"How do I land a role with a "non-traditional" background?" With Theo

Kate digs deeper into how Theo (HBA '25) leveraged his summer experience tree-planting to land his first corporate internship and plant the seeds for a full-time role at BCG.

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[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.]
Welcome to the Career Management Podcast, where we bring you stories and strategies from students,

special guests, and the Career Management team. As we get set up in the studio,

make yourself comfortable and let's get started.

On today's episode, we're talking with Theo, an Ivey grad, who landed a role at BCG leveraging his non-traditional work experience.

Every year, we have hundreds of students starting at Ivey, who have non-traditional backgrounds and work experiences from outside of corporate sector.

A common question that we hear in Career Management is,

"how do I land a business role if I haven't had that business internship or corporate experience?"

Good news! There often isn't one preferred or traditional pathway into most roles or most industries, but please do not take my word for it.

I'll hand it over to Theo to speak to the power of being unique and leveraging that non-traditional experience.

Theo, can you please introduce yourself? Yeah, for sure. Hi Kate!

Uh, I'm Theo. I just recently graduated from the Ivey Business School, um, in April, which is pretty crazy.

The two years went by really quickly. Uh, I originally came to Western, uh, for political science with early acceptance.

Um, didn't end up taking advantage of that dual degree, uh, but like you said, I'll be starting at BCG in January, actually.

So I have a little bit of time, uh, but yeah, super excited to be on and hopefully be able to share some,

some knowledge that I gained over the last two years of recruiting. Okay.

And Theo, let's talk a little bit more about, um, your educational background and, and what what made your route a little more non-traditional.

Um, what were you involved in in school, outside of school,

and what was the the non-traditional work experience you came to Ivey with?

Yeah, for sure. So I'm originally from Ottawa, um, but I want to go to Western because of that dual degree opportunity.

I knew I was interested in business; I started, uh, a small landscaping company in high school and really enjoyed that,

um, but I always had a strong interest in politics, um, so I really wanted to take advantage of that opportunity.

When I got to Western, I really... I was coming from, uh, you know,

I really didn't have much knowledge on kind of the different industries and different routes you can take in business.

My parents don't really come from business backgrounds. My mom works for the federal government.

My dad, uh, is actually an actor, so a very, you know, non-business-y family, I would say, um, but I came to school really excited to,

uh, to be able to be in these two different programs at the same time. Um, started to kind of just try out different things

and I think what I would say helped me a lot was I didn't necessarily have specific route I wanted to take.

I don't think I even knew what consulting was, uh, until at least second year.

Um, maybe, maybe even when I got to Ivey I still probably didn't have a great understanding of what consulting is really wise,

um, but that allowed me to kind of just try different things that I was genuinely interested in,

so I did some case competitions, which I would say is, you know, maybe more traditional consulting,

uh, pre-experience, but really didn't do that with the intention of, of going into that industry.

I just had a lot of fun with my friends competing in these competitions,

and I had some success in a couple of the first and second year competitions at Western.

I also joined, uh, a nonprofit volunteer group at Western, and met a ton of really nice people through that.

Um, and then outside of school, uh, I took on some different experiences during the summer.

I think the main experience that I would say, um, kind of pushes me into the non-traditional group, uh,

would be going tree planting at the end of my second year of university, which was a time when a lot of people who want to go into Ivey

uh, were starting to look for potential internships that would set them up well for third year recruiting.

Uh, and me and a couple of my friends decided to go tree planting, which definitely wasn't the most,

uh, you know, it wasn't the traditional route, but an experience that I really, really enjoyed,

um, and ended up being pretty useful, uh, in my recruiting journey later on.

Yeah, it's a bit of a, a brief overview, but happy to dive into anything else.

Yeah. So I have a thought and a question for you.

My first thought: I'm really glad you mentioned the piece of, like, using Ivey and those different opportunities as a way to explore.

I think people assume most students know what they want to do or have an end plan, when in reality, um,

I think most students don't, or are at least open to exploring the different opportunities

because it is hard to know exactly what you want to do before having exposure to it,

whether it be through clubs, case competitions, um, work experiences in the summer, or even access to to the types of postings that are on 12Twenty,

so I'm glad you spoke to that experience of, you know,

being open to exploring and really following the interests or the types of work that that felt cool to you at that time,

and also being open to it when it changes or when you discover new things.

My question for you: you mentioned you and your friends decided

to go tree planting. Why tree planting? What was the rationale behind that decision?

Yeah. Um, I wouldn't say there is a ton of rationale. I would say

uh, one of the main reasons I wanted to go tree planting, um, was because my, my parents had went tree planting when they were younger,

and they told a lot of stories about how challenging it was, how exciting, and how just, like, the sociability was really fun,

um, and I've always been someone who loves the outdoors, so I kind of want to test myself and see if I could do something that was pretty challenging.

You know, I had to move to BC, I had to camp for a summer, uh, and pretty much worked, you know, 10-,11-hour days every day outside,

so I think it was a really good thing to kind of challenge myself, push myself

outside of my comfort zone. Um, and then I also think, uh, another reason I wanted to do it was because,

uh, I've always been really interested and passionate about, uh, sustainability.

Like, in the long term, I would love my career to be at the, at the joint between business and sustainable initiatives.

So I think that was another kind of reason for it.

Uh, but I definitely didn't do it with the intention of being able to talk about it in interviews, uh, later on or anything like that.

But it ended up being pretty useful for that as well, so it worked out. For sure,

and also, when you mentioned your parents had done it, um, I know you mentioned your mom works for the federal government.

Uh, you know, when we're... if someone were to be interviewing with someone from the federal government,

they might not assume that someone has that background,

and yet your mom does! Like it's, it's interesting how these things can be something you have in common

um, and we, we want to be careful about making assumptions about what experiences people have or don't have.

So that's great. Um, how do you think that experience set you apart from other people in your networking experiences?

Yeah. I mean, I think, uh, to be completely transparent, I think coming into Ivey without, um,

some level of professional experience also posed challenges without a doubt.

Um, I think having tree planting definitely, you know, allowed me to, uh, stand out in coffee chats

and it was a really interesting talking point that a lot of people were just genuinely curious about, like, a lot of, uh,

recruiters or people working in industry just had never really heard of tree planting before,

so they just simply wanted to learn a little bit about it. So it made it a very easy kind of conversation starter.

I would say, though, coming in without, you know, uh, an internship my previous summer.

also (like I said) posed and challenges, but I think, uh, those challenges can be navigated as well.

Um, so yeah, I would say definitely helped me stand out in a lot of ways, but also kind of make things challenging because I didn't have kind of,

uh, a stamp of approval from another firm before recruiting into some of these very competitive positions.

So knowing that, you know, like you said, it was a little bit more challenging or certainly a different way of going about it,

how did you overcome that challenge?

Yeah, yeah, I remember I think coming into Ivey in September, I knew that the recruiting process in third year would be very tough.

I heard from some older students... my cousin actually went to Ivey, uh, a couple years ago,

so he kind of gave me a heads up that, you know, third year can be pretty overwhelming with recruiting.

Um, but I was I just was kind of very convinced that I could kind of out-work recruiting

um, if I put enough hours that the the outcome would be what I wanted

um, because I think that's often how, you know, we kind of we become accustomed to that through school.

You know, if you put a certain amount of hours into your studies, you usually get, uh,

some type of return in terms of your, your grades but recruiting is very different thing.

Uh, and I learned that very quickly because I was putting a ton of hours in, uh,

doing a lot of coffee chats, really trying to, uh, you know, do all the right steps

and I wasn't really seeing any type of return.

I remember from my first semester at Ivey, I didn't receive a single interview from any firm in any industry.

Um, and I think I always liked, uh, to tell that story to the younger students or people who re going through the recruiting process right now

uh, because that can be the harsh reality of recruiting. You can do everything right, and it can still not go your way.

Um, but I think what I learned through that process was... I knew my experience wasn't, uh, I knew I had strong experience,

I just didn't necessarily have, uh, some of the professional experience that some of these firms were looking for,

so I knew I to to play the game a little bit differently

and I think my advice for people coming with non-traditional backgrounds to Ivey would be to do the following things:

I think the first thing that I did that was really helpful was I really refined my resume, uh, with the help of Career Management.

Uh, shout-out to Sarah Willsey. She helped me a ton with my resume.

Uh, and that meant that the experiences that I did have that were valuable, um,

but like I said, non-traditional, uh, were framed in the best way possible.

Like, every sentence was impactful. Um, every sentence was transferable to the consulting industry.

Um, and that really helped to get my experience in the best place that it could be

um, because even now, when I look at, uh, the resume that I often see really,

really good experience that just isn't necessarily communicated in the best way.

So I think that's step number one for anyone coming from really any background,

but it's to get your resume and cover letter in the place that should be using Career Management and then your peers as well.

The second thing I think I did that really helped, uh, my,

my recruiting efforts was I realized that I probably wasn't where I needed to be right now, um, for some of the roles I wanted.

I knew that I lacked a little bit of business experience because I was coming from political science.

I didn't have any internships, so there wasn't a ton on my resume that showed that I had the business competencies, even though I knew,

I knew deep down I would do well, but, um, on my resume, I didn't necessarily have a ton that communicated that,

so I knew I had to shift my strategy a little bit and play more of a longer term game.

Uh, which is something I always recommend. Like recruiting really isn't just about your first HBA1 year.

I think it's an ongoing journey that you could, you know, push to

3 or 4 years down the line and still be able to get that role that you're going for.

Um, and the way that I kind of switched my mindset was I realized I had to be applying to firms that fit my experiences and fit my background.

So, um, um, I've been talking to a firm called Strategy Corp that did a lot of government consulting, a lot of public sector work,

and I obviously came from political science. Um, had shown that I could do well in political science in terms of my grades.

Um, and I think I kind of focused in on that firm to allow my experience to really align with that firm,

because I knew, um, they would be much more impressed and interested in the experience I did have.

And that was a really good, uh, really good summer, a really interesting internship.

I can I can keep going. I have a couple other points, but I know. Yeah, yeah.

No, no, please do like any other kind of tips or words of advice and, you know, not just in terms of the non-traditional but even that piece of,

you know, finding recruitment overwhelming or how.... how do you find the right thing?

Because I know we hear from lots of students who feel like they have to apply to everything, and there's just not enough time in the day to do that.

It's -- it's an overwhelming process, even when you're not applying to everything.

But yeah. Any other words of wisdom you'd like to share there Theo?

Yeah. So I think I think like I said, the, uh, the resume.... refine your resume is, is incredibly important.

So that's step one. Step two would be having kind of an honest assessment of your background and your skills,

because everyone has valuable experience and skills and trying to align them with firms that kind of would be also very impressed by that.

Um, the third thing I would say, I mean, I kind of touched on it already, but I think, uh,

I think really extending your, your horizons with, with recruiting will go a long way.

I remember in first year or sorry, my HBA1 year,

I was getting a little bit frustrated that I wasn't receiving interviews because

it's very easy to kind of internalize that and to take that personally when,

when interviews don't go well or if you're simply just not getting interviews.

Um, and I remember kind of making a mental note that I was going to, uh, the firm that I want to work at, which which was Boston Consulting Group,

I made the goal of trying to work there in the next five years, because I knew the internship

round I hadn't got an interview. Um, so I decided, okay, next five years, I really want to work here.

If it still makes sense, I'm going to work at the Boston Consulting Group. I think that really helped to change my mindset,

and it made recruiting a lot less overwhelming because it didn't feel like everything had to fall into place in the next 3 or 4 months

and over time, I slowly built my resume, um, and added experiences and added different, different things that really helped me stand out.

And I think that's the last kind of piece of advice I would have, is I don't think you have to feel like you need the best internship,

the best grades, the best extracurriculars. I think you want to instead focus on is trying to stand out in a couple different facets.

So for me, once I got some consulting experience through the, uh, through Strategy

Corp and their public sector team, um, that really helped improve my resume,

but then I think what also helped me stand out was I really tried to focus in on my academics at Ivey and do well,

um, and get, get strong grades, which showed some business, uh,

knowledge and understanding that maybe my resume didn't have 3 or 4 months earlier and just,

you know, a couple, couple things help you stand out can be the difference maker in terms of recruiting.

So that'd be my last thing. Don't, don't focus on trying to get better in every single aspect.

I think that's too overwhelming,

and just try to, uh, figure out a couple things you can add to your resume that will kind of get you to the next step.

Well Theo I know I always love hearing your stories,

the different experiences you've had and how you decided to put what limited time and energy you had into different buckets as you went,

um, and also the different resources that you used to support yourself and no doubt,

I imagine you were a support to others as you went, too. Thank you so much for taking the time to walk us through and share your story today.

Of course. Yeah, I had a really fun time and thank you for having me on, Kate. Thank you for watching.

If you'd like to see more podcast content, check out your Career Management Community on LEARN.

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Take good care.