Within Colombus, I have the opportunity to work on internal company activities and that's very rewarding. For example, I've helped teams of students from a major Paris school conduct strategic studies on the media and the health system. This meant that I could step back from my work on projects and it was also my first experience of mentoring. I've also been heavily involved in recruitment, working in particular on the format of interviews, redesigning our evaluation reports and case study presentation.

Sometimes in our profession we work on sensitive issues. The projects change the organization of the work and that often affects employees. I remember one project that involved standardizing job descriptions to simplify a company's HR processes. With my boss, I interviewed the managers to gain an understanding of the business lines and that were causing concerns amongst the employees. We listened to them and provided the reassurance they needed to accept the changes and appreciate the benefits. Our work even led to three internal promotions. I love the satisfaction that comes from a job well done !

I work in the European and International Affairs Department of a major ministry. My manager and I have helped the head of department design and implement the French portal for the European Union's new framework programme. When we started, the project had stalled and that was causing tension. We aimed to come to terms with what was at stake and the complexity of the project as quickly as possible and launched a series of workshops to find out what wasn't working. This allowed us to find out what was going on from the people involved and give the project a clear goal. Our work bore fruit in just a few weeks and the website was put online within the specified timeframes.

I work primarily for clients in the energy and environment sector. I like being involved in the major changes facing businesses. For example, I worked on an environmental certifications project and had to consider the impacts on the business in five, ten and fifteen years to offer the client a lasting solution. I've enjoyed incorporating a systemic dimension into what I do through analysis of financial, technological and energy-related challenges. No matter what the assignment, I can also draw from our network of in-house experts and that gives me insight into the big issues of the future !