ICEF graduates Alexander Odintsov and Anton Volodin, currently consultants at Bain & Company, did a Q&A where they told students why consulting is the better springboard to career than industry, what ‘experience share transfer’ is, and how Bain gets its team to travel together, do an MBA and just be friends. The session received the highest rating from students in the fall session of the Bain events.
Why consulting? What prompted your choice and how did you arrive at the decision when a student?
Alexander: As a student I didn’t have a clear vision of where I wanted to try myself, and this made consulting an ideal industry to start a career in. I was attracted by the opportunity of doing multi-task projects and tapping into different business functions. It was in my senior years of bachelor studies and then master’s programme that I knew I wanted to get into consulting.
Anton: ICEF is an ideal springboard to internships. And internships are the best way to explore the industries and decide quite early what kind of work you want to do. I interned at quite a number of investment banks and consulting companies and decided I was more cut out for consulting. Consulting poses one to many different tasks, which keeps it interesting, and it quickly turns you into a fast learner.
What would you advise students planning to engage in career exploration? Was there anything that you have missed out on or, conversely, paid enough attention to that has made a difference to you?
Alexander: I can’t say I engaged much in career exploration or career activities, I was focused more on studies. Nor that it was a mistake, but looking back, I think I would try and meet more companies to learn specifics of their working practices – the strategy quite common among MBA students and allowing not only to expand horizons and prepare for job interviews, but also to identify career preferences and embark on your career search.
Anton: Attend as many career events as you can. Explore the companies and what they offer. Apply for internships. This is how you learn about the labor market situation, the occupations out there and whether they can fit your interests and values.
What was your first internship experience like?
Anton: The first internship is always an exciting one. You find yourself in a working environment, doing your first share of practical assignments and realizing how things work in the real world, which may appear even incompatible with what you’ve learned at school or university. My first internship was at a research department of a large consulting company, and it was quite fruitful in the sense that it leveled up my information searching and analytical thinking skills. I did figure out then how consulting works.
Why is it important to start working for a multinational? I mean in the first place, not for a line on a resume, to get some work experience abroad. Is trying to reach the top worth the effort?
Alexander: I think it’s important to be governed by the experience you would like your place of work to furnish you with. Large multinationals offer benefits such as fine-tuned onboarding processes, employee training, global team work, and extensive databases to help you delve into an issue deeply and quickly, not to mention the wealth of the hands-on experience.
Smaller companies have their advantages, too. You can expect to be entrusted with a more diverse range of tasks and be interacting with the management more closely. These differences are what helps to find a fit and it’s important to know them.
Anton: The key to finding a company that fits you is to first figure out your role in it: is it a large corporation or a startup or your own business that you see yourself working for? Large companies rest on time-proven, standardized processes and long-established corporate cultures, which makes onboarding easier, allowing time to concentrate on your key tasks. This again brings us back to the importance of internships.
Bain promotes an amazing “family-like” culture, and this is especially true of our smaller offices like the one in Moscow
Apart from industry-specific knowledge, what are the key consulting skills?
Alexander: It is rather structured problem solving and analytical thinking skills that come to the fore in the beginning, not industry-specific knowledge. Beginners are expected to be able to demonstrate data fluency, interpret outcomes and formulate basic conclusions. When interviewing candidates, I look at whether they are self-motivated, have been involved in projects and would be willing to take on responsibility. I would advise students not only to participate in popular activities (such as case clubs), but also to stay committed to their passions (sports, hobbies, charity, for example). This will help you get your resume ahead of others and come across as someone with strong personality traits.
Can you share your onboarding experience at Bain? What is it that makes Bain a cozy workplace and a source of personal development?
Anton: Bain promotes an amazing “family-like” culture, and this is especially true of our smaller offices like the one in Moscow. All people in the office know one another and communicate outside the workplace. We even travel and go on holiday together. This makes the workplace culture highly supportive: you know that there’s always someone to help you out and to offer their expertise.
What career advancement and training opportunities does Bain & Company offer and have you already used any?
Alexander: For me, the two most valuable opportunities are skills training and MBA. Bain & Company offers a whole array of workshops (Python workshops, career development tips, etc.), and I often hear my Moscow-based colleagues share their experience. Also, each position goes with a number of international trainings to be completed, which is a great opportunity to meet people of different nationalities whom you will find going through the same challenges and difficulties as you. Those seeking to study for a business degree outside of Bain have the option of doing an MBA at some of the top business schools as Bain-sponsored students. I personally spent two years at Wharton and am very grateful to Bain to giving me this opportunity.
Anton: At Bain, career advancement follows a standard track. Each step of the ladder offers international training opportunities. My first training was in Cape Cod near Boston. Each such training is an excellent way to get the hard skills needed for a new position and to meet and talk to people from other offices. By the way, many trainees stay in touch for years after their trainings, even though they live time zones away from each other. And there are in-house trainings that are organized by our "home" office to enhance communication skills, customer service skills, public speaking skills or to give simulation tips&tricks. At Bain, you have the option of either doing an MBA or a temporary transfer to a different office, which I personally took advantage of when I went to Seattle for six months.
What unique experience does Bain offer to new hires, particularly in terms of industry experience, and are there ways to fast-track career progress in consulting?
Alexander: What puts consulting at a great advantage is its wide choice of projects in a variety of industries. Specialization usually occurs in managerial or positions higher than manager’s. But it is also possible to concentrate on one specific industry. My first projects at Bain dealt with FMCG and retail industry. I soon realized I liked the topic and I wanted to dig deeper. The majority of projects I did later, before my MBA studies, happened to pertain to retail industry in one way or another: one had me developing a retail marketing chain, another a cost reduction strategy for an international FMCG company, followed by projects dealing with supply chain and even transformation of a retail store concept.
Should one work in an industry first, or try to get into consulting straight out of school?
Alexander: In consulting, you are trained on the job every day, which is very important for me personally. New hires are quick to learn the skillsets that would allow for their quick learning curves in other industries and companies. Because consulting instills in its workers data fluency and the ability to formulate and get recommendations across strongly and effectively, it is a great source of career growth opportunities.
Anton: If you go into consulting straight out of school, you are sure to make quick progress as an analytical thinker, communicator, priority setter, and learner. In the industry, people acquire more depth in a particular field of knowledge, but because of the great deal of routine they have to cope with they are unlikely to grow as fast as they would’ve done in consulting.
I would recommend to go into consulting first to level up the core skills and prepare for the next career move
What students wishing to get into the top consulting firms can expect ICEF will equip them with and what should be worked on independently?
Alexander: They can expect a solid theoretical understanding of, say, Economics and Statistics, and strong analytical thinking skills. ICEF teaches values such as hard work and determination – the key attributes of a good consultant. As for independent training, my advice is to develop business judgment, i.e. understanding of the latest trends and happenings occurring in different industries. Not only will it be useful for your future work, it will make your theoretical studies more interesting.
Anton: ICEF will provide you with excellent hard skills and that includes knowledge of statistics, accounting and economics. But your interviewers will be also looking at your soft skills – communications skills, business judgment, awareness of the latest trends.
Anton, you had your internships at various consulting companies. Why did you choose Bain?
Anton: My choice was fully informed and stemmed from my experience with other companies as an intern. What I like best about Bain is our corporate culture, which is a highly supportive one and where communication leads to real friendships, allowing us to succeed with our projects while maintaining a professional attitude at work.
You have done an office transfer to the USA. What was the process like?
Anton: Bain offers experience share transfers to 59 of its offices. The transfer lasts six months, with travel and accommodation costs covered by Bain. Temporary transfers are not mandatory. You put in for the office you want to transfer to. I transferred to Seattle because I wanted to try a completely different country. Bain’s offices differ from one another mostly by their project portfolios. And because Seattle has a very developed tech industry, my first project was for an ERP system developer. But overall, there are no fundamental differences between offices because Bain’s processes are standardized. There are, of course, local, culture-specific variations, one being, for example, day start time. In the United States people normally start earlier, at 8 or 9 a.m, and they finish earlier, earlier than in Moscow.
Alexander, has anything changed for you after Wharton?
Alexander: Wharton marked an important step forward and has been quite an experience that kept me interacting within international community and exploring industries and functions. I interacted quite a lot during my studies with charities. There was a consulting project I was running for a small non-profit which involved music lessons for children from disadvantaged neighborhoods. One big charity organization invited me to be a member of its board for one year. All this, together with a wide variety of classes, does broaden the horizons, helping also to go on with in-house initiatives and on the customer relations side.
People who go for an MBA to progress in their careers, how can they make the most of their MBA studies?
Alexander: The challenge of deciding whether they should do an MBA or not is faced by many people entering the consulting industry. To sacrifice the opportunity of a career growth to that of further training in an international environment is a major trade-off. Those who want to make the most of their MBA experience should know precisely what they want to learn in that couple of years. This will help you write a clear application essay and will keep you from getting side-tracked, because your MBA programme will offer you a huge selection of activities and you will need to stay focused.
