Kirsty Ross
I first heard of Oliver Wyman when I was
applying for Summer Internship positions in
my penultimate year at Oxford. I also
received an offer from one of the other top 4
management consulting firms, but the
decision to join Oliver Wyman was simple.
Throughout the process they showed much
more interest in me as an individual, and
were really committed to talent recruitment,
which convinced me that they would
continue to foster my personal career
progression and development through the
firm.
My summer experience was so fantastic that
there was no question of looking for other
offers when it came to milk-round. After a
week of in-office training, culminating with
the London office Summer Event, I was
immediately put on a project in Boston for a
large New England supermarket chain.
Although spending the Summer in Boston
had been my choice, it didn't stop the flight
out to join my new case team being a slightly
nerve-wracking experience. Fortunately, it
was well worth it. The case was a major
learning experience for me. I developed far
more skills that I had on a previous 10 week
internship in M&A at an international
investment bank, and I found it very exciting
to be part of a project which was genuinely
worthwhile to the client and provided them
with real strategic insights. I also had a
brilliant time socially – the case team event
on my first weekend out there was sky-diving
over Rhode Island!
After graduating from Oxford, I took 6
months off to travel round South America
before starting in January, which was a great
opportunity to relax after the stress of finals,
and meant I was eager to start working life
when the time came.
Since joining, I have worked for one of the
top international mobile phone companies on
developing a new strategy around customer
retention, with the aim of becoming market
leaders in customer loyalty. This project has
given me an incredible breadth of experience,
stretching from detailed analysis of their
customer database, to designing and running
market research, and finally to working
closely with the client team on implementing
the recommendations from our work. I have
had an excellent level of client interaction
from day one – in fact, I'm really going to
miss the team when the project finishes!
The quality which I find most appealing
about Oliver Wyman is the firm's lack of
pretension. In choosing to work for a top
management consultancy, I had been
expecting to have to deal with a lot of
arrogance or superiority. The refreshing
reality is that everyone at Oliver Wyman is
completely down-to-earth, open and friendly.
The London office has a real vibrancy and
esprit de corps, which ensures a stimulating
working environment, and a lively attendance
at office social events. The balance between
fun, collegial interaction and constructive
professional dialogue leads to a high-quality
work and life experience.
The next few years promise to be a pivotal
time in the growth of Oliver Wyman, and
I'm very excited to have a part in shaping
that future.
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