There are clear boundaries between your professional and personal life, which everyone respects
Francisco Aguiar (Associate) and Stephanie Abi Abdallah (Manager) both work at Strategy& Amsterdam. Fransisco first joined PwC Portugal as a Deals Tax Consultant, but soon realized it would be a great step forward in his career to join our strategy consulting arm Strategy&. Stephanie already joined the firm in the Beirut office, and after a short sideventure found her way back into consulting while moving to the Netherlands.
Moving to another country can be exciting; venturing into the unknown and dealing with all sorts of social and cultural differences. We asked Stephanie and Francisco what surprised them most about working in the Netherlands and Strategy& in particular.
While Stephanie was most of all surprised that you actually have to bring your own cake when it’s your birthday, Francisco said: ‘So many things… it’s hard to detail them all! But probably the most important would be how friendly and respectful everyone is. Even if our agendas tend to be quite full with social events where everybody gets together to network and have fun. There are also clear boundaries between your professional and personal life, which everyone in the team respects. And of course, we should not forget about… bitterballen with mustard sauce at every event – that was a surprise… but no longer! ’
Francisco went on to talk about how he was pleasantly surprised with the 4-day Induction Training he attended in Munich. During the training they got a crash-course on strategy consulting and then solved a case in teams of 4, composed of strategy consultants from different offices around Europe and Middle East. Or as he puts it: ‘It was the perfect way to get an introduction to Strategy&, it’s international teamwork and most exciting – we went airborne in a true wind turbine!’
One thing they both agree on is that the Amsterdam office became a true international hub! For example: Stephanie works on a project with team members from Germany, the Netherlands, the US and India- they counted a total of 7 spoken languages within one team! In the past year multiple internationals have joined at associate level, and let’s not forget about the 12 international managers, directors and partners at Strategy&.
Apart from the international team, project work is also quite international. Francisco mentions ‘On my first project covering the European Virtual Power Plant (VPP) market for a non-Dutch client, the Strategy& team was composed of consultants from the Amsterdam, Madrid and Dusseldorf offices. Recently, I did a market scan of the Latin American Solar PV market for a non-Dutch client, working directly with local PwC/Strategy& teams, in Chile and Mexico.’
It almost goes without saying that with so many international employees, there are also plenty of options for international opportunities within Strategy&, like project work in other territories like UK, Spain, Germany, UAE and South Africa, volunteering assignments across the globe or international secondments to a different Strategy& office. At the time of writing colleagues are on secondment in Kenya and Spain whereas others are attending their MBAs in Singapore.
It almost goes without saying that with so many international employees, there are also plenty of options for international opportunities within Strategy&, like project work in other territories like UK, Spain, Germany, UAE and South Africa, volunteering assignments across the globe or international secondments to a different Strategy& office. At the time of writing colleagues are on secondment in Kenya and Spain whereas others are attending their MBAs in Singapore.
Amsterdam Recruiting Team
Thank you for your interest in Strategy&. The Amsterdam Recruiting Team looks after all recruiting activities for our Amsterdam office. We are here to help you with any questions you may have about the firm, our activities on campus and the application process. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you need further assistance.
