Kin and Carta : Meet Mark Ardito, IT executive pivots to consulting

I joined Kin + Carta during the first week of the firm going remote in response to COVID-19. I'll be honest in that it was a really odd time to start a new job. Joining a new company always comes with a bit of discomfort, and the unknown of the world-wide pandemic only added to this. On top of it all, this was my first role at a consulting firm.

Prior to joining, I had been doing enterprise IT work for the better part of twenty plus years. I loved my jobs but I needed something fresh. I wanted to be challenged to grow and to think differently. I was craving continuous growth opportunities.

So when the opportunity at Kin + Carta presented itself, I was intrigued. I had been a client of the firm's in the past and Kin + Carta felt like a different kind of consulting firm.

The work was cutting edge. The individualized career pathing and the opportunity to transform technology across industries was growth that I wanted for myself. And the people were special. The people who work at Kin + Carta are good people. I'd enjoyed being around them, as a client of theirs and in my interviews. Liking the people you work with and wanting to have a career and a friendship with them outside of work is so important to me. I wanted to enjoy and be continuously learning from who I was working with. And, I wanted to enjoy the work I was doing.

Now I had never seriously considered consulting as an option prior to this. I simply felt it wasn't for me. There's always been a sort of stigma around consulting, in general, and this couldn't be further from the truth of what it's like to work at Kin + Carta.

Since joining the firm, I have not looked back. I can truly share that working in consulting has been so much fun. I like to say that working in consulting is the breath of fresh air that I needed in my career.