Transitioning from consulting Is easier than you may think

In October 2022, we spoke with Paul Ziesche, Executive Vice President at Generation Pledge, about his journey from consulting at McKinsey to developing strategy for an early-stage high-impact organization, and why he chose to leave. Paul is excited to meet fellow consultants who are considering similar career transitions.

We’d love to hear about your background!

After graduating from university in Germany, I worked at McKinsey for 3 years, leaving upon my promotion to Engagement Manager. I have always been focused on impact, hence I primarily worked on sustainability and ESG strategy projects. One of the main reasons I left McKinsey was my impression that it’s not possible to simultaneously optimize for societal impact and financial returns, and McKinsey usually chose to optimize for the latter.

In what ways did your experience at McKinsey provide you with what you wanted? In what ways did your experience differ from your expectations of consulting?

I joined McKinsey with the hope of contributing to a sustainable future for businesses. I would say that I left radicalized and disillusioned. I lost my trust in the vast majority of “sustainable” business cases, most forms of impact investing, and standard frameworks like ESG, SDGs, or IFRS in a traditional business context. I still believe that transforming the industry is crucial, but I just don’t think that McKinsey can lead the way there.

That said, I really value my time at McKinsey. The cliché ‘I learned so much’ really rings true. I could not have wished for better preparation for my new endeavors, which are highly entrepreneurial and fast-paced. The skill set I acquired at McKinsey enables me to truly shine under these circumstances. If you have the stomach for long working hours (with some countries being definitely worse than others), I can definitely recommend strategy consulting as an educational endeavor.

Congratulations on your new role at Generation Pledge! Could you tell us about Generation Pledge’s mission and theory of change?

Thank you so much. I am really excited for it! Generation Pledge exists to mobilize inheritors in ultra-high net wealth families (UHNW) from around the world to use their resources for effective impact, both before and after they inherit. We aim to work with thousands of inheritors to move tens of billions of dollars in addition to economic, social, career, and political capital. We emphasize educating and supporting our pledgers as they navigate the complexities of effective impact. We specifically pursue a broad tent approach to bring on as many people as possible and move their impact towards higher effectiveness. Through that, we aim to ultimately challenge the ideological default of private wealth accumulation.

That’s quite the vision! What does your day-to-day look like?

My day-to-day looks a lot like my work at McKinsey, although I effectively halved my workload (German McKinsey hours are 14-18 hours per day). With Generation Pledge as a client, I own a few workstreams where I focus on perfecting structures and processes and pushing the frontiers of understanding around impact in the ultra-high net wealth realm. My work is still predominantly conceptual, although I’m excited to eventually implement the concepts I design.

What has your transition from consulting to an early-stage high-impact organization been like so far?

It has been quite a smooth transition. I would compare it to joining a McKinsey project as an Engagement Manager, where existing material and information from the team and leadership give you a sufficient overview of what priorities look like within the first few days. I even had the additional advantage of knowing some of my current team members. I managed a project from within McKinsey that Generation Pledge participated in, resulting in our report ‘Influence for good’. So far, the working style doesn’t feel fundamentally different, which I see as a huge compliment to Generation Pledge, which easily matches the quality and pace (adjusted for weekly working hours) of a McKinsey team.

Some of our CFI members are eager to share their passion for effective giving with their colleagues. What lessons have you learned through your new role that you think apply to others looking to increase the number of people aware of the ideas of effective giving?

I feel the biggest difference I’ve seen so far in terms of communication style between the consulting world and initial effective giving approaches is the appreciation for meeting people where they are. Consultancies put a lot of thought into crafting messages in ways that are tailored to the current belief system of whomever they address, with the underlying assumption that marginally moving your clients towards a target is better than not moving them at all. Within the broader effective giving and Effective Altruism community, I perceive the tendency to be less compromising with messaging, risking that the message doesn’t land at all. I’d encourage other consultants to use a more compromising communicative approach when speaking with colleagues about effective giving, not letting perfect become the enemy of good. 

What excites you about CFI’s mission of supporting a global community of consultants who use evidence and reason to maximize the social impact of their careers?

I would definitely recommend the CFI as it’s amazing to see all types of consultants coming together, forming a network spanning the globe. For anyone who works for a larger consultancy, I would recommend using CFI to see if they know of anyone else in your organization who shares your value. I just found out that there are a bunch of CFI members within McKinsey after leaving the firm. I would love to move as many consultants towards more impact-focused careers!

Having recently attended EAGx in Berlin and EA Global DC, what do you see as the most valuable aspect of Effective Altruism conferences?

Simply put, engaging with amazing people who are coming together because they share a deep-seated and burning passion to bring as much good into the world as possible. Never before have I seen so many people being authentically committed to this goal than at EAGxBerlin and EAGxDC. A truly inspiring experience.

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