I believe the biggest struggle everyone my age seems to have is figuring out what they want to do with the rest of their life. 

For some of us, we know what we want to do before entering our undergrad. Others figure it out over time. We begin to understand our strengths, what we enjoy, the culture we want to be a part of and then work towards having more of that. 

Some of us figure out we enjoy numbers, logic, math and become accountants, bankers and engineers. Others figure out they enjoy art and creativity and become designers, marketers and artists. Many of us figure this out through external influences, media such as television, youtube and role models in our lives.

In my life I have had two amazing role models who had polar opposite strengths: my parents. My mom has always been very creative. She spends her free time creating amazing works of art for enjoyment. She even does henna for people as a way to generate extra income as well as for fun. Everything she draws looks so professional and her imagination has always inspired me to create projects I am proud of aesthetically. 

My dad is a completely different story. 

My dad cannot draw at all, but he understands numbers very well. He enhanced my love for math, science, and business and encouraged me to read and practice not only for school but for myself as well. 

My parents’ influence on me led me to discover that I like to deliver work in a way that is visually pleasing and creative but also rational through analysis of numbers. 

Even though I knew this about who I am, I still didn’t know what I would do as a career.

I spent the first year of my undergraduate studies trying to understand what I want to do and what job fits me. While others around me knew that they wanted to go into photography, animation, computer engineering, investment banking I was still lost. I didn’t know if I should pursue my artistic side or my analytical side. I wanted to be able to create amazing visuals but I also wanted to be able to work with numbers and data. I only found out what I want to do after entering a few case competitions with my friends.

I found being able to think creatively about a business problem from multiple perspectives and develop business solutions through quantitative reasoning gave me great thrill. 

When I told my counselor this, she advised me to look into management consulting.

This career path will offer me the opportunity to create visually pleasing work product that supports descriptive and engaging stories about my clients’ business context and generate viable business solutions using both sides of my brain (and parental influences.) It was perfect! 

At this point in my journey, I have taken part in many consulting projects. And I am happy to report I have enjoyed every single one of them and look forward to taking part in many more. 

I know with my mother’s creative thinking and my father’s quantitative reasoning I will be a high-value consultant for any business – beginning with mid-size Canadian Enterprises at New Territory.