Careers in Consulting - Interview #2

Junior, Associate, Consultant, Manager – many consulting firms offer a standardized, structured career path. In practice, that is rarely the case, and it doesn’t always fit the reality of employees’ lives. In our interview series “Career Paths in Consulting”, Andreas Deuerling (HR Manager at firstwaters) offers a look behind the scenes, using real characters from the consulting industry as examples.

ANDREAS (HR Manager)
Daniel, your path to firstwaters wasn’t the classic direct entry. How did you first come to the company?

DANIEL (Senior Consultant)
I had spent several years at a large consultancy before that: classic consulting, broad topics, a good school. What attracted me to firstwaters was its specialized focus on the financial sector. At that time the company was still considerably smaller, around 45 employees, so a completely different environment from today. I joined in July 2017 and started on a project in Vienna on my very first day. No soft landing, right in the thick of it.

ANDREAS (HR Manager)
How did your first years at firstwaters develop?

DANIEL (Senior Consultant)
Very intense, and with great depth of content. I spent over a year and a half on a larger project in the cooperative banking sector (Genossenschaftsbanken), followed by another year and a half at an international direct bank. After that came shorter, very varied assignments with different clients in the German and Austrian banking landscape. Thematically, it always fit, and I could contribute my expertise where it counted. In between, I also had the chance to take a six-month sabbatical, a deliberate break that firstwaters made possible.

ANDREAS (HR Manager)
In 2022 you left firstwaters. What was the main reason back then?

DANIEL (Senior Consultant)
It wasn’t dissatisfaction with firstwaters, but rather the need for a new challenge: a different industry, different topics, a somewhat different role. I simply wanted to break out of the familiar pattern and see what was happening elsewhere. I think that’s a legitimate wish, and not a sign that anything had gone wrong.

ANDREAS (HR Manager)
You then moved to another company. What awaited you there?

DANIEL (Senior Consultant)
A completely different world, in a positive sense. I started as an external consultant in requirements engineering at a large corporation outside the financial industry. Later I moved to the internal (client) side and worked there as a Product Owner. What surprised me: I could apply far more of my existing skills than I had expected. The role involved a lot of stakeholder management and project steering. Different topics, a different industry, but similar mechanisms at their core. For three years, it was a valuable experience. But at some point I felt I needed a new challenge, and so my time there came to a natural end.

ANDREAS (HR Manager)
How did the comeback at firstwaters come about?

DANIEL (Senior Consultant)
At the end of 2025 I first took a second sabbatical: a deliberate pause, a time of reorientation. During that phase it became clear to me what I had been missing: hands-on work, proactively uncovering pain points, direct influence on results. Less focus on processes and stakeholder coordination, more depth of content. And then, of course, there was the thought: if I go back into consulting, then only to firstwaters.

Contact was re-established quickly. At the start of the year we exchanged a few emails, and after a few conversations it became concrete: fast, uncomplicated, on equal footing, exactly as I remembered it from my first time at firstwaters.

ANDREAS (HR Manager)
Is that an unusual career path for the consulting industry?

DANIEL (Senior Consultant)
For the industry, yes. For firstwaters, honestly, no. There is a small but real tradition of returnees at firstwaters: people who left, gathered other experience, and then realized that this is something special. I’m not the first, and probably won’t be the last. I think that says a lot about the culture. There is no resentment, no awkwardness. The door stays open for people who fit the team personally and professionally, regardless of the paths they have taken in between.

ANDREAS (HR Manager)
What does your return look like in concrete terms, and what are you planning for the future?

DANIEL (Senior Consultant)
Since my return I’ve been working directly with a new client, where I can put my expertise to perfect use. What has changed: I now bring considerably more experience, not only professionally but also personally. Mentoring younger colleagues and passing on experience was never a conscious role for me before. Now it is. The triad of domain expertise, methodology and technology is the foundation that sets firstwaters apart. I want to develop it further and now also pass it on, including at the interface between business and technology. It feels like the right next step.