About Maciej

Maciej Gerhardt is a Warsaw based Principal who has been at BCG for 11 years. We connected with Gerhardt to discuss what he values most about BCG and to learn about the work that he was doing, both personally and professionally, to address the humanitarian crisis that is happening in Ukraine.

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My BCG Experience

From the moment I joined, I knew BCG was the place for me. I enjoy all of it - from the intellectual challenges and extremely smart colleagues, to the high-profile clients and the opportunity to solve their most pressing issues. I’ve been here for 11 years, rising to the rank of principal, and the entire journey has been incredibly interesting. I left for a brief time to achieve my MBA and then came back to BCG with a stronger academic background in certain areas (such as finance) and a broader worldview thanks to the program's international focus. One of the things I value most about working at BCG is the opportunities for career development. With more than 27,000 colleagues around the world and growth rates in the double digits, there are bound to be amazing opportunities for development. In my case, I had the chance to switch specializations from financial to consumer/retail, which was experiencing significant growth in my region.

While there is a common belief that work-life balance is tough to find in consulting, BCG has developed a broad spectrum of tools to alleviate this issue. There is Next Generation Ways of Working (NGWoW), a program dedicated to monitoring teams’ performance on work life balance, learning and development, and client value-add criteria. In my office, we also have Cool Down Days, when consultants receive protected time to recharge, learn, and develop after a project ends. These tools and strong commitment from our partners have yielded real results and is something that is highly valued at the firm.

Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis in Ukraine

Being based in Poland, the war in Ukraine felt very relevant to me and all my colleagues. When the war started, my family hosted a family of refugees: a mother and her three children, ages two, seven, and eleven. The experience taught us two valuable lessons. First, it reminded us how lucky we are to live in a country that follows democratic standards, allows for freedom of speech, and is protected by its NATO allies. Second, the experience of hosting refugees helped us gain a greater perspective on our problems. I believe we became humbler and learned to celebrate the “here and now” much more. The family we hosted, despite all they had gone through, was still filled with optimism about their future and the future of their country, how can we justify being any less optimistic than them?

It was a natural decision to get involved in my work as well as my personal life. It was incredibly rewarding to work on something that could really help Ukrainians at such a difficult time. This is why we created the Ukranian Virtual Hub (UVH). The UVH is an online initiative on our careers site designed to make it easy for Ukrainians who have been displaced or already live abroad to apply for positions at the company. To make the application process easier, we also waive the local language requirements whenever feasible and provide webinars so that candidates can learn about BCG, the initiative, and how to go through the application process successfully. Once at BCG, these new hires receive additional benefits such as sponsored local language lessons. When BCG commits to something, it truly is full speed ahead, and the strong support for Ukraine via the UVH and a multitude of other local and regional initiatives exemplifies this.

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Discover a career in Social Impact at BCG