Employee Spotlight: James Williams

What are some the skills you have learned from your time as a consultant?

“Ambiguity is the consultant’s job security.’ A statement from a coffee chat I had with a Senior Manager once that has become my mantra for consulting thus far. Pushing through ambiguity towards solutions is a skill consulting has taught me and that skill is starting to show up in other areas of my life.

What is something you have learned from a client?

I had been on my first client for about a month, I was experiencing some anxiety as the project was behind schedule, and since I was the new person on this team, I was so worried I wouldn’t have enough time to do my piece well. The developer lead on the team must have recognized that anxiety in me, because one day he pulled me aside and just said, Hey, it’s going to be ok. This is not worth stress or anxiety. You are a member of a team now and we will get it done, and your part will be fine. Don’t worry. We got you. That client became a really good friend, and I learned a lot from him over the course of our working relationship.

Tell us about any internal roles (community rocks, committees) that you’ve been involved in that stand out to you.

I was a member of the Wellness Committee for a couple of years. What I loved about that experience was participating behind the scenes of the local Corporate Challenge that the Wellness Committee would organize. It is always fun to compete against other companies while representing Sendero, and being a part of the group that organized a lot of that was something I really enjoyed. I am so excited to get back into that once the pandemic ends.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone interested in becoming a consultant, what would it be?

If you like learning, if you like challenges, if you like building relationships and if you like solving problems, go put in an application.

Where is your favorite place in the world?

Oh my. So many places. Impossible to pick a single one, I can however share my two favorites. Before making my transition to consulting I spent a lot of time traveling. Every summer for several years I would work as staff photographer at a classical music Festival called the Musical Summer International Festival and Masterclass held in Malaga, Spain. Around 40 students from 20-25 different countries would come take lessons from master teachers and I would follow them around Andalusia for a few weeks each summer and document the masterclass and competition. One of my dearest friends ran the camp, and the memories of those summers are in part the reason for my limitless love of Spain and the Andalusia region.

The second is not necessarily a place as it is an experience that can be had in so many places. There was a time over a couple of years where I took several trips to countries in the Arctic Circle and knocked around with a camera. My best friend and I (same friend that runs the masterclass in Spain) made a pact to photograph the Northern Lights in 9 countries in six years. We have managed to spend a few weeks in 4 of those 9 countries, and honestly, one cannot help but love the experience of being in a wild place at a wild time of night during a wild time of year with a great visibility and an insane aurora overhead.

What’s your idea of a perfect day?

A perfect day these days looks nothing like it ever would have prior to spending a year working from home and not traveling. There are however a few constants. A perfect day would definitely include my significant other. It might find us taking in a farmer’s market or two, maybe taking a drive out to the country or going on a hike. I also love cooking and I have some great artist friends that I cook and share art with. So maybe our day might end with us preparing an extravagant meal, sharing some art and talking late into the night.

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