Alyssa Moledina is an HBA3 who worked as a Summer Associate at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). She was 1 of 2 speakers representing the consulting industry at our Careers in Business workshop. Our VP of Communications, Michael Yuan, got the chance to speak with her about her experiences and advice for aspiring consultants. Thanks Alyssa for speaking at Careers in Business and agreeing to do this interview.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Michael: You’re obviously someone who’s experienced a lot of success in consulting by landing a position at BCG, one of the top firms in the industry. What advice would you give to someone who wants to follow in your footsteps? How can they stand out from all the other aspiring consultants?
Alyssa: I definitely think that’s a good question. Looking at the consulting industry right now, it’s very difficult to get a summer internship or even a full-time position. But the one thing I would tell people is to not do things specifically to get a job in consulting. Do things you’re passionate about or genuinely interested in. I think a lot of times people try to cater their experiences to a specific firm, and they aren’t really sure what they want. It’s easier to do things that you love and find a firm to fit that. Ultimately, you don’t want to be constantly editing yourself as you enter the working world. You want the firm to fit who you are. Be yourself and try to get involved in things you actually enjoy, as opposed to things you think will help land you a job.
What would you say is the most important trait that’s gotten you to where you are today? Can you give a story to illustrate this?
I think the most important trait would be my personality, my light-heartedness. I make really bad jokes sometimes – I laugh at them too, which makes it even worse! I think that when people are looking to hire you, they want to make sure first and foremost that they can handle being in a room with you; that they can handle sitting on an airplane with you. They want to make sure they can get along with your personality and enjoy spending time with you. I think those traits are really important to show.
The first real job I had – I got because I was at an info session; I was by far the youngest person there, but I happened to be talking to the recruiting director of London Life. I made a bad joke about how much I hated working in retail, because that was the only job I had up to that point. He goes: “Me too, I used to work in a gas station, and it was awful!” He was selling chocolate bars at a convenience store, and we ended up talking about that for a good 15 minutes. We just got along, and he realized that I was someone he could have a casual conversation with; that I wasn’t going to grill him on his company, his position, what he did, or beg for a job. Being real and down-to-earth is something I think I’ve definitely tried to carry with me as I’ve gone through recruiting.
And that’s part of the cultural fit you were mentioning earlier, right?
Exactly.
What drives you? What are you passionate about?
I would say I’m very passionate about education. I’m always trying to educate myself further. I’m always trying to find something new and interesting that I don’t know a lot about, take that, and say: “Look, I’m going to become the master of this.” With consulting, that really makes sense. Every time we start a new project, we’re in a new industry or working in a different practice. So, it’s a good opportunity for me to learn about a lot of different things.
In terms of applying this to a broader scale, I definitely want to work on providing education to people in developing countries at some point in my life. It’s something that I’ve done a bit of while in Ivey. We have the Ivey LEADER project, which is something that a lot of PBSN alumni have done. You travel abroad for 3 weeks and apply your Ivey education in an impactful way. We use the case method to teach the basics of business, with a focus on entrepreneurship. For people in developing countries, entrepreneurship is really important. So providing them with the tools they need to successfully launch their business really puts them ahead in their country.
It’s really interesting how consultants are well-known to be problem solvers, and one of the problems you want to tackle is outside the world of business. Related to education, would you agree that the most important lessons are learned outside the classroom?
I would absolutely agree. A lot of people say we go to school and learn things that may or may not necessarily be applicable to a job. But the act of going to school teaches you things in and of itself. For example, working with someone else on a group project for a class – that’s a learning experience. Maybe what I learned for that project through research isn’t the most important thing, but it’s about learning how to work with that other person. It’s about learning how to present, how to hold your own opinion, and how to be confident in voicing your opinion. I think those are the useful skills that come from the classroom, but aren’t necessarily taught in the classroom.
As a follow-up, BCG is known for attracting some of the brightest minds in the world. Do you feel that being surrounded by these people push you to grow even while you’re out of school?
They definitely push me to think differently. They push me to be better in really interesting ways. The people at BCG are all very interesting and accomplished in their own right. While I was there over the summer, a girl who had her desk next to mine came in one day and told me she started her own business. She has a full-time job as a consultant and now she’s starting her own business; she’s balancing all these things in her life. I think that’s the great thing about BCG. People are so unique and do all these cool and crazy things. Those are the kinds of things that push me and motivate me to do things outside of work, and not let my job define me.