Career Impact from Participating in 2020's Summer Innovator Program
June 3rd, 2021
Who we’re featuring this week: Lauren Beckett
Position: Incoming Associate Consultant at Bain & Company
How did participating in Aspire to Her’s 2020 Summer Innovator Program impact your career?
Entering the program a Biology major just hoping to test the waters in consulting, my participation in Aspire to Her was a pivotal point in confirming my interest in strategy consulting and learning to leverage my non-typical background - this was so instrumental in recruiting and feeling confident in my decision to enter the field with Bain & Company. The community of women from all stages of careers in the industry highlighted the range of opportunity within consulting, dismantled some of the intimidation around entering the field, and showed me where my interests could fit. Further, the opportunity to take on a real consulting project cradle-to-crave was an incomparable experience to gain a beyond surface-level understanding of the work of a consultant and cultivate the skills necessary to succeed on the job. This provided invaluable insight into where I might fit into a consulting team which was a huge help when navigating the recruitment process and determining my interest in taking this step for my career.
What was your greatest learning from the Summer Innovator Program?
My greatest learning from the program was how to collaborate and take initiative on a variety of different types of teams and in new work environments – building relationships and working with mentors in the industry, learning from students from dozens of schools and from different backgrounds, and learning how to take charge in meetings with high-level executives. From the opportunities to push myself out my comfort zone, balanced by an incredibly supportive container to learn and grow, I learned to leverage my unique skill-set and background in new experiences, a quality I see to be so essential for any next step, and especially one in consulting. This was a perfect opportunity to build while simultaneously apply consulting, and business skills in a creative and engaging client problem.
Your team won the June 2020 pitch competition and had the opportunity to further strategize with our partner company to implement your team’s recommendation. Can you share more about the experience presenting & collaborating with Birchbox?
After the month of researching, ideating, iterating, and fine-tuning our idea, being able to pull it all together and present it to Birchbox and have them share excitement about our recommended next steps for their consumer strategy was incredibly rewarding – and even better being able to share it with the team and mentors I got close to throughout! Further, the chance to continue the conversation with Birchbox and lead strategy sessions with the C-suite team was an unparalleled opportunity to step up to a new challenge and facilitate conversations capable of driving an actual impact for a huge company. The strategy sessions provided an opportunity to flex the muscles we’d built through the program providing an unparalleled opportunity to apply consulting and professional skills in a high-exposure client setting. Hearing Birchbox’s feedback on our idea and our meeting management and communication during the strategy session was such an incredible learning opportunity to truly understand effective strategy consulting. I was so excited to see the impact we were able to make on the company, with the CEO taking steps to implement some of our ideas – these meetings really confirmed that I wanted to continue to make tangible impacts for companies as a consultant in the future!
What advice do you have for participants in Aspire to Her’s 2021 Summer Innovator Program?
Lean into your team and coach/mentor resources early on – it makes it so much more exciting to share ideas, successes and challenges, and to cultivate lasting relationships with those you meet through this experience. Be bold and take initiative – both in coming up with ideas for the solution, but also in finding your voice and contributing to your team/ asking questions! This is such an incredible opportunity to try on taking the lead, apply your academic background to work experiences, and learn with and from others.
