Written by Consultancy.co.uk
For the past three months, Max de Jong has been running as a Consultant at The Next Organisation. "An excellent place to gain experience within a variety of projects," says Max. He shares his first experiences.
Max de Jong laid his academic foundation at VU University Amsterdam, where he obtained a master's degree in Business Administration (Strategy & Organisation) in 2020. Earlier, he completed a bachelor there with the same specialisation. After his studies, he started his career at a startup, where he worked as a PMO Consultant for almost two years.
In that role, he was involved in an IT transformation programme at a large Dutch telecoms organisation. "In this role, I learned how to manage a programme within a dynamic IT environment," says Max.
After that, he was keen to "try something new". He joined one of the Big Four firms, where he was part of the Commercial Due Diligence team. "In this role, the focus was on performing strategic work - such as competitive or market analysis - for both private equity and corporate clients in acquisition projects," he says.
Last May, Max decided to move to The Next Organisation (TNXTO), a strategic consultancy specialising in commercial transformation and innovation. TNXTO helps many clients at home and abroad to renew and optimise their business models. Max has now been working as a Consultant for three months.
In this new role, his previous experience gained comes in handy, he points out. "Both project-based work and strategic work underpin the assignments we do here. In addition, I see new things every day and continue to learn constantly in the projects and from the people around me."
He also likes the switch from a big firm to a smaller player. "At a boutique, you get the chance to develop quickly on different types of projects, and that also specifically attracted me to TNXTO."
"For example, I am currently working on three different projects here, all three with completely different terms of reference in varying industries," he explains. "So I am learning various skills at an accelerated pace, while also learning about all kinds of industries. This variety also keeps the work very dynamic."
Finally, he enjoys the family-like corporate culture that prevails within the agency. "The organisation is very horizontal. Everyone is very approachable and set up to be ready for each other; so you can feel that in the atmosphere in the office."