We’re back for another round with one of our Consultants. We have invited several team members for a series of interviews, where we dive into their thoughts on working in consultancy, on working at much., and much more!
As there’s no better way to do this than through their own words, we have invited Eleni Bagklaridou for a chat. Eleni is an ERP Consultant and has been with much. since October 2021 when she joined as a Junior. As a long time member of the much. team, Eleni has and continues to share her positive vibes across both our Munich & Lisbon offices.
We sat down to talk about her path from a Junior Consultant fresh out of university, to a seasoned Consulting multitasker and expert in her craft. Here’s what Eleni had to share:
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
“I think the first one was being a pop star, and like, those unreachable childhood dream jobs. When I became a teenager, I really wanted to become a psychologist. But when I actually had psychology class in school, I realized that what I really liked was reading about it and discussing it. It was very theory heavy and something which I’d rather just have as an interest than as a profession.”
So how did you end up in consulting?
“I had Economics and Business at school, which I found really interesting – also due to my teacher, who I really liked. I decided to study Business Administration & Economics, and actually wanted to get into Marketing first. I found it interesting, but then again, it was very theory heavy at school. I did an internship in PPC Marketing, which was how I realized Marketing is not for me.
Then at university, we had to take some add-on classes on Informatics, and I enjoyed it because I felt we studied theory but translated into practical learning – which led me to further study Business Informatics. Then I got the opportunity to work at much. as a Junior Consultant – and that was where business met informatics. It was exactly what I studied and I was able to apply it on the job.”
If you had to explain your job, what would you say? For instance, what do your older relatives think you do?
“They think I “do something with computers”, that I sit at the computer all day long and I think some of them still think I do some actual coding (laughs). And I really do not, so I try to explain to them that I talk to the clients, I try to understand their business needs, how it works, and I translate that in such a way that the developers that we work with can understand the client’s requirements and put them in action. So like an interpreter between the business part and the development part.”
Now that you’ve painted us a picture of what you do, what have been the biggest challenges you faced at work?
“I think, challenges… As consultants, we deal with a lot of different people and projects on a daily basis. And they’re all different from our business perspective and even from a customer perspective. So we have to multitask – not only when it comes to communicating with people but also translating for the devs.
In the beginning, prioritizing all this stuff was a challenge for me. I for sure got better at this but an important learning for me was to always make sure that other people can work with what you give them, and then do your own individual tasks. And then of course, just getting a feel for different kinds of customers and how to approach their businesses, because everyone has different needs and experiences, and we have to make it work as a team.”
Do you think your interest in psychology helped you with that openness to read and adapt to people?
“Yes because I always have to take a step back, evaluate the situation, and question “why is this happening?”. On the customer’s side, it’s not just one person, there’s a whole business running behind our point of contact. There’s other people that I never see who get the filtered version from my counterpart. So I need to evaluate the customer and the things they tell us to paint a bigger picture and analyze how to approach each situation, to see how to communicate it differently for every customer. There’s no one script for this.”
What is the greatest success or development that you’ve experienced in the workplace?
“I actually said this in my interview – I’m a bit of a shy person if I have to talk to new people. I never liked speaking in front of the audience, or to many people. But that actually went away. And it was a big success, a big personal development. I got way more self confidence on the job and maybe also in my personal life.”
Ask as many questions as you possibly can! (…) sometimes, the easiest way to figure things out is just being really honest and asking a lot of questions to better understand.
As you know, much. is a very fast paced company. What advice would you give to a Junior who’s just starting as a consultant?
“Ask as many questions as you possibly can! When you just start out somewhere, everyone seems to already get it – they know the business, they also know all these buzzwords. In the beginning you may be like “what is happening here”? And I think because this is a fast paced environment, Juniors don’t want to bother anyone and maybe try to figure out as much as they can on their own. But sometimes, the easiest way to figure things out is just being really honest and asking a lot of questions to better understand – because in the end, if you don’t, it’s going to bite you back.
Also, I would say to not take on too much in the beginning. Reevaluate your time, reevaluate your schedule and be honest about how you feel with your workload. At much., the Seniors listen. Of course they will delegate and ask for your help, but everyone is very accepting and will always help you to find a solution. So yeah, also saying no sometimes – or maybe not right now, maybe later.”
Which one of our much. values resonates with you the most, and how has much. changed since you joined?
On values: “I really resonate with all of them. Everything that I see, I think it’s exactly who we are. But I think the No BS, because I have friends that also work in different kinds of consulting. The stuff that I hear from them, it’s very different. Here, we really do not adhere to the old school – like, we don’t have to go to the clients every day, we don’t have to dress a certain way, you know? So I think the No BS.”
On change at much.: “When I joined, much. had like 15 employees. Now we’re over 70. From then to now, everyone who joined has been a perfect cultural fit. I’ve done internships in other companies but I’ve never seen so many people get along so well in one company. And even though we’ve tripled in size since I joined, we’re still really good at that.”
Where do you see the IT Consulting field in the near future? What do you think will be crucial skills to get far in this industry?
“What I realized is that oftentimes consulting and development or tech teams are seen as separate, like really different departments. Whereas here, I feel we don’t have this. We work as a team, and we don’t see things in an “I do this, you do that”. As a team, we develop solutions for the client and find the best way to implement these solutions together. In IT Consulting especially, consultants do have to be technical to a certain degree. They need to know the tools they’re using, understand the basics of databases, how systems work, the ins and outs.”
What do you want to achieve in the long term of your career?
“I want to become even more technical. I really like this part about the job – understanding why and how things work like they do, or what is possible or impossible from a DevOps point of view. I would like to understand even more about these technical aspects and how they play a part in consulting.”