About Nikolaj U. Madsen
How did you land the job at Deloitte?
I was introduced to Deloitte and the F&P Finance offering (previously called CFO Services), where I work now, through student events facilitated by Deloitte. I also participated in their mentor programme. As a student, you get a mentor, who is a Deloitte employee from the offering you are interested in. At the same time, you are part of a mentee group consisting of students from different universities and fields of study.
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It was a great opportunity to have 1:1 sessions with my mentor and be able to ask all the questions I had before joining Deloitte. It gave me great insight into how it is to be a consultant, especially a consultant in the F&P Finance offering. The mentorship was not all about Deloitte; it also contained sparring related to, for example, master thesis writing, electives and whether there were other industries that were a better fit for me and my interests.
I am very happy to work here, and I learn new things every day as I am surrounded by people who have worked within the industry for many years – and everyone is willing to pass on their experience and knowledge. I have yet to be in a situation where I asked someone for sparring or help, and they said they do not have the time for it.
Deloitte is a very professional firm with a fast-paced environment – if you choose so. For example, I have chosen to put in more working hours since I joined, which has been my way of dealing with the COVID-19 situation as it made me kind of forget about the circumstances we faced. As I am also new to consulting, part of the decision was, of course, also to intensify my own learning curve.
How would you describe your role at Deloitte?
I have just started my sixth project during my time at Deloitte. On the projects, I have covered two different types of roles: The first is a project-based role, meaning that we help clients on a short-/long-term basis on a project with a specific end date or a specific product deliverable. When reaching that, the role will not exist anymore. The second covers interim positions. This means that we fill a position for a determined period of time if a client experience employees resigning or going on sick leave or maternity/paternity leave. We fill the position until the client has found a new hire, or the employee on leave returns.
An interim position gives us great insight into the client’s organisation. It is an opportunity to be part of the client teams. We are there to take some of the workload off their shoulders. We are there to help them, to assist them in their daily operations, and whenever/wherever it makes sense, we help optimise the existing processes.
Participating in the Deloitte mentor program was a great opportunity to have 1:1 sessions with my mentor and be able to ask all the questions I had before joining Deloitte. It gave me great insight into how it is to be a consultant, especially a consultant in the F&P Finance offering.
What kind of projects have you been part of?
On the most recent project, I helped a company within the private equity industry implement a new ERP system. I acted as extra manpower as the client was busy running the daily business. If the client should handle the implementation alone, it would have to hire a new employee. Since the implementation took only five months, hiring a new employee would not necessarily make sense; what would that employee work with after the implementation? Instead, the client hired us as we also brought in system-specific know-how and experience from prior ERP implementations.
In the process, we have worn many hats. Among others, we were responsible for facilitating workshops to gain insight into the client’s business, we assisted with project planning, system design, reporting configuration and data migration, and we performed process mapping.
On this specific project, we did not own the implementation, and therefore decisions were not to be made by us without sparring with the client. Instead, we helped the client become able to sign off decisions themselves.
How would you describe the company culture at Deloitte?
Of course, the culture is very professional as you are surrounded by many smart people, but more than anything, it is a workplace where you experience strong relations with your colleagues. I already learnt about the friendly atmosphere during the mentor programme. When my mentor saw his colleagues, it was not just a simple hello; it was always with a big smile, maybe a hug, and not least a true interest in one another.
I was lucky to experience the social interaction before starting at Deloitte, and after starting at Deloitte, I can only confirm it. Especially during the lockdown period, I spent quite some time with my colleagues. Many of them have become my friends now, and I prioritise spending time with them.
What personality traits have the best people you have worked with in common?
It would definitely be that they have an interest in me on a personal level. Showing interest makes people feel that they are part of a team; it produces trust – and when I trust someone, and they trust me, I perform much better.
It is also great to be around people who are passionate about what they do, whether it is at work or in relation to their hobbies. I think it is much more fun to be around people with other hobbies than myself. When people talk about their hobbies, you get to see a whole new side of them. At Deloitte, you will find many kinds of people, which is something I value highly.
Covering an interim position gives us great insight into the client’s organisation. It is an opportunity to be part of the client teams. We are there to take some of the workload off their shoulders. We are there to help them, to assist them in their daily operations, and whenever/wherever it makes sense, we help optimise the existing processes.
Do you have any advice for graduates?
We have a lot of student events across Deloitte’s different offerings, so if you have just the smallest interest in or amount of curiosity about how it is to work at Deloitte, apply for some of the events. It will give you great insight into how we work – not only in F&P Finance but also at Deloitte in general. We also take a very active role in reaching the students at the universities; you just need to have your eyes and ears open.
If you have any questions, you are more than welcome to reach out to me with questions on LinkedIn.
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