This interview is for BayStreetBBS members who are interested in careers in the IT Consulting industry. Adrien Mak, Partner at PWC, has been kind enough to share his career advice and industry insights. Adrien will also be one of the keynote speakers at BayStreetBBS' upcoming Career Expo event on October 18, 2014.
Lionet Career Expo (October 18th) registration: https://www.picatic.com/lionetcareerexpo
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Biography
ADRIEN MAK, PARTNER, CONSULTING AND DEALS PRACTICE, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP
Adrien Mak’s a partner in the Consulting and Deals practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP working in the Toronto office. Adrien has worked on large scale, information technology-related transformational projects for more than a decade. He has taken on a wide variety of roles, including project executive, delivery project manager, business architect and systems integrator.
Adrien graduated with a BSc (Honours Co-op) in Mechanical Engineering, with a minor in Management Science, from the University of Waterloo in 1995.
Interview Questions
1. BayStreetBBS: What are some key things that you would attribute your success to?
Adrien: I would say taking risk, even if you are not fully prepared. That might mean taking on new things that you may not be fully comfortable with or qualified for in the beginning. Eventually you will grow into these roles. For example, many years ago when I started my career, I was a co-op from the University of Waterloo. I did a summer project for the firm and eventually had to travel to France to make a large presentation to a French audience entirely in French. I had only very basic knowledge of French from high school - nevertheless I did the presentation on my own and although it was not perfect, I was happy that I finished it and took on the challenge.
You will also need to manage the fear of failures, and be able to accept the fact that you might fail - but that's OK. Culturally, some of us may be accustomed to only reporting or showing success; but the reality is that we need to be mentally willing to accept the possibility of failure as well. When you are facing decision crossroads, sometimes there is no right or wrong path - you just have to make a decision and proceed.
2. BayStreetBBS: What are important trends that you see in your field that may have important implications for future employment?
Adrien: I believe that the IT consulting industry is an evolving landscape. We have the large management consulting firms (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc), the consulting arms of the Big 4 and also the specialized IT consulting practices from technology firms like IBM, TCS, and CGI. Nowadays, the large corporations and banks have also established their own Project Management Offices (PMOs) that play an important role in infrastructure and system builds. As the market continues to change with increasing competition, we will face a different environment over the next decade which that may require different skill sets and knowledge areas.
3. BayStreetBBS: How should we prepare for these trends?
Adrien: It is always important to develop transferable knowledge and skills. The world and the economy is always changing and it is difficult to predict how exactly it will unfold. But we need to prepare ourselves for change.
Oftentimes, people don't realize the sphere of knowledge or skills that they have already gained based on their current experience - because they don't necessarily realize where it could be applied. For example, if you are working in a bank and you understand how that business model works and how it makes money, this is valuable knowledge that industry outsiders don't necessarily know. Another field of employment may assign a high value to this knowledge. It is also not enough to just stay in a role and do the same thing over and over without really understanding what you are doing or why you are doing it - that will not count as valuable expertise.
4. BayStreetBBS: How do we find our strengths and weaknesses and plan our career around them?
Adrien: One way would be to conduct a 'peer-review' assessment. That way you let people tell you how your traits compare to others. This may be slightly more objective than you assessing yourself.
Once you've identified those strengths and weaknesses, think about which strengths you want to capitalize on and which weaknesses you want to either fix or avoid. If you avoid the areas of your weaknesses, then you need to find the right team or individuals that can work together with you to cover for those areas.
Don't just sit there – turn problems in solutions!
To listen to more career advice from Adrien Mak (Partner, Consulting and Deals practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP), come to our Lionet Career Expo at the MTCC on October 18, 2014! Adrien will be one of the 6 executive keynote speakers who will be sharing their experiences and insights on career development. Come with questions, this is a unique opportunity to meet them in person!
Lionet Career Expo (October 18th) registration: https://www.picatic.com/lionetcareerexpo
This interview was conducted by Jonathan Xu, Bernard Li and Joanna Jin (BaystreetBBS Public Relations) on 09/15/14.