Tom Seymour, OC&C Strategy Consultants
Associate consultant Tom Seymour works for OC&C Strategy Consultants. He studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford.
How did you get into consulting?
I wanted to find something that would teach me valuable, transferable skills, was intellectually stimulating and had lots of variety – I was worried I would get bored easily. With this in mind, I took a summer internship at OC&C whilst at university, which gave me confidence that the job and company were a good fit. It was also a great way to get some experience under my belt.
What appealed about consulting?
Working on projects that are rarely longer than eight weeks means you get exposed to many different sectors and clients, and are always kept on your toes. Whilst you certainly learn a lot of detail about the industries in which you work, more important to me are the analytical, qualitative and professional skills which will stand me in good stead whatever I end up doing.
What does your employer do?
In short, we address the challenges faced by senior management. Typical client questions could be: ‘Should we launch our product in new markets, and if so, which?’ ‘How can we better serve our customers?’ ‘How can we be more efficient?’
You get exposed to many different sectors and clients, and are always kept on your toes
What is your role?
As an associate I have a lot of responsibility for conducting the analysis that drives our ‘answer’. That can mean a lot of quantitative work: gathering and analysing the data that informs our recommendations. In addition I do a fair amount of primary research – for example, conducting mystery shopping on a retail project, or interviewing stakeholders or industry experts.
What sort of training did you receive?
There was a week of introductory training when we first arrived, which ran through a lot of the basics of the tools you use in your day-to-day job, as well as an overview of how a consulting project works and our roles within it. After that, we have periodic training on different topics, such as finance, or an analytical technique. Every autumn the entire international firm congregates in one city and you do a week of training with your peers from around the world. But beyond this formal training, it’s definitely true that you learn best on the job, so in this sense the training is ongoing. It’s very satisfying to find yourself getting stronger and more confident after each project.
Do you get direct client contact?
Within nine months of starting I was in a meeting with a client MD discussing my work.
How do you keep a good work/life balance?
We typically work quite hard during the week, though weekends and Friday evenings are fairly sacrosanct. We have a system where project managers have to predict working hours about two weeks in advance. This allows you then to plan around those days which might need a late finish, such as before a client meeting.
What gives you a buzz?
Undoubtedly the firm’s culture. We take our work seriously, but we try not to take ourselves too seriously. When I joined I certainly didn’t expect to find myself in an Ibiza club with the whole office, or see the partners revealing the annual bonus by being made to do bush tucker trials. This might sound frivolous, but it’s pretty important to know you can have fun with your colleagues as you will end up spending a lot of time with them!