Eleonora joined BCG as a Junior Consultant in 2006. Prior to joining BCG she worked as a research Fellow in Biomedical Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Eleonora has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and post-graduate degrees in Applied Statistics and in Information Technology from ETH, and an MSc in Chemical Engineering from Politecnico of Milan.

After completing my Ph.D., having spent almost 10 years in academia, I felt the desire to broaden my horizons and step into the business world. However, leaving the world of research was at first daunting, as I was afraid to lose all I loved about my Ph.D. years: the chance to satisfy my curiosity, be confronted with fascinating research issues and develop an independent, free-thinking approach. Then I joined BCG and discovered that I could have all of this and much more. Since joining, I have worked on a variety of projects from optimising the combination of drugs during anaesthesia to optimising human resources across the branch network of a retail bank. The problem may change, but the approach to solving it remains as stimulating and rewarding as it was in academia. Coming from a non-traditional background, I was concerned that my lack of commercial experience could have put me at a disadvantage. In fact this was quite the opposite, I realised that working with team members from a broad range of backgrounds is one of BCG’s key strengths. The mix of experiences and nationalities creates an extremely stimulating, enriching working environment and enables us to approach problems from unconventional perspectives, finding the right balance between creativity and analytical rigor. I was surprised by how much I could contribute from day one. Further, BCG’s extensive training programme has allowed me to quickly build up my business knowledge and as training is continuous I am constantly pushing myself further and growing. Whatever my specific interests or needs, I can always get the right training, at the right time, from the top experts in the field. With BCG, I feel I am able to create value for the client and have an impact day to day, while at the same time I never stop learning and developing. BCG definitely matches the freedom of thinking, intellectual challenges and continuous learning I could find in academia, and completes them with an exposure to a variety of industries, challenging business situations, and outstanding clients. For me, moving from academia to BCG was a big step, but certainly the right one.