Member Spotlight: Donald Ng — Consultant

Donald Ng and is currently on his second term as a consultant at 180 Degrees Consulting Waterloo. A fun fact about him is that he really enjoys watching the Raptors! He likes to manage his time by grinding and getting his work done earlier in the day so he has time to watch all the Raptors games he can.

1. As a consultant at 180 Degrees Consulting Waterloo, what are some of your responsibilities?

Some of my responsibilities as a consultant at 180 include collaborating with other consultants on my team to brainstorm innovative ideas, conducting insightful research, actively participating in (often intriguing) weekly discussions, and creating impactful client deliverables.

2. What are some notable highlights during your time with us?

Although people say that age is only a number, one thing that I never thought I would have been able to do as an 19 year old undergraduate student is to provide recommendations and solutions to the heads of organizations who are double if not triple my age. The craziest part is that many of these clients either come back or refer other organizations to us at 180 because our work truly is impactful. Aside from the work that I do as a consultant, I have really enjoyed connecting with others at 180 and getting to know them better as people.

3. What do you think are the most important skills for success in your role?

One critical skill required for success as a consultant is definitely time management. Whether you happen to be on a study term or a co-op term, as a consultant working on a high-performing team, you are expected to produce high quality work on time every time. Another important skill that can really help you as a consultant is clear communication. Whether that means verbally communicating the contents of your deliverable to your client during a presentation or even writing in such a way that when another consultant reads over your work, they are able to easily understand your ideas.

4. What are some skills you were able to improve upon since joining?

I was able to develop a number of technical and soft skills since joining 180 Degrees Consulting Waterloo. For example, I have learned how to break down and communicate problems in a clear and methodical way. This has been extremely helpful in my role as a consultant as it has made my research process much more systematic and efficient, and consequently, helped others see the logic behind my ideas much more easily. Another skill that I have been able to develop is facilitating discussions in such a way that sparks innovative ideas that the team is then able to work off of. This has been extremely beneficial in ensuring that our team’s weekly discussions are not only fun but impactful as well.

5. What advice would you have for those who are looking to join 180 Degrees Consulting Waterloo in the future?

The two most important parts of the consultant application process for someone looking to join 180 Degrees Consulting are the behavioural and case interviews. One piece of advice that I would give to anyone looking to ace these interviews is to be as clear and concise as possible when speaking and presenting. It does not matter how great your ideas are if our team is unable to understand you. We pay special attention to these qualities because we know that it is something that our clients look for as well, when we are presenting to them. Good luck to everyone applying!