“What do you want to do when you grow up?” Like me, I’m sure many of you struggle with the answer to this question every day. For me, I know I want to do something to do with technology and business, but what? Recently, I chatted with Gordon Sandford, a Partner at Deloitte Digital, to learn more about the consulting practice and the ever evolving technology space.
How about we start with introducing yourself?
My name is Gordon Sandford and I'm an HBA and MBA Ivey grad. I started my career in consulting at another firm, then after five years I went back to do my MBA and joined Deloitte in the strategy practice. I worked my way up to partner and then switched over to the technology practice where I've led tech strategy. From there, I launched our digital practice nationally and that's my current role—at least in digital.
How did you find the switch from strategy to tech?
Yeah! So the interesting thing is I was always pretty technical compared to others, at least back in the day. When I started my career, I got hired by Accenture, which was predominantly a technology company, so I ended up coding for quite some time. I ended up becoming a technologist at Accenture, and I was good at it! I liked it, but I wanted to get more into the advisory side of it. So that's when I did the MBA.
What do you like about your field most right now?
Consulting iseverything at Deloitte; everyone at Deloitte sort of shares the same intellectual curiosity gene. There's really no place that I could find where you're learning at the pace and growing at the pace that you are in consulting. We're constantly being thrown new challenges, the latest stuff. Clients don't ask just two things. You're on a really steep learning curve, and it can be draining which is a big reason why people leave. But that to me and the diversity of the kind of the work that you get, makes it worth it.
What do you find most challenging?
It's the ambiguity and the pace. The ambiguity can really stress people out because you might not know what the next thing is. If you finish a project, you don't know where you're going next. You might go out of town for a year, you might not. So the ambiguity can really get to people. While I always tell everyone it's not a 40 hour a week job, it’s not like we're trying to work tons of hours. There's just always something cool to do.
What did you do for your first two years?
I actually did three and got an economics degree. Did the three years, graduated with the degree, went to Ivey.
Do you feel that your education at Ivey was important for your career?
Ivey was really good – especially for a consulting career. You’re thrown these different cases at you all the time, so you have to quickly get your head around stuff. You have to manage through the ambiguity. You have to get to the “so what”. It's been very good for us to take a problem, break it down into component steps, and then get going on some course of action.
You’re the father of a student in grade 11, and I’m sure he is thinking of a university. What advice do you have to your son and other grade 11 students?
Three things. Number one is try to find what you love and chase that. Don't necessarily go for a job. I'm constantly running into people who aren't really liking their program and they’re in it. It’s not what they wanted to do – it's what their parents told them to do, which is a shame. Two, don’t let classes take over your life. You should have a full experience, so get involved! However, don’t do it just to fill your resume, do it to fill your life. Don't sign up just because you think it looks good on a resume when you don't want to do it. Three, be curious. Just be willing to learn. I think too many people are doing what they need to do to get the marks and they’re not enjoying the process.
One last question. Mac or PC?
Well, first of all, Microsoft is only getting something like 5% of its revenue now from Windows and Office. I actually feel like that company is a very interesting case study. A very large and successful company that has reinvented itself without people really knowing. I think tech geeks are in the know. I'm much more impressed with the Microsoft story.
However, I'll be shocked if anybody got a Mac, got over the learning curve and didn't prefer it.
I would like to thank Gordon Sandford for agreeing to interview with us.