Home Our People Member Profiles Member Profiles Associate Member: Jefferson Undergraduate School: Princeton Year Joined Parthenon: 2005 [ BACK ]       Why did you choose to come to Parthenon?       My decision came down to Parthenon and a couple other consulting firms. But it really came down to the people I met at Parthenon. Everybody I met during recruiting was so smart and had done such an amazing variety of things before and since joining Parthenon that I felt that I couldn’t find a more interesting place to work. The two years I have spent at Parthenon have reinforced my feeling that I’ll probably never again work in a place with such a smart, caring, generous, and fun group of people.         What is one of your most notable cases you have worked on?       One of the first cases I worked on at Parthenon was for a large urban school district. We were tasked with developing a comprehensive strategy for serving students in the system who had fallen off the path towards graduation, either because they had stopped coming to school, had stopped earning credits, or had dropped out entirely. We looked at the student population in the district that such strategies would serve and discovered that the problem was both larger and more common than anyone had guessed at the beginning of the case, so we immediately knew that the strategies that we came up with would have to be comprehensive and scalable. Eventually, we developed some new, quantitative tools that allowed us to look at the actual effectiveness of various options for improving the graduation rate. These tools gave our clients the ability to justify quantitatively the resources they needed, rather than just asserting it. The case was particularly rewarding because of the obvious impact the case made. Our clients were able to get additional support, both internally and externally, for strategies that would directly increase the number of students graduating from school. In addition to improving the operations of our client, there was a real human impact from our work. It also helped open the door for additional education district work, so it has meant that Parthenon’s impact in this area has broadened significantly.         What internal initiatives have you been involved with?       All Associates at Parthenon have the opportunity to lead one of a variety of internal initiatives. I know that being involved in recruiting is one of the responsibilities that Associates most look forward to. Other than giving us all the chance to return to college for a couple days each fall, it’s also a lot of fun to help plan recruiting events and interact with all the people who may become our colleagues.         What additional types of leadership opportunities have you had while at Parthenon?       Associates at Parthenon have greater opportunity to grow and take on responsibility than at a lot of other, similar firms. In addition to internal roles like recruiting or training, on which Associates take the lead for significant chunks of work, Associates can take on as much case responsibility as they can handle. This can manifest itself as Associates being responsible for important relationships within cases, being primarily responsible for major pieces of analysis on their workstreams, and eventually presenting to clients.         How would you describe the culture here at Parthenon?       As someone who is excited and stimulated by smart and accomplished peers, I find Parthenon to be a fantastic fit. At times, it can seem like everyone else at the firm has done many more interesting things than you have, which is certainly not a poor reflection on you but rather a demonstration of how amazing the people Parthenon recruits are. Further, I don’t know of any other company that takes fun as seriously as Parthenon does. We work hard here, but we also play hard and have fun. Whether it is balcony parties outside during the summer, a Monday Night Football game at Gillette Stadium, or off-site training events, Parthenon events bring together everyone from the most senior members of the firm on down.         How does Parthenon fit into your life outside of work?       Parthenon definitely consumes the lion’s share of my time, and I frequently hang out with people I work with outside the office. Because everyone is in the office most of the time, people at Parthenon tend to develop closer friendships than do most offices. One of the big advantages to Parthenon is that we are office-based rather than client-based. When I was considering my offers, the idea of traveling to client sites every week seemed like a very glamorous thing, but after traveling even several days a month at Parthenon I’ve realized that travel is often a huge hassle. Not having to travel leaves you free to do other things. I play indoor soccer once a week, read for pleasure almost every night, and in general have a little more time to breathe than I might if I were working the same schedule and traveling.

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