From Sales, Marketing, and Ops to Consulting: A Q&A with James “JJ” Myron, MBA ’23

Career Corner: Consultant JJ Myron pivoted from a sales, marketing, and operations role to advising clients on how to achieve their strategic goals.

James “JJ” Myron, MBA ’23, a graduate of the Executive MBA Americas program at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, credits the guidance he got from the Career Management Center at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business with helping him make a successful career pivot.

As a senior consultant at Deloitte, Myron employs his expertise in business development, strategy, and due diligence to help clients achieve their strategic goals. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Myron was previously a sales, marketing, and operations manager at a small (five-person) healthcare startup.

A member of Deloitte’s Cornell University Campus Recruiting Team for case competition and case exercise events, Myron helps to expose students to consulting and to Deloitte while also identifying top talent ahead of and during the recruiting season. For the case competition, “part of the winning prize is more dedicated time with the Deloitte team to network and learn about careers at the firm,” he says. “These events are always a ton of fun and I enjoy them.”

Learn more about Myron’s career journey in this Q&A.

What inspired you to switch to a new career track?

Myron: I was inspired to switch to a new career track and pursue consulting after learning about an Executive MBA Americas classmate’s consulting career. I became more interested in this type of work after participating in and winning the Smith Family Business Initiative Cornell Case Competition for Family Ownership (November 2022) along with classmates Curtis Farebrother and Erica Wiebe, both MBA ’23 (Executive MBA Americas graduates).

In what ways did the SC Johnson College of Business Career Development staff help to guide you in your career pivot? What strategies recommended by your career coach proved particularly effective, and how so?

Myron: Margaret Walsh [leadership and career coach at the Johnson School who specializes in the tech and consulting industries] was instrumental in sharing consulting-specific advice and strategies for entering this career field and understanding the landscape better before beginning. The strategies recommended that helped the most were to network aggressively: Filter through companies in spaces you want to work in, then take it a step further to try and find some common ground with people there, such as a similar previous employer, alumni network, similar life experience, same hometown or sport.

Did you select course work or extracurricular activities to prepare yourself or gain relevant experience for your career pivot?

Myron: I did select a Big Data & AI elective that proved useful to understanding the foundations and capabilities of AI. This course became more relevant as AI came into the public eye in recent years and gave me the foundations and building blocks to work with teams in the AI space currently.

Did you build a new network of contacts that has been important to your career pivot? If so, what role did the SC Johnson College play in helping to build that network?

Myron: I not only did, but the Johnson network was instrumental in supporting my career pivot, and eventually led to the referral that got me into my current role. I used the EMBA directory regularly to find fellow students who work at the companies I wanted to work at.

What advice do you have for other students or alumni of the SC Johnson College who are interested in making a career pivot?

Myron: It is hard to know what you want when you don’t know what the career field or space truly looks and feels like. So networking enough to get a clear sense for that across the fields you’re interested in is key.

Another piece of advice is to take how much time you are spending on networking, double it, and then double it again. Best of luck!