Meet our Associate Partners
Our people are our success and we endeavour to celebrate and support them throughout their careers.
When asked, what sets OC&C apart from other strategy consultancies, the most common answer is a group of intelligent, motivated and genuinely fun people which make up the supportive workforce. But, don’t take our work for it – hear what our team has to say.
Apply nowStart your OC&C career
Mette, Associate Partner
I am from Denmark but moved to the UK to study maths and completed my PhD at the University of Bristol. I went to several careers events, and OC&C by far had the nicest group of people and the most interesting story to tell. I knew it was the right company for me when I left the interviews thinking - if I don’t get a job, at least this has been a really interesting and enjoyable day.
I have been with OC&C for 6 years now, including two six-month secondments – one with private equity and one with a large UK retailer. The breadth of experience has been fantastic – projects in all sectors, around the UK and abroad (I have had plenty of opportunities to use Scandinavian languages), and not least, interesting colleagues and clients.
I love working with consumer businesses in the food space, from grocery to restaurants. Restaurants tend to be a good overall project experience, as of course the whole team need to try out the proposition.
As you can imagine, there is also a good breadth of non-project activities. The highlights of the year are the two annual trips abroad – one for training and one for a social weekend away / company conference. More day-to-day, I love the cultural activity program (museum & theatre trips, art classes etc) and a few of the sports activities, such as the annual London City Race and yoga.
Dan, Associate Partner
I studied maths at university (Oxford) before spending seven years as an actuary at PwC. I joined as a Consultant and spent two years there before becoming a Manager in the Consumer Goods practice. The biggest impact I have had was when I was first managing a project and I had to balance keeping everyone happy – it was great to see how much my team enjoyed everything whilst delivering a great answer to the client.
Outside of projects there’s a great social scene at the firm, whether it’s through everyday lunches with people, all the way to the annual weekend firm trip which is a pretty amazing experience!
I didn’t plan on moving to a consultancy from PwC but OC&C sounded like a great place to work. When I came in to interview I found everyone was very friendly and the case studies were interesting; I was happy to hear that they were based on previous projects.
My advice would be to practice, practice, practice! Find a friend (ideally one also needing to practice case studies) and do proper mock practices and mark your answers truthfully. It’s not about sticking to a rigid structure but using your structure to help guide your answer.
Madlien, Associate Partner
After graduating from university in Munich, I spent 6 years living and working for a strategy consulting firm in China, advising mostly consumer goods and retail clients on their China strategy. Then I joined the OC&C Munich office. I was intrigued by the opportunity to help build up and shape the OC&C business in Germany. Throughout the interview process, I really enjoyed all the formal and informal interviews I had with people from all different levels, from Associate Consultant to Partners – and decided to join as the whole process was challenging, but also interesting and fun at the same time.
I joined as a Manager and have had a number of very interesting projects with great teams so far. I have also gotten involved in a number of business development and marketing/ IP development topics and am looking forward to further progressing my OC&C career over the next months and years.
I generally really like the debates and discussions we have as project teams as those always help to shape the ultimate answer. …and the fact that we try to get to the answer in the ‘uncommon’ way. On one of my most recent projects, one of our team members won the OC&C Curiosity award for being the most creative and engaged in how we got to the answer through primary research – fun and rewarding at the same time!
Outside of project life I really like the various social activities organised throughout the offices. The annual ‘Away Weekend’ was certainly one of the highlights so far – but so were the OC&Cycle cycling trips, the skiing weekend, art night, cooking class, the office surfing lesson, etc. I think it’s fantastic how engaged everyone is inside and outside the office!
Advice for someone wanting to apply? Just do it! It will be your entry ticket to an exciting, rewarding and fun career!
Asher, Associate Partner
I studied History at Cambridge before starting my career at Nestlé, working in a range of sales and marketing roles before moving into consultancy at a boutique firm. I’d come across OC&C quite a few times on retail and consumer projects and was always impressed the calibre of the people and the quality of the work. When I was contacted about possibly applying, I jumped at the opportunity.
I joined in January 2018 and quickly got exposed to a range of projects from grocery to gyms, by way of wealth management software and funeral homes. The range of work has been interesting.
In 2018, I worked on a project for a leading gym operator helping them understand the impact aggregators might have on the health and fitness market. It was a fascinating piece of work which required us to unpick some complex models, assess their pros and cons, the extent to which they appealed to consumers, as well as how this could play out in the short and long term. We really helped the client understand a complex topic and influenced their long-term strategy as a result.
One of the great things about OC&C is the sheer amount of activities and events organised by the company, from large scale ones like the away weekend and international training week to one off trips to comedy clubs and sports events. I’ve enjoyed getting involved in all of these.
For someone wanting to apply to us, I’d recommend doing all the standard preparation for a case interview, there is a wealth of material out there and it really does show when people haven’t prepared. The other thing, and it is a cliché, is to try and enjoy it. If you don’t find the preparation and interview process interesting, the chances are you won’t enjoy the job.
Michael, Associate Partner
I studied Applied Maths and Economics at the University of Glasgow. Before applying to consulting I had little understanding of who any of the different firms were and ultimately, I ended up choosing OC&C on the basis of a really positive interview day; of the various processes I went through it was probably the key one that left me feeling excited about the prospect of working there.
Since joining, the biggest thing I have learnt are the parts of a job/career that motivate me and those are primarily: doing project based work, variety (through exposure to different business models/industries) and working in teams with driven and smart people. My favourite project was when I was working for an ecommerce retailer in New York. The key question was in a world where Amazon is so dominant how could they differentiate themselves. The project had a great team, really nice client, interesting question and good work-life balance while spending two months in NYC!
There is always a lot going on at OC&C; I am involved in both the touch rugby and cycling clubs but there seems to be a sports mailing list for just about every sport. The office is really social so it’s fast to make friends both in your peer group and more widely across the firm.
My advice to those who want to apply to OC&C is- be proud of the interesting things you have done, especially if you feel they don’t fit the typical professional interview context. Don’t worry if you have done a degree course that has given you little technical exposure to things like excel. Similarly, also don’t worry if you do not have a series of investment banking/big 4 type internships for prior experience. The training provided when you join is excellent and you really quickly pick up on the skills needed to be an associate regardless of background/experience.