Three pivotal decisions that built my consulting career

I love a new beginning. Every fresh start is a chance to reflect on where I’ve been and set goals for where I’m headed next. Three months into my role as EY-Parthenon’s first Strategy Partner here in our Montréal office, I find myself thinking about the key moments that have shaped my career so far.

I am many things. Management consultant. Mother. Leader. Coach. Friend. As I dig into this new chapter, I’m realizing that every role I play — and have played — continues to shape who I am as a professional today. I have channelled lessons learned and insights gleaned into every decision, move and step. Looking back, I can see three key themes have moved me and my career forward:

What matters most to me can change — and that’s okay.

My Canadian journey began with two suitcases, no money and big dreams. I came to this country as an international student. I was ambitious, excited and keen to start a new life. After completing a graduate degree in Engineering and a PhD in Data Sciences, I very quickly realized that a life in academia was not for me.

I have always drawn my energy from people. I wanted a career that would provide endless opportunities to work with people who were smarter than I am. I was looking for tough problems to solve and a trajectory punctuated by meaningful, continuous growth. That realization wasn’t just important; it was fundamental to every career decision I made from that point on.

When I immigrated to Canada, I was envisioning a professional journey at the heart of an amazing university or college. That dream changed based on what I learned about myself over the course of my academic career. Trusting that instinct and pursuing an alternative direction has allowed me to carve out a wealth of diverse career experiences directly aligned to what I value the most in my day to day. That’s essential.

Try, try, try again is a motto to live by.

As a BIPOC woman in a new country, I know what it means to feel different. Getting started professionally wasn’t easy. I had tremendous academic credentials, little experience and absolutely no network or contacts to tap into. Through a series of industry and professional events, the management consulting profession began to call my name. It definitely checked a lot of the boxes I was looking for professionally and spoke to the personal values I wanted to prioritize. Throwing my hat in the ring for a position at a consulting firm, I got the job and jumped right in.

I learned so much in the earliest days of my consulting career. I developed consulting muscles as I tested out different ways of approaching complex business challenges with our clients. I thrived in collaborative team environments, gaining invaluable insights from the people around me. And then, not long after, I decided to try something new.

From a rather small consulting practice, I made the move to a veritable consulting giant. I wanted a bigger drawing board and a better fit. For a number of years, I began to develop myself in entirely new ways. Testing, pushing, growing, learning. I evolved as a consultant and a professional and then… I switched things up again.

On the personal side, I started focusing more and more on building a family and enjoying life with my two young daughters, which further grew my desire to pursue a more purposeful career and be part of building something new. Craving an operating role — and feeling an itch to get back to my academic roots in artificial intelligence — I seized an opportunity to join a tech startup. Together with an amazing team, we built and operated a company from the ground up to become one of the most successful Canadian AI boutiques.

Each of these roles shaped me. But even more important, they aligned directly to what I wanted to achieve, learn and cultivate at a given point in time. Was it scary making those leaps? Of course. Did those moves absolutely help me grow into a well-rounded professional with a vast range of capabilities, skillsets and experiences to channel into the next stage of my career? Absolutely. Trying new things is important. It’s an opportunity to continually refine how we work so that everything we do brings us closer to what we ultimately want to achieve. For that reason, I’ll always aim to try everything I can.

Refuse to settle for anything less than a true sense of belonging.

My startup experience imbued me with a deeper sense of self awareness. I learned things about myself. Big things. I realized that over the course of my career, I had always followed people, not problems or business challenges. I recognized that I am driven by the opportunity to build something up. And I came to grips with my own competitive nature. I am open to the learning that comes with failing — but I definitely don’t like to lose. Those three connectors proved to be the reason I joined EY-Parthenon’s partnership earlier this year.

For the first time in my career, I feel like I truly belong. I have been part of some amazing organizations in my time. That said, no culture has embraced me or made me feel as included as EY has. Joining as a direct-admit partner — without the common thread of having moved organically up the internal ladder — can sometimes be a lonely and overwhelming experience. Not at EY. This is a place for builders and dreamers. Opportunities abound here, where inclusion is everything and each of us is encouraged to challenge the status quo. Above all, teaming is fundamental at this firm.
We don’t just say we work across service lines and functional groups as One EY. We actually do it. That has been the ultimate game changer for me professionally. It’s enabling me to serve clients through an integrated mindset and team approach.

I have found a place to call home. There is more to learn, more to experience, more to do. But I’m confident I will achieve on all those fronts, because I don’t have to worry about whether or not I fit in. I am different. But so is EY. That’s what makes it all work. We all deserve the empowerment that comes from a true sense of belonging.

My professional story is a culmination of thousands of projects, experiences and insights gathered over two decades. It’s about putting the client’s best interest at heart, saying what I mean and meaning what I say, striving for the highest quality and refusing to lose. More than anything, it’s the story of me: a unique woman with unique perspectives, capabilities and knowledge — willing to continuously learn about myself and then boldly align my professional experiences with those values every step of the way. That’s one thing that will never change.