Megan Schutzbach-Horton graduated from UNC in 2020 with a Ph.D. She was interviewed by Eden Y. Zewdie in February 2023 when she was a Senior Consultant at Kx Advisors.
What are your responsibilities as a senior consultant? What does your day-to-day life look like?
As a senior consultant, I am still involved in the day-to-day research, but what’s different about being a senior consultant is that it has more of a management component. I rely on my junior team members to conduct secondary research, lead primary calls, and more, which allows me to focus on the bigger picture and turning our findings into a recommendation for our clients.
Something unique about Kx is that no matter your position, you are “client facing”, but as you advance, you take on more contact with the clients. It can be a little nerve-wracking at first to provide guidance to your project team and make decisions that impact the direction the project goes, but with more experience, you become more comfortable making those decisions.
Can you discuss your career path and your progress at Kx Advisors?
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in the beginning, so I spoke to other graduate students and discovered GBCC. I proceeded to participate in talks and events to better understand career options, which were eyeopening and piqued my interest in consulting. I was also involved in cases practices and did projects with CG2. In addition, I participated in networking events at triangle insights and their bootcamp. I also did the graduate certificate in business fundamentals program.
All this helped guide me towards a consulting career. At Kx, our promotion process is clearly outlined, and documents are available to all employees to track critical experiences and progress. This makes it easy to understand where you’re at and what needs to happen to make the jump to the next level.
What excites you most about your work?
In graduate school, you spend your time researching one topic for multiple years. By the time you finish up and get ready to defend, most people are ready for a change. In consulting, projects are much shorter, which means you have the opportunity to learn about a lot of different areas. This is my favorite part of the job because I love learning, and I think it’s really cool to get to learn a little bit about many topics.
What advice would you give for someone seeking a position in this field?
One important thing that I believe many graduate students interested in consulting don’t realize is that getting a Ph.D. does a lot to prepare you for consulting. Throughout your graduate studies, you develop the skill sets required such as managing projects, collaborating, being organized, problem solving, critical thinking and many more. Highlighting these skills in your application goes a long way to show that you’re a qualified candidate.
In addition, networking is key. Take advantage of your UNC connections and GBCC alumni. And don’t underestimate cold LinkedIn messages.
Lastly, one big piece of advice I would give is that it is a good practice to identify firms you’re interested in applying to and making a list of “must haves’ and ‘nice to haves’ to better understand what you expect from your future workplace. Consulting can be a tough career, so it is crucial to make sure you have a good work environment.
Thanks to Megan for spending time with us to learn more about her experiences! If you’re interested in following her footsteps, you can visit the website of the GBCC or reach out to her over LinkedIn.