Working at Frontier

Sarah Snelson

Frontier's decision-making process is very open, and individuals are encouraged to play an active role in one or more internal management teams. The team that I currently belong to is a very important one – the “fun” team! We are responsible for organising four social events throughout the year. This year, for example, we have had an evening chocolate-making workshop, an evening at the Comedy Store in Leicester Square and a day trip to Paris.

My responsibility within the team is to organise the Christmas party, and last year this had an Oscars theme. The evening was hosted by a Sean Connery look-alike, who came complete with a professional sound and lighting team, red carpet and huge Oscar statues!

Organising the Christmas party is hard work, but it is definitely worth it when the evening finally comes around and you see people really enjoying themselves and celebrating a good year with the firm.

Simon Trussler

For a long time, I’ve strongly believed that there’s a real and untapped opportunity to combine the rigorous approach of economic consulting with finance expertise to give clients robust and workable advice.

Our work is never “off the shelf”. We use economics to start from first principles to get to the bottom of what our clients need. It means that every job is different and a big challenge.

Economics alone isn’t enough though. Our clients need our recommendations to be real to them – they have to be practical, not theoretical or textbook-ish. We need to be able to really get inside our clients’ heads and understand the way they think and why they do things the way they do.

In short, we need to be excellent consultants as well as first-class economists.

Sam Williams

I first joined Frontier as an intern in the summer of 2001 and given that is was my first ‘real’ job, I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, the positive experience that summer led me to reapply for a permanent position and I joined as an analyst in 2002.

Progression at Frontier is based on merit – and an open and transparent career review process means that I’ve always had confidence that my performance is fairly assessed. This was particularly the case when I was promoted to consultant. This openness ensures people remain motivated and happy.

At Frontier, consultants are free to shape their careers in the way they want – developing technical skills in areas of interest, focusing on projects within certain practice areas if they choose. As my career has developed, I’ve really valued this freedom and have learned a great deal from being able to work on a wide variety of projects.

Helen Slater

I was looking for an intellectually challenging and interesting internship, which would allow me to put my economics to good use. Frontier’s scheme certainly met these objectives and I also got to meet a fantastic group of people.

During my 8 week internship, I worked on a range of projects across several different industries, including: grocery, gaming and transport. I never felt peripheral to my project teams and was encouraged to offer my own thoughts and ideas. My interests were accommodated and, having expressed a desire to try my hand at some econometrics, I soon found myself running regressions.

It wasn’t all work though! I also improved my table football skills during lunchtimes and enjoyed drinks in the office after work on a Friday – these were great opportunities to get to know people.

My time at Frontier gave me an invaluable insight into economic consulting. Rather than just reading about what an economics consultant does, I was able to experience it first hand.

Almudena Lara

There are a number of ways in which the learning process is facilitated at Frontier. One of the most effective ways to learn is through project work. The members of the team will share their expertise through internal group meetings, one-to-one discussions and numerous coffee breaks in the kitchen area.

In addition, formal training courses take place throughout the year. These include a variety of external seminars that are designed to address particular training needs for a wider set of people, such as time management and presentation training. Internal training courses are run by Frontier colleagues, with the focus on sharing core skills more widely (e.g. Excel, Stata, financial modelling).

We also run Monday seminars where we get together over lunch to discuss a topic of interest relating broadly to an issue that we are currently dealing with in project work. This is a great forum for sharing ideas and improving your presentation skills.

Catherine Etienne

Every consultant at Frontier is mentored by a manager and a director. This system is quite informal. I have regular chats with my manager over coffee - or a drink in the pub - about the projects I am working on and the different type of skills that I am gaining as a result. If there is an area that I am particularly interested in, or a skill I would like to develop, my manager helps me to get onto the relevant project team. This has enabled me to work across all of the practice areas at Frontier.

I also meet with my director every few months to discuss how my career is progressing. He has taken a lot of time to provide good, objective career advice, and will often make suggestions as to how to progress my career over the next year or two.

This support and advice provided through the mentoring system has helped me progress really quickly and has kept me on track!