From Management Consulting to Value Engineering: Why You Should Consider the Switch

The average person will have six career pathing changes during their working lives. It could be to pursue a new passion, gain greater flexibility, or make an impact in a new field. At Celonis, we’re committed to supporting our employees' growth and development by providing the opportunities and support they need to help make the career transitions that matter to them. 

Many of our Value Engineers have had exciting careers across a range of functions including Sales, Product, and Management Consulting. Hear from some of our experienced employees who made the switch from Management Consulting to Value Engineering, and why you should consider a new career path.

What is Value Engineering and how is it different from Management Consulting?

Value Engineers (VEs), also known in the job market as Solution Engineers or Sales Engineers, manage the entire customer value lifecycle, from sales through value realization, renewal and expansion. The team owns the end-to-end value journey of every customer at Celonis and drives transformation through data-driven decisions to deliver tangible value.

Celonis Consultants, on the other hand, sit within our Services team and are the go-to people for helping our customers implement Celonis software, succeed in change management, and thrive through setting objectives and strategic goals that are tailored to customer needs. Consultants work closely with our customers to uncover inefficiencies, implement solutions and realize their value targets. 

Both VEs and Consultants at Celonis have one key thing in common - they Live For Customer Value. 

What does a typical day at Celonis look like for you? How is it different from what you were doing before?

“There is no typical day for me as there’s a new challenge every day,” noted Gerold Laue, Lead Value Engineer and Celonaut for over four years. “On the technical side, I could be conducting pilot projects for new processes and use cases that the customer wants to investigate. On the conceptual end, I work on the analytics of business cases to see how we can improve our transparency. Strategically, we work closely with Sales to build a plan to expand our footprint with our customers and much more. Depending on your focus, your daily tasks and projects can be very diverse.” 

Our VEs work with our market-leading product, the Celonis Execution Management System (EMS) to realize millions of dollars in value for companies worldwide. Everest Group named Celonis a top leader in its PEAK Matrix® Assessment for Process Mining Products, ranking highest for market impact in 2023. Our entire Go-To-Market organization has worked incredibly hard to make a global impact across all industries, including our VE team, and we’re proud of the recognition they’ve received. 

“My days often include a handful of customer meetings across all levels of the sales cycle, from introducing someone with a demo to a discovery workshop with a big customer,” said Xani Chrys, Senior Value Engineer. “I often run Proof of Value (POV) projects where I spend a lot of time in the EMS building out analyses and reviewing the data. What’s special about the VE role is that each problem is different. I’m never solving the same problem, so I’m always learning and facing a new challenge.” 

Can you walk us through your transition from Management Consulting to Value Engineering?

“I wanted to be part of a company that had a clear approach to solving inefficiencies for customers,” described Sanat Valecha, Senior Value Engineer. “So when a friend of mine told me about Celonis, I applied for a consulting role. During my interview process, I learned that Celonis were also looking for VEs to help sell a vision, scope out value and work alongside Consultants. I was excited by the role as it matched my passions and skills, so it was the perfect opportunity to take the next step in my career.” 

Johannes Weis, who recently transitioned to a Chief of Staff role following his third promotion with us, has had an excellent career in both Management Consulting and Value Engineering. 

“I was working as a Strategy Consultant at another company, but one day I was contacted by a Recruiter who convinced me to apply to Celonis,” said Johannes. “I was fascinated by the software Celonis has built over the last few years and its ability to support businesses across various industries and processes. Not only that, but the people I’d be working with excited me as I perceived them as smart, ambitious, highly motivated, and friendly. These two things convinced me that I wanted to become a part of this success story.” 

Tell us about your team and role within Value Engineering. 

“As a VE, I am a trusted advisor who supports our customers in making a tangible impact on their business and achieving the strategic goals they have set out for themselves,” explained Raseel Bakhshi, Principal Value Engineer. "We play a key role in helping our customers generate value by advising them on the most fitting use cases, helping them identify opportunities for improvement and working with them to achieve the desired results. The most satisfying part of the role is establishing continuity and seeing your outcomes come to fruition.”

The role of a Value Engineer at Celonis is to:

• Identify & Frame Value: Discover customer priorities, build demos and business cases, and communicate the value opportunity to C-Level executives.

• Realize Value: Use Celonis for process enhancement and initiate enterprise-wide change initiatives that provide tangible results.

• Scale Value: Drive adoption and expansion across the entire customer value journey and provide feedback to product development teams to enhance the Celonis offering.

“I worked with the leading companies in Automotive, Telecommunications, Life Sciences, and Utilities,” revealed Johannes. “I really enjoyed the new tasks and challenges the VE role offered daily, including the opportunity to enrich my technical expertise by focusing on Celonis’ automation capabilities. In a world where technology gains more importance for our society day by day, I wanted to transform myself as well.”

How have you been able to use the skills you learned as a Management Consultant in your role as a Value Engineer? 

“I’d bucket transferable skills into two key aspects: business acumen and client-facing presentation skills,” explained Sanat. “A lot of business problems we solve such as inefficiencies and process and tech issues are similar to what Management Consulting companies do, but we’re more laser-focused on value generation down to the dollars and cents. Presenting to clients was a big part of my role as a Consultant and is very relevant in my role today, especially since I take a lot of ownership over conversations with C-level executives."

Some of Johannes’ key skills he learned as a Consultant that helped him hit the ground running as a VE include:

• Adaptability to diverse challenges

• Clear communication to both a technical and non-technical audience

• Project and stakeholder management

Johannes has written a short article on his key learnings that helped him develop into the accomplished professional he is today. Find his top three learnings whilst at Celonis here. 

How have you developed since joining Celonis?

“The responsibility and exposure I have received in my short 2 years at Celonis have been unparalleled,” described Raseel. “I’ve been provided with ample opportunity to hone my skills, develop new ones, and be exposed to so many new opportunities, challenges and perspectives. At Celonis, I am continually challenged to set the bar higher.”

We live and breathe continuous learning at Celonis. It’s a fundamental aspect of what we do, and we extend that to the professional and personal development of our employees. Our VEs are encouraged to seek out learning opportunities, find mentors within Celonis and utilize our extensive learning experience platform to develop the skills they desire. 

“When I joined, my development was oriented around the product and technical learning like the Celonis EMS, brushing up my SQL skills, and learning our proprietary language PQL, as well as keeping up with our frequent product updates,” continued Sanat. “More recently, I’ve been focusing on the sales acumen side by acquiring a better understanding of our value proposition, refining how I communicated it to customers, and helping hesitant customers realize why Celonis is something they need today.”

What advice would you give to someone considering the switch from Management Consulting to Value Engineering?

“Do it! I am yet to meet a former Consultant who regrets the switch at Celonis,” revealed Johannes. “I strongly believe that VE as a profession is the best-kept secret in business. My final tip: don’t be afraid of technical tasks. You will learn new skills by working with industry-changing technology and the best professionals in the field - and you might love the technical aspect more than you think!” 

People with Management Consulting experience often develop excellent business acumen and presentation skills but haven’t been exposed to the same technical work as our VEs. We understand that this can be intimidating for those making the transition to VE and therefore we have a comprehensive onboarding process to ensure you learn the technical skills you need to be a successful Celonis VE. 

“If you’re motivated by challenges and love continuous learning, then join the team,” urged Xani. “You can never become a Celonis expert because Celonis applies to everything - every industry and every process. Instead of taking someone else's vision, following a checklist, and implementing a design that someone else created, you’re the one creating that vision and design which is really rewarding.”

Why should someone join your team?

Gerold wants you on his team if you’re driven, caring, and prepared to take your development to the next level. “You should join us if you want to be part of a motivated team of great people, many of whom I now call my friends. Not only do I appreciate them as friends, but as professionals that are really inspiring and contribute to my personal growth - professional and social. A career with us can benefit all types of people, but especially graduates and those with consulting experience looking for the next step in their career.” 

Raseel believes that people who want to join a hard-working, exciting work environment should join Team Celonis. “We work with some of the smartest minds on some of our client’s most pressing challenges."

"If you’re looking for a new opportunity that is equally challenging, rewarding and fun, Celonis is the place to be", shared Raseel.

Interested in making the switch to Value Engineering? We’re hiring globally. Take your next step with us.

Jay Stenstrom & Ria Sheta

TA Marketing Team