Share your journey to Bain.
Growing up, I was always interested in a multitude of things, both "right and left side of the brain", ranging from abstract math to the arts. I ended up choosing to become a car designer, as it overlaps engineering and aesthetics. It was a fantastic choice that allowed me to travel and live across three continents andwork in an aspirational environment of a "chocolate factory": shaping the things of the future that are 10-15 years away from reality and that most people will never get to see.
As time went by, there was always the nagging feeling that I wasn't using my full potential, not completely leveraging and developing my full capabilities. I decided to enroll in an MBA, as this seemed like a good way to open up possibilities and it was there that I heard about Bain for the first time.
How did you know that Bain was the right company for you?
I decided to join Bain with the idea of trying it out for 2 years or so. Since then, the learning curve has been steep and accelerated, but very soon it became apparent that this was a unique place. What stood out is:
- The exposure to best-in-class methodology and practices and culture of excellence: what you learn here is highly likely to be gold standard and hard to be surpassed elsewhere
- The unrivalled focus on personal and professional growth: senior Bainies have been incredibly generous and personally invested in my success. For example, I've had weeks where I had four or five coaching sessions with those at the very top of the game
- The speed and intensity and focus on results, not on process or report generation: I finally felt that I was somewhere where I was operating at the right "speed setting" while focusing on meaningful things
- The incredible and meritocratic culture: this is a place where being introverted, having an accent or any other externality has no impact on anyone's ability to progress and be successful
- Finding my crowd: becoming close to people that are not only professional but also personal role models, and being able to pay it forward to the next wave of talent
“Build Your Own Bain” means creating a thriving career on your own terms. How have you been able to “Build Your Own Bain?”
I feel like I've found a place where I can finally leverage the full range of my abilities. People often talk about "intellectual arbitrage": the idea that true, step-change innovation is more likely to be sparked by the combination of different, even disparate areas of human knowledge. I can't think of another place where I could be leveraging, combining and progressing my weird Venn diagram of skills in a more meaningful way.
Here I have been able to design my own trajectory, sometimes drawing outside of the lines and breaking into new territory.
