- In Archive
- 2014-10-04 17:24:21
- 238 Views
Another event, brought by the AUBG Business Department, was a video conference with Rumy Jaleel-Khan, Senior Manager at Deloitte- one of the "Big Four" professional services firms along with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), EY, and KPMG. The event took place in BAC Auditorium this Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014.
Jaleel-Khan is originally from Sri Lanka, but during the past 15 years he has been living in the United States. He has been working for Deloitte for 12 years. In the beginning of the conference Jaleel-Khan introduced the structure of Deloitte. In the United States, there are four different practices in the company: consulting, tax work, financial advisory services, and audit and advisory. Jaleel-Khan works in the last one.
He described the different stages of working in Deloitte: first, joining the company as a consultant (field work and engagement), then, becoming a senior consultant (having more responsibilities, but no more than one-two projects at a time), becoming a manager (being able to work on several projects simultaneously), becoming a senior manager, a partner or a principal of the firm. "As you move through the different levels, your responsibilities change," Jaleel-Khan said. This is why it is important to understand how different positions function within the industry.
The guest speaker continued talking about working in the industry with an emphasis on change. He explained that most likely there will be more people who are negative towards change. "When you are making a change, it will not be a popularity contest. And if it fails, it fails," he said. He added that it is necessary to learn from the mistakes and go on. When consulting new clients, it is important to listen and understand what their expectations are and try to do everything to address those expectations.
After the lecture, the students had a chance to ask Jaleel-Khan questions about Deloitte and consulting. On a question, regarding problems with managing communication between junior employees and managers, the guest replied that the manager might not listen to the ideas of the employees if he thinks that the idea is wrong or has been given specific guidelines from his managers to follow a certain path. He might also lack motivation to put more time or effort into the project or the idea suggested by the employee.
In the end, Jaleel-Khan gave a tip to the students on how to meet deadlines: have milestones between the deadlines to make sure you are on track, and if not, make sure to bring additional resources to be able to meet the deadline.
He described the different stages of working in Deloitte: first, joining the company as a consultant (field work and engagement), then, becoming a senior consultant (having more responsibilities, but no more than one-two projects at a time), becoming a manager (being able to work on several projects simultaneously), becoming a senior manager, a partner or a principal of the firm. "As you move through the different levels, your responsibilities change," Jaleel-Khan said. This is why it is important to understand how different positions function within the industry.
The guest speaker continued talking about working in the industry with an emphasis on change. He explained that most likely there will be more people who are negative towards change. "When you are making a change, it will not be a popularity contest. And if it fails, it fails," he said. He added that it is necessary to learn from the mistakes and go on. When consulting new clients, it is important to listen and understand what their expectations are and try to do everything to address those expectations.
After the lecture, the students had a chance to ask Jaleel-Khan questions about Deloitte and consulting. On a question, regarding problems with managing communication between junior employees and managers, the guest replied that the manager might not listen to the ideas of the employees if he thinks that the idea is wrong or has been given specific guidelines from his managers to follow a certain path. He might also lack motivation to put more time or effort into the project or the idea suggested by the employee.
In the end, Jaleel-Khan gave a tip to the students on how to meet deadlines: have milestones between the deadlines to make sure you are on track, and if not, make sure to bring additional resources to be able to meet the deadline.