Meet Ashley

• What did you study during university and what role did you have at UWACS?

  I studied Accounting and Finance at UWA. I began as a Relationship Manager, then became Welfare Officer and Relationship Manager, and finally President.

• What is your role currently?

  I am currently taking a gap year to travel before I begin full time work next year at Bain.

• How did you first find out about management consulting, and what drew you towards it as a career?

  I joined UWACS and 180 Degrees Consulting during university, without having much knowledge or understanding about what management consulting was actually. I really loved the experience and it eventually drew me towards management consulting as my desired career path. Additionally, completing some internships during university helped me realise which fields I liked more than others, management consulting being the one I ultimately loved the most.

• What would be your advice/tips to UWACS members who are looking to apply for management consulting roles?

  • Get involved in extracurriculars; they don't even have to be management consulting related (but it definitely helps!). Extracurriculars are a great way to get acquainted with many skills that employers look for when hiring, such as leadership, innovation, organisation, teamwork, plus it's a great opportunity to get a foot in the door via networking/liaison with HR departments or company representatives through events and collaborations.

  • Be creative with how you find roles/experience; there are the traditional pathways that everyone usually goes through ie. internship applications that can convert into graduate roles, grad recruitment periods. But there are 'less travelled paths' that can also get you to the same result if you use some creativity. For example, participating in competitions that can get you fast-tracked to the interview stages of recruitment. I've also seen people cold-email small boutique consultancies and essentially 'make' their own internship role up with the firm. If the traditional pathways aren't working for you, try thinking outside the box!

  • Make sure to do some preparation! There are really great resources online that you can use to case prep with friends. Additionally, UWACS events are a great way to get in person practice with industry representatives who can give live feedback. The more cases you do, the more comfortable and confident you'll feel which will make a huge difference on interview day!

  • Follow the UWACS socials/sign up to the newsletter as there's lots of updates and reminders about firm recruitment periods!

• What was your favorite thing about UWACS?

  Definitely the people! One of my best experiences during university was joining UWACS because of the people I met; super kind, intelligent, funny, talented people who weren't just fellow committee members but life-long friends :)