Unraveling the Vollardian Experience: An Internship Like No Other
Daily Structure:
Your days at Vollardian follow a familiar pattern: arrive at the office before 9:30am and kick off the day by setting some measurable goals that will hold you accountable by the time you wrap up. Your workday is filled with a variety of tasks and occasional moments for self-reflection. Like me, you might find yourself reevaluating your eating habits after realising that Woolies sushi has become your thrice-a-week lunch routine for an entire month. Finally, you'll typically leave the office around 5:30pm, but there's flexibility to accommodate your personal needs.
Understanding the Consultant's Role:
Now comes the difficult question of explaining what work a consultant does. It’s pretty hard to pin down exactly what a consultant does due to the nature of the work depending on what clients want, but here's my best attempt at explaining it. The type of work at Vollardian will mainly fit into the business functions of Sales and Operations with some Marketing thrown in every so often. In sales the majority of the work revolves around improving sales processes but can span all the way to product validation (where you test the market for a client's product). When it comes to the operations side this could be helping companies migrate payroll platforms to project managing the integration of newly acquired companies with their existing business.
The Power of Data:
Most of the work you do is underpinned by data both qualitative and quantitative. Yes yes I know “using data to enhance decision making” has to be one of the most said phrases ever but you learn to appreciate it because it enables you to provide hard evidence when presenting to clients. You’ll be using data whenever possible which’ll mean spending some time in Excel, google sheets and learning all the nifty tips, tricks and mistakes. You’ll also spend time learning how to create narratives and organise ideas into presentations to effectively communicate the work you’ve done to clients.
Team Dynamics and Growth:
As a small team overcommunication and openness is vital, you’re not given work and siloed away but instead guidance and help is always available. I’ve learned so much from how to manage different personalities, how businesses operate and importantly to appreciate feedback. You’ll definitely be pushed out of your comfort zone, whether that's by attending industry events to learn about new tech and meet new people, or being put in charge of office music.
What Makes Vollardian Special:
What has made working at Vollardian so interesting is getting to look behind the glitz and shiny exterior of companies and work on their really challenging problems. One of the things I've really come to value about how Vollardian works is our emphasis on not just formulating recommendations, but actually rolling up our sleeves and implementing the recommendations we make.
Being an intern at Vollardian, like any internship, has its ups and downs. However, amidst the challenges, you'll find laughter, personal growth, and great people. From table tennis tournaments to testing out new AI tools, every day brings something new and exciting.
