Over the summer, in mid-July, I underwent two weeks of work experience in Oliver Wyman’s Marketing department. Luckily, during the two weeks in which I was at the firm, they were launching a new initiative, the ‘Green Transition Index’ (GTI), and I was able to help in the launching of many of the social media posts, particularly on LinkedIn, like the ones below.
The fact that these projects were being launched while I was at the firm meant that we were dealing with significantly more attention than we may have had without this project. This led to one of my most routine tasks becoming adding the large number of daily media mentions to a spreadsheet. I spent quite a lot of time on Excel too, filling in spreadsheets tracking the progress of Oliver Wyman, as despite being one of the world’s leading consultancy firms in terms of volume and profile of work, the brand isn’t as globally recognised as other consultancy firms which have been around much longer. Since the firm is working on relaunching their regional websites, another of my main tasks was to help with its launch through translating texts and even learning and using basic coding.
Although I spent most of my time in Marketing, I was still able to experience other aspects of the firm. On the first days I was ‘shadowing’ – seeing all departments and getting to talk to someone from each department . I spoke to someone from the Data Analytics team, an Advisor, a Personal Assistant, and even someone from the Design team. Then, I talked to several other consultors on my own time in order to gain a better grasp of the general process of real consultancy projects. I got to speak with Pablo Campos, a Partner of Oliver Wyman, and I asked him about being a Partner, as I had heard a lot about a Consultor’s job and Partners had been mentioned, but their role had never been properly explained.
It was a great learning experience. I was able to work in a field which I had never considered as a future career path but that, by the end of my time there, I had grown to enjoy. I also learned a range of skills I might not have developed otherwise. I became proficient in Excel and coding and contrary to most people’s ideas of internships, I did not need to learn to make coffees or photocopies! That was mostly due to the incredible people I was fortunate enough to work with; if I had to pick my favourite thing about Oliver Wyman it would undoubtedly be the people, who constantly work to foster the inviting and friendly community I enjoyed during my time there. As many people have said to me, Oliver Wyman has a different atmosphere, and everyone was very nice and helpful, but most importantly hard working.
I would certainly recommend the experience to other pupils. It was particularly beneficial in allowing me to gain my first bit of experience in a corporate working environment, and Oliver Wyman was a particularly good entrance point, as the atmosphere definitely differed from what you may expect office work to be like. Having worked in Marketing, despite having never really considered it as an option for universities, the overwhelmingly positive experience has definitely inclined me to look into related courses.
John Vila 13C
By Federal reserve - FOMC_042616_00071, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50927830
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