When Kayla Luo graduated from Hudson in 2011, she went on to study Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo. Fast forward to 2016, with a new degree in hand: Kayla started her career by working in the financial analysis and risk management side of business. But after three years in the industry, Kayla knew that she needed a change.
“It was to the point where I wasn’t feeling inspired anymore,” Kayla said. “You see yourself in 20 or 30 years and think you know exactly what you’re going to be doing. It’s not a good thing, but it’s not a bad thing either.”
Kayla did what she likes to call a “reflection on your reality.” She created a list of things, some which she considered important to her, and some which she considered unimportant. “You put down a list of things that you consider to be key to your career success, to your personal success, to your long term life goals,” she explained.“ Then, you put down a list of things that you really don’t care about.”
After creating her list, Kayla evaluated the situation she was in with her career. She decided, “Whatever I was in at the time wasn’t making me happier, it wasn‘t making me fulfilled.” She knew that she had to think tactically about switching her career into something that she was more interested in, like consulting.
While Kayla knew that going into consulting didn’t require specific education like a particular university degree, she knew that she would have to prepare for the industry in other ways.
“I just started by doing practice cases and interview preparation,” she explains. However, switching fields wasn’t just that simple. Kayla believes that her analytical mindset, developed during university and her first few jobs, also helped her achieve her goal of switching into the consulting field.
After all of her hard work preparing herself for interviews, Kayla landed a job as a consultant at her current company, Simon-Kucher & Partners, in the summer of 2019. She enjoyed her work and felt like she got along well with her co-workers. After only two years at Simon-Kucher & Partners and a series of annual evaluations, Kayla was promoted.
When it comes to next steps, Kayla is still trying to figure it out. If she decides to stay within the consulting industry, she would be interested in progressing into becoming a partner at her firm. “If I decide I would like to become a partner, then I’ll probably become a partner,” she discussed. “If I don’t, for some reason, want to do that anymore, then honestly I have no idea.”
“That’s the benefit of this industry–you don’t have to make early decisions, and exit options are good because we have a wide exposure to different types of industries.”
Kayla has one critical piece of advice for when it comes to choosing a career: “Just have fun and pick a career that you’ll be happy waking up to.”
