00:00Welcome everybody, we're having another conversation with one of my fantastic colleagues here at
00:12ECA.
00:13As a reminder, we're speaking to people who've made the transition from academia into executive
00:17search about their experience and asking for their advice for recent PhDs who are considering
00:23a career with us.
00:25So for those who don't know us yet, ECA Partners is an executive search firm.
00:29We specialize in C-suite and senior leadership roles across industries.
00:34But I'd say what makes us pretty unique isn't just the caliber of placements that we make,
00:39it's also the caliber of the people that we built our team with.
00:43So ECA has developed something of a reputation for successfully recruiting PhDs into executive
00:49search.
00:50We don't just hire them and kind of throw you into the deep end.
00:54We also have a very robust mentorship and support program here and really focus on career development
00:59development that allows some of the brilliant academic minds that we're recruiting to thrive
01:04here with us in the business world.
01:06Many of our former PhD recruits now hold senior leadership positions with our firm.
01:12So if you're considering, you know, making this transition, you're probably wrestling,
01:17you know, like I did and some of my colleagues did with some of the big questions about what
01:21success outside of the academia, excuse me.
01:26So you're probably struggling with some of those questions about what success outside of
01:30academia looks like.
01:32So these are completely normal concerns and, you know, jumping from defending your dissertation
01:37and going to the conferences and all of that into the executive search world can feel a
01:43little bit overwhelming, which is why we're having these conversations today with people
01:47who've made that transition successfully.
01:50So with me here today is one of my colleagues, Tony Topolesky.
01:55Tony's a senior director here at ECA and one of our finance practice leads.
02:01So Tony, thanks for being here with us today.
02:05Thought maybe you could start off by telling us a little bit about yourself, your academic
02:08career and why you ended up deciding to join ECA.
02:12Sure.
02:13Yeah.
02:14Happy to.
02:15So a little about me.
02:18I have a PhD in Russian literature and philosophy, been both there, 20th century scholar.
02:25So a lot of what I studied was poetry in context, primarily of the decline of the Soviet Union.
02:33So a lot of what I did was intellectual history of that time period.
02:38So that was my primary focus, lived over there a number of times, got a Fulbright scholarship
02:42over there and was pretty focused on it.
02:45But near the end was definitely considering some alternative paths, especially coming out
02:51of the pandemic.
02:53Not as many jobs at the time.
02:55And that was when I got an email, of course, from ECA, as everybody has, and took it up
03:02and actually ended up joining.
03:04So I was one of the earlier classes of the internship.
03:08We definitely have had quite a few since then and never have looked back.
03:13It's a great opportunity.
03:15I do love it here.
03:16Obviously, big factor is the people.
03:19You essentially get a soft departure from academia because you're just transferring from
03:23one grad class to another, essentially.
03:25It's a whole bunch of fellow PhDs solving similar problems with other intelligent people in the
03:31business.
03:32So huge transition, of course, from academia to business, but definitely a fun one.
03:38Well, that's great, Tony, and definitely appreciate you being here, sharing some of those experiences
03:44with us today.
03:45You know, putting yourself in the shoes of someone who might be thinking about making
03:49this type of transition right now and maybe considering what career opportunities exist
03:54out there outside of academia, what would you tell them that really makes ECA different
04:00from some of those other career paths they might be thinking about?
04:03Yeah, I mean, the biggest factor is you come in as a manager.
04:07You're already coming in at a middle level, and so you immediately get to start to manage,
04:12to own your own projects.
04:13You're trained quickly.
04:14You're given the mentorship to be able to get there.
04:17But nevertheless, you're coming in at a position where you have some degree of authority and
04:22autonomy within the business.
04:23So you are able to make a pretty direct impact pretty immediately.
04:30And the path for climbing up from that middle position can be rapid.
04:36It's not an easy climb to move very quickly through the business, but you can.
04:42And so coming in with a definite career path where you have the ability to climb and learn
04:48constantly, take various degrees of ownership over new projects, which are constantly changing.
04:54So you're always excited.
04:55It's not a two-year life cycle like a dissertation.
04:59It's a couple months with a daily, weekly, hourly cadence.
05:04And so the excitement is there.
05:06The energy is there.
05:07And there's a lot of interesting problems and things to deal with.
05:10And you get to meet and talk to a lot of smart people and make a lot of decisions.
05:15So it's pretty impactful pretty quickly.
05:19And I know that even since I've been here over the last year, we've been growing quite
05:24a bit and continue to bring on new people.
05:26So for this continued path of growth, what are you thinking about in terms of some of
05:32the most exciting opportunities that you see there on the horizon for new project managers?
05:38Yeah, sure.
05:39A lot of the stuff that I would say that's exciting about the firm might not be as pertinent
05:43right now to someone who's not familiar with the business language, like moving from the
05:47into the middle market, which is probably not as well known.
05:51But essentially what that means is we're moving into exciting big companies, more challenging
05:58roles, much more serious roles where we have the ability to make really big impact on big
06:03companies.
06:04And so there's knockdown effects with that.
06:08So you have the ability to learn and speak with very bright people, with some of the leaders
06:12of major companies across the country.
06:15And so the opportunities to learn are even faster oftentimes.
06:20We've moved from projects where we kind of do a lot of the same type of role over and
06:25over again to every role is different to a very significant degree.
06:30So the opportunity to learn a ton of information about a new part of the economy, a new part of
06:35business, a new part of a given business is much more acute.
06:42And so you have the ability to really take on a lot more information and types of projects.
06:50And you also have the opportunity to specialize.
06:52It's definitely good to stay a generalist for a while.
06:55Again, this is probably kind of unique language here, but you get to work on a ton of different
07:00projects and then you get to get very good at a couple of things and people will very,
07:05very much respect those that do.
07:07That is very exciting.
07:09So, you know, any final piece of advice here that you'd offer for people who are considering
07:14this career path?
07:15No advice.
07:16No.
07:17I mean, it's, you definitely got to be very ready in many ways.
07:23This job requires a lot of ownership, a lot of autonomy, and you've got to be really
07:28plugged in.
07:29So it's very much a job for someone who is, has a high aspiration to succeed and to learn
07:34a lot of things quickly, to work pretty hard and, and to keep themselves moving and growing
07:39at a pretty rapid pace.
07:40So it's, it's exciting for that reason, for those that are interested in that, for sure.
07:45Absolutely.
07:46Well, Tony, thank you so much for your time today and sharing some of your insights with
07:50us.
07:51Absolutely.
07:51Thanks, Evan.
