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Mateen Poonawala ’07 has spent the last year working for Deloitte Consulting. While at Lafayette, he was enrolled in the College’s double degree program in which he earned a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and an A.B. degree with a major in math-economics. Recently, I was able to catch up with Mateen and learn more about his life since graduation.
Mateen began working for Deloitte right after graduation as a business analyst in the company’s Strategy and Operations Consulting group. While he began his career in New York City, he is excited about his recent transfer to the company’s Toronto office.
Mateen has had the opportunity to work on many different types of projects. He believes that Deloitte’s generalist focus will help him to gain experience in a variety of business processes. Over the past year, he has worked on several mergers and acquisitions projects in both the financial services and media industries and he is currently developing a pricing strategy for a Canadian insurance provider.
Mateen looks back fondly on his time at Lafayette, where his education helped to prepare him for consulting.
“Consulting is an advisory business where you are expected to bring various solutions to the table and articulate the most suitable ones for your clients,” he explains. “To this end, I utilize the skills I acquired at Lafayette daily at Deloitte.”
Mateen says that networking with Lafayette alumni was instrumental in helping him to break into the consulting field, which he describes as “dominated by Ivy-league graduates.” Lafayette’s closeness to New York helped greatly as he networked with alumni and secured interviews at top consulting firms in the city during his junior and senior years.
He says that during these trips he realized what an outstanding reputation the College had within the business world. “I discovered that Lafayette had a strong brand in the tri-state area and employers regarded the College very highly,” he says.
Mateen recalls that the size of the school helped him become situated when he arrived on campus.
“As an international student setting foot on an American college campus for the first time, I felt that Lafayette’s small size really facilitated my immersion into American society. I was forced to interact with people from different backgrounds and embrace cultural differences. At a bigger university, I might not have stepped outside my comfort zone, but Lafayette’s close-knit community helped me develop deep relationships with students, faculty, and staff,” he says.
Mateen also believes he benefited “immensely” from the undergraduate focus of the College.
“My classes were taught by faculty who were fully invested in undergraduate education,” he says. “Professors were easily accessible and I did not have to compete with graduate students for resources, funding, facilities etc.”
As a first-year student, he conducted research in Lafayette’e state-of-the-art biomechanics lab for eight months as an EXCEL Scholar with Steve Nesbit, associate professor of mechanical engineering. It was a rewarding experience, he says.
The combination of liberal arts and engineering at Lafayette was another advantage.
“I found Lafayette’s Common Course of Study – VAST (Values and Science/Technology), writing requirements, etc. — to be extremely beneficial,” he says. “Every day at work, I am able to take a holistic approach to problem solving as a result of the well rounded education I received at Lafayette.”
Although Mateen is now living in Toronto, he still plans to be an active member of the Lafayette community and to give back in any way he can. He has been working with Director of Admissions Carol Rowlands to recruit Toronto high school students for Lafayette. Starting in the fall, he will begin conducting alumni interviews to screen applicants for admission.
During his years at Lafayette, Mateen served as a resident adviser, was on the board of the Investment Club, wrote for the College newspaper, was an editor for the College’s literary magazine, and was involved in student government. He hopes to work in consulting for a few more years and possibly switch to investment banking or venture capital.