As part of my "Extra 10%" activities within Bain, I am a co-leader of the Boston office's Green Team.

• Why Bain?

  My journey to Bain was less straight forward than many other undergraduates seeking out a career in management consulting. My background and passion is in science and I'm particularly intrigued where science meets public policy.  In my opinion, the private sector plays a critical role in this intersection. For example, one of the most effective ways of bringing up-and-coming energy efficient technology providers together with municipalities is to stimulate market demand for their products. So where does Bain fit it in to all of this? The skills I'll gain during my years as an associate consultant will provide me with a strong analytical foundation, which will serve me well regardless of the path I choose down the road. Additionally, exposure to a diverse set of business problems and industries will allow me to better understand what drives businesses and organizations to work efficiently and grow. In terms of choosing Bain specifically, I got the sense during the recruiting process that people were getting unparalleled experience, but were also truly enjoying their day-to-day work and having fun with their teams and peers.

• My passion

  I believe that the first step toward mitigating climate change starts at home-or in this case, the office. As part of my "extra 10%" activities within Bain, I'm co-leader of the Boston office's Green Team. Our mission is to make the office greener by looking critically at ways we operate that could be done in a more environmentally-friendly way. In this role, I've had the opportunity to plan and lead analysis outside of my casework and manage a team of people, many of whom are more senior than I am. It has been a great opportunity to combine my passion for the environment with hands-on leadership experience that a new associate consultant might not otherwise have early on in his or her career. The results have been exciting as well. For example, since the initiative began, we've seen a year-over-year reduction in paper usage of 12% without hindering the effectiveness of the work we're doing for our clients.

• My favorite case

  My first case was developing a growth strategy for an industrial goods company. It was challenging from a client interaction standpoint, because it was clear that their internal strategy team and their business unit presidents didn't always agree on the best course of action for the company. Internally, the Bain case team was wonderful to work with. As the junior member of the team, I felt like I had the support of everyone else, from the consultant I was working most closely with, to the manager, and all the way up to the partners. In particular, I formed a close working relationship with the consultant on my workstream. Over the course of the case, he helped me to take on larger and larger projects, so that by the end of the case, I was planning my own work much more independently. It was a great start to being an associate consultant at Bain.

• My Bain experience

  Since joining Bain, I've found myself surrounded by an amazing group of peers who enjoy their jobs, don't take themselves too seriously, and have fun working with each other. But the "fun" of the job isn't just about having social events outside of work - it's the day-to-day work environment as well. Bain's team culture lends itself well to making all aspects of the job enjoyable. Whether we're brainstorming how to solve our client's biggest problems, getting PowerPoint tips from our case team leader during a team meeting, talking about our weekend plans, or poking fun at our manager for the not-so-fashionable tie he chose to wear to work that day, you can feel the level of trust and camaraderie in the room. Then, even at the end of a long day or week, I still like hanging out with my Bain colleagues outside of work, which speaks highly to how much we enjoy each other's company.

• A final thought

  I believe there's still a misconception on campuses that the Bain culture is only for extroverts or is intimidating because of its reputation for its "work hard, play hard" attitude. Since my first day in the office, any of those initial concerns were washed away. I've found Bain to be anything but intimidating; the people are incredibly welcoming, have diverse backgrounds and interests, and above all, are extremely friendly and nice.