A Summer at OC&C Strategy Consultants (Podcast)

OC&C Strategy Consultants is the fast-growing pure-play strategy house everyone is talking about. In this episode, we’re talking with a former intern/current consultant (Lexa) and a current intern (Justin) to hear the inside scoop on life, work, and play at OC&C.

What other firm flies its entire staff to Puerto Rico for a weekend of fun or to Portugal for a week of training and fun? That’s OC&C for you.

The firm – with 500+ consultants globally and 100 in the U.S. – is looking to add to its headcount. Learn more and apply today.

Additional Links:

• Learn more about careers at OC&C
• Follow OC&C on LinkedIn

Transcription: A Summer at OC&C Strategy Consultants

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Lexa and Justin, we want to welcome you both to the Strategy Simplified podcast! Thanks for being with us today.

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Thanks so much for having us.

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Thank you. Thanks.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

We are looking forward to learning more about each of you as individuals, about your firm, OC&C, and the opportunity that you both have had to be an intern with OC&C. Justin, we would love if you could kick us off here. Before we dive into the core of that content. Could you just share a brief overview of your background and why you’re going through the path of pursuing management consulting?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Yeah, that’s great. I’d love to. So I’m a rising senior at Penn where I study economics and minor in sustainability management. And I actually chose to pursue consulting after an experience I had last summer with investment banking. So there were a few things I really liked about the internship I did. I loved the ability to develop my research skills, I loved learning about an industry I had known nothing about. I loved working with motivated coworkers in that sort of fast-paced environment.

But it also made me realize a few things and made me realize that I wanted somewhere where I could use a bit more creativity and people skills. So, after some research, some talking with older friends, I felt that management consulting would really offer me all of this and then some.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Justin, I am going to actually double click on that for a second. I’m sure many in our listener base, are curious and thinking themselves about i-banking versus consulting. So that, you know, not to diminish that line of work at all, but can you speak just a little bit more to what you experienced in and what you just termed as perhaps a lack of creativity? What was your experience in i-banking? And given the fact that you’re right now in management consulting, what’s the difference there as you see it?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Sure. So I think the main difference that I could see is, over my 10 weeks that I spent in banking, I could already see getting used to some of the processes that I was working on. And I sort of felt that over time in a career, this could get a little mundane. And I felt that something like strategy consulting, and what I found this summer is truly that even within one four week project, things are always evolving. Your role is always evolving. And then also I can see that as I’m constantly switching projects, that same thing is true where I I really can’t see myself getting bored at all.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Absolutely. Thanks for expanding there. Love it. Lexa. We’ll pass the mic over to you. Could you share a little bit about your background?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Sure. Well, mine is certainly quite different than coming from investment banking. I actually worked primarily in the nonprofit and art space prior to coming into consulting, and did a number of internships in that space during college. And I really realized how beneficial it would be for me to have a broader business background to help shape the arts. And so my goal became to learn as much business vocabulary and hard skills as possible.

And so I felt consulting was the best path for really two reasons. One being that firms can invest in your training and development, just in a way that other organizations can’t or don’t, especially in the case of nonprofits that don’t have the resources. And secondarily that working on a different project every month or so, gives you just such an immense breadth of experiences and so much exposure that’s hard to find anywhere else.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

I could not agree more, right? Consulting is a team based sport. We get to try lots of different things. But curious now to hear from you both luck. Lexi, we’ll start with you a little bit more maybe why you chose OC&C. And as you talk about that, would love to, for the uninitiated, just share with our listener base more about the firm, and what type of work that you do.

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Absolutely. So OC&C is a strategy consulting firm, and I want to emphasize the word strategy there. So we don’t do much implementation work, which kind of differentiates us. You typically won’t find us traveling for long periods of time, or getting our hands too deep into the day to day. So instead, we focus more on strategy, the the cerebral or analytical work, digging deep into the business, and really working alongside the executives to develop their future plans.

So in terms of what that means for our projects, they’re usually a little shorter, and arguably a little higher impact than most. So we do some transactional work as well. Some due diligence for institutional investors. But our strength and emphasis is on the strategy work. In terms of the different sectors that we work in, wo we are rather specialized there as well. We do retail and leisure, we do consumer goods, tech, media, telecom and B2B services. Notably excluded from that list is government work, financial services, and oil and gas, which again, is a differentiator for us. So slightly more consumer facing, in my opinion, slightly more interesting.

And so those sectors really resonated with me. But worth mentioning also, that you don’t actually specialize in these sectors until the Senior Consultant level. So for the first four to five years here, you will actually get exposure to all the different sectors. And our projects tend to be one to two months, average team size of five to 10 people. But of course, that varies. But you tend to get a very great breadth of experience.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

And even as you ran through the industries there, I heard you say leisure, right, which is an indicator and a point towards the fact that this is a UK based firm. Although both you, Lexa, and Justin, are US based in your work. Do you happen to know anything about the the split of your colleagues in the US versus internationally for us sitting here in the US at least?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Yes, absolutely. So we’re just about to hit the 100 people mark in the US office, which is an exciting milestone. And we’re about 500 globally, I think we’re about 200- 300 in London, which is our headquarters.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Fantastic. And Lexa, how did you hear about OC&C for the first time?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Yes. So I went to Columbia, and OC&C recruits heavily at Columbia and a number of other schools. So I actually just bumped into someone at a career fair and he ended up being my manager when I was an intern the following year. So kind of the traditional career exploration path.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Fantastic. And we’re gonna get to hear a little bit more from you later about why you chose to stay on past your internship. But, Justin, I want to make sure you get in here as well. How did you first get exposed to OC&C? And why did you choose to come on with the firm?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Sure. So the on campus recruiting for OC&C at Penn is not as strong as it is, or not as prevalent as it is at Columbia. So if I’m being completely candid, the way I first came in contact with OC&C was simply Googling consulting firms, and more specifically strategy consulting firms. And there were really two main things that kind of stuck out to me about OC&C. The first was how quickly it was grown in the US. Like Lexa mentioned, we’re about to reach the 100 person mark.

And I just think that’s such an exciting opportunity for your job to evolve as quickly as the company is scaling. And then after that, after reaching out and speaking to some people that OC&C, a second thing that really stood out to me was the culture of mentorship. So at Penn, if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s definitely that no matter how talented or smart someone is, everybody is going to need to be supported in some way in order to be successful.

And I really wanted to make sure that I was joining an environment during that transition period where I would have someone to lean on as a mentor, but also would offer me the opportunity to, at some point down the line, be that mentor for someone else. And everyone I spoke to just emphasized that culture here at OC&C. And that’s something that I’ve seen is true. And that was something that was really exciting for me.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Can you tell us, Justin, then a little bit more about that recruiting process that you went through? What were the steps? The difficulty level? This is recent for you, it should be still pretty memorable.

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Yeah, definitely. So for OC&C, there were three steps in the recruiting process. The first was the online application, and that was in September. And that’s where you submit your resume and cover letter, pretty normal stuff there. Then the first round of interviews was two interviews, each with a short behavioral and a short interviewee led case component. And then for the second and final round, those were also two different back-to-back interviews, each with a behavioral and a case. But this time that was led by partners.

And I think something interesting to note there was that those cases felt much more personal to those interviewers. They seemed really tied to those partners’ real world experiences, which I think could seem more challenging. But it was also a bit more exciting, because by the end of the case, the partner was able to explain to me what they actually end up doing in the real world. And during the case, you could just see his eyes light up and say, oh, yeah, we felt that too. But actually, this was what happened. So it was a bit more interesting in that sense.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Justin, or Lexa, if you could speak to this. I know that here coming up soon, we’re going to have a live case from an OC&C partner, which will help showcase the firm’s specific recruiting approach as it comes to casing. Was there anything that stood out to either of you in an OC&C case as opposed to another firm that you recruited for?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

One thing I distinctly remember was that my OC&C interviewers tended to push me a little bit beyond what I experienced in other interviews in that, I think in other interviews, often I would share my response, and they would say, okay, and move on to the next question. I remember on OC&C interviews, oftentimes, they would say, Well, why do you think that? Can you dig a little deeper? Is there anything else that comes to mind?

And so they would push me to think further. And I think at the time, I thought that that was a negative thing. And that is kind of intimidating. But I think it actually just speaks to kind of the rigor of thought that they want to see coming out of their candidates. So just something to keep in mind that you might see.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Perfect. Lexa, could you tell us a little bit more about the summer internship process at OC&C? How is it structured? What type of work are the interns doing? Are you really getting to experience the full role in the industry?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Sure. So for context, I interned and then accepted the return offer. So can speak to both the internship experience and how that translates to your full time role. So our internship program is eight weeks long. We have a week of training followed by two projects. Ideally, we try to squeeze two different experiences in there so that interns get the opportunity to work with two different teams, potentially on two different sectors, and really get a taste of what the different types of projects here look like.

And I can attest, the interns certainly are treated here the same as a new undergraduate hire. The training is very, very similar. And from day one of the internship, you are encouraged to be a full fledged team member contributing to the work and participating in team meetings. We actually look for interns to speak up in team settings and share their findings, certainly not sit in the corner and do this analysis.

So we try to make sure that our interns get to try a little bit of everything, including tuning into expert interviews, taking notes, and even sometimes asking questions and leading interviews, performing discrete Excel analyses, and then helping to slide that up and make a presentation out of it. As well, as I said, contributing to team to team meetings and those answer developing sessions that we do.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Sounds like the full breadth of responsibilities of the work. Absolutely. And then Lexa, a few minutes ago, you shared some of the standard generalities in terms of team size and structure and the type of work that you do, but Justin, we would love to really hear an example of what that’s like in the real world. So would you be able to share from one of your experiences this summer a little bit about what type of client were you working for, what’s the problem you’re trying to solve, the makeup of the team, etc?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Sure, definitely. So the first project I was staffed on this summer was a pricing and packaging case for a B2B media company that had recently completed a number of acquisitions. And they were basically thinking about how to build bundles, combining products from these different businesses. So the team that I was working with was made up of four partners, and associate partner, two consultants, two associate consultants, and then myself and one other intern. And what I was doing was I was working directly with one of those consultants on the team on the customer interview workstream.

So we were conducting interviews with our client’s customers, across different industries and geographies, to understand their key purchasing criteria and pain points. And then we were using those interviews to identify different customer segments that differed in those areas. So that eventually the goal was that packages can be designed to address each segment’s needs. And then in addition to that, there were two other work streams on the project. So there was internal analysis, and then also competitor analysis.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

At what level does an OC&C consultant own their own work stream?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Yeah, so one of the most impressive parts to me was that I could see myself evolving in that ownership, even throughout the short four weeks that I was on the project. So at the beginning, like Lexa mentioned, I was scheduling interviews and taking notes and sitting there and then talking about the analysis afterwards, talking about the things I heard. But by the end, I was really taking ownership and leading those customer interviews myself. So that was something that was really exciting for me.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Is that project concluded, Justin? How long was it overall?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

So it’s not. I believe the project itself was a few months long, because it was one of those longer strategy projects. But I was on it for four weeks, just so I could get a taste of something else afterwards. But by the time I had rolled off, we had presented our customer segmentation to the key stakeholders at the client. And then we had begun testing the different packages to get a sense of different appetites for different bundles.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

So you actually were able to be a part of that piloting process and get to test and learn in the real world, and see your recommendations really put into practice.

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Exactly. And it’s it’s great to know now that the consultants that are still on the case are sort of using some of the research that I did in creating those customer segmentations to then move on to the next phase.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

And what’s something that really sticks out to you from that project, either from your own personal impact or positive impact to the client?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

I think the thing that sticks out to me the most is what I mentioned about my evolving role even over those four weeks. So I mentioned earlier that I didn’t want a work environment where I could get bored. And I think when I was looking into consulting, I thought every month or two, I’ll be moving to a new project. When in reality, even when you’re on one project, your role is still evolving. So when the first week I was taking notes, and then discussing analysis. By the fourth week, I was leading interviews and making slides and then discussing with the team. So that was really exciting.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

So Lexa, I’m starting to understand that for the summer internship experience, it sounds like OC&C rolls on, and then rolls off consultants on projects. Maybe you aren’t there for the beginning, maybe you’re not there for the end, but you get a short experience over here, you get a short experience over there, you get some diversity. Is that type of team transition common as well in full time roles, or do consultants usually be a part of a project full time from start to finish?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

We certainly have consultants on the full project from start to finish, the great majority of the time. And some interns actually do get the full project experience. If their project is maybe three to five weeks, I think we’re speaking about a couple month long project that we try to splice it up a bit more. But we like to see projects from beginning to end. So you get to contribute to the answer across the full arc.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

I understand Lexa that you interned in 2019, is that correct?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Yes.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

So not only a different kind of world and time pre COVID, but would love if you could speak to that experience a little bit. What was one of the projects that stuck out to you, and what did you take from that experience?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Sure. So, one of the projects that I worked on was a merger of two large ice cream companies, which was a very cute topic to share as an intern. In terms of what I actually did on the project, a number of different things. I did some mystery shopping and actually working with scientists to determine the potential costs of ice cream. So we’re doing some competitor analysis, trying to determine whether competitors were cheapening the ingredients in their materials. So the scientists were actually in the UK.

And so I was liaising with them from the US with access to the ice cream market around here. And also did some social listening work. So this was something that I did closer to the end of the project. While I hadn’t gotten my feet wet and Excel a bit more and felt more comfortable doing Excel analyses. And I was asked to do a social listening project to try to determine if consumers were noticing that we thought some competitors may be cheapening their ingredients. And in terms of the methodology, it was actually very much left up to me to self direct by that point.

And I think that that was an exercise in taking leadership in a module or in an aspect of a module. So I came up with this plan to scrape Twitter for a number of years for a few different brands, and then do some analysis to determine whether that negative sentiment was rising over time. And so my, the associate consultant, or consultant that was managing me at the time, I was able to run the methodology by them, they signed off and then I had a week or two to kind of perform this analysis myself and present the slides to the team.

And I remember a partner remarking how helpful it was because it showed that people were in fact noticing that these competitors were cheapening their ingredients. So that was really fulfilling for me to kind of own that bit from start to finish, and have it actually be useful for the larger picture of the project.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

What a fun topic, and what great client impact as well. I’m sure that this project made a personal impact on you, given the fact that you decided to stay. So what really sticks out to you during that summer of why you chose to come back?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Absolutely. So for me, there are a few main draws, all that relate to the size of the firm. So as I mentioned, we’re about to hit 100 people. We are smaller than a lot of firms. And two main benefits of that. One is that the senior folks are really invested in your development. They know who you are, no one’s going to slip through the cracks in terms of development. And you are really staffed in a way that’s very specific to your development needs.

So we have regular conversations with our wonderful staffing director, she knows exactly what you’re working on. You know, if you haven’t been staffed on a certain sector, she will try to give you exposure to that. If there’s a partner you’d like to work with, she’ll try to work with you on that. So your professional development is almost guaranteed to be paid a lot of attention here. And I really liked that aspect. The other really great benefit of being a smaller firm is the personal element. So not only does everyone know who you are from a professional standpoint, but they know you. They know what your interests are in and out of work.

From day one, you’re treated and valued like an individual, not just another associate, or another intern. And if I ever need help or advice, I really feel that there are nearly 100 people I genuinely feel comfortable reaching out to. And so that level of personal intimacy in the firm is really, really great. That being said, we also have some benefits of a larger firm, which is that we do have a global network. And we do lean on our global network. We have all the infrastructure and resources that we need, given the size of the firm globally.

We get to travel to Europe for trainings, we can do ambassadorships in other offices. So we have some really great benefits of a larger firm, but the personal and professional benefits of a smaller one as well.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Of course we’re chatting here in the summer of 2022, this kind of pseudo weird post COVID era. So Lexa, you’ve talked about the US office a couple of times, can you expand just a little bit more about the different physical locations and OC&C in North America and it right now, what is your working situation? Is it all virtual? Is it hybrid in person, etc?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Yeah, happy to speak to that. So there are two North American offices. We have one in New York and one in Boston. I would say probably two thirds of our people are in New York in the US and the remaining 1/3 in Boston. Oftentimes we have cross office staffing between New York and Boston, I think mostly because of our size, we’re quite small at this point. So I know I have friends in the Boston office, and we sometimes will travel back and forth on occasion.

So all of our US events, our trainings are New York and Boston together. I imagine as we grow, we might become slightly more office focus as opposed to North American focus. But that’s the current standpoint. In terms of virtual versus hybrid. We are currently at a two day policy, so two days in the office per week. That being said, we’re often encouraged to come in as much as we would like. We feel that the best development often happens when we are physically in the same office. And so I know many, many people choose to come in more than that, just to get that better experience. But we’re supportive of two days a week.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

And so I take it that your interactions with the client are largely virtual.

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

I would say the majority at this point, yes. We are seeing a shift more towards in person. I actually spent a month in Washington DC in June working on client site. So there’s a good mix, but I would say we’re certainly leaning a little bit more towards virtual right now.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Well, I’m sure many in our listener base are interested to dive in even more, learn more about OC&C, the job opportunities that are available to join the firm. So in that spirit, Justin, I’m going to pass it to you here real quick. What do you think that an aspiring OC&C consultant can do to stand out in the recruiting process?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

That’s a good question. I think a lot of it comes down to practice, obviously, in terms of recruiting in general. But I think when I say practice, I don’t mean necessarily more understanding of business acumen or more understanding of math concepts. But what I really mean is being confident in your ability to perform on a case. Because I think as Lexa mentioned earlier, there will be times where you might be pushed to describe your thinking or go one step deeper, or brainstorm some other aspects that we might be able to look into. And I think just being confident in your ability to case, but also to speak to these types of subjects would really allow someone to stand out.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

And Lexa, appreciate any other thoughts you want to add on there, as well as what does an intern do to stand out during that summer so that they get a return offer?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Sure. So to the first point of what can you do to stand out in the recruitment process, don’t underestimate the value of enthusiastic interest in the firm. And so we notice who’s coming to our open houses, who’s coming to our events. And you know, who really is investing their time and learning about us and believes that OC&C is the right fit for them. That actually can often be kind of that last tipping point in saying, let’s give this person a chance. Let’s see what they can do. So just listening to this podcast is a great start in terms of familiarizing yourself with the firm. I

n terms of what summer interns can do to set themselves up to receive return offers. In my opinion, the most crucial thing is attitude, which is actually a lot more significant than it may sound in that what’s most important here is that you have work ethic and that you’re trainable. We don’t expect you to come in having all the answers. So what that means is being really responsive to feedback. It’s okay to make mistakes, we all do. And we just want to see that you’re learning from them. That you’re able to pitch in wherever needed, that you have enthusiasm for the work, you’re attentive and diligent. This all goes really, really long way.

For those that say, Well, that seems obvious. What else can I do? I think the next step is really trying to get involved in the project answer. And there are a couple of ways you can do this. One is in written communications. If you’re sending around an end of day email, or you’re sharing some findings with the broader team, you can take your analysis one step further. Let me give you an example. Instead of saying the main competitors here are X, Y, and Z, say well, it seems like the main competitors are X, Y, and Z. So I really think competitor Y is the biggest threat to our client for these reasons. So giving that broader analysis and tying it into the answer really stands out for interns.

And so you can do that in written communications or in verbal communication. So in these broader team conversations, like Justin said, jumping in and saying, Hey, I heard on this interview, an expert said X, Y, and Z, I think that the answer is this. That’s also very valued. So really feeling empowered to get involved in the project answer and converse with the team is another great way to stand out.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Well, of course, people who are interested can read more on the website, they can talk to current individuals at the firm. But as we close out our conversation here on OC&C, I wonder if you could each speak to some of those elements of firm culture and workplace culture that you think make OC&C unique and different. Lexa, I’ll pass this one to you first.

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Sure. Two things I’d like to mention actually. One is that it’s very easy to make your mark here and have your voice an opinion heard, again, speaking to our size. So in my first year, I joined three committees, the training committee, the recruitment committee, and returned to office committee. And so I’ve actually been able to shape the work environment here in a way that I imagined could be hard at a larger firm. And ultimately, that’s made me more proud of the organization that I work for.

And the other thing is, we have a lot of really fun social events and travel opportunities. So every summer we do a field day that I’m sure Justin remembers well. We have an away weekend. We went to Puerto Rico as a firm just for fun for a weekend a couple of months ago. On Fridays we’ll often have fun events once or twice a month.

And then we have an international training week, we’re going to Lisbon, Portugal, next month, the whole firm globally to get together for a week of training and fun. So there are a lot of opportunities to get to know people here. And it’s a very warm environment in which you can almost certainly find a few good friends.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Justin, would you double down on those? Is there anything else that stands out to you from a culture and work environment standpoint?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

I would. I think just one thing I want to highlight that was maybe a little surprising to me in a good way is how flat the structure seems when you’re in these sort of team meetings. I feel more than comfortable sharing my ideas to an associate partner or a partner as an intern. And I think that’s something so exciting, just because whether they agree or disagree is is a different conversation. But to get their feedback on my thoughts rather than feeling like I need to sit there quietly, is something that I think is super important and prevalent at OC&C.

And then just to echo the social aspects this summer, of course in the office has been a great experience. But also outside of the office is super fun. We had some of those events that Lex as mentioned. Even tonight, I have a big peer group dinner with the entire intern class. So just a super fun summer as well.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Love it. Well, a tradition that we have here on Strategy Simplified is to always get to know our guests a little bit better on a personal level. So for our wrap up, we’re just going to do a quick little round of questions here so that we can make sure that we understand a little bit more about who you are as people, not just as consultants. Justin, I want to go ahead and pass this to you first. What’s something that you’re enjoying right now? Something you’re reading, watching or listening to?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Sure. So this summer, I’ve definitely been getting into podcasts, the most recent one of which is a true crime podcast called Crime Junkies, which I love to listen to on my way to and from work. But it’s also a little bit embarrassing at certain points when I’m listening to it on the busy streets of Manhattan and someone rushes by and I jump because I’m scared. But definitely listening to that a lot this summer.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Gotcha. I can’t bring myself to do that. It just gets a little too close to home with that sort of stuff. Lexa, what about you? What’s something you’re consuming right now that you’re enjoying?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Yeah, so I’m reading two books right now, quite different. One is White Fragility, a wonderful book on critical race theory by Robyn D’Angelo. And the other is the children’s classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which is actually for OC&C book club this month, it’s a fun diversion.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Oh, super fun. Also, in terms of fun diversions, Lexa, what’s somewhere on your travel bucket list that you’re hoping to go to soon?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Yeah. Well, as I mentioned, next stop for me is Lisbon, Portugal for the international training week. So very, very excited for that.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Justin, what about you?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

So I’m currently planning that after graduation, next May a few friends and I’ll be going to Israel for birthright. So I’m speaking that into existence.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Absolutely. Oh, I’m sure that will be a life changing trip, for sure. And then Justin, who’s one mentor who’s had a high impact on your career so far?

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Yeah, so this is actually quite a while ago now. But I’d say my sixth grade English teacher, Mr. Parmigiani, was actually one of the first people to really emphasize the value of hard work. And I think I can attribute a lot of what I’ve been able to accomplish with that being instilled in me at such a young age.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

And Lexa. What about you for a life or career mentor?

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Yes, also an educator, but this one from college. This was my first year English professor who taught me to read and write critically, turning me from an economics major to an English major, actually. And those are skills that I use every day in communications.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Well, Lexa, Justin, we want to thank you both for taking the time to be able to speak with us today. It’s been a pleasure to learn more about you and OC&C.

OC&C: Justin McArdle 

Thank you so much.

OC&C: Lexa Armstrong 

Thank you, Stephanie.

MC: Stephanie Knight 

Thanks for joining us today. Please check out the links in the show notes to learn more about the firm, it’s open positions and how to apply. We’ll see you next time.