Associate - Lisa Lyons

Consulting makes for a brilliant business bootcamp and will be attractive to anyone who wants to get under the skin of lots of different companies and find out how they work. Many of the people we spoke to loved the exposure they were able to get early on in the role, taking part in meetings with the senior managers of client businesses almost from the start.
Many consultants will specialise into a particular area of consulting like restructuring, integration, technology or logistics. There is also a broad distinction between strategy consultants and those that actually implement a strategy. The routes into consultancy are almost as varied as the job. You can join with no experience or, as many do, move into consultancy having gained some specific knowledge within a business. We found that quite a few consultants were also chartered accountants, as they had seen great benefit in really understanding how company finances work before embarking on a career in consultancy. 

The huge variety offered by consultancy brings with it a great deal of travel and this may or may not be a positive thing depending on your preferences. It’s very common to be sent away to work on projects at a client site for many weeks at a time and very often it will be too far away for you to travel to from home. So spending long periods away is part and parcel of many a consultant's life. The work itself is likely to peak and trough quite a lot. When a project is on you’re likely to be very busy, regularly putting in late nights and weekend work. When projects finish and before the next one begins you could find yourself leaving the office at 5.30. 

Salaries in consultancy are good and often include bonuses. Those starting out at the big firms should expect in excess of 30K, rising to about 50K with three years' experience. After seven or eight years, all being well, you’ll be looking at upwards of 100K.

Who are you and what do you do?

Graduate Jobs in Consulting.

My name is Lisa Lyons, I am an Associate Consultant at Capgemini Consulting.

What is Consultancy?

I would say taking difficult client problems and working with them to develop sustainable solutions.

What attracted you to this career?

I really wanted the variety - along with many other graduates, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do after university and the variety of work and the calibre of clients really appealed to me and the opportunity to work with clients such as HMRC, Tesco, Vodaphone, these great blue chip companies was really appealing.

What does your job involve?

It is difficult question to answer, it depends on the project I am on at the moment but I can give you some examples. One at the moment is project management office for a bank and that means working with the programme director and monitoring the project plans, the project governing, the reporting and also running team meetings and working through high performance team meetings which we do to help integrate the team together. Another one being, we have an accelerated solutions environment which is a highly specialised events centre, if you can imagine, so there I have done project management, so project managing an event and working through with your sponsor to work through their difficult objectives to try and get to an outcome and then you are running an event for up to 60 participants on the day with certain different modules of work. That is another example of the role.

What do you do on a typical day?

Predominantly we are out on the client's site; working with the clients on a day to day basis it is very changeable so quite difficult to describe but yesterday, I got into work early, firstly checked my emails, had meetings with my project management director, then we also had a meeting with the team in the afternoon. We were working through our plans and looking at the dependencies within each of the streams and I was facilitating that session. Then in the afternoon I was running through a new set of processes that were going to be implemented for the stream for next week with my programme director.

We had a team meeting, put a project plan on the wall so there are different leads on as project and we have to just work out where the overlaps in the project were, how does it impact on their pieces of work and how does our project affect different areas of the business because it is all about impact and it is very important to keep within our scope of work, that was the objective.

Describe the process of your work?

In terms of what a project is that fits in there, clients would come with their problem, we would present the solution and then it is about carrying out that piece of work for them. So a real example would be maybe a telecom coming to us with poor retention rates and poor customer experiences so maybe if they had that through feedback from customers and also people in the call centres so a possible project could be looking at how the business is operating at the moment and then working with the leaders to work out where they want to be and developing a solution. Then a project fits in the place of the solution to get them where they need to be which is, at the end of the day, better retention rates and keeping customers happy and better revenues for the company.

What is your role in the project?

The project manager is normally someone higher up with more experience a role - for me there might be either project management office which is working with the project manager to develop ways of working with the team and putting a structure in place for reporting for the different members of the team. Another example, which is one I have done, is process mapping. So what process mapping is is having a view of what the business is doing at the moment. They might already have those process maps but if they don’t then we can run a series of workshops to map out those processes. And what the process is just the steps that somebody performs and do that task so it might be a call centre operator logs on to the system and this happens and that happens so mapping out those processes and then taking that to the business, so working out where do you need to be.

Why did you choose business consulting?

I wanted to be in the business world, personally I am not so technology orientated or focused, I lean more on to the people side and working with clients and just the opportunities that are available in consulting. When else do you get to have the opportunity to work for these really blue chip companies and large Government sectors? That is really why I chose consultancy.

What are the specialisms within your industry?

In consulting we have marketing, sales and services, which is essentially, marketing, there is quite a bit of work around customer experience, another one is finance and employee transformation so finance sector and employee transformation is essentially HR transformation. Then we have supply chain so procurement processes, then business information strategy, which is essentially IT and solutions around that and the last on is transformation and strategy which is part of that is looking at the people and increasing performance and around working with people, then the next one is strategy so that is top down kind of processes.

What are the best bits about your job?

I really like working with the clients and when you can actually build rapport and work along side each other to really make progress. The things that really trouble them - if you can work through those problems with them that is really satisfying. On the other side we have got my client work, there is a lot of internal work with Capgemini as well, I have great colleagues, I have a lot of friends at Capgemini, there is also a great social element to the graduate programme that I am involved in so that is also a great aspect as well.

What are the worst bits about your job?

Yes it is difficult at times, because you have to be so flexible, I have to be expected to travel at very short notice to different parts of the UK; also it is difficult to plan your social life at times and you have to be careful about managing client expectations with your friends and family - just say look I might be home late or I might need to work away from home for a while. So that can be difficult really with your social life and friends and family.

What has been your greatest achievement?

I think the best thing I have done at Capgemini is when I got the opportunity to run our induction programme, so for the graduate scheme we have about 20-25 people join two times a year and they select two graduates to actually run that to show our involvement in the graduate programme. So I got to lead it and what that meant was designing what the two week plan would look like, working with all the different types in the business to organise their slots within that induction and also building in team building activities, so thinking how we can integrate the team and also lots of social occasions, one of the highlights was to go go-karting outside Woking.

Any regrets?

What I would say if I was giving advice to any new joiner I would just say take bolder steps be comfortable with who you are and that is enough you should be satisfied with that and if you are comfortable in your own skin it means you can shine, you can do what you like to do and will be appreciated.

What is the pay like?

Personally when I did my research it was definitely a consideration, I was moving to London so I had to consider the salary that I would be on, so consultancy at Capgemini is very competitive within the market, I am not able to give specific figures but it is definitely a swaying point for me.

Do you get any perks?

On top of your pay we also have what we call flex-benefits and that gives you the opportunity to choose a number of options to spend that money on for example could be a pension, travel insurance, health insurance, dental insurance or you can also get money off vouchers for clothing items, things like that. You can also buy things like extra holidays, which is quite popular, so there is a trade in so you can buy or sell extra holiday so the moment we get 25 days so you could buy an extra five.

How long is a working day and do you have to work out of hours?

The working week is normally, well not normal really, it ebbs and flows, when client deadlines are approaching it is kind of expected that you will put the hours in, so I have worked long hours at times. When it slows down a bit there is time to catch up on normal activities and leave at normal time, personally I have worked maybe one day at the weekend but it is not something I expected to do, I don’t expect to be called out at an unreasonable hour, because you need the rest of your life at the end of the day with your friends and family.

Is there much in the way of travel?

Within the London office, travel is normally UK based. So I have been to Darlington, spent a long time in Telford, also just outside London, I am based in the London office so like around the London area at the moment. You do have to expect travel but it just depends on where your project is at the moment. There is some opportunities for abroad, the first training course you go on is in Le Fontaine outside Paris, Capgemini have a chateau there with a conference facility with a training ground and that is where you spend one of your first week’s training which is a wonderful place. There are some opportunities outside Paris as well because we are a French company and there is quite a few links there.  One example being the financial service lab, some of the graduates get the opportunity to spend six months there so living and working in Paris which I have heard is pretty great actually, and there are some opportunities abroad as well and they just come up as and when really.

Do you have to be based anywhere in particular?

If we are talking about the graduate programme in particular, you do have to be based in London or Glasgow for Capgemini for those first two years, then you have the opportunity to move out to different locations. So you can live in different parts of the UK and just travelling to your client’s site, so we have different offices in Swansea, Sale, and also one in the North East of England and one in the Glasgow office as well, so there is opportunity after the graduate scheme.

What is the working environment like?

So this in terms of our office of which I am in some of the time, but the working environment firstly was set up as a matrix organisation, there is not so much of a hierarchy within the company and that is reflected in our open plan offices. Upstairs we have a number of hot desks, the Chief Executive sits on the same floor and there are no offices, everything is open plan. Dress code is business casual so that is suits, normally no ties, for girls skirts, shirts that kind of thing really.

Is the industry male dominant?

That was a concern for me at the time, I remember asking at my interview it is I think within Capgemini I would say 55% men and 45% women, I think it was more heavily weighted when I joined and certainly in the graduate scheme there is definitely an even split of male and female.

How did you get into your job?

For me I went to Durham university which I adored, I studied geography and I got a 2:1 and then I moved on to a sales job for a year and then moved into consulting after that, so in terms of the actual degree, it is represented that you don’t have to study a particular degree and it doesn’t have to be vocational degree, it is more about who you are and what you do being out of university and what kind of things have you achieved, have you done any charity work, work experience things like that will really set you out from other people.

What's the application process like?

Firstly the application, the criteria are ABB at A level and a 2:1 from a good university, it is not dependant on that degree and so it is the application form and that will also be testing your competencies and your work experience and things like that. Then you move on to the first line interview and then to the assessment centre and the assessment centre involves a reading test, a group exercise, and a one on one individual interview with a short case study, which is given to you beforehand for preparation. Then hopefully it is a yes or no, and they do let you know pretty soon after.

What are the key skills required for your job?

I would say you do have to be a self-starter, someone who can manage yourself because you don’t have a manager who is looking over you all the time, you have different managers, depending on your project, your piece of work. So you have to be able to manage yourself and manage your client, problem solving is absolutely key, the solutions we present and help our clients get to, is what we pride ourselves on. Another one would be communication because at the end of the day we are only as good as our communication, whether that be on paper or verbally, it is still essential, but if I look at the other consultants around me the people that I think wow, they are good listeners, people who can really listen and then get down to what is the real issue, because often there are things on the surface but if they can get down to what the really issue is. It is finding out what people’s motivations are then you can get to a really solution that is going to work, that is where I see the great people at Capgemini.

What's your top tip for breaking into your industry?

Getting some quality work experience and showing that you have taken the initiative to go out into the business world, or it might even be volunteering but you have gone out and done something different and you have made it for yourself and you have learnt a set of skills and you can bring that here and I think that is really important so for me it was maybe my sales job that stood out and also had done volunteer places in Africa.

Do Capgemini offer work placements?

They don’t do placements, there are some insight days that you can come on and you can learn about the company so it is really looking for that person taking the initiative because it doesn’t have to be a particular sector it is just going to get great work experience in what ever sector you are interested in will be really valuable to us.

What's the career progress and how quickly can you move up the career ladder?

A question my mentor will be asking me, so this year is actually quite unique because we have had a new performance and development framework that was put in and what that is is setting out your expectations for how long you spend in each grade basically and what competencies you have to hit to make the next grade. It is actually quite structured and there is a clear career progression on that roughly it is two years in the graduate programme and certain people get promoted after 18 months. Then the next grade is for three years and the same after that, it is normally two to three years but there is actually a set of competencies that you can rate yourself on and there is also calibration twice a year so you can get feedback on your performance basically, in terms of my aspirations I hope to get to the next level soon.

How does the role change over time?

So in the graduate programme you visit different sectors within project work and it is the intention that you rotate round different units and you get the opportunity to express interest in certain units and then we go through a process called hosting and you get those preferences down and hopefully they will select you. I have just gone through that at the moment.

So when you move from the graduate community to the next grade it will be an increase in responsibility and you will also get the opportunity to specialise in the area that you are really enthusiastic about or the area of interest.

Where do you see the industry going?

I would say Capgemini are quite weighed in the public sector and we also have private sector so there is about 60/40 split towards public sector. There is a big push towards the health sector at the moment and we are doing really well. Also the local Government as well, in the private sector, energy and utilities and also telecoms as well. Within telecoms it is a lot of conversions with a lot of technologies, so mobile phone broadband and you have also got Web2.0 as well which is coming in and is a very interesting pace to be and it is all happening in real time and happening now.

Is there scope for movement during or after this career?

The skills you build up in consultancy are definitely transferable, in terms of qualifications you do have the opportunity in certain units to do specialised qualifications for example the CIPD in our HR employee transformation section, so there are qualifications and also the experience you gain in your consulting career and the tools that you learn and the toolkit that you build up is very transferable to your clients. So it depends what you are interested in and where you want your career to go really.

What are the industry resources that someone interested in joining must know about?

Specific to consultancy I was highly recommended Top-Consultant.com which is a great place to start and there is also Consulting Times, which comes out on a monthly basis and there is the usual The Economist and the broadsheets and different business articles but it is good to tailor it towards what client you are working for at the moment that is what I find works.

If you weren't in this career, what would you be doing?

Well I might have another career at some point, I might like to be a teacher, I think doing geography at university I might be a teacher. I was also very interested in development work at university so maybe at some point I will get to go back to Africa and do some development work.

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