Giulia Dowgiallo is from Herndon, Virginia and has a double major in Management with the Management Consulting & Analytics option and a major in Marketing Management. On Friday, May 15, she will be graduating with distinction, Cum Laude. After graduation, she will start as a Management Consulting Analyst at Accenture Federal Services in the Washington, D.C. area.

Why did you choose Virginia Tech?  When and why did you choose MGT
I chose to attend Virginia Tech because it checked all of the boxes- Virginia Tech is a great school, with great people, that is large enough to offer what seems like endless opportunities and yet it feels small once you find your place in it. Pamplin also did the most to really help me see myself at Virginia Tech through individual meetings and other events.

I actually entered as a Marketing student, but while attending a company mixer following Business Horizons my sophomore year I learned about both The Consulting Group at Virginia Tech (CGVT) and the Management Consulting and Analytics track within the Management department and was really interested in both. I knew I had the space in my course load to add another major or minor so I attended a major fair to discuss the Management Consulting and Analytics track more and added Management as a major soon after. Later that semester I was accepted into The Consulting Group at Virginia Tech, where I have met some of the most intelligent and inspiring people I know.

Were there any specific classes that you remember as validating your major choice to date?  

I took a new Project Management class with Kerby Houff this past Fall on a whim and have already found myself applying things that I have learned. For example, I went to CES in Las Vegas this past Winter and found myself discussing how to use change management within the business of other Hokies that I met at the conference.

What advice would you provide to an incoming Pamplin freshman? 

I would tell any freshman in Pamplin to really get out there and explore everything- there are so many opportunities at Virginia Tech and so many great organizations within Pamplin that you will find can help you not only as you develop professionally, but also socially. Some advice that I received fairly early on in my time at Pamplin was to find 2 separate organizations to get involved in- a professional organization that would help me hone in on my skills and build a network, and a social organization that would help me meet new people and further add to my network. I chose to dedicate myself to CGVT and PSE, both of which provided the social and professional aspects that I was looking for throughout my time with them.

What/who is your inspiration for leadership?  

I have always seen good leaders to be those that value their team and are able to demonstrate not just direct. I think it is also more and more important that team members find their leaders to be approachable. As a leader I try to lead by doing, I also really enjoy mentoring others and giving advice, so I tend to have a nurturing style

A mentor of mine once told me that a good leader “leads to be replaced” and that is something that has stuck with me because it sounds a little counter intuitive at first. To me this means that it is one thing to have great leadership qualities yourself, but if your team cannot function if you are not present than you have not led your team in a way that has helped them grow.

I really enjoyed that variety in a business education with Pamplin, I was able to learn a little bit about a lot of things and watch as they all came together at the end. I am very excited to see how the Innovation Campus will impact the way courses are taught and the industry technologies that will follow it!

Provide a brief summary of your summer internship - who, when, how did you approach the process?

I interned 2 summers in a row at an IT consulting group headquartered in Northern Virginia called AbleVets. My first summer I was a Marketing Intern, however after CGVT exposed me to so much related to the consulting industry and project management, I expressed my interests with my boss and was placed in a project management-type role for an intern led community service project. That project started as a blanket drive for Veterans, and quickly turned into a Suit Drive for Veterans and military spouses, with 7 partnering organizations including the American Red Cross, and 11 locations accepting donations throughout the Northern Virginia area. The Suit Drive resulted in the collection of over 336 full suits and many more individual items, all donated to Boots to Suits, a non-profit based in Richmond. The following summer I returned as a Management Consulting Intern and worked on a variety of different projects and really gained a sense of what consulting looks like in an office setting.

I started looking for internships as early as possible to get exposure to many different things since I was still trying to figure out where I fit in business. I got more serious about searching for an internship during my sophomore year, I went to Business Horizons and made some connections and started looking up smaller companies near my house online. I found AbleVets and was intrigued by their mission to improve the lives of Veterans, so I applied there online, and a few weeks later I interviewed with them and received the offer. While I was in my role, I kept a notebook and sticky notes on me always, I used the notebook to take notes on meetings or tasks that were assigned to me and sticky notes at the beginning of the day to prioritize the work I had to get done and throughout the day to write down any bold ideas or questions I had so that I could pursue them later. I was lucky that the intern program was structured so that the interns got a chance to meet with and learn from the leadership within the company and made it very easy to meet people, so I was easily able to receive mentorship and make connections, which is something I am hope to continue to do as I grow in my career.