, ranging from pottery classes and yoga to your casual Friday night drinks.

Back when our offices were primarily WFH, I found that people were making the effort to reach out, get to know to me and help me with my personal & professional development. There have been various training sessions and mentoring programs to help you get started and ensure that you’re well-equipped to reach your goals. 

Ok I’m sold, how did you prepare for the interview process?

My biggest advice would be to talk to as many people as you can from OW to get a sense of the culture, type of work we do and the people that we’re looking for. Go to university alumni panels, our corporate networking events or just shoot one of us a message on Linkedin – anything to show your interviewer that you really know what OW’s about and why you want to be here.

Meanwhile, most consulting interviews are known to be fairly rigorous so to prepare, I would recommend doing some practice cases (with friends if possible), staying up-to-date on industry news and a little bit of mental math practice doesn’t hurt either. 

Last question, what’s the best place to grab a coffee by your office? 

Bonnie Coffee on Margret, but I would also HIGHLY recommend the hot choc from Three Chocolatiers in Wynyard Station.

What's your job about?

Oliver Wyman is a management consulting firm, where consultants like me work with a range of partners and experts to help deliver breakthrough analysis for clients.

My day and tasks can vary quite a lot between days and weeks and drastically vary from each project to the next.

One week I may be looking at the entire renewable market across Australia, then dive into the details of the process of renewable farms to understand the value chain, ending up in modelling market potential for specific clients, which can then change to the week after to look at global digital advertising trends and the social media industry.

Everyone, including students and teenagers, should be able to understand the consulting process, as it is problem-solving at the fundamental level. The finesse is in how we come to the solution and, what we are doing to support the hypothesis we have arrived with.

What's your background? 

Despite being born in India, I have been a Melbournian all my life. The important stages so far have been the end of high school to the end of university, where I had no clue what I wanted to do, just that I loved science and was more of a numbers person.

Throughout my years at Uni, each experience changed my perception of what I found enjoyable. I did an internship at an Oil & Gas company where I got to experience data science and digital marketing for the first time. Returning to the university that year, I added Econometrics as my major as it felt like a gateway into data analytics and data science. Continuing that trend, I then joined a large Telco as a finance graduate where I got to try a few areas out: Supply Chain Analytics, Project Management, Treasury & Banking and Strategy.

Ultimately shaping where I am now, I found consulting like a science where we try to test hypotheses and use numbers and theory to back up our assumptions.

Could someone with a different background do your job? 

Someone with a different background can do my job. It is quite important that we have consultants of varied experiences and backgrounds as they provide unique solutions to the same problem.

The key characteristics to breaking into consulting would be the interest in solving unique business problems, interest in constantly learning & comfort in tasks changing rapidly, ability to adapt to changing thinking, and some creativity. 

What's the coolest thing about your job? 

I love that my job lets me jump around to different industries to try something new with every project. I can go from working in energy, all the way to media and communication. For someone who does not have a narrowed industry preference yet, it is great, because I get to do tasks that I find interesting (e.g. financial modelling & research) for a range of companies and sectors.

The work can be quite rewarding retrospectively, looking back at all the things you learnt and all the new material you created for the company in a short span of time.

What are the limitations of your job? 

Of course, consulting can have its limitations as well. The biggest limitation would be the nature of the work itself. It can be a very fast-paced project or be in a nascent industry with no supporting research or expertise. There will be times when you feel rushed and/or lost, but the support within the company is there!

Otherwise, be prepared for periods where it is busy, and where it quietens down – keeping a healthy routine is the key to not making the busy periods feel like too much.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student... 

• Try as many new things as possible – Whether it is sports, subjects, or clubs, you find what you are interested in the more you find out what you do not like as much.
• Keep your hobbies – Try not to let go of the things you like. It makes it hard to get back into them when you get busy.
• Be more confident & in control – At the end of the day, you make your own success so be more proactive in getting what you want.