The 2023 Rising Stars of the Profession: Alissa Seeberger

Alissa has over 8 years of professional experience in the fields of digital business transformation and integration, large-scale transformation programs, account planning, and project management – across different geographies and industries. Based on her long experience in account and project management, she's well-versed in processes and set up delivery frameworks by introducing tools like Jira to transform to agile delivery. She follows a result-driven approach, designing and implementing modern working models, optimizing clients' processes, and delivering change management programs – to name a few. Alissa is purpose-driven, resilient, flexible and can easily adapt to any project or situation. One of her many strengths is her strong communication skills, which build trust and set the right expectations with clients and team members. All of this enables her to quickly identify pain points to deliver the best results for clients.

In her short time at Infosys Consulting, Alissa has already delivered some impressive results – both on the client and teams side. Her efforts have delivered excellent results, with satisfied clients returning with new projects – one amounting to over $75 million. Aside from project work, Alissa is a champion for diversity, a spark for new ideas, and an endless promoter for improvement.

As a member of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion team, Alissa spearheaded various partnerships and initiatives to ensure that all team members feel heard. Seeing a gap in the team, she improved recruitment and onboarding, helping to hire 100+ new joiners in 2022 and drove the creation of a new Intranet within the Digital Practice which helps with onboarding – the latter has now been rolled out to all practices around the world. She graduated from Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in Munich with a Master of Arts in Media & Communication Management.

She lives in Munich, loves traveling, cooking, and enjoys playing tennis and golf.

What would you say has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

I would say that the biggest factor in my success so far is my willingness to continuously learn and involve myself in everything that we do. I've been a senior consultant at Infosys Consulting in our Digital Practice since May 2021. In that time, I've strived to learn about all aspects of the business. I spent a year doing project staffing work for the entire firm and worked across five other practices.

My first goal was to understand how our recruitment structure could be re-organized and made more efficient. I involved myself in our new recruitment restructuring initiative and helped to onboard our new Resource Manager in Europe. Together with the team, I worked on a process to ensure that all new joiners are immediately added to a staffing list to shorten bench time between projects and ensure they are prepared for new assignments. This has improved the inclusion of new starters on career developing projects. I'm passionate about giving everyone the opportunities they deserve. That's why I got involved in and spearheaded a partnership with two organizations that support women in business. Most notably, I'm the internal coordinator for "Everywoman" – an organization that connects women with businesses and organizations, globally.

Learning about the business and involving myself in these types of projects has allowed me to have an in-depth knowledge of our people. This has made me into a better manager, colleague and employee, ensuring that we're delivering our best at our best for our clients and our people.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

What I enjoy most about working in the consulting industry is the opportunity to work with a diverse and international group of people – whether it be my team, colleagues or clients.

When it comes to my team, the variety of experiences makes solving complex client issues that much more engaging, because someone will always have a different way of looking at the problem. I find this enriching and fulfilling, as I learn from each situation and every one of my colleagues. Regarding clients, their rich varying industries and backgrounds results in no day ever being same for me. Each new challenge I'm presented with keeps me learning, improving and growing. I find all of this incredibly satisfying – and I don't think any other career would enable me to work with such a diversity of people.

What is your proudest achievement to date?

When I first joined, we had 60 people on our team. We wanted to expand but our recruitment process was lacking structure and strong processes. My goal as Operations Lead was to stabilize recruiting, resourcing, staffing, and help develop our potential in Europe.

To attract more female applicants and broaden our reach to a more diverse talent pool, my team set up a new process for recruiting. This included a new interview process, assigning clear roles to each stakeholder for each stage, and a template to create better targeted job advertisements. The template is being updated regularly and is now used for every new job role, while the updated interview process has helped us optimize lead times for each step. As a result, we successfully hired 100+ new joiners in 2022. Now, our recruiting department is using the tools we've created.

I also improved onboarding, defining a system that assigns a counselee and coach to new starters to help them better assimilate. At the same time, I drove the creation of a new intranet within the Digital Practice which helps with onboarding, which has now been rolled out to all practices around the world.

These are my proudest achievements to date because I've not only contributed to the company's growth, but also believe that the processes I've helped implement widen our reach in finding (and retaining) the best talent.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

Someone once told me that career is a marathon not a sprint. This phrase has taught me patience. It's helped me recalibrate at times when I've maybe compared myself too much to my peers. It's made me realize that if I persevere and keep a positive attitude, I can achieve anything I put my mind to.

It also highlights the importance of relationship building for me. Behind every great athlete there's a wise coach, a supportive team, and a top score to beat. That's why I put relationships – old and new – at the forefront of my work. I'm always looking to improve, and I find that I can do that better when I'm surrounded by people who help me grow.

What does this recognition mean to you?

To receive this award makes me feel incredibly honored to know that people trust and have faith in what I do. However, not only does this recognition validate the effort I have put in to helping clients and my firm, but it also bolsters visibility for strong female leadership.

It's not often that women at my career level are recognized for leadership, and I think it's important to acknowledge that even if you aren't C-suite you can still display strong, empowering initiative and management. This award is an honor, raising that visibility, as well as motivating and inspiring women in all stages of their careers.