A journey from a PhD student to an Associate Consultant

A lot of PhD skills are very transferable and can be applied in the consulting world

Imagine what a PhD’s life is like. If you are picturing countless hours spent in the lab, knowing the in-and-outs of an extremely specific problem which solution will, one day, (maybe) better humanity… Well, you are not that far from the truth. However, there is a great deal more to that. As a PhD student, I spent a lot of my time presenting my findings. I created posters and delivered presentations, sometimes just to my lab mates, some other times to a room full of people whose attention I needed to capture. These presentation and communication skills I gained throughout my PhD are extremely useful in consulting. They allow me to stay more focused and confident when presenting during meetings and workshops. They helped me to be ready to present a project spotlight at Invent Meetup in 2019 only a few weeks into my graduate scheme.

Another thing that PhDs do a lot (regardless of their PhD topic) is to read. Scientific papers, patents, books, lab reports, you name it… anything to stay up to date. After all, being a PhD means that you are a world-class expert on your topic. As a matter of fact, you could say the same about being a consultant. As a consultant, you need to be the best person to provide support and advice to the client, and you can do it only if you are ready to learn and keep up to date. Thus, being able to filter and assimilate information “PhD” style is a true asset for a consultant. When I first started my role as an Engagement Lead, I had to go through a lot of documents and decks to understand the project. I spent a good few hour trying to decipher the meaning of many unpronounceable acronyms (the utilities sector, I discovered, is particularly fond of them). My PhD helped me navigate a sea of information that would have otherwise drowned me.

Finally, as a PhD, I picked up some very useful analytical thinking skills along the way. From fixing a broken equipment, through designing experiments, to data analysis, I learned to break down a problem, dismantle it, and finally conquer it.  The ability to look at things as “cause-and-effect” helped me multiple times in my role when looking at ways to improve processes, solve problems or even design presentation decks for clients.

So why did I pick a consulting job over an academic career?

For most of my PhD I worked in a lab, carefully repeating the same cycle of tasks for long stretches of time. In consulting, no two days are the same, and I love it. While as a PhD student I focused on a small area of expertise, as a consultant I get a chance to work with diverse clients across different sectors. Graduates at Capgemini have the opportunity to cover different roles, i.e. Programme Management Officer, Business Analyst, and Engagement Lead just to name a few. This makes for a stimulating environment, new challenges every day, and comes with the perks of learning a lot of new skills along the way.

As a PhD, I often had to wait months to obtain results and years to see them published. As a consultant, I have the chance to witness the impact of my work first-hand, and in much shorter time. Recently, I supported our client with a launch of new technology solution during the global pandemic. As a team, we organised an entire Go-live support system remotely. It was extremely rewarding to see the successful launch of a product that we all worked so hard to deliver!

Finally, as a consultant I get to work and interact with many people, which I prefer to the lab’s life, that can be rather solitary at times. Whether it is on a client side, or while doing internal work – I meet so many interesting people and learn a lot every day.

How does it feel to be a PhD graduate in Capgemini?

Capgemini is a great place to work, irrespective of your academic background. The amount of trust and responsibility I was given from day one is a token that my past experiences as a scholar are valued, and all the skills I acquired during my PhD are recognised. In my first role, I was responsible for designing and coordinating an entire engagement strategy for +200 internal and +2000 external stakeholders. Here, the skills I acquired throughout my PhD became particularly handy. My interaction with world-class experts at conferences helped me to engage with senior stakeholders. Experience with coordinating my lab work around my lab mates’ schedules helped me to organise and facilitate various client meetings. I feel that my PhD experience allowed me to be trusted with value-added tasks from the day 1 at client side.

In conclusion, as for my work in academia, I like to think of my role as a consultant as something that allows me to put my skills at use to help others, whether it is my colleagues at Capgemini or the clients. Consultants are there to be of service to those in need of a very specific kind of help, and I saw this to be true on multiple occasions while working for Capgemini over the past year. I would encourage all of the PhD students out there in the world that are considering a career change to have a look at Capgemini Graduate scheme. I am really looking forward to continuing my journey as a consultant in the service of people, using both my academic and consulting skills.

Author

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Aleksandra Gatti