An Interview with Eugene Kirzhner (Associate)
3/3/2020
Interviewer: Can you tell us a little more about your role at Stern Value Management and what you enjoy most about it?
Eugene: I’m currently an associate consultant at SVM. As an associate, I interact extensively with clients to learn about their problems, perform technical analyses, and construct presentations to deliver value-based solutions. I enjoy the challenge of learning about the inner-workings of different industries and working with clients to identify and reduce their pain-points.
Tell us the type of work you have been doing since you have joined the firm.
I’ve been exposed to many different types of work since joining. Over the past months I have worked on projects such as performance measurement for a large firm, peer-analysis and benchmarking, cost of capital calculations, and financial landscape analyses of diverse industrial sectors.
What undergraduate classes have been the most useful to you in your day to day work at Stern Value Management?
Taking classes in statistics has really facilitated my work and enabled me to manipulate data and present it to clients, while understanding and being able to explain limitations, assumptions, and various what-if scenarios.
How has working for SVM improved your working knowledge of financial concepts?
Immeasurably. Having come from a non-traditional finance/business background, my learning curve was large coming in. But since joining, I now understand a breadth of financial concepts, their technical applications, and real-world adjustments to these concepts. Cost of capital calculations, EVA and EVA adjustments, and valuation come to mind.
What advice would you want to give to young professionals entering the field of management consulting?
Be curious and learn about many different topics, industries, cultures, and countries- client relationships are the most important part of the job and this knowledge will help deepen these relationships. Finally, pick up as much Excel modeling as you can-it will make your life a lot easier.
We all know how hard it can be to maintain a work/life balance, especially in a profession like management consulting. We hoped you would share some of the personal details about your life that help you maintain a balanced lifestyle.
While we work very hard at Stern, one of my favorite things about the firm is that our team has a variety of different personal passions and interests and we all try to respect these and facilitate each other getting time to do what we love. By communicating early and making concrete plans, you can optimize your schedule and have time to relax or engage in activities you care about.