Kerri Holmes stands out as a dynamic example of a ‘Boomerang’ BCGer with a unique journey. Today she is the Global Marketing Director for our Financial Institutions practice area, but Kerri also had a previous life at BCG. Four years of Kerri’s career were spent as a regional marketing manager for BCG in the Middle East, before leaving in 2016. She then returned in 2018, making her a 'Boomerange' BCGer. We connected with Kerri to find out how her BCG journey has enabled her to evolve and grow.

Becoming a BCG ‘Boomerang’

During my first four years at BCG, my responsibilities spanned everything from internal communications to external PR and media. Having learned a great deal from this multifaceted role, I made the decision to leave the Middle East and return to England, my home country. The break that followed gave me a chance to spend precious time with my children and carefully plan my next steps. When I was ready to return to the workforce, I knew there was only one place I wanted to go, and that was back to BCG.

The special people, the energy and the networking that can be found here were things I did not want to lose, and I was thrilled when contacts informed me that an opportunity had opened within our Health Care and Insurance practices. After spending time in this position, I moved on to look after marketing for BCG Platinion, before transitioning to the Financial Institutions practice. Today, I am the Global Marketing Director for the whole FI practice, focusing on external marketing and affiliation work.

Horizontal Career Growth

Two things that have motivated me throughout my career are opportunities to learn and chances to meet new people. BCG has offered me both in abundance and kept me from ever getting bored. At BCG, we are one big network, and you can reach out to anyone in the system and say ‘Hey, I've heard you're an expert in this field. Can you help me?’ and they will drop what they are doing and offer ideas and solutions. I have genuinely made very, very good friends here at BCG, from all corners of the globe.

  As a manager, I'm always telling my team to “Grow horizontally. Keep pushing yourself to learn laterally. Don't always think that your trajectory needs to be up.” I think it's important for our business support team members to know that even though there isn't a clear upward career trajectory like there is for consultants, you can push yourself to grow in so many other ways. I don’t think I would be carrying out my role well enough if I didn't really try to learn on the job every day. By switching roles as much as I have and by moving horizontally, I have learned so much and met so many different people, and because of this, I have never stopped growing.

Advice for Prospective BCGers

I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to recommend BCG to prospective candidates. The number one reason is that we keep pace with the trends, innovating as rapidly as the external markets are changing. We have so many exceptional individuals with wide arrays of technical skills, so once you’re here, my biggest piece of advice is to network. Make friends with everybody, because you never know who might be able to offer valuable guidance in the future.

Don't expect to come into the role and know what you're doing for the first six to twelve months, we are a complex organisation and there are many strings to the BCG bow. Just give yourself a chance to learn at a calm and steady rate, and remember, no question is a stupid question. Eleven years on and I’m still asking questions all the time.

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