Ifetayo Dosunmu : senior associate consultant, Bain & co.

What led you to pursue a career in consulting?

So a little bit of my background, I really didn't know what was out there coming into Ivey. I was under this weird impression that getting into Ivey was really the biggest hurdle. And then you go through this great education, which you still get, but then they just hand you a job at the end of it, and then you just walk out and go be an adult. I remember on I think it was a second or third day I was getting ready to go to what is now Ivey Olympics, and someone passed me in a suit, I'm just like “what's going on?” And they said  “Oh, I have a job interview”. That sent me into an absolute panic. Before Ivey, my first five summers, starting at 16, I worked in camp. I was a camp counselor; I ran a camp at the YMCA. I absolutely loved it. I was ready to go back to camp again after HBA1, but I very quickly woke up from that and then started the same questions that everyone else asked themselves, what do I want to do? What do I want to get into?

I initially went into a banking info-session, because I did Honours Specialization in Finance. I liked finance. I like numbers, math works. So I figured, hey, why not. And then when I went there ,just the content and the atmosphere in the room, I very quickly realized it was not for me, I mean, absolutely no shade to banking, but it just wasn't for me.

And so how I ended up in a consulting info-session, and for better or worse, I pretty much followed the crowd. I mean, everyone going to the consulting info-sessions were people I hung out with it at Ivey anyway. And it was the hot topic besides investment banking. So I'm like, okay, let me give this a shot. And when they were speaking about how you get to work in so many different industries across so many different capabilities, and teaming is important and you really integrate with the client and all the typical buzzwords and selling lines of consulting, I was hooked. The thing that hooked me is that I didn't have to pick what I want to do. I can explore so many things in one job, because business is so broad and diverse, it can go anywhere from agriculture to aerospace engineering, there's a business element to it. So that was really intimidating for me, because how can I possibly pick where to go into as a career when I don't even know the full extent of what's out there? So the fact that consulting allowed me and has allowed me to explore so many different industries and companies and different business functions, I appreciated that, so that's how I decided to go after consulting.

Were there any influential mentors or figures in your life that helped shape your career or serve as a source of inspiration?

I think mentorship is invaluable. I think there's an important distinction I want to draw here between mentorship and advocacy, someone who will advocate for you is your advisor, someone who's in your corner. Speaking on advocacy, it's one thing for someone to mentor you, which is invaluable. I stand by that. But it's another to develop a relationship, a genuine relationship to the point where, when you're not in the room, that person will advocate for you and push for you, and will have your best interests in mind. So I always like to draw that distinction so people are aware. It was something that I never really thought about too much, and I just hope more people coming into their careers are aware of that, more aware of it than I was.

With mentorship, it's so important because when you start your career and you start a new job, there's so many things you're just not aware of to no fault of your own. Having someone who recognizes the position you're in, can understand where you're coming from, but are also a couple years ahead of you can just provide not only a guidance, but let you know different considerations that you weren't even thinking about.

I think about when I when I started at Bain, I can name so many people, so many mentors who have made sure that even small things. Being a Black woman, one of the mentors Grace and a lot of other Black women in my office I love dearly. I remember starting and asking “what should I do with my hair?” There's this whole controversy and underlying uncomfortable tension around Black hair? I'm like, do I wear it out naturally? Can I wear braids, because I normally wear my hair in braids or do I have to get it straightened? What is corporate protocol here? They don't teach that at Ivey. And Grace, being the amazing person that she is, she made sure that I felt supported before I even started. So I felt comfortable enough to go to her as a mentor and asked her and had this frankly embarrassing conversation on my part, but felt that it was safe to do so and I wouldn't be judged or hinder my performance. So that's just one example how having a mentor be there for you can just alleviate so much stress and tension and remove any of those awkward roadblocks that you may have stumbled over yourself. That's just for a day to day culture thing not even to mention your career.

I'm at the point in my career now where I have to think about, do I want to stay at Bain? Do I want to go into industry? I've been able to talk to so many people across the Bain network, about how they think about their career, how do they think integrating social impact in their career, business school, externships or secondments, industry specialization, and leverage their knowledge and wisdom to help make my own informed decision. You can't go wrong investing and building relationships. I have yet to come across a negative of talking to people who are way more experienced than I am and asking their advice.

On the topic of advocacy versus mentorship, what  would be an example of an advocate?

In my professional context, it would be someone on the management or partner team. For example if we think about promotion discussions or staffing opportunities or generally situations where an important decision is being made about you and you are not in the room, having an advocate there in your place who knows where you stand and what you want to go after can makes a world of difference. It doesn't mean you get everything you want or it’s smooth sailing, nothing like that. But it's just comfort knowing that, hey, if my name is spoken behind closed doors and my advocate is in there, there's somebody on my side. This maybe a silly example but you get in trouble and you're being talked about in the principal's office and your parents come in, they're like, nope, my child would never do that, find somebody else.

What skills you not learn in university that you wish you did? And how did you develop those skills later on?

Written communication, and this is no knock to our communication class. How important writing an email is and how to do so, I think I spend a more significant time in my day than I'm proud of rereading emails, rewriting emails when it is being sent to leadership or clients. Especially in a virtual context, between Zoom and emails, those are your two main methods of communication. I underestimated how critical it is. You can have the best idea in the world, or crack the analysis and get to the perfect answer. But if you don't communicate it properly or know how to get your point across without raising flags for the person you're talking to your great idea is pretty useless. So I wish I paid attention or tried to ask more questions about is email etiquette, or how to get your point across in a non confrontational manner or how to recognize what’s sensitive and what needs to be in a conversation versus what can go across in an email. How you communicate to your team, clients, and leadership really determines how well your work comes across.

One topic frequently discussed with regards to women in the workplace is the idea of imposter syndrome. Do you have experience with this feeling? And any advice for combating it?

Yeah, I think it just happens and I know that’s not a satisfying answer at all. But it's a feeling of am I here because I deserve to be here? Am I here because I need to fill a quota? Am I taking the place of somebody else who actually deserves it more and worked harder? One thing I try to remind myself as well as tell others, is if you think about it this way: realistically, the firm is not in such dire state, that if they don't hire you to fill this quota or have this image, they will fall apart. It’s just when you talk through it logically like that, it really doesn't make sense. Another way to combat it is thinking about that person that you think you're taking the spot of, actually imagine that person? How amazing does that person have to be for you to actually be taking that spot, and then compare yourself to this amazing person and be truly honest, do you truly not deserve it? Because no one coming into consulting, at least on the undergrad level, knows how to do the job. And all the firms are prepared for that. They train you for that. So the fact that you've shown that you're willing to learn which you are, you're smart, which you are, and you're capable, which you are, is good enough. Don't get me wrong, it's a high bar. But being here means you have met that bar. There is no company that is enough of a charity that they're going to give away a spot that they're going to put in front of very important clients, clients that paid a lot of dollars, to hear what you have to say, just because they're like, “well, let's just make this kid's day and toss them a job.” It just doesn’t happen. From a corporate point of view. No corporation is enough of a charity that they're going to give away a prize spot just to make some random person feel better. And then the work you do, they wouldn't trust you with the amount the clients are paying and wouldn't trust you to do it if they didn't think you can do it.

I felt like it was shoved to the back of my head a lot faster, the more that I got into work there. But it's definitely there. So having your regular pep talks and talking to other people in your class and realizing that everyone feels like “I don't know how I got here, but here I am”, and it's more common than you think, is really comforting.

How have you learned to practice resilience in your work?

Two things, one, let yourself be sad. That’s okay. I think nothing shatters my resilience as fast or as sharply as when I pretend everything is okay and bottle it up, and then one day, my body's like, nope, here are all the emotions that you've been shoving to the side. So let yourself be sad. Disappointment is real. You wanted the job, you didn't get it. I'm so sorry. Feel disappointed. That's fine. Whenever you say resilience, no one's expecting resilience to be, you never feel down or lay in bed and not do anything today because you’re sad. That's not resilience, resilience is giving yourself the space to get back up.

The second thing that's helped me is perspective, and, again, very much recognizing an HBA1 I had zero perspective and when other people told me the exact same perspective I didn't listen. When you're in the thick of it, it's hard to take it. But to the extent that it can, hopefully this helps some HBA1. This is a summer internship. This is three months of your very long career, let's say your career is 30 years. This is three months of your 30 year career for a job that you may only work at for the first couple of years. And then all jobs after that, I promise you will not care what your third-year summer internship was, it just doesn't matter. Your career is such a long thing. You will switch, you may go to grad school, you may do your MBA, you may do a PhD, you may completely switch industries, you may stay at this company for the rest of your life. But the fact is, it's long, there's a lot of room to make mistakes, there's a lot of room to switch what you're doing, and there's a lot of room to grow and try again.

Even HBA2s, this is your first job coming out of university, this will feel so monumental and don't get me wrong, it’s exciting and it's the start of your career. It feels important and it is important, but it does not to any degree define you. It doesn't define how well you do, it doesn't define where you are. It's just the first step and it's up to you to take the next step. Sure, depending on where you start, there may be extra steps in the way but at the end of the day, they are just extra steps in a very long journey. So when you keep that perspective in mind, it really minimises the self imposed severity and the weight that comes with HBA1 and HBA2 recruiting because even if you don't get this first step ideally right or it's not exactly what you wanted, that doesn't mean you can't get there later.

How has your definition of leader developed from your time at Ivey to your position today?

I think at Ivey, the definition of leader is someone who got things done. You were the front of a lot of things, you participate in a lot of clubs, and you got results and everyone could see the results you got. And they're like, oh, they're a great leader, they get a lot of things done. Now, when I think about leader, it's less about the result. And don't get me wrong, results will always be important. You must deliver results for your client. It’s now more about how did you lead the people and your team to get those results.

When you start working with different supervisors, and different bosses, under different partners, or whatever your leadership structure is, you'll very much realize and very quickly be able to pinpoint a great people leader from a bad one. Someone who brings out the best in you when you thought you already gave all you had to give. They find that extra 20% and they bring it out of you in a way that doesn't ring you dry like a towel, that is a fantastic people leader. Someone where the case is really difficult, the clients being difficult, it's long and late nights, and there's nothing you want to do more than just close your laptop and not work. Yet, you're still excited for the next day to work with your team because that leader has fostered that environment.

 I think we're all in a place and we're all capable and professional enough to always get things done, things will always get done. It's when you're doing that, did you enjoy the experience? Did you learn? Did you grow? Did you foster relationships that will propel you and help you forward in your career? Or were you dragging your feet and hating your life the entire time depending on the leader that you were working for? But don’t forget to turn this questions around to yourself. What kind of leader do you want to be? I mean, based on how I described it, it's a no brainer. But for good leaders you had in the past, try to reflect and identify what made them good people leaders to you so you can be that for the people coming after you.

With regards to discussions around female empowerment, what do you think is an internal barrier which women face today in the workplace? And how have you sought empowerment in your life and career?

I think one aspect of female empowerment, which seems contradictory, but is very important is the role our male colleagues play in that. It's one thing for there to be female empowerment, and you get support from your female colleagues, and you all work together to push that glass ceiling? Absolutely.

It's another thing to understand and think about what the roles are your male ally play in that. There is time and space for them to quite frankly, get out of the way. And then there's also time and space for them to clear the barriers ahead of you so you can keep going. When I think about internal barriers at some companies, the thought is whenever there's a program about women empowerment, or women getting ahead in the workplace, it almost seems as if well, men sit down and let us do our thing. Considering who is the source of the problem or the source of the issue or the root cause of the problem, no one can just sit down and not participate. We really have to go at it together.

How I have sought out empowerment in my career is really by just being around women. I mean, women are empowering in and of themselves just sitting down listening to their story, listening to what they've done, what they've overcome, how they live their life, how they solve silly things in the morning of like, “oh, my kid was crying today. So I gave them a lollipop, spun them around three times and went to work.” It may seem so simple, but when you start work, you gain an appreciation of how hard it is. I mean, I am not married nor do I have kids, and I'm finding it difficult. But then you see women in your office who are married with kids and have soccer practice and school and parent teacher interviews and holiday concerts. And at this point, I'm just making it up because I really no idea what's involved in raising a child. But these women are crushing it at work, getting promoted and being active and involved in their kids’ lives while advocating for themselves; that in it in and of itself is empowering. So just being around women getting to know their story, asking them for career advice about your own career and having them be your mentors. That’s enough.