Harry Sharpe, Oliver Wyman

Harry Sharpe is a consultant with Oliver Wyman. He joined the firm after graduating with a degree in maths from the University of Oxford. Harry has worked on a wide range of projects stretching from London to Cape Town and is currently in the second week of a strategic review for an investment bank in Mumbai. He describes his working day as a consultant.

Morning

I wake up around 7.30 am and meet the rest of the team for breakfast sometime after 8.00 am. I’m slightly tired this morning as I arrived back late last night from a visit to Singapore. Working so far from home provides great opportunities to travel and explore other countries at the weekends. Coffee and cornflakes provide some stimulation, as does stepping out into the heat of Mumbai, and an airconditioned taxi is quickly ordered to whisk us away to the office. I usually start the day with an informal catch up with the job manager (the senior on-the-ground team member). This can range from a two-minute progress summary to a full debrief on what my next task is. Two years in, I have a fair degree of autonomy and I’m usually allocated specific workstreams lasting between one day and two weeks. We have an 11.00 am meeting with the head of the bank’s proprietary trading operations so we finalise a short presentation that will form the basis of discussion. Unfortunately, today is turning into a ‘Black Monday’ for the Indian stock market and the meeting is postponed, so we head to the canteen for an early lunch; the curry’s good and there’s a pizza place nearby for variety.

Afternoon

The postponed meeting takes place shortly after lunch and is very illuminating. The client is keen to exchange ideas on how the experiences of European and American banks might be reflected in India. Exposure to the people who make the big decisions in companies is a real highlight of the job. I then get back to my own workstream, putting together material on techniques for quantifying the risks associated with trading in the financial markets. I get input from colleagues in Europe and catch up with our project director in London who is due in Mumbai later in the week. By the evening I have a good idea of the structure of the final document and how to proceed. This work is quite different from my other projects which have involved building financial models, interviewing CEOs and researching the Dubai real estate market.

Evening

The air conditioning cuts out around 7.00 pm so it’s a relief when we make a move at 8.30 pm. Often the team will go out for dinner (this was particularly popular during my month in Cape Town) but tonight I’m heading back to the hotel for a tennis lesson. I decide to travel via tuk-tuk to my hotel – my daily dose of true Mumbai living – and wonder what tomorrow has in store.