WSO Podcast | E126: BCG Consultant After Long Road and Giving Back
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In this episode, Brittany gives us a front-row seat to her long and winding path to land as a management consultant at BCG. Find out how she was disadvantaged as a first-generation college student, why she went back to get her MBA at UCLA Anderson and how that propelled her into a much more rewarding and intellectually stimulating path she is on now. Along the way, Brittany has also found time to give back by founding SuitcaseOfJoy.org, a non-profit that brings toys to children in remote villages in Africa and around the world. Please check it out and consider donating.
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WSO Podcast (Episode 126) Transcript:
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:06] Hello and welcome. I'm Patrick Curtis, your host and chief monkey, and this is the Wall Street Oasis podcast. Join me as I talk to some of the community's most successful and inspirational members to gain valuable insight into different career paths and life in general. Let's get to it. In this episode, Brittany gives us a front row seat to her long and winding path to land as a management consultant at BCG. Find out how she was disadvantaged as a first generation college student, why she went back to get her MBA at UCLA Anderson, and how that propelled her into a much more rewarding and intellectually stimulating path she's on now. Along the way, Brittany has also found time to give back by founding Suitcase of Joy Talk, a non-profit that brings toys to children in remote villages in Africa and around the world. Please check it out and consider donating. Enjoy. All right, Brittany, thanks so much for joining the Wall Street Voices podcast.
Brittany: [00:01:07] I gotcha. Thank you so much for having me.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:09] So it'd be great if you could just give the listeners a short summary of your bio.
Brittany: [00:01:12] Yeah, sure. So I'm a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group and it took me a while to get there. But I work at Boston Consulting Group management consultant. I have also a CEO and founder of a non-profit organization called Suitcase of Joy, and I started out as a French major and worked for an engineering firm. Then I at Fluor, then I decided to get my MBA at UCLA. Anderson joined Experian in a leadership development program, which is sort of like being an internal consultant. I got promoted to director of strategy and from there decided to join Boston Consulting Group, so maybe quite a few changes along the way.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:50] So it's about a decade out of school. You'd say
Brittany: [00:01:53] Undergrad? Yes, I graduated in 2007.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:56] Perfect. Okay. I was a little more. Ok, so let's go all the way back.
Brittany: [00:02:00] I was younger.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:02] Let's go back a little bit just to undergrad and understand. I'd like to know, were you when you so when you first came out of school, you were you were an engineering, you said.
Brittany: [00:02:12] So I was a French major in school. I'm a major French. I really love languages. I was not an engineer and by chance, actually, I met someone at traffic school who worked for a company called Fluor, and that's how I got my job. And so I really felt grateful to get that job. It was not an engineer and I really felt insecure about not being an engineer while at that company.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:34] Let's step back like even just sophomore year, undergrad or junior year, what are you thinking in terms of like your career prospects? Are you thinking, Hey, I'm going to go work as a your French major? Were you thinking something in languages, something in education? What were you thinking?
Brittany: [00:02:48] I was thinking, Mom, I was thinking, what? So I wanted to go to law school and I was told it doesn't matter what you major in. Just get your undergraduate degree and then you can go to law school. And so I just chose languages because I really liked languages, and I wish someone had told me back then. If you're tutoring calculus and taking calculus fun, maybe you should major in business or finance or economics, but no one, no one told me that. And so I just thought law and then decided I didn't want to be a lawyer and felt stuck.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:16] I did that. So tell me. So you're are you taking any doing any internships throughout undergrad or anything like that?
Brittany: [00:03:23] No, I did not. Nothing.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:24] So what are you doing in the summers? Just having a good time?
Brittany: [00:03:28] Well, I went to Pepperdine University, so summers are really great. I grew up in Orange County summers. I worked actually, and I did take some classes at junior colleges and then and the university to graduate. I tried to graduate early, so I graduated in three and a half semesters. Pepperdine is not cheap and I had to take out loans. I'm first generation college grad graduate, and so my family and I learned some things like, you know, my parents did try to encourage me to get into business and I didn't really listen. And I guess they did
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:59] Because they were worried about the additional debt on top of undergrad, maybe law school as well.
Brittany: [00:04:04] Yeah, that and they wanted me to have options and that was something I wish I had known. But I do have to get a job when I graduate, and I don't think that fully registered in my 17 year old head when I went to
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:18] Talk to me about that because I think that's really common. I think for me, when I was in undergrad, I kind of felt one of my main things was like, I really want a job because I don't want to depend on my parents anymore. Maybe it was different because you were paying your way a little bit yourself and you were taking out the debt yourself. I did. Where was it? Did it not feel real to you? Do you feel like there's something around that?
Brittany: [00:04:39] The student loans, the debt definitely felt real, and that definitely kept me in school. Although I really liked school, I think I wanted to be a professional student, so I wanted to go to undergrad. Then I wanted to go to law school. Who knows? Maybe you get a doctorate. It never occurred to me that I was going to have to get a job, except other than being a lawyer, you know, I thought, you know, this might, might date me, but I already told you when I graduated, I saw Legally Blonde and I thought, That's what I want to be. And so I just thought, you know, law? No questions, no questions asked. Like I said, it didn't occur to me. I took calc business calculus for fun and was tutoring calculus, bought my first car by tutoring calculus and languages. Never occurred to me that, hey, maybe maybe economics or finance or business would be a good fit, and I didn't take any of those classes. Why did
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:24] You have? Was there a career center that you talked to? Was there just nobody? No good mentors early on when you were 18, 19 years old?
Brittany: [00:05:31] I didn't have. I mean, Pepperdine has a great career counselor. It was my fault that I didn't utilize it right? And these are mistakes that I learned and made up for during my MBA program. It was a completely different person, very proactive.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:44] But I think it's so common. What you're saying is super common. People do not take advantage. Not that the I mean, we kind of give career services a tough time on Wall Street Oasis because I think a lot of them don't really know how to prepare your resume for necessarily a management consulting or a banking job, either. So it's not. Fair to them, because they'd never been in it, either.
Brittany: [00:06:04] Well, I can't speak negatively about Pepperdine career services because I never utilized them, my head was, I'm going to go to law school and so I need to worry about any of this. So. But I would say that UCLA Anderson, when I got the MBA, did a fantastic job preparing me, but a lot of it started in my mindset. What do I want to do? I need to get a job. And realizing that there are skills that I have that are probably better suited for being a management consultant, but I didn't even know what that was. You know, just given my
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:35] Network, I feel like it's so, so many people just don't know what they don't know. And you just go through, you think, Oh, law school or, you know, you're told either medicine, law school or engineer, you know, one of these things, and especially for first generation college students who don't have the kind of the nuance of around what's what the sub industries are all that really important stuff. So, OK, so tell me a little bit about when the realization of law school wasn't going to be reality. Was that junior year, senior year one? When did it happen? Or maybe when you graduated so.
Brittany: [00:07:03] So I was I was a great student in that I got great grades and really took school seriously, but I didn't do what I do now and think, kind of think forward and what are the steps that I need to take? And so my plan was, well, I'll graduate, I'll work for a year and then I'll go to law school. I didn't take the LSAT during school just kind of like kind of hit my head. Like I would say early, Brittany is not indicative of like the Brittany that you see today. So I graduated spent the summer in Malibu studying for the LSAT and thought, I'll go to law school next year. And I hadn't even applied, and then I got a call from my mom and that was your student loans need to start getting repaid in October. And so I had to find this is September and I
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:49] Had you not know that. Did you not know that the payments were going to start taking?
Brittany: [00:07:52] Or it never really dawned on me that it didn't seem real. I kind of thought someone would just swoop in and they'd go away magically. And that was just naivete. I was twenty one and
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:04] You are you are a young graduate.
Brittany: [00:08:06] I was. I was a young graduate. Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:07] Do you feel like that hindered you in any way in terms of like speeding through college? Do you do you look back and think, Oh, maybe I should have slowed down?
Brittany: [00:08:14] And no, I don't think it was the speed, and it certainly wasn't the approach I took to my classes. I took them very seriously. It was the direction. And so advice I like to give now is think about the end in mind, what do you want to be? And if that's a CEO or if it's an engineer or a doctor, like work backwards? And what are the steps and skill sets that you need to get? And these are things I just didn't know and didn't think through.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:40] You had law school as this kind of thing going for, but it wasn't. You never really did the steps that back in terms of what you had to get done.
Brittany: [00:08:48] And I think something I didn't realize was when I started working for the engineering firm, I was working in procurement, so I would negotiate terms and conditions. I worked with lawyers and I was basically writing contracts, and that's when I realized, Oh, I don't like law, and I was like, I was good at negotiating the terms. And but it just it didn't excite me the way I thought it would. And I fully blame the movie Legally Blonde. They gave this. That was a really exciting career. I mean, that's litigation versus contract law. No one talked to me about the different types of law and the skill sets that are needed. I like studying for the LSAT.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:27] I wonder, I wonder how much. How many kids are steered astray by like Hollywood and like the glamour of different career types, even Wall Street, even like Wolf of Wall Street and what's this? You know, the new show billions or whatever with the hedge fund,
Brittany: [00:09:47] I used to watch movies Patrick and wonder how people got the jobs that they got. And because my parents are first generation high school grads. I'm the first college graduate. Definitely the only person in my family have a master's. I used to look at movies and think, how do those bankers get the jobs like the people in the tall buildings and the suits like I work right now at Boston Consulting Group, we have this beautiful penthouse suite overlooking downtown L.A. I used to look at buildings like that and the people that were those suits and think, how did they get those jobs? And I had absolutely no idea how to do it. So it just it seemed elusive to me.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:25] Yeah, I think it's interesting because it's it's almost like there needs to be. You have to get kids almost out of their heads of being just professional students and really think about their career earlier. It's such an especially now because recruiting happens even earlier than it used to. Yeah, it's like freshman and sophomore year, especially with the diversity programs there. Like sophomore year, they're fully ramped. So if you don't know what management consulting is by sophomore year or investment banking by sophomore year, for a lot of those kids, it's too late because there's enough kids that do know that are guided early. Right? So anyway, so let's talk a little bit about that first job out of school. So you're negotiating contracts, you're doing procurement. Your. Yeah. So what was the trajectory? First off, how did you said you met somebody at a driving school that helped you get this job? Tell me about that. Had you started networking once you realized the loans are coming due? What was the kind of impetus of it?
Brittany: [00:11:22] So I was just so naive. No, I got a job with a temp agency that's not on my resume anymore because that call came and I needed to start working. So I got a job for a temp agency working for resources, global professionals. They're actually a consulting firm, more boutique consulting firm, and I was working in their payroll. I was their payroll help desk. So when people's paychecks were wrong, they called me and that was a real, real wake up to reality sort of situation for me. Yeah. And so it was it was a really hard time for me, Patrick. I totaled my car on the way to work one day, so I was there for about five six months. And so now I'm living with my parents, my dad or my brother or driving me to work and picking me up. And I felt like my life had ended what happened and I had one hundred and sixty thousand dollars in student loans. So I go to traffic school because of the accident. It was my fault go to traffic school and I met someone who worked for Fluor and that was the first time I ever had a successful networking opportunity and I was desperate for a job. And this really nice woman said, You should come work. For Fluor, it was an it's an engineering procurement construction company, and they had a couple of offices near me in Orange County. They built power plants and oil refineries. It's a huge it's a huge company. And so I that's how I got my first job. So I started. And you were
Patrick (CEO of WSO): 00:12:45] There for a long run.
Brittany: [00:12:47] It was much longer than I anticipated.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:50] So tell me about that transition. Like how you because you held several roles there, tell me about how things progressed there and when you looked internally to move because I think it can maybe help some listeners in terms of when should you look, when should you move, when, how you how you actually negotiated that internally with the politics and all that good stuff?
Brittany: [00:13:07] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I wouldn't say that necessarily. My early career is the best model. I would say a wise person learns from the mistakes of others. And so people are listening to this maybe be more proactive. So I started as an admin administrative assistant just to get my foot in the door, and they had told me work as an admin for a year and then we can get you promoted. And within two months, the VP that I was working for said, enough is enough. Let's put Brittany into like a real department. And so at the opportunity to join procurement contracts and so, so I moved there. That was an internal, very quick promotion, which I was really grateful for. I had a really good mentor. I still have a really great relationship with him that worked for him for almost the entire time that I was there. And so I learned how to negotiate terms and conditions, negotiate price, work with meet with all these vendors and sellers. I actually had a. So I was working and progressing in that career in procurement and lost interest in law school. And so I felt a little lost in what my future direction was. It felt like promotion is going to be difficult for me because I'm not an engineer and engineers are highly valued in this company, so I really didn't know what to do. But it was. This is around the time of the Great Financial Crisis, and so I
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:29] Just was grateful to have it. Yeah, yeah, thank. We'll have a job, be able to pay the debt.
Brittany: [00:14:33] I thought it would be a year that I was there. I was there seven years and during the financial crisis they did have a lot of they had to lay off some people. Unfortunately, it was work was slower, but they sent me to Texas, where we were building a power plant. So I spent almost a year in Texas wearing the hardhat with steel toe boots. And we were working on commissioning a power plant that we had built. And so I got to see the construction finish and it was responsible for helping turn over a power plant. It's sort of a big purchase for a client. You don't just hand the keys, it's system by system. And so I learned a lot. I know I learned a lot more about engineering, construction, commissioning than I ever wanted to, but again, I was grateful for the job.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:17] Ok, so you're there, you're in Texas for almost a year and then you come back to California,
Brittany: [00:15:22] You back to California. So my boss in California, he brought me back. And when they had when they had work and so they brought me back. A little early, and I continued to work in procurement, and one day I have this epiphany. I was walking down the hall and I knew I didn't want to go to law school anymore. Didn't know what I was going to do. Didn't feel like I could advance in the company. I had a couple of promotions but didn't know really what I wanted or what to do. I just knew it wasn't engineering. I even thought about going back to school and getting an engineering degree, which in hindsight is just not how my mind works. I'm more of a finance strategy language person. Yeah. And so I had this lightbulb. I was walking down the hall in the office, and it just I realized I should get an MBA. And I think before that point, Patrick, it, I honestly don't know where that thought came from, because no one I didn't know anyone that had an MBA. I didn't really know what an MBA was. It just suddenly occurred to me. That's what I need. I should study business and marketing and all of these things to open up my options so that I can choose the jobs and choose the industries, choose the job function, have more control over my career. And that was a major turning point for me. I went that night and got a book and started studying for the GMAT that night. The very next day, I went to Pepperdine University, my alma mater to. They had an info session for their MBA program. I went the very next day and I just it was something I had years and years of no direction and suddenly I had a plan.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:57] And it just came to your head. It wasn't like, did you? When did you? Had you even heard of what an MBA was?
Brittany: [00:17:04] I honestly don't know. I must have heard about it. But you would think
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:09] Maybe it was like on the radio you heard some sort of like ad and like it was back there. And then it just some. For some reason,
Brittany: [00:17:15] No one told me because like I said, I didn't know anyone that had one.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:20] Your subconscious brain was probably working on the problem of like, I don't really know where I'm going, what do I need while you're sleeping and doing all that stuff? And then suddenly, just like, came to your conscious?
Brittany: [00:17:31] And I think I solved problems that way. Sometimes I get the answer when I'm on a on a flight or in a dream or in a car. I think you're right. The subconscious is working on it and without realizing it, I just felt lost. But that occurred to me and I realized that was the answer. And so I was so excited and filled with hope because I suddenly realized I had a potential and also a chance to start over. So my MBA experience was the exact opposite of my undergrad experience, except that I tried. I took school seriously both times, but I didn't take the planning seriously the first time, and so it was sort of a do over for me.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:12] So tell me how you ended up at UCLA. I have some guesses why you ended up there. I think it's one of the best part time programs right
Brittany: [00:18:18] In the country. Exactly.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:20] My cousin went there. So tell me a little bit about, yeah. Tell me a little bit about just the selection process of why you, UCLA and then specifically there. Am I back?
Brittany: [00:18:32] And my I first are you froze.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:34] Let me see here. Let me see.
Brittany: [00:18:42] Yeah, so I wanted to go to an MBA program, and so my first thought was Pepperdine. They have an Irvine campus, it's my alma mater, it's a great school. And so I went to that info session and I knew I wanted to get an MBA program. So I started studying for the GMAT and wanted to get a good, a good enough score to get a scholarship. Pepperdine offers a scholarship if you get a certain score. So I started studying for that and UCLA was not on my radar because I didn't think I would get it. And so I it's a quality that I had to struggle. I struggled with and had to learn to recognize that I was discounting myself, and so I started studying for the guy that did much better on the GMAT than I expected. And I got into Pepperdine and
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:28] I was like seven hundreds or close.
Brittany: [00:19:31] Yeah, nice. No. So I so then I I get this, I get the scholarship from Pepperdine, and I realize I should have applied to UCLA. But it was after the deadline for UCLA Pepperdine. And I didn't apply because I wanted to really get the best score, and I regretted that and I decided it was my mom who encouraged me. She was like, Why don't you apply anyway, you know, and or wait a year if UCLA is really your goal and you think you can get in? Why don't you just wait? And so I tried. I applied after the deadline, and as I was filling out the application, they sent out a notice saying, Hey, we've decided to extend applications by a week, and I got my application in and I got accepted. And it was, I would say, probably one of the happiest days of my life because I realized there's this great quote by Henry Ford that one of man's or woman's greatest discoveries is to learn that he can do what he was afraid he couldn't. And I think it was such an incredible moment that I didn't think I was even qualified to get into Pepperdine, much less get the scholarship. And then I got into UCLA and I realized I shouldn't discount myself. I shouldn't have that self-doubt. So that was that was a big turning point for me.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:43] If you're diligent and you're a good student, it's very applicable to a lot of a lot of things, right? If you can put in the work and you're a hard worker, a lot of places will want you as an employee. So, OK, so yeah, tell me a little bit about so it's a three year part time program. So the good news of that is, did you get any financial aid with it or you just since you were able to work? It was OK
Brittany: [00:21:05] Now. Well, for pay, they would give you the 50 to 50 a year as tuition reimbursement. And so I but I didn't get any scholarships. I did get a scholarship from Pepperdine, but I decided I wanted to diversify, have a different school on my resume. And also, UCLA really impressed me with their on campus, recruiting the kind of companies that come in and meet with students. And I realized that was going to be my ticket to just fix all of these mistakes that I've talked about that are embarrassing. I haven't thought about them in a while, Patrick, but I got to fix and start over and I went to the school and I went to these recruiting events. As with a new brand and realizing I have a clean slate, they don't know that it made these mistakes. Now I'm going to. This is my chance to do do it over. So. So I chose Anderson. And yeah, it was. It was. I was really excited about that. It was a three year program. And so I was working full time at Fluor in Orange County, and then my boss was really supportive. He'd let me leave around 2:30 or three on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I drive all the way up to Westwood and go to class at night and I would get home at eleven. Eleven thirty p.m. just exhausted. And it was so worth it. I never people thought it was crazy to do. The MBA thought it was crazy to drive that commute and do it while working, and I never complained. I was so grateful because I really this is my chance to make something out of myself.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:22:29] So tell me a little bit of how you talked. So your boss was obviously supportive, but and you said they were giving you tuition reimbursement to help support you through that? Was that with the expectation that you were going to go back and work full time after the MBA? Or was that the expectation of just they lowered your salary and paid you part of it in terms of tuition reimbursement or they just paid for it?
Brittany: [00:22:49] So they offered the I think the Iris Max still is. But at the time it was the iris maximum was the 50 to 50, I think, before it's taxable. And so they just offered it as an investment in their employees and there was no it was not contingent whatsoever. So I'm really grateful to for this. So I kept my salary. I was making seventy grand at the time and I kept that move back in with my parents because I realize I'm never going to be home. Why am I paying for a studio apartment? Move back in with them? And I was like twenty seven, twenty eight when I started. I was 30 when I graduated. And you know, you feel really cool when you're living with your parents at 30, but it was so worth it. So worth it. It's awesome.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:32] Yeah, it's funny. I had a little living with my dad when I was 30 as well after I graduated from my MBA. I moved down to Buenos Aires for about a year in Argentina running. Business and I came back and I'm like, I'm going to go back to Boston just for a little bit and then head to Eastern Europe and travel next then and went and moved in with my dad and he's like, He's like, Man, I can't live with you. He's like, you don't do you only do laundry once every like two weeks, three weeks. So he would he would just joke with me and say, I live with my dad for, like, I think, three or four months, which is great. And then I ended up I ended up staying in Boston. I met my wife. So like, I never ended up doing that, that whole kind of Eastern European trip. Well, sorry, go ahead. No. So it's interesting how like when you when you're 30 years old, it's very different. But like almost like you revert back to you when you're a kid too.
Brittany: [00:24:23] Yeah, very much so. I made a deal with my parents. They were really supportive. They couldn't pay for the four Pepperdine or for UCLA, but they were really supportive, happy to pay the rent. But I told them I'm paying the water bill because I don't want you knocking on the door telling me my shower is too long. And so that was the deal and they supported me. I did my own laundry. Although my mom, I've done my own laundry for many years as a very independent child. But my mom actually did help me just because I was so busy. I was working, going to school and studying so much. And so, yeah, it was humbling. But I don't think I think if you don't let pride get in the way, you can make really good financial decisions. And for me, that was a good financial decision. Halfway through the program, I decided to leave floor and I became what we call a Sumba. So Semba, as you know, is the fully employed MBA. So when you're fully employed and you're in a part time program, I became what we called a fumble, which is fully unemployed. And so basically, it was a full time student, and I made that transition about halfway through the MBA program.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:25:24] Tell me about the thought process of doing that. Was it just to be able to? Yeah, just go ahead, you can tell me. Yeah.
Brittany: [00:25:29] So I learned that and I think UCLA has slightly changed the rules because of me, but I learned that I could take as many electives as I wanted. I think there are eighty two required to graduate from Anderson, and I graduated with a hundred. Maybe it was ninety eight, so I went over and above, but I realized when I learned that I realized I need to double down and really focus on some of these subjects where I felt like I had what we call a dqg and AfD and area for development. I have goals and I wanted to fix them. And so I decided I could be scared of these subjects, the rest of my life and go to subjects that were more comfortable. Or I could just start taking finance and economics and really understand them. And the biggest surprise for me, Patrick, was those ended up being my favorite subjects. You think back to the student tutoring calculus, like, maybe she likes math, maybe she's going to do well on this, but no one had told me that. And so when I quit my job, I focused on school fully. I took, you know, I was able to arrange my schedule, so I spent less time in traffic on L.A., which was much more pleasant experience. And so that's why I decided to do to leave my job because I knew I didn't want to stay at Fluor. And of course, I left on really good terms. They're wonderful people.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:49] What about my tuition reimbursement, though? In that last year, that's almost a $50000 decision or more?
Brittany: [00:26:55] Yeah. Oh, it's fifty two hundred. So it wasn't as big a yeah, it wasn't as big of a decision. I mean, I did. I think about ten thousand or, you know, ten thousand four. Yeah. Yeah, on the table. But I I felt like it was a calculated risk because
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:12] I late Anderson part time is only fifty two hundred dollars for it.
Brittany: [00:27:15] No, I'm sorry. That was floor's reimbursement.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:17] Oh, OK. Ok, so you're still paying a good amount, though for each year it's like, what, 30 40 at least, right?
Brittany: [00:27:25] Yeah, I think for it's probably 60 for the part time. I mean, it came out to be
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:30] About a little less right.
Brittany: [00:27:32] It's the same. It's just spread out over three years. Got it. Ok. Same tuition. So I think it was one hundred and twenty one hundred and forty, so I graduated with over one hundred and twenty thousand in debt.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:42] Still, how much did you have left for the Pepperdine?
Brittany: [00:27:46] I'm trying to remember, probably.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:48] Fit for your bed because you're like reset on the debt clock back up to two hundred plus.
Brittany: [00:27:55] And so I quit my job and I'm so grateful that I lived with my parents. It was a really good financial decision for me. I mean, when I graduated, I actually bought a condo, so I had some savings, but I had all this debt, but I really was banking on my future. I really believed if I focused at UCLA, really applied myself, I could get a really good job and I did. I doubled my salary with my first job at Experian, coming out of my MBA program.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:22] Tell me about the yeah, the recruiting there and what you did kind of to prep for those interviews. And then specifically as an FDP, what you were, were you looking at other FDP programs? How did you kind of think this was the right move for you, any other consideration of consulting at that point?
Brittany: [00:28:38] So I did. I went to the we had a consulting group. I went to all the consulting workshops and went to all the consulting interviews for internships. And I I didn't apply because I didn't think and same thing for full time roles. I didn't think I was going to be qualified. And so I didn't apply. I went to all. I went through all the, you know, the casing, not all the hours.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:29:03] It's like a pattern with you. So like, yeah, lessons learned. Yeah, you got to try strike out. It's good for you.
Brittany: [00:29:10] And. Exactly, exactly. And that's something I had had to learn. So I got this great offer from experience. They had this leadership development program or LDP, and it was like being an internal consultant. And I really liked the idea of it was in Orange County. So it's going to still be near my family, a place I wanted to live and they had a fantastic program. It was where they paired you with a mentor. They had coaching, and so everything that they talked about seemed like a really good fit. And what really appealed to me is this leadership development program. It was like being an internal consultant where you work on cases or projects for a few months and then you move on to something else. So you get to explore different business units that experience as well as functionally, you could try product development, try strategy and see where you really fit in the organization. And then out of that program, you get promoted to a director. So that just appealed to me so much. The work life balance really appealed to me, and so I decided that that seemed like a better fit than consulting for me at the time.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:10] Well, it sounds good, especially if the pay the there's obviously not a huge bonus component on those. I'm guessing on those types of roles. It's like, you know, five to 10 percent or whatever it is. But the with the base pay is pretty high, right? Coming out of MBA, it's like one fifty ish.
Brittany: [00:30:24] Well, when I a few years ago, it was like the one twenty one twenties.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:28] But then there's a bonus. So it's like 130.
Brittany: [00:30:30] Yeah, I think it was like 15 20.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:33] Ok, not
Brittany: [00:30:33] Bad. A little sign on bonus. So it wasn't. It was it was competitive with what my friends were getting in consulting roles at the time.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:41] Not that. Yeah. And so did you. When the LDP is that while you're doing the part time schooling as well, so like you were interning after you graduated?
Brittany: [00:30:51] Yeah, it was a full time role after I graduated.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:53] And how long did that that rotation last and how many, like how many different groups were you going through?
Brittany: [00:31:00] Yeah, it was an 18 month rotation program. And then you get a lot of, yeah, you typically people will work in that program. They'll work on maybe like six projects or cases three months at a time. I was really I hit the ground running when I got there and I was very proactive. So it was a very different Brittany than the previous Brittany… the Brittany I like try to identify with. Now I realized I had made a lot of mistakes and I was going in there with a new brand. And so I went in saying, I want to work on finance. I love finance things, subjects I was scared of even at the beginning of my MBA program. And I went in and we just have the moxie to say, I like finance, I want to work on this. And so I got to work on some competitive intelligence, deep dive analyses where the CEO actually asked me to do another one on a similar competitor. I got to report to the C-suite, got to work on a couple of mergers and acquisitions and venture investments. I was really proactive.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:31:59] You were, you did some corp dev. Even you were. You were helping with the like. Were you doing a lot of the research in terms of potential acquisitions? Were you doing the actual fund modeling in terms of trying to understand what you should pay? Valuation, all that good stuff.
Brittany: [00:32:11] I got to be. So I was my role was sort of like a program manager. And so I got to be part of a due diligence of an acquisition that was actually in Africa, which was really great. I'm very passionate about Africa, as I alluded to with my my non-profit. We take toys to kids in Africa. Well, Experian was buying a credit union and this is all public now in South Africa, and I got to go there for a couple part of the due diligence and meet with the team. And it's really exciting because they're trying to expand credit to these people so they can do like me. There would be like me, buy a house, get take out loans and get a get a career. So I felt it was a. Really such an incredible opportunity, and I also got be part of what we call it, my post-merger integration. So after we bought a company in the United States, we bought clarity a couple of years ago, again, all public. I got to be part of the post-merger integration, both pre and post close, preparing for that with four. So it's really kind of
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:33:12] And that was that was part of the rotation. That was one of the rotations you did.
Brittany: [00:33:15] Yeah, but I sort it out. So H.R. typically would give you assignments, and they only gave me my very first assignment. And after that, I sought them out because we would get to meet with all these senior VP and C-suite people.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:33:27] And how did you know you wanted to do that? Tell me what specifically kind of gave you the idea of, Hey, I wanted to find it. Was it because you had started taking some of those classes at UCLA and that was what interested you and you just want to challenge yourself? Or was it something you just felt comfortable with?
Brittany: [00:33:40] Yeah, it was. It was completely out of my comfort zone, but I was really interested and what I had learned from all these mistakes that we talked through, which are very painful and embarrassing for me to talk about. But I'm being vulnerable so others can learn from me is I doubted myself and thought, you know, I didn't know how people got into those roles. And even when I saw it, it Anderson. I thought, Oh, they're more prepared, and instead of just realizing that these skills can be learned. But if you don't have the confidence you're, you're going to really be chopping yourself, cutting yourself off at your feet. And so I learned to just apply myself and to go and boldly and say, Hey, I want to work on these M&A deals. I got an they gave me an official mentor and official like executive coach, but I got unofficial mentors at Experian and one was a president and who actually a couple of them were presidents who really believed in me. And they gave me these opportunities. And I was, you know, I worked hard, I worked long hours. I was very dedicated. I was always in the office, really worked on networking. I had never you asked me about networking coming out of undergrad. I had never networks, never occurred to me, didn't understand the concept at Experian. I understood what networking was, and I really took advantage of it and built a really strong, strong network there. And everyone I'd meet with, I would say, Well, what are the problems that you're facing? And I found I really like the strategy in the Corp dev work, but that was my take initiative.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:35:03] And it sounds like a business school kind of maybe taught you a little bit about networking and opening up opportunities. Tell me a little bit about it. Sounds like you were doing a lot of internal networking. Were you were you to the point where you were now with the MBA under your belt? Kind of starting to apply network outside of of the company as well to keep that, keep things open and start exploring other companies?
Brittany: [00:35:29] Definitely. Definitely. So. As you know, I did end up leaving experience, so I think it's always smart to have a really strong external network. You want to have a good internal network because you want to be the person that people think of when they have a promotion opportunity. But externally, through Anderson, we had a lot of networking events, career events and I would go to those meet the students. I really took advantage of the MBA program to meet people not just in my cohort. So not just for MBAs, but I met full time. I met executive MBAs. I actually set the standing UCLA record for the most international programs participated in while in the program, because after I quit my job, I had the opportunity to go on all of these international programs during spring break, winter break, summer break. So I participated in seven plus our master's thesis that was internationally. So I set a record at UCLA and through
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:36:27] Years of like traveling to these programs.
Brittany: [00:36:29] Yeah, yeah, I did. My first one was in Buenos Aires.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:36:33] Yeah, so name all the places you went.
Brittany: [00:36:35] So when is ours? And then I the next one was Hong Kong. I did an exchange program with Seoul National University in Korea, an exchange program with Cape Town University in South Africa. And by the way, I had never been to these continents before, except for Europe. I did an exchange program in Greece, an exchange. And no, I'm sorry that was a UCLA immersion in Greece and immersion program in Israel. Wow. Oh, in Vietnam. And then I did my master's thesis at UCLA. It's a consulting project where you work with an international client. Our client was in Australia. They built skate parks. They wanted to expand to the Middle East. So I got to go to Melbourne to visit their headquarters, do interviews, got to go to Dubai. So I.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:22] So was this the reason debt was so high because of the.
Brittany: [00:37:26] Yeah. So I think I think my MBA was supposed to cost one hundred and twenty, and I graduated with probably about three hundred and forty thousand dollars in debt. But you know, I. What was it going to do? Stay at home with my parents? I didn't get the internship, stay there all summer. I'm like, I might as well go travel and get these experiences, and that's where I rediscovered my. Of four languages and travel, you
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:50] Just said something there, you didn't you didn't get internet, you didn't get internships. Tell me about that. What do you mean?
Brittany: [00:37:55] So I didn't get an internship while I was at Andersen. So I I thought I was going to be working at Fluor and I went to all the consulting, internship networking events.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:38:06] And when you applied, I didn't. So what was your thought process around? You're like, Hey, I'm just going to go learn more. I need to learn more
Brittany: [00:38:13] Like you just it's insecurity, and this is the number one thing I see when people come to me and they want to get into consulting. They know how competitive is, and they're afraid that they're not going to be enough. And let me tell you, you can be enough. These skills are learnable. They're actionable. I mean, as a consultant, you're a professional Googler. You're just solving problems and doing research. Anyone can do it if you work hard and apply yourself. And I think I did.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:38:41] Mba was a key piece. The MBA was a key piece for you, though, don't you think?
Brittany: [00:38:45] Oh, it was
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:38:47] When you studied, like, you probably just learned so much more in those three years than necessarily in your undergrad and your undergrad? That was at least something it was more applicable. Right, right.
Brittany: [00:38:57] And I had a great undergrad experience, but this was much more directed. I was much more. I was taking more initiative and UCLA did an incredible job there. Career services were great. The workshops that they offered, they brought in all these great companies that we could meet with. So I knew what it took to get a consulting job. I knew about casing. I went to the workshops, I knew how to put together a resume and a cover letter. I met with career services, people who were former consultants that they have on staff at Anderson and met with them and talk through them like this. So the coaching was great. I just I saw the other students and thought I wasn't good enough. And so that was my mistake. But I learned I learned from that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:39:41] So you're at Experian now almost three years or you were there for almost three years? Tell me when you started kind of looking outward or how the opportunity with BCG presented itself. Was it through one of these networking sessions? And then after that, do you want to spend a little bit of time with talking about suitcase of joy?
Brittany: [00:39:59] Yeah, absolutely. I was like that. So an experience like I said, it was an 18 month program. I loved every second of that program and never wanted to leave. When I got promoted, I got promoted to a director of strategy. I was leading a team of data analytics and I was in that role for a year and a half. And I would say the first eight months there was a steep learning curve for me. I had never had a team reporting to me and my team had my team were my direct reports for managers and they had people reporting to them and some of them were in other countries. And so I suddenly had this team of, I think, 10 people that I was managing. I wouldn't I'm not a data analyst, and so that's not my strength. And so I had a lot to learn and really felt challenged. I had a boss who really did a great job mentoring me and those first eight months, it was a really great learning experience. But after about that eight month part, I felt pretty comfortable in the role and I most people will probably be happy with that. But I got discontent because Anderson and experience these programs, they send me this challenge in this intellectual stimulation and I have this. I suddenly switch to this growth mindset that I want to learn and I want to try. And so I was very aggressive. I was working really late and suddenly I had a more comfortable lifestyle and I got married right as I was getting promoted to director. And so I just, you know, we didn't have kids. I still wanted to grow. I didn't feel like I was ready to just. Being in operations and strategy manager, I wanted more of a challenge, and so that's when I started looking externally, but I looked internally as well, and it was a really difficult decision to leave experience because I worked with such great people and had developed such a strong brand.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:41:47] Tell me how you, how you when you made that, you know, you said, OK, well, I'm not going to be happy in this director of strategy role indefinitely. You kind of made that realization and said, OK, so I'm going to start looking. What were the steps you took? Was it starting like reach out to people on LinkedIn or was it all just through the MBA network you had? What was it?
Brittany: [00:42:03] So MBA network? I definitely reached out LinkedIn. I learned from my mistakes.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:42:08] Were you like for this at this stage where you're like, OK, consulting, I'm ready.
Brittany: [00:42:13] Yeah, that's I wanted consulting or I wanted to do Corp Dev because that's what I really liked our corp dev team. I still say our dev team had experience. They liked me and wanted to bring me on. Same with the venture team. But they didn't have they didn't have the headcount so that I thought about staying there. But I got offered a couple of other roles product development because I got that experience and experience as well. And that didn't interest me. The operations, product development and interest me. I wanted the Corp Dev or the venture, and they didn't have that available, and I really felt like I wanted to get that consulting experience because I wanted to see multiple industries. I didn't want to work just in Corp Dev and do M&A or venture just for experience because experience, they buy. They buy tech companies and they buy data companies. They buy companies that are synergistic with their business model, which of course, makes sense. But I felt like if I went and worked in private equity at BCG, I would get exposed to all of these different industries. And so that's where I started looking at consulting roles.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:43:17] And so did you start doing a lot of case prep at that point?
Brittany: [00:43:21] I did yeah, I dusted off the case books and did, some did some prep work and I did a lot of that at Anderson.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:43:31] But was the reason you felt ready now, as you said, you had more confidence after your time and experience.
Brittany: [00:43:37] Yeah, it was. It was definitely the confidence, Patrick, that was. It shows me that all along I could have gone directly into consulting, but I don't regret the path that I took because I think it's really great that I learned how to navigate in a complex business environment in industry. I'm really grateful I got that experience, but now I wanted a new experience. I wanted a new challenge. I would like to be intellectual stimulation, and I realized I had it all along. I just I was just afraid that I was afraid of rejection.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:44:07] And how did you even land the interviews? You know, not having that kind of you had the MBA, so that probably helped that network. But tell me, is that how you landed the interviews with the did you have interviews with Bain, with McKinsey, any other top, you know, Oliver Wyman and their top consulting firms?
Brittany: [00:44:24] I interviewed with a couple of consulting firms. Ultimately, I wanted to work for one of the top three. And so I got the interview with Boston Consulting Group. I did reach out to my networks. I have I have classmates at almost every consulting, actually through Anderson, at every bank and every consulting firm. I know someone and so I reached out to all my networks. But I also reached out on LinkedIn and connected with talent acquisition people and said, Hey, not sending them or I was taught, don't send them a resume, but say, Hey, can I ask you spend five minutes talking to you about the role of this company? And I found that opened a lot of doors. So I got a couple of interviews and I did well on them. And ultimately, Boston Consulting Group just seemed like the best fits obviously has a really great reputation. And yeah, I did some case prep remembering what I had learned. I really think the most case prep work I did while at Andersen, so I had done the work.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:45:20] It's still very kind of since you had never done consulting, which is still very like case heavy in the interview was a little bit more fit.
Brittany: [00:45:27] It was.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:45:27] It was still a case intensive. Ok, so you were kind of up against the MBAs that were kind of trying to
Brittany: [00:45:32] Grab the PhDs? Oh, fun. All coming from, you know, the top schools. But at that point, I had the confidence that I can do this job. I had done it at Experian. And so,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:45:44] Yeah. Cool. Well, congrats on that. Transition is very exciting. Tell me a little bit about so before we call it, I want to hear a little bit more about this suitcase of joy. What struck me was not just the great work you're doing, but you did it kind of post and post MBA where that's almost backwards to what people usually do because usually people want to talk about this on their MBA applications to help them in a jaded and a jaded way. Oftentimes, when people say, Oh, I'm working doing this nonprofit, you think, OK, yeah, to help you get into the MBA program.
Brittany: [00:46:18] That's interesting, Patrick. I never thought about it that way. No, it's completely genuine.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:46:21] There's no if I was, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it was post MBA.
Brittany: [00:46:27] So something I didn't realize. You know, I talked about thinking about the end in mind and working backwards and something I didn't do an undergrad and I started doing it in the MBA program. And what I want to be, what I want to be when I grow up or before I retire, I always challenge people to think about what that is and what those steps are. I want to be a CEO and an investor, so I discovered I love private equity and venture capital. And so those are the cases I work on, primarily at Boston Consulting Group. And I'd love to be
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:46:54] The case as you work on, so you're working. Private equity firms and VC are hiring you to do. What type of work
Brittany: [00:47:01] Did you like commercial due diligence
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:47:04] On specific acquisitions?
Brittany: [00:47:06] Yeah. Ok, cool. Pretty. It's pretty exciting work. It's pretty intense. But I got that experience at Experian. Really love it. I got kind of that investment fever. So I work on a lot of cases, also work on general strategy. I've done some productivity as well, but that's what really excited me. And so I always want to be CEO investor. Not always. But the new Brittany wanted to be a CEO, investor and a philanthropist, and I really thought I needed to be rich to become a philanthropist. And I realized it's not the case. And like a consultant, you can learn anything. There's so much research that's out there and you can figure out how to put together a nonprofit, which I did. So as I graduated experience, I mentioned I'm first generation college grad, first person with a master's degree. Pretty sure I made more money than anyone in my family at that time doubled my salary and it hit me that maybe I should I could do something to give back. And while I was traveling to Brazil and the favelas and the townships I saw in South Africa that broke my heart, I realized one day, why didn't I bring toys for these kids? I would see these kids in these poverty and they'd smile at me, and I have nothing to give them but a smile. And it realized that I'm not afraid to travel now I travel. You know, solo to the Middle East and Africa, speak these languages, why don't I just take a backpack of my stuff and a suitcase full of toys for these kids? And so I did this right after I graduated. I was working at Experian and I went Thanksgiving week to Kenya and went by myself and I posted before I went on Facebook and Instagram, and my friends gave me so many donations. I took two stuffed to the brim suitcases full of toys and books, soccer balls, school supplies, clothing games and I went by myself and to remote villages, as well as city slums in Nairobi, Kenya. And I got addicted. And so I've gone on three trips like that where I take things to two of these remote places in Africa, and the joy is indescribable. That's where we got the name suitcase of joy. I have never been happier or felt more fulfilled in my life, and I don't want to go work for a nonprofit full time. I really like my job and the intellectual stimulation. But at the same time, I don't want to wait until I retire to give back and I realized I can. I can do something now. And when I realized I could, that's when I knew I should do something.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:49:35] So tell me, tell me about the plans for it. So is it? Is it something where you feel like potentially you could scale it up somehow? So it's not just you going over there?
Brittany: [00:49:45] Yeah, absolutely. So it started as solo self-funded trips my way of giving back. But now we have a board, we have a 501 C three, which means that all donations are tax deductible. And so now we're yeah, we're absolutely trying to scale. We were planning to go this fall on another giving trip, but now I have volunteers, I've got four members, we have people who are donating and all donations are tax deductible. So we. But because of COVID, we're waiting now. Before, before we travel. So right now is really kind of fundraising. We're trying to raise awareness. So I appreciate you letting me to speak about this.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:50:20] And you know, where can they go to learn more? Suitcase of joy does it Typekit
Brittany: [00:50:24] The Oregon suitcase? Dot org. And then we have social media pages LinkedIn page. But all donations go to the children. One hundred percent. So we all administrative fees, all the legal filing work. I'm doing that myself and I'm paying for that because all of it goes to the kids and no one gets more than I do out of it because it's so, it's so rewarding to see the kids. I mean, you take a soccer ball to a village in Africa and you can make ten dollars. You can make an entire village happy and it was really life changing. It's really rewarding. And it's really nice that I didn't have to wait to retire to be rich and wealthy to give back, but realize that now. So, yeah, so if you
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:51:07] Want to, yeah, I encourage everybody to check it out. Suitcase of joy dawg.
Brittany: [00:51:11] Suitcase of joy to work. Thanks, Patrick. And if Oasis wants to be a corporate sponsor, we'd love to talk to you about that. Yeah, that would be great for sure.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:51:20] Well, listen, Brittany, this has been really insightful. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for all the words of wisdom and being vulnerable and saying all the mistakes you made. I think maybe it'll help a few kids before they kind of go down a similar path. Or, you know, the thing is you, you're in an incredible spot now. So congrats, and that's what matters most.
Brittany: [00:51:40] Thank you. Yeah, you know, I love the quote by C.S. Lewis is you're never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream. And so it's never too late. And that's something that really resonated with me. But I think these students can or, you know, professionals, whoever is listening to this podcast can learn from my mistakes and learn to take charge and believe in yourself, and you can learn these skills. It's all. It's not a magic formula that all of these things can be learned in time. So thank you so much for having me, Patrick.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:52:09] And thanks to you, my listeners at Wall Street Oasis. If you have any suggestions whatsoever, please don't hesitate to send them my way. Patrick at Wall Street Oasis. And till next time.
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