Employee Recognition – Spotlight on Kyle Dobson

This month we’re talking about employee recognition, including the basics, types of awards, and how to distribute those awards. We have also been sharing Employee Spotlights, one of our favorite ways of recognizing the unique, talented, and dedicated people that make FMP Consulting a great organization and great place to work!

This week we wanted to share another Employee Spotlight, highlighting Kyle Dobson. Kyle is approaching his one-year anniversary with FMP, so we thought it might be a nice time to see what brought him to FMP, what he’s enjoying so far, and shine some light on this quiet and funny FMPer!

Let’s start with one of our favorite questions… Did you grow up knowing you always wanted to be a consultant? (Spoiler- no one ever says yes.) 

Initially, when I was really young, I wanted to be a doctor. I think my main reasoning behind this was just to help people in need, but I probably didn’t think through everything that went into that, so it might have been a little optimistic. I went into undergrad as undecided and had a few potential areas of interest- the medical route was still interesting, as well as computer science. Clearly, I didn’t end up in either field! Instead, on a friend’s recommendation, I took a psychology class in my second semester and really enjoyed it and found it incredibly interesting. From there, I took a few more classes and ultimately decided I wanted to major in psychology. I still wasn’t sure about my career path yet, so I took an Industrial/Organizational (I/O) class, as well as a few clinical classes and ultimately determined I wanted one of the two to be my focus. From there, I leaned towards I/O over clinical (I feel like this is a common challenge amongst other I/Oers!) and started to look at a few different master’s programs. I found the one at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey and really enjoyed the experience.

So, after almost a year with FMP, what drew Kyle to make the move from Jersey to Arlington? 

The people and the work. As I went through the interview process, everyone seemed so passionate about FMP, which started with my first interview at the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (SIOP) conference in Orlando! My first FMP interview was during the conference at a restaurant in Disney, with Angelica Garza and Stephen Tyler and I actually got lost on the way there. I was frantically running around asking various Disney employees how to find the restaurant, all while wearing a suit in 90-degree temperatures. Fortunately, when I arrived ten minutes late and very hot, they didn’t judge me too harshly! From there, everyone else I spoke with continued to show the same passion and I was just really excited about the process. The collaborative and high-paced environment of consulting had always been very appealing to me. Additionally, FMP is much larger than previous companies I had been at, so the opportunity to develop in a variety of different focus areas was incredibly attractive. In my previous role, I predominantly focused on surveys and, although I had done my undergrad in DC, I had never gotten much exposure to working with the federal government, so there were a lot of new areas to develop my skill sets.

And what are you enjoying the most so far? 

The thing I enjoy the most is hearing that a client is satisfied with the work I’ve done, or getting positive feedback directly from the client about either a high-quality deliverable or a positive experience that they had, especially if I played a large role in the project. It’s the customer service side of things, seeing them be satisfied, that makes all the work that went into the product or deliverable really worth it.

What’s next for Kyle? 

At FMP, I’m excited to continue to work with clients, learn and become more specialized in certain areas, and hone in on what interest areas are really attractive to me. I think there is a lot of room for growth, in terms of experience, opportunities, and development, which is exciting. Coming from a survey background, it’s already been great to get into new areas and projects that have expanded my experience beyond that background.

Outside of FMP, I really want to take the time to travel. I’ve traveled to Canada and Bermuda, but want to make it to Europe next. I haven’t been to Europe yet, so it’s a goal of mine to head to Ireland, England, and Germany within the next few years. I’d like to break these up into separate trips and spend some time in each place, getting to experience each location as something other than a tourist.