“Inside zeb” – Celina’s look behind the scenes of zeb
Release date: 18 December 2023
“Inside zeb: Women in Consulting” is a five-month program for female students who want to gain insights into the consulting industry alongside their studies. The program comprises individual mentoring, job shadowing as well as exciting events and workshops. Celina is one of the students who participated in the program, which allowed her to look behind the scenes of zeb and get a taste of our consultants’ day-to-day project work. In this blog post, she reports on her experiences, learnings and personal highlights.
What are your takeaways from the “Inside zeb: Women in Consulting” program?
Through the “Inside zeb” program, I got to know zeb’s corporate culture from a completely new and open perspective. To me, what stood out was that women are highly valued at zeb: in addition to the women-only program that I participated in, zeb has a strong initiative called women@zeb, which is aimed at making it easier for women to enter and advance in the male-dominated consulting industry and which serves as a platform for sharing experiences within an all-female community. Moreover, I got to know many strong and inspiring women during the program, for instance Dr. Katrin Lumma, who made a lasting impression on me with her keynote speech at the kick-off event. On top of that, I noticed during my job shadowing that women hold all kinds of positions at zeb. Since very few organizations, especially in the consulting industry, can compete with zeb in terms of support for women, I consider zeb a very attractive potential future employer.
What were your personal highlights of the program?
My personal highlight was definitely the job shadowing with my mentor Jan. During the 1.5 days that I job-shadowed him at the Munich office, I got some insights into the everyday work of consultants that I probably wouldn’t have gotten if it hadn’t been for the program. My mentor took me along to numerous meetings with clients and colleagues, which gave me a first impression of how such meetings are conducted. He also made sure to involve me in his project work and regularly asked me for my input. I really enjoyed the job shadowing, and the idea of becoming a consultant myself has become very appealing to me.
What were your biggest learnings with regard to your future career?
My biggest learning was: “You can do anything, and what you can’t do yet, you can learn.” I used to find the consulting industry pretty daunting, because consultants are known for their tremendous expertise that they build up through a lot of hard work. However, my in-depth insights into the industry have made me realize that everyone starts from scratch. Of course, a certain degree of knowledge is necessary for starting a consulting career at zeb. After all, one should be capable of making meaningful contributions to client projects. However, due to the wide variety of projects, it’s impossible to know everything right from the beginning. A steep learning curve is characteristic of the profession and one should not feel intimidated by it. After all, project work is teamwork, so each project you’re involved in is an opportunity to learn from your more experienced team mates. And at zeb, you are also supported by your own personal CDC. That’s why I’m sure that as a consultant you can and will learn everything you need to know from experience.
What were your biggest learnings in terms of your personal development?
The “Inside zeb” program had a strong focus on boosting our self-confidence in order to prepare us for entering the consulting industry. This has definitely left a lasting impression on me. No matter what personal background I have, if I am willing to acquire certain skills, then I can also succeed in a job as demanding as that of a consultant. That message also came through loud and clear from my mentor, and so he really made me feel that I can achieve anything I really want to achieve.
