Mélanie has been running for 20 years. What started out as a hobby at 19 grew into a competitive passion. First at shorter distances, now increasingly at longer ones. She ended up at BDO through her internship, which she spread over a longer period to be able to follow her training schedule. After her internship, she joined Risk Advisory, grabbing the opportunity with both hands and choosing to work 4/5th to pursue her sporting ambitions. ‘And BDO has always been open to this,’ she says.
‘When I get home and I don’t feel like running, I always take it step by step.’ That’s how Mélanie pushes through the difficult moments in her training sessions. A successful method which she also applies during races and at work. “I always break races and bigger projects down into smaller pieces. That way, everything becomes more manageable and less daunting.”
Motivation isn’t always there, but the structure is. And if you know how to break things down, you always get further than you thought.
Depending on her schedule, Mélanie deliberately chooses where to work. For example, in a race week she tends to work from home: “To prepare as well as possible and stay focused on the race, I prefer working from home. It also reduces the social fatigue a bit.” In a heavy training week, however, she opts for the office. “At work, I know I can’t run, which makes it easier to switch off from that and focus purely on work. At home, the two worlds blur together too easily.”
Athletics is an individual sport, but at work Mélanie takes a very different approach. She supports her colleagues at their own level, without drawing comparisons. “I’ve learned that people have their own limits and push them in their own way. One person throws themselves into a challenging project, another takes on an extra role like People Manager or AI Ambassador. Everyone contributes in their own way.”
You can’t give your absolute best at every race or every project. That’s why I deliberately choose what to focus my energy on, depending on what matters most at that moment.
Mélanie raised the subject of working part-time (four days a week) at BDO as early as her very first job interview. Her training schedule and race periods are also known within her team. The real balance for her doesn’t lie in the planning, but in the fulfilment she gets from both worlds. Something she only became aware of during an injury. After an operation, she had to recover for four to five months, without races or normal training sessions. For someone who trains twice a day, quite a significant disruption. But it also taught her something about herself: “During my rehabilitation I learned to draw more satisfaction from my job. I realised that besides running, I can also find my drive in the projects at BDO.”
More and more people are taking on a sporting challenge like a marathon alongside their job. For those people, Mélanie has some honest tips: “Don’t underestimate the fatigue. It might not show in the first few days, but after a few months it really starts to add up. It’s also crucial to keep the two worlds separate and to invest properly in sleep, rest, and a healthy diet. And be open about what you need, because a workable structure is something you build together.”
Combining elite sport with a job at a consultancy firm: how does it work at BDO?
