The Art of Consulting

Entry by Ashley Cashen, Talent Acquisition and Retention Coordinator, digitalKnowledge

This past week, Bart had the opportunity to not only take part in a client meeting but to also do some traveling with our Co-Founder and Vice President, Sean. With digitalKnowledge being a consulting firm, we made the decision early on that it was imperative that we expose our intern to the client side, not just the internal works. Bart traveled to a small town in Ohio and had the opportunity to observe, meet a variety of people, and get a taste of the art of consulting.

Bart shared his experience…

“Recently I was given the opportunity to attend my first client meeting! When I was approached I wasn’t sure where I would be heading, or what digitalKnowledge was doing for the client. I was excited for a few reasons. I was given the chance to see what consulting does first hand and I would get to see how consultants interact with clients. Most importantly this would all take place on my birthday.

We were heading to Versailles, Ohio to visit the client. Although the drive wasn’t thrilling, it still felt exciting to know that I was going to witness consulting at work. We eventually made it there and sat down for our first meeting. It was interesting to see how our Co-Founder and Vice President Sean Olssen interacted with the client and fielded their questions. I found out on the way there that the goal of the meeting was to figure out what we didn’t know about the project we were working on and who would be best to ask about these problems. From an outside perspective, this task seemed fairly easy to complete. I was definitely mistaken. It took a lot of effort and skill to ask the right questions to the right people. After we reached common ground we left the company and went to the only Inn around.

The Inn was fantastic. It had a small town feel with great food. The next morning we went back to finish up our meeting. I had the chance to meet a variety of people from different departments. During the meeting it was apparent that consulting is truly an art form and something that I will have to practice. We left the meeting on a good note with plenty of action steps for the majority of the members in the meeting. Part of the reason I looked into an internship with a consulting firm was to experience what consulting was at heart. Thankfully I was able to get my wish. I enjoyed my two day stay in Ohio and look forward to my next.”