Owl Have You Know

Pivoting with Purpose feat. Will Eldridge '17

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Episode notes

Owl Have You Know is pleased to welcome “twice-Rice” grad Will Eldridge – a consultant at Bain & Company and the president-elect of the Rice Business Alumni Association Board.  


Will earned his Bachelor of Science in Civil & Environmental Engineering at Rice in 2017. But after an unforgettable experience in MAcc program director Ben Lansford’s class, he decided to pivot to accounting. Will went on to work at Deloitte as a senior auditor for oil and gas clients, before deciding to go back to school again for his MBA at Chicago Booth. 


Will chats with Owl Have You Know guest host Brian Jackson ‘21 about his winding career path from accounting to strategy consulting, the importance of mentorship, and why board service has given him a way to give back to his community in fulfilling ways. 


Episode Guide:

00:53 Will's Favorite Career Pivot

02:00 Impact of Ben Lansford

03:22 Choosing Rice and Career Path

05:05 Experience at Deloitte

08:11 Transition to Consulting

09:46 Volunteering and Alumni Networks

15:30 Consulting Challenges and Skills

18:10 Personal Background and French Heritage

20:39 Commitment to Rice Business

23:33 Advice for Future Business Students

25:01 Classic Cocktails and Conclusion


Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.



Episode Quotes:


Ben Lansford and MAcc program’s impact in Will’s journey from engineering to accounting

01:48: [Brian Jackson]: Tell me about Ben Lansford. What type of impact did he have on you? Are there any memories from your time in the program that really stick out?

01:56: [Will Eldridge]: Yeah, of course. Ben is this amazing dad figure for a lot of us who found our way to the MAcc. I say that because he has these great dad jokes, but he also helps a lot of people find their way and is someone who has made accounting, which gets a bad rap in a lot of circles, you know, the favorite class that some people take. [02:26] And, you know, when they announced bringing this program back to Rice, there were no current or former students to speak to, but Ben Lansford had been hired. And I got coffee with him, I remember, and started talking about the program, the opportunities. And it was just a great connection that I know he's made with a lot of the students going through the program, and he really helped me understand how I could marry my current background with a master's degree in accounting and make that transition despite having not lot of accounting experience yet and gave me that confidence to make the transition.



After realizing that accounting wasn't his long-term goal, Will pivoted to strategy consulting.

I figured that I loved the client service aspect of the job I was in. I, at some point, figured out the accounting and financial reporting path wasn't what I wanted to do long term, but I wanted to stay in client service. Did some exploring, I actually circled back to the Center for Career Development at Rice, reaching out to them to talk about different paths to explore and spoke to some other alums. Figured out I wanted to go into strategy consulting, so, a bit more of results-oriented work in some ways but keeping that analysis piece that I had learned as an auditor when we're looking at trends. And with that, I figured out the best way to do that would be to go to business school to set myself up for that recruiting process and eventuality.



The power of empathy in consulting

19:10: [Brian Jackson]: What skills do you really draw upon to buy that credibility with your clients?

19:16: [Will Eldridge]: For one, approaching whatever you're presenting to them with a mindset of context reset, you're deep in the details, and it's hard to sometimes pull up and look at the work that you're presenting and remember the limited context that your client might have and how much else they have going on. So, there's definitely a level of empathizing that is really critical. And so, to put yourself in their shoes and think, you know, what are they coming at this from? What do they care about? What do they need to get out of this? And what is the one or two things they should take away from this conversation is a good frame of mind to take.



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