When Emily Sun ’22, a former intern at the CPD, graduated from Dartmouth, she “went into consulting because [she] wasn’t sure what career path [she] wanted to pursue.” Learn more about her journey below!
Briefly describe your background. What did you do at Dartmouth, and what job did you pursue straight out of undergrad?
My name is Emily, and I’m a ’22 who majored in Economics and minored in French and Psychology. On campus, I was a Student Director with the Center for Social Impact, worked at the library, played some club sports – and of course, loved to get outdoors, especially going on Woccoms and paddleboarding on the River!
I started my career in management consulting as an Associate Consultant at Bain in their Boston office. Frankly, I went into consulting because I wasn’t sure what career path I wanted to pursue, and I had heard from upperclassmen friends that consulting would equip me with several necessary skills that could be applicable in many other jobs (e.g., building Excel models, maintaining client relationships, etc.). And I can say that that absolutely is the case! While at Bain, I primarily worked on growth strategy cases for clients of all sizes and across all industries, including healthcare, consumer-packaged goods, and software. I was also fortunate enough to work with incredible people who were deeply invested in my personal and professional growth — they were people I not only respected as my colleagues, but also I know will remain lifelong friends.
Briefly describe what you do in your current role. What types of tasks, responsibilities do you take on? What skills do you use most?
I recently left Bain to join ODDITY, a DTC beauty / tech company, to help launch their next big skincare and makeup brand. This job felt like a great pivot to not only experience what a startup culture would be like, but also to fulfill a lifelong dream of working in beauty! Similar to consulting, every day looks different on the job. I research market trends to size the potential of certain makeup products / trends; I conduct consumer testing and speak to experts in the field to gather primary insights; I build surveys and models to better understand how existing products are doing and what we can do better; I handle relationships with various stakeholders (e.g., the CEO, OEMs, my direct report, etc.). I end up using all the skills I’ve spent the last two years cultivating in an industry I’m passionate about.
What did you learn about yourself when switching jobs?
One thing I’ve really noticed is how my current job environment is very different from Bain. Being a larger corporation with several more resources, Bain was inherently able to provide more structure in everyday work. However, my current company is much more startup-esque. The entire brand is ~20 people, and we’re forced to be scrappy given smaller teams, less time, and tighter budgets. But this has allowed me to practice a lot more answer ownership and creativity over my work. As a result, I’ve been able to have much more direct facetime with senior level leadership, such as VPs / CEOs, while upscaling to high-level projects.
I’ve also learned a lot about what type of work environments and team structures I prefer. For example, I love the constancy of being on the same small team. This job switch has also given me a lot of confidence to know that I can apply similar frameworks to different pieces of work and that I am well-equipped – both from my time at Dartmouth and at Bain – to try to be a value add to my team.
