Consultant Spotlight Series: Amritha Subramanian

What led you to pursue consulting?

I had been surrounded by mentors since my time at UCLA who all had some consulting experience in the past and I found I really admired the way they tackled problems and the way they thought through different things. So I started thinking what these folks had in common and they had all spent 2–5 years at a major consulting firm and that has clearly shaped their approach to thinking through problems.

What is one piece of advice you’d give to students recruiting for consulting at UCLA?

I have two pieces of advice here. The first is to think of your application as a portfolio: you are presenting yourself and you are a myriad of things. Take a step back and ensure that you are presenting a picture of yourself that is strong analytically as well as inspiring as a colleague and leader. The analytical portion will come out of the case interview and your grades. But the leadership experience, depth of thinking, thoughtfulness — that will come out in the personal experience interview, but should also be a part of your resume and the stories that you tell as well. I remember sharing a story that had no direct link to consulting but was about my grandfather. It was important to think about myself as a whole human, who I am, and what matters to me.

That means stepping back from the laser focus that is on case interviews or what they are asking for in the drop-down-menu of the application, but presenting yourself as a whole person.

The second piece of advice is to connect with people at the firm you are applying to and once you do, follow up. Those connections matter. I’ve done interviews and recruiting events for McKinsey and in both cases, I record the candidates I spoke with or interviewed and track them through the interview process. I like to send a note of congratulations when someone moves from round 1 to round 2, or let candidates know that I’m available for questions. So keeping in touch really makes a difference.

What skills are most important for consulting careers?

We live in an information overloaded world right now, and I think the most important thing is being able to take it in and parse out what is most important. So as a consultant, you are surrounded by data, client meetings, advice from your manager, and random thoughts from the senior partner. I think the most important thing is being able to figure out what amongst all of that actually matters, zeroing in on that, and making something meaningful and synthesizing the right takeaways from it. Look, Excel can be taught and it will, right, but I would take someone who has learned to both find what is most important as well as develop constant rapid prioritization of the million things coming at you. And I think those are the people who are successful at the firm.

What does a typical workday look like for you?

This is obviously different in the past one year, the pandemic day-in-the-life is very different than a non-pandemic day-in-the-life. I tend to run on an earlier schedule than others. Part of that is being on the west coast and part of that is having two small children, so when they’re up, I’m up. Frankly, the first thing I do is check my emails and texts- anything urgent will come through texts. I try to protect 7:30 to 8:30 to review documents and address anything urgent before I turn to the bulk of my day which frankly is meetings. The types of meetings vary, it could be a one-on-one check in with one of the managers who is running a client project, or working with the team and doing problem-solving. So overall, I would say the day is a mix of reviewing documents and providing feedback, spending time with my managers especially, working with teams on problem-solving, and then spending time with the clients.

What do you like to do outside the office?

I have two small children so nurturing and keeping them alive. I have a partner who, luckily, I really enjoy spending time with. So the first thing I do is spend time with the three of them and friends. I love to run. I’ve been a runner for a long time, so I try to run, do yoga, and exercise whenever I can. If there’s 30 minutes I will utilize them in one way or the other. Last five years, I have loved to cook. Baking is more of a science, I like cooking because I can add my own flair to it.

What is the best aspect about being a consultant?

I think what I love most is being able to tackle such a wide variety of topics and do it in a really deep manner. So it’s not just that I’ve spent time thinking about a whole bunch of topics, but that when I zero in on a topic, I go deep and there’s no surface level there. A consulting firm, for someone who is intellectually curious, is just the most amazing thing.

What has been your biggest challenge as a consultant so far?

Consulting is both a very demanding and fulfilling job. But I think what has been most challenging to me is finding the right balance of how much I can give without giving too much of me. I’ve actually been less burned out the past few years than my first by drawing a line and walking away. It’s kind of that ruthless prioritization that I was talking about earlier, because there are a million things you can do at the firm, especially if you have a good attitude and are intellectually curious. But it’s kind of knowing what’s going to push you over the edge. I would rather be here in three years and be able to play the long game than doing everything I can do in this current and leaving in a rush because I burn out. I think the challenge is essentially finding that right balance and being able to think long-term about what you say yes to and what you say no to and carving out what you want to do.

What surprised you about your role/the industry when you first started?

There are two things, the first is the immense impact you can have at a very early tenure. For instance, I serve children’s hospitals and on my second engagement three months into the firm, I was in the room with the CEO, the CFO, and the COO of a major children’s hospital. It is remarkable the situations you are put into and what you can do. The other thing I would say is not only the variety of the breadth of topics and how deep you can go, but also the breadth of roles you can play. It’s kind of problem solving in real life situations.

You have been at the firm for a while, can you reflect on the progression of the firm?

I think there’s two evolutions that I’ve seen in consulting. One is that there is more of a sector based focus than there was ten years ago. I think when associate analysts are hired into their role there’s this idea that they tackle any sector or topic. I think that’s true and is what pushes folks to learn to not rely on knowledge but actually make use of their problem solving. But what I’ve actually noticed is that clients are asking for experts on certain topics, so early and earlier on in a consulting career associate analysts, and certainly managers are asked to focus on something. I came into the firm and said I wanted to do health care and I did some pharmaceutical projects, but I very quickly narrowed in on health systems and providers and I’ve been focused there ever since. Most of the work at the firm is much more practice-based than geography-based. So I work closely with healthcare colleagues and clients all across the country, but I don’t really do any work with my San Francisco colleagues in other practices, even if I’m more likely to physically see them in the office (or at least I did before the pandemic!).

The other thing I would say, is there’s much more of a focus on standardized and advanced analytical thinking and models. Before, a team is on the ground an associate goes in and asks for the data, the data comes in and you clean it. Now, there’s much more of an emphasis on building those models within the firm and bringing those models to the client versus relying on the client for data. Or, having a model where you adjust the client’s data to have those answers more readily available.

What were some resources you suggest students interested in consulting take advantage of at UCLA?

I would make sure that if there are any resume or cover letter workshops to take advantage of those. Nailing the case portion of the interview is incredibly important, but many candidates underestimate the importance of the experiential interview. At most big firms, the personal experience interview is equally important to the case interview, and I would strongly encourage all candidates to spend just as much time preparing for that portion of the interview. And to be reflective, and thoughtful in the message you want to convey. The other thing to think about is, if there is some type of mentorship opportunity for someone currently working at a firm for folks applying to consulting. I know this exists because I’m mentoring some UCLA undergraduates. When I was 22, I didn’t really know how to dress or present myself. I think talking to someone who is there and just having these types of discussions would have given me a sense of how to behave.