There are many pathways into BCG. This is evident when I look around at the people that I work with – people who started their careers as physiotherapists, entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers, to name a few. I came to BCG after working at a global mining company for five years. There I spent some time modeling mine-to-port product flows, improving production processes at mines and modeling the economics of the shipping industry.

After I finished my executive MBA I was more than ready for my next challenge. I joined BCG to increase my exposure to different industries, clients and problems. Reflecting on my time at BCG so far, what’s been most exciting is working on new problems and industries, and being able to leverage my mining experience to help find answers to the problems we are working on.

After ten years in the software industry, I was ready to make a complete career shift. I was fortunate to have experienced the dot-com era at my own software start-up, but I wanted to move to a more diverse set of problems and industries. I was excited by BCGers’ descriptions of their fascinating work on the cutting edge of business strategy.

My first project with BCG was completely outside the bounds of my traditional work experience. I joined a team focused on designing new products for a major retail-energy company and had to quickly develop new frameworks for analyzing the market in order to determine the best opportunities for our client. The project truly pushed the limits of my abilities and extended my reach beyond my MBA and my experience as an executive in the technology sector.

Michael joined BCG’s Dallas office in 2007.

Before BCG, he worked as vice president of corporate and product strategy for Viewlocity, a supply-chain management software firm.

Michael received his MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. He also holds a BS in electrical engineering and computer science from Duke University.

Before joining BCG in 2001, I worked in global health for Doctors Without Borders directing blindness-prevention programs in East Africa. During this part of my career, I realized the critical role the private sector plays in health services, so after earning my MBA, I joined BCG. I was primarily attracted by the incredible opportunities that BCG gives individuals to grow professionally and have a direct impact on organizations.

I became part of a thriving health care practice at BCG and was able to help increase our influence in the biopharmaceutical sector on the West Coast of the United States. Over the past few years, I have gained the skills and expertise that have allowed me to become a trusted advisor to executives in this fast-growing sector.

I have also been able to leverage my background to help enhance our social impact efforts in the area of global health. BCG has given me a truly unique opportunity to create a career path that allows me to have an impact in the business sector while also maintaining my commitment to global health.

Dirk has extensive experience in global public health programs, having worked as a consultant for Pfizer's international trachoma initiative in New York, as a program director for Healthnet International in Kenya, and as a program coordinator for Doctors without Borders in Sudan.

Dirk received his MBA from Stanford, as well as a master’s in public health from Harvard and an MD from Leuven University in Belgium.

Pedro advises senior executives of banks and other financial-services companies on issues relating to operations and IT.

Prior to joining BCG, Pedro was a founding partner of Capco, a provider of integrated transformation services to the financial services industry.

Pedro graduated from the Universities of Leuven and Antwerp. He holds a master’s degree in classics and a postgraduate degree in computational linguistics. He also studied economics.

I joined BCG after a career as a health care academic and specialist healthcare policy advisor to governments and companies. Having originally studied medicine and worked as a doctor, I had a natural inclination towards working for health care clients. However, for most of my initial years at BCG I found myself working for banks, insurance companies and government agencies doing a mixture of business and IT strategy.

Since then I have refocused on healthcare work and have found that I now have a unique perspective on the health sector, given my cross-industry experience. Things like electronic banking have suddenly become highly relevant to medical care with the emergence of electronic health records, and I have found a whole lot of opportunities in healthcare IT—a sector that barely existed when I started at BCG.

Having performed a similar role outside and then within BCG, I am constantly amazed at how the BCG brand opens doors at the very highest levels of government and business. This is what really makes consulting satisfying—influencing people who make the decisions that shape the world.

Consulting has also provided me with a flexible career model—the envy of many of my friends and clients in other careers. For five years while my two sons were growing up I worked a four-day week—taking one day off a week to get a bit more exposure to their lives and ease the pressure on my wife who also works four days.

Neil is a qualified medical doctor and has masters and doctoral degrees in economics from the London School of Economics and Oxford University (as a Rhodes Scholar) respectively. 

He is a member of the IT and Healthcare Practice areas.

When you join BCG the bar is set high. You know that you're going to work with leading clients in different sectors, that you're going to be involved in drawing up business strategies which will pull on your every intellectual fiber whose implementation must be successful to fulfill the targets we set. All those expectations are met.

There's also another, intangible and less expected, part of BCG—you work surrounded by top talent, in a collaborative environment at all levels, where all opinions count in order to give the best output to the client. You participate in a day-to-day life that is demanding, dizzying, and exhilarating, and makes you think: "What a good time I'm having at BCG."

I first heard about BCG when I was still studying, while discussing the famous BCG matrix. At the time I thought that it was a simple tool that allows for organising analyses and drawing interesting conclusions. I have learnt a lot since then!

After graduation I worked at one of the Big Four companies in its tax advisory department. The job was interesting but after a while I felt I was losing contact with business. I often got the impression that my tax advice, although based on the interpretation of legal provisions, was very impractical from a business point of view. It was then that I got a chance to apply to BCG and I thought that it might be the change that I really needed.

The qualification interviews at BCG were a challenge. Each time I was given a case study to solve, which was usually based on one of the previous projects implemented by BCG consultants. On my way back from the interviews I wondered what it would be like to work at BCG and how interesting that would be.

And I was right! The very first day I was given my first project (implementing a strategy for a bank) with clear instructions. I had to get to work immediately. Our team consisted of ten consultants who all took an active part in implementing changes in the bank’s organisational structure. Throughout the project I had many opportunities to draw on the extensive experience of other consultants who were eager to share their knowledge. I also met many interesting people on the client side and learnt a lot.

In my opinion, a consultant’s job is a very demanding one, but it’s the best you can do for your personal and professional growth. Each day brings you an opportunity to face new challenges and develop your skills.

Krzysztof joined the team in 2007.

Before BCG, he worked in the tax advisory department of one of the Big Four companies.

Krzysztof graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics, studied law at the Warsaw University, and holds a CEMS MA degree from the Universita Luigi Bocconi in Milan.