Give me a quick overview of your background and what brought you to consulting.

I studied mechanical engineering, and I've spent the last four years at a plant that makes brake components. I started as a process engineer on one line, and for the last two years I've run improvement projects across the plant. What brought me to consulting is that the part of the job I liked most wasn't the engineering. It was working out which problem was worth solving and getting people to agree. Most of my projects were really about people and priorities more than machines. I also noticed that the biggest decisions about our plant were made somewhere else. I'd like to work on those bigger questions. So that's why I'm here. I'm comfortable on a factory floor and with data, and I want to learn to solve problems for a whole business instead of one plant.

I studied mechanical engineering, and I've spent the last four years at a plant that makes brake components. I started as a process engineer on one line, and for the last two years I've run improvement projects across the plant. The one I'm proudest of cut scrap on our highest-volume line from 6% to under 3%, which was worth about $900,000 a year. What brought me to consulting is that the part of the job I liked most wasn't the engineering. It was working out which problem was worth solving and getting people to agree. On the scrap project, the machine fix took two weeks. Getting three shift supervisors and the quality lead to change how they did changeovers took four months, and that was the part I'd happily do again. I also noticed that the biggest decisions about our plant were made somewhere else. Last year the company moved a product line to another site, and when I read the analysis behind it I realized I wanted to be doing that kind of work, on questions that size. So I took two finance courses at night and worked through cases with a friend who's a consultant, to check I'd like the job and not only the idea of it. So that's why I'm here. I'm comfortable on a factory floor and with data, and I want to learn to solve problems for a whole business instead of one plant.