I was blessed to have a smooth transition from college into the workforce. Since graduation I have been able to rise in the ranks at MD Strategic Consulting thanks to my reliability and dedication. I started with MD Strategic Consulting in January 2016. I was a junior in college, and I needed to find an internship to complete the Rawlings Undergraduate Leadership Fellowship. I was running out of time to find an internship when I was introduced to Jayson, who had just started his company. I started with MD Strategic Consulting as an intern. I did everything from printing out agendas to taking notes in meetings.
During that time as an intern I was soaking up information like a sponge and building trust with leadership within the firm. Those relationships along with continually improving my quality of work made my colleagues open to tasking me with more key assignments instead of administrative tasks. These tasks showed me how to organize events, manage a database, and interact with clients. My deep understanding of our company’s services and our team’s capabilities lead me to transition into the role of Special Assistant to the Partners. At this point, I was sitting in almost all the meetings our leadership was having, building relationships with clients, and running an internship program.
As our company was growing, I could tell my network was growing. After a year, an opportunity opened for me to move to our public affairs team. Not only was I ready to manage clients, leadership and I concluded that the public affairs team would benefit from my organization skills. I have been working with the public affairs team focusing community engagement for the last couple of years. I believe the community advocacy work I am doing is affecting the community in a positive way.
I’m proud to see how much I have grown over these last 4 years. Finding a way to move up in your company isn’t always easy, so I believe continuing to grow professionally should be at the top of a young professional’s mind. Whether it be completing a fellow’s program or starting your own initiative within your firm, you will be able to show that you are responsible and deserve a leadership role. Having an employer that encourages my professional development has helped me expand and gain more confidence in my abilities.