Five myths about consulting - myth-busted by VCA

Thinking about joining a career in payments consulting, but not sure what to expect? We got the insider scoop from our consultants at Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA) on what to consider and what myths about consulting simply aren’t true at VCA.

Myth #1: Being a consultant does not leave much room for work-life balance.

Many companies know, and research shows, consultants who can dedicate time to a fulfilling personal life are better consultants for it.

VCA is not your typical consulting firm. VCA is the consulting arm of Visa, and with that comes a lot of perks! Visa supports a high quality of life outside the office and offers options to recharge and to refocus on you.

Based on our most recent internal culture survey results, 88 percent of VCA team members are proud to work at VCA, and 84 percent would recommend VCA as a great place to work to a qualified friend.

Myth #2: VCA doesn’t have as rich of project variety as other consulting firms

Our project portfolio is as diverse as our client base!

VCA serves a variety of client types across the globe, with unique goals, markets, and opportunities. While we perform many benchmarking assessments for our clients as a starting point, we also support them across their growth journeys via 50+ engagement types to solve for business challenges. We have helped our clients assess their credit and debit portfolios, develop new card products, implement fraud-reduction strategies, and much more.

Myth #3: VCA only hires strategy consultants.

VCA hires those with a broad range of skillsets.

Diversity of thought is part of what makes VCA terrific! The reason we are so successful is because we are a mixture of data lovers, creative geniuses, and expert communicators, to name a few. The VCA global team includes traditional consultants, payments experts, marketers, project managers, educators, and artists, among others – the possibilities are endless!

Myth #4: VCA consultants only create fancy PowerPoints.

VCA consultants do much more than just create fancy PowerPoints!

Our consultants not only create world-class visuals and PowerPoints, they are also responsible for everything from strategy to implementation! We work hand in hand with our clients to craft compelling strategies, understand client businesses through data, develop cutting edge products, enable portfolio migrations, and implement our strategies in real time.

Through Visa, VCA curates insights for clients using VisaNet data, a large data set that makes us unique! Visa operates in 200+ countries & territories, in 160+ currencies, with ~15,000 financial institutions, and 100+M merchant locations – that’s a lot of data!

Myth #5: VCA doesn't have opportunities for university talent.

VCA offers many opportunities for university talent.

Each year, we welcome interns, rotational program associates, and recent graduates to our team. Those who join us gain hands-on payments consulting experience from research and data analysis to strategy formulation and implementation. Check out our program offerings and upcoming campus events and browse our job listings .

Questions? Reach us at [email protected] .