Atmosphere that drives success – culture and hiring insights from J. Dadier, the Head of Recruiting & HR Marketing at BearingPoint Switzerland

Jacquie-Lou Dadier is the Head of Recruiting & HR Marketing at BearingPoint Switzerland.

In the frame of poly-E-fair, the virtual job fair of ETH Zurich, we interviewed Jacquie-Lou to get her insights into the details of the hiring process and the unique culture at BearingPoint.

Jacquie-Lou, do you like working at BearingPoint?

Yes, I enjoy working at BearingPoint for various reasons. First off, BearingPoint provides a dynamic and challenging environment, with great opportunities to develop personally and as a team. The daily recognition of your work and achievements is another reason why I like working for BearingPoint.  The effort I put into my work is acknowledged by the management and colleagues likewise, and makes me feel appreciated and valued. In BearingPoint, I always have the possibility to try new things, which allows me to push my boundaries and develop new skills. Another factor of motivation and joy is the great team spirit.  The size of the team [in Switzerland], which is of about 130 client-facing staff, encourages vivid and fruitful exchanges between teams and even business lines, and this makes daily interactions with colleagues and clients very easy.

“BearingPoint provides a dynamic and challening environement, with great opportunities to develop personally and as a team.”

Jacquie-Lou Dadier

Another thing I really enjoy are the regular after work events, organized by a dedicated committee within BearingPoint, which is a great opportunity to get to know your colleagues on a more personal level. These events add to the great company culture and atmosphere.

There are five core values for BearingPoint: commitment, stewardship, passion, teaming and excellence. What do they mean for you personally and how do you see them at play in your daily environment?

The five core values are not just words on a paper, but are actually lived in the company. Everyone, from the partners to the analysts, is  passionate about their work and eager to learn from each other. This promotes collaboration and trust between each other. We always strive for more, together, we motivate each other which allows us to reach even higher goals.

The interest of colleagues in what we do [as a team] is also very important. We receive great support from our consulting colleagues during our interview process and other recruiting activities which is very important and valuable to us in finding the perfect match of talents for our open positions and to fill our talent pipeline! 

“We always strive for more, together, we motivate each other which allows us to reach even higher goals.”

Jacquie-Lou Dadier

In terms of our daily tasks, we also feel supported. Our management leads by example and encourages all the employees to speak up about things that we may want to change in our daily environment, whether that is working on a new project, a new process or a new idea.  This unique working atmosphere is created by all colleagues together and gives BearingPoint an excellent reputation with our clients.

In many consultancies, you have a “grow or leave” culture, is this true for BearingPoint?

We offer our employees multiple routes to career development. Our career model highlights that growth does not only focus on hierarchical development, i.e. on becoming a partner, but also, that you can grow within your field of expertise. In this sense, BearingPoint provides a healthy environment where everybody can grow and deliver their best results without cultural pressure.

What are the entry points to BearingPoint?

If you have a bachelor’s degree, you start as an Business Analyst and with a master’s degree you start as a Junior Business Consultant. However I can say that our focus lies on hiring master graduates.

Do you have any internships?

We currently have pre-hiring internships in our banking and insurance teams published on our career site that you can apply for. Other than that, we also offer the possibility to complete an internship with us for a period of at least 6 months, if the current project situation allows it. By joining us as an intern or working student, we offer you exciting insights into the consulting industry, first project experience and a steep learning curve. 

Do you encourage job seekers to reach out to you proactively?

Sure! We are always looking for interesting profiles, especially from ETH.

What are other skills that are very important in your candidates?

A good culture fit is a very important aspect, since we are closely working together as a team. It is also advantageous if the candidate already has strong project management skills and, ideally, working experience from previous internships in other consultancies or industries. Obviously, the higher the level you apply for, the higher the requirements will be, but we are open to see candidates with different interesting backgrounds. In terms of language skills, you need to speak at least B2 level German or French, depending on the office location you want to apply for, Geneva or Zurich. However, I always encourage potential candidates to contact us by phone, social media or email and to send us their CV, so that we can check if we have a suitable career opportunity for them.

How should candidates prepare themselves for the interview process?

Show us that you did your homework and have interest and at least some basic knowledge about our company. You don’t need to know the financial statement by heart obviously, but it’s nice to interview candidates who show enthusiasm, ask questions and know why they would like to work for BearingPoint. Think about your strengths and weaknesses, and, even more important, what you can offer if you were to be hired for a job. Also, be authentic, don’t play a role, so we can get to know the real you.

What kind of student profiles do you want or expect to see at poly-E-fair?

We are looking for a variety of technical profiles, to enable us to push our business topics further. If you visit job offers on our website, you can check what kind of profiles we’re looking for. Particularly in our Data & Analytics / AI team we are looking for Machine Learning engineers, Data Scientists and Data Architects on a continuous basis.

Apart from poly-E-fair, what are your career events in 2022?

The BearingPoint Career Day takes place twice a year, during which recent master graduates (who have graduated within the last 12 months) are invited to get to know BearingPoint for an entire day, engage in different exercises such as solving a case study, interviews and to get an idea of what work as a BearingPoint consultant looks like. If it’s a match the participants receive a job offer the same day. Our next Career Day will take place on May 18, 2022. So, if you are ready for your career in consulting, apply now! 

Of course, we also participate in other career fairs around Switzerland at different universities and collaborate with university clubs, i.e. the ETH Data & Analytics Club. We also have a partnership with Career Lunch where graduates and young professionals can register to connect with one of our consultants in an informal setting during a 1h lunch break. Finally, we also have an informal event, a coaching session with one of our partners, who can guide you through the daily life of the company and answer your questions. A full overview of upcoming events can be found on our website.

Why are you happy working with BearingPoint in one sentence?

Exciting journey together with passionate  people!