How the Olympic Dream Made Me a Consultant
I dreamed of being an Olympic champion in swimming before I decided to join the Business Transformation & Organization team at CAMELOT Management Consultants. Today, I would like to share with you my personal journey towards becoming a business consultant and provide lessons learned and further tips & tricks for you as a prospective consultant at graduate level and your application process.
When I look back on summer 2021, one thing in particular remains in my memory – the Olympic Games. These days in August were special. Especially for me as I tried to align valuable client meetings and interesting internal alignments on innovative topics, such as transformation analytics or agile change management with the time schedule of the swimming events in Tokyo.
Several years ago, I was part of this electrifying world as well. I was standing on the starting block waiting for the starting gun to unleash full power. I experienced this intense feeling, the pressure, and personal expectations only once more in my life – when applying for my first job at CAMELOT in 2016. But why am I telling you this? By means of this article I would like to take the pressure off you, share with you my recommendations regarding your application at CAMELOT and show how YOU can become my future teammate.
1. Ready?
Before I started my consulting career at CAMELOT, I used to be professional swimmer for years. The motto of “Citius, altius, fortius, communis” shaped my everyday life. Several times a day I shared the pool with the best German athletes at the Olympic Training Centre and tried to outgrow myself and push my limits. Over the years I experienced the benefits of pursuing a goal together with a team and have developed soft skills like resilience, perseverance, and the ability to deal with personal ups and downs. Some argue that the transition from swimming or to be more general “sports” to the office might change your attributes, like perseverance – but I can assure you that it does not. The experience gained and skills developed during my sports career helped me to better cope with the pace and demands of the business, while maintaining a low stress level. What about you? What are your soft skills that will probably support you in your professional career?
My advice: Do not worry – you do not need to be professional swimmer in order to apply to CAMELOT. I promise. According to the experience I made in my interviews and the interviews I supported in the past years, we at CAMELOT care most about your personality, rather than a spotless professional background. We are interested in what made you the person you are today, the hobbies you enjoy, the passion you follow and the skills you have developed in the past years. Further, we are curious to find out what you have learned from hard times. How did you master the challenges you faced? I personally cannot wait to hear your stories.
2. Set?
The older and better I got in swimming, the more people asked me “What will you do if you reach your limits in swimming?”, “What happens if you are not competitive anymore?”. Well, little did they know that my professional development was always just as important to me as the sports career. I attended lectures at the university concurrently to my sport endeavors, did my Bachelor´s and Master´s degree in Business Administration and steadily laid the foundation for my professional career. However, I did not have time to work as a trainee or working student as my schedule did not allow that. So, with regards to my job entry, my starting position was based on a very good theoretical education rather than a lot of practical insights.
My advice: As you can see in my career, first work experience is a plus, but definitely not mandatory. To get a feeling for you, we rather look at the successful completion of your studies, preferably in a business-, technology- or psychology-related course of studies if you want to be part in the Business Transformation & Organization Team. Show us which university courses or contents you are most interested in and would like to know more about. If you like, please tell us what did you learn in group work, what role did you play, how did you achieve good results despite occurring challenges? We look forward to your insights.
3. Go!
In June 2016, I was at my peak and decided to swim my last race. I graduated at university, and it was time to gain professional experience and to advance my professional career. Right away I knew, I would like to work for a consultancy as they soon provide the business and functional skills you will need for any career. My first touchpoint with CAMELOT was via LinkedIn where I found interesting articles about the daily work in a very modern and innovative company. Furthermore, the homepage and recommendations of friends gave me more insights about working in that firm. In July, I decided to apply for a Junior Consultant job at CAMELOT. Two weeks later, I had my first virtual Get-to-know meeting which was followed by an onsite interview a few days later. Then, end of July I signed my first employment contract – ever.
My advice: What keeps you from applying at CAMELOT? Do not be afraid – Just send your CV and letter of application right away to career@camelot-mc.com or visit our Job Page and apply for a specific job. If you like to know more about my team or the application process just drop me a message via E-Mail or LinkedIn and I will answer as soon as possible.
Now it is end of September. The Olympic Games are over. My focus is fully on work again and I am about to celebrate my 5th anniversary in the CAMELOT family. I have learned a lot since I joined the team, I gained a lot of project insights and developed skills that swimming would have never taught me. As you might expect the job has changed the life, I used to live, but two things are still the same: I appreciate the opportunity to learn something new every day and I still absolutely love swimming.
