What’s Your Competitive Advantage?
By: Morgan Richardson, Associate Consultant
As a new Veevan, I recently went through the company’s thought-provoking interview process that encourages reflection on unique personality traits. Humility, adaptability, and determination are the first words that come to mind. Despite my circuitous academic and early professional paths, these three traits have always grounded me. They form the backbone of my competitive advantage.
The first semester of freshman year, I knew I would follow in my parents’ footsteps and join the Air Force as an Officer. Firmly entrenched in my local ROTC chapter, without a doubt I would join the military as long as I worked hard enough. However, after months of drills and shoe shining, my fantasy was shattered with a benign medical diagnosis. I was healthy, but not up to the elite standards of the Air Force. And just like that, my dreams went out the window.
Going into my sophomore year without a clear vision of the future, I humbled myself to any and every opportunity that presented itself. When I was a freshman, I began studying the Russian language and culture and decided to lean into it, bopping a new path of life would emerge, and emerge it did! My passion for Russian took me abroad twice — once to study abroad in St. Petersburg and the second time to Kazan as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. I met the most interesting people, saw the most majestic places, and got to experience life in another culture all because of humility.
Living abroad is a unique opportunity to step into another culture’s shoes and to examine one’s own culture. It was then when I realized just how many socio-economic problems the U.S. has. Of course, I alone couldn’t fix them — but the ability to analyze and advise would be incredible. My interest in Russian took me to graduate school, where I pursued a Master of Arts in Russian and East European Studies. But it was my newfound passion for problem-solving that led to a Master of Public Affairs, a professional degree where I learned high-level analytical skills.
Simultaneously pursuing both degrees was extremely challenging since they required the development of two different toolkits. Since [LA1] my M.A. focused primarily on qualitative research and my M.P.A. on quantitative research, I became an adept adapter to the different analytical styles. And I loved it! Economic, data-driven, qualitative, etc., if it was a qualified research method, you can best believe I either used it or tried to learn it. The adaptability required to successfully complete both degrees was invigorating. Being that both of these degree programs required flexibility and analysis of wildly varying subjects, I discovered a career as a consultant would continue the high energy and problem-solving aspects I learned to love.
Upon graduation, I landed a consulting position, but not at Veeva. Prior to joining Veeva’s Consultant Development Program (CDP) in October 2020, I worked at an energy technology consulting firm for a year. It was a great opportunity to dive headfirst into data management, client relations, and, of course, business travel. While I certainly had challenging moments where my humility and adaptability were put to the test, consulting was where I belonged. And then Covid-19 struck. As soon as I found myself becoming comfortable at my first job out of school, I was laid off.
My dreams of working again in consulting began to evaporate as I applied to job after job to no avail. The constant stream of rejection letters sapped my spirit. Here’s where my third trait kicked in: determination. I poured into online training courses such as process improvement and SQL Server to keep my skills sharp. I’ve always enjoyed volunteering and with more free time on my hands, I reached out to an NYC-based non-profit to see if it needed IT help. I assisted with software configuration, requirements gathering, and process mapping. My determination to stay busy and to give back to those in need even when I was emotionally struggling is what kept me mentally afloat this summer. And then one day, I came across the Associate Consultant application for Veeva. I applied and after several rounds of interviews, I received an offer. I tearfully accepted and the rest is history.
One of the things I really, really enjoy about Veeva is the focus on values. You see, the way my competitive advantage traits have led to my academic and career growth, Veeva’s Values do the same thing but on a much larger scale. These values are revolutionizing an industry that enhances human life. That’s a pretty big deal. I look forward to using my traits of humility, adaptability, and determination in the pursuit of assisting some of the most exciting technological and human challenges in a generation. I’ll never forget the traits that helped me, but I’m beyond excited to hone some new ones.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Veeva.
