Traveling the world and returning to Bain with a new perspective
Traveling the world and returning to Bain with a new perspective
An expert senior manager reflects on his travels in Patagonia, New Zealand, and Australia and what the journey taught him
Walter Moulart, an expert senior manager in data science in our Brussels office, took six months off to hike through Patagonia, New Zealand, and Australia with his fiancée. He came back with a clearer sense of how he wants to live and work. In this Q&A, he reflects on what the trip taught him, and why curiosity is at the heart of everything he does at Bain.
Stay curious, learn from your experiences, and bring what inspires you into your own everyday life.
Walter Moulart
Expert Senior Manager, Data Science
What inspired you to take a six-month break and travel?
I have always been into traveling. Recently, my fiancée and I had the chance to take a six-month break and travel through Patagonia, New Zealand, and Australia. Our goal was to spend time in nature, mostly hiking. Those turned out to be the best six months of my life, shaping both my worldview and my everyday behavior.
What did New Zealand teach you?
New Zealand left a deep mark on me. Everywhere we went, nature came first. Paths, buildings, and whole towns seemed to be designed around the land instead of on top of it. Nothing felt forced into place. It showed me how much people there truly care for the world around them, protecting it rather than reshaping it. In a time when nature needs us more than ever, that respect felt like something worth bringing home.
What about Australia?
One kind moment can feel like chance. Two, months apart, and you start to see something real. That is what Australia taught me. In New Zealand, a couple we met while kayaking, after barely ten minutes of talking, told us to call them once we reached Sydney and they would host us. We were not sure they truly meant it. They did. A couple of months later, once we had crossed into Australia and made our way to Sydney, they replied, welcomed us in, and gave us the best weekend of the trip.
On another day, in another town, stuck at a grocery store with no coins for the cart, strangers stopped without being asked and handed us what we needed. Different people, different moments, the same open heart. It made me realize this was not a one-time thing. It was simply how these people lived, open and welcoming to anyone.
I wanted to carry that home. Before, if someone dropped a bag of glass bottles on the street, I might have asked "Are you okay?" and kept walking, caught up in my own rush like everyone else. Now I stop, help pick up the pieces and walk with them to the container. Five minutes to help someone should always be possible.
Walter hiking through the wilderness, one of many trails during the six-month trip.
Walter and his campervan, home for much of the six-month journey.
How has the trip shaped the way you live today?
One could always argue whether it was necessary to travel the world to realize the need to be more open. Sometimes, I guess the answer would be no. But to me, this journey brought a wider perspective on what I stand for. Every day, I keep pushing myself to live that way.
One piece of advice I can share: "Stay curious, talk to other people, try to understand where they come from and what makes them different. Learn from those experiences and bring what inspires you into your own everyday life."
How does that carry over into your work at Bain?
Curiosity is what keeps me interested at work as well. It is what drew me to Data Science and Machine Learning Engineering: I enjoy solving complex problems and exploring patterns to answer difficult questions. What I value most is the cross-functional way of working. Building a great solution for a client is never the work of just one team.
It takes UX designers creating intuitive experiences, data scientists uncovering insights from data, engineers building scalable solutions, and many other specialists contributing their expertise. Bringing together different perspectives to achieve a shared goal is what I enjoy most about working at Bain.
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