What is your job/position?
I am a management consultant for Bain & Company. We are hired by companies and organizations across every industry to solve some of their most complex problems. I work on a team of 4–6 people for 3–9 months on a single project, then move on to the next project and a new team when I finish. In the last 18 months I have worked with a wide range of companies, from massive corporations to small nonprofit organizations. I’ve helped develop tailored strategies for revenue growth, international expansion, geopolitical risk resilience, and online customer experience. I also sing backup vocals in our office band—you should hear us cover the Backstreet Boys.
Describe the path that took you from your American Studies degree to your current career or life situation.
Early on in school I embraced the idea that my chosen career would involve many different jobs, just as my chosen major embraced many different disciplines. I targeted consulting as a job I wanted to pursue around the beginning of my junior year because I knew the skills I could learn from a company like Bain or its peers would be beneficial in almost any future job. Even though I had planned to go straight into consulting right after graduating and had secured my desired job offer in Boston, I ended up deferring that offer for family reasons and instead became an elementary school teacher in Seattle, which I did for 3 years. I played with the idea of going straight to graduate school after teaching, as I was itching to get back to research and writing, but eventually decided to maintain my plan and became a consultant at Bain Seattle. Even though it’s put off my higher degree aspirations a bit longer, I haven’t regretted the experience I’ve had so far both as a teacher and a consultant.
What are the specific competencies you cultivated as an American Studies student that you now use in your professional life and that set you apart from your colleagues?
I tell this to every humanities major I meet who is interested in going into consulting: the broader humanities tool kit that you develop (esp. as an American Studies major) is very useful in my job. Our process of generating insight for our clients is not unlike preparing a research paper. We start with a question, which we then break down into smaller parts. We come up with a hypothesis to answer each smaller question, then use primary and secondary research to validate or disprove our hypotheses. When we have our answers, we synthesize them into a form that is digestible and understandable to our clients. Usually this means a PowerPoint presentation, which is basically like an essay broken out into slides and bullet points instead of sections and paragraphs.
What are some of the surprising ways in which your American Studies degree has helped you in your professional or personal life?
The interdisciplinary nature of American Studies plays really well into a job like consulting. I took many 300- and 400-level classes where I had to get up to speed on the disciplinary histories, terms, and paradigms that my classmates had already learned in an introductory course. In my job, I often have to learn how an unfamiliar industry works in just a couple days so I can then start cracking the problem (e.g., do you know what a System-on-module is and what it has to do with Bluetooth connectivity? I didn’t either). I’ve been told by supervisors that I’m really good at this part of the job, and I credit my major and how it taught me to learn the essentials fast.
What do you wish you had known as an American Studies student? What advice would you share with current students?
One thing I wish I’d known is the timeline changes when you leave college, especially if you choose to start a family or buy a home (I’ve done both!). Those changes will affect the rate at which you can make adjustments to your life circumstances without taking on considerable risk. To illustrate, right now you’re used to planning your life in terms of semesters and terms. I’m now four years out of college, I have a mortgage, a son, and a second baby on the way. My plans have to be in the 2–5 year range, at a minimum. That being said, my advice is still to spread your wings as far as you want to. There are so many jobs out there . . . don’t be afraid to explore several skill sets and positions as you weave them together into the constellation that is your career. And if you find something you love and want to do for the rest of your life, also don’t be afraid to just stick with that! Both options will likely feel uncomfortable, and neither will likely ever feel ideal. That’s okay. Keep your priorities straight and have someone who knows you well and can remind you what’s important when needed. When you’re discouraged, remember: your job is about more than your income, your career is about more than your job, and your life is about more than your career.
*You can contact Marcus with questions about his American Studies story at mevanderholm@gmail.com.