Christal Wang is an HBA2 who worked this past summer as a Marketing Intern at L’Oreal Paris Marketing, and will be starting full-time at Bain & Co. upon graduation. She represented the marketing industry at our Careers in Business event. Our VP of Careers, Samantha Wu, had the chance to speak with her about her advice for aspiring marketers and her future plans in consulting. Thanks Christal for speaking at Careers in Business and agreeing to do this interview.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Samantha: You’re obviously someone who’s experienced success in the marketing industry, as seen by your summer position at L’Oreal. What advice would you give to aspiring marketers who want to follow in your footsteps? What can they do to help their chances of landing a marketing internship?
Christal: I spoke about this earlier in the presentation: You need the analytical strength. But it’s also about thinking outside the box and taking initiative. I used to think I was really out-there and different, but when I went to L’Oreal – and this happened at Ivey too – everybody’s so out-there and there’s something unique about each person. Everyone has something different about them that makes them stand out.
One guy I worked with just had this knack for hair. He knew all about hair colour, the lusciousness of hair, and so on. So he catches onto soft skills really easily. For him, that’s what drove him forward. For me, what drove me forward was my ability to work with numbers. I think it’s important to know yourself well, and know what skills you can bring to the table.
At Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) firms, like I said in my presentation, there is a spot for everyone. If you like marketing and are passionate about some aspect of it, you can definitely get a job there. You just have to identify and really sell that one strength of yours – or two, or however many it is.
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 would say it’s my curiosity. The story I want to give is my case interview – I finished the interview, and they asked me if I had any questions for them. What I did was I flipped it around and said: “I want to know what actually ended up happening in this case. What did you do, and how did you solve it?” It made the interviewer go through the whole case with me. I ended up staying there twice the time I was supposed to. I thought for sure that I wouldn’t get the job, but I genuinely just wanted to know what happened in the case.
I ended up getting a final round interview. I think I really showed that I wanted to know what happened in that business and how things actually work, instead of just answering the question or memorizing the framework. I think curiosity really helps in the business world – especially in consulting – because you need to want to know how something works. It’s not like school where you can just memorize something and regurgitate it.
You’re studying abroad next semester in Germany as an exchange student. How important would you say aspects unrelated to your career, such as travelling and experiencing new cultures, are? How strongly do you believe in the work-life balance?
I actually have a really strong stance on this. I don’t think work life balance is the word I would like to use. When you think of work, you have to think of things that complement your life. And when you think about your life, you have to find things that complement your work. For example, I choose consulting because I can experience different industries and cultures, and travel. These constitute the “life” portion for most people. Also on the life side, Germany is going to teach me how to interact with different people. It’s really interesting because the main partner I’m going to be working with at Bain is German. So my semester abroad will help with that.
It’s really about drawing parallels between work and life. I think if you keep trying to split them out and keep them separate, you’re going to be worse off. Everything you do has to be something you enjoy; it has to push you forward. I would call that your life. Your work should go into your life.
That’s really interesting. For people who aren’t very familiar with the Ivey exchange program, can you talk about what it is, and how you got involved with it?
The exchange program is available in the second semester of your fourth year. Ivey has a lot of partner schools. I think it ranges from Spain to Australia to everywhere in Europe. I think Singapore and Beijing are involved as well. You’re pretty much guaranteed a spot, but you’re not guaranteed your first choice. My first choice was actually ESADE in Spain, and I didn’t get it.
Ivey helps bring those partnerships together, and you get to spend a whole semester abroad and experience a new culture. The great thing about it is it’s right before your graduation. At the end of HBA2, everybody usually does this trip around Asia or Europe. So they can all visit me there and I won’t even have to move!
You mentioned in your presentation that you’ve experienced almost every professional field of business (accounting, finance, marketing, and consulting). Is there a reason why you’re choosing to work at Bain & Co. and in consulting full-time? Is that your final destination, or is that another path along your professional career?
I think it’s a natural progression for me because I worked in different locations, different functions, and different industries. When it really cracked down to it, I thought: “This time, it isn’t just for one summer. I need to make a decision that’s going to hold for at least 2-3 years.” I was considering where I could do things I was already doing. I didn’t want to start something completely new, because I wouldn’t know if I’d like it.
The point of university is to experiment with things. Experimenting with each industry, what I found was that I really liked the newness and steep learning curve at the beginning of everything. Being able to switch industries and locations all the time is exciting. Consulting was able to give me every aspect of what I was looking for – including the opportunity to travel.
And – I’m not going to downplay this – obviously, consulting gives me the opportunity to go anywhere afterwards if I don’t decide to stay in the industry. So, not only does it keep all my doors open, but it’s also a perfect fit to the natural progression of where I came from.
Just a follow-up question, because I’m so curious: What does the long-term look like for you?
I actually tell people this in interviews, and they always laugh. After consulting, I’m going to start a restaurant chain with my husband! I don’t know what I’m going to sell yet. It might be Asian food. Basically, what I want is something that my husband and I can share. Most people believe in that work-life balance that we talked about earlier. But, as I said, I think they should be meshed together in order for you to be happy. You should enjoy your work, and it should be part of your life. Not in the sense that you’re working all day, but it should be integrated into your life.
I’m pretty entrepreneurial in the way that I think. So I believe that eventually, after learning from consulting how a business works, what problems arise, and how to diagnose those problems, I can move forward and start my own business. And then eventually give it to my kids!