Author: Lars Maebe
Hello there!
I am Lars, 24 years old, and currently living in Antwerp. In my free time, you can find me on the athletics court or racing around the neighborhood on my bike. During my days off, I like to go on holiday to discover new places all around the world.
I studied Civil Engineering at the University of Ghent, but soon I found out that I wanted to learn more than only rather technical and science based engineering skills, so I followed an additional masters in Management at Antwerp Management School (AMS). I graduated last summer and joined BrightWolves as a young graduate for my first professional job.
Application process
Last year I started my job hunt and after attending a crack the case evening at the BrightWolves office, I decided to give the intensive application process a try. I experienced the recruitment process at Brightwolves as very well organized. You will meet many Wolves during the recruitment process, which is great as you will get a good view of the office atmosphere. One element that stood out for me was that BrightWolves invested time and resources to help me prepare for the cases. I received some tips and tricks and some customized frameworks to ace my case interview. After each round, I received constructive feedback, which was very valuable to improve myself.
Onboarding experience
As a new hire, I started my onboarding with an extensive, yet insightful onboarding program spread over my first two weeks: I quickly grasped the essentials of the consulting toolbox: Excel, PowerBi, and problem-solving, to name a few. Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised to gear up the less ‘obvious’ skills such as client interaction, commercial awareness and giving an elevator pitch. Although I was not immediately staffed on a project, I was happily surprised to deliver real impact right from the start on several internal projects, proving that BrightWolves truly adheres to its values.
However, the most valuable and enjoyable aspect of my onboarding experience was the people I shared it with. It did not take long for the ice to break and get that feeling of having known each other for much longer than was the case. Although it had only been one month, I already considered the Wolfpack a group of partners and friends who face a wonderful adventure together.
My first project was a digital transformation project where I had the role of Enhancement Manager. Concretely, I was the bridge between the business and development team and had to implement new digital solutions. My workstream consisted of performing business analysis, change management, agile planning, etc.
Currently, I received the opportunity to take up a new challenging role within the same organization, so I am very curious to find out what this new challenge will offer me.
Day-to-day life at BrightWolves
Personally, I would like to go to the BrightWolves office every day, but we sometimes need to be at the clients’ offices. Nonetheless, whenever I am at the office in Diegem, there is always an opportunity to socialize with another Wolf, so know you will never be alone. During lunchtime, we always eat together in our cozy bar and on Fridays, we even have team lunch offered by the company. Sometimes we also try to go out for a small run during lunch break, which gives me so much energy to work in the afternoon!
Besides that, throughout our trajectory, we make sure we take some time to connect. Every month, we come together for our Den Meetings, where we discuss new initiatives and company updates, but next to that, we do a lot of fun activities like winetasting, indoor skiing, sailing on the Veerse Meer, etc.
More than just client work
The most important reason why I chose to apply at BrightWolves is the entrepreneurial spirit in the company. Besides our job as consultants, we also get the opportunity to shape the company’s future by contributing to pillars like marketing, recruitment or sustainability.
As of January 2022, I’m part of the marketing team, where I’m responsible for maintaining the website, writing newsletters, engaging with our followers on LinkedIn and analyzing all our marketing statistics. It has been challenging, but at the same time, I’m continuously learning new insights about data and marketing techniques, which are topics I always wanted to explore. And now, I get the opportunity to deep dive and put all the insights into practice.
What am I currently working on? Well, next to my client work, I am building an online analytics dashboard that streamlines all the information we receive from all our channels. Our ultimate marketing goal at the moment is to grow BrightWolves’ networkand attract the attention of new potential clients, and with this dashboard we will be able to get deeper insights into what works and doesn’t, so very exciting times for sure!
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I couldn't have wished for a better environment to kickstart my career. BrightWolves offers me the opportunity to work on different and completely new topics in a team with experienced and creative minds. Besides learning a lot on project level and gaining new insights, I’m also part of an incredible growth journey where I can have impact!
Are you considering a career in Management Consulting? Do not hesitate to reach out for a virtual coffee with Lars Maebe or any other Wolf!