My Credera Story: Daniel Youman

Daniel Youman

Everyone has a story. A story that has been influenced by experiences, community, and people. Our stories shape who we are and who we are becoming. We want to celebrate all of the unique stories and different experiences that have shaped our people and build the fabric of our firm. With that in mind, we’re excited to introduce you to leaders across all levels at Credera and their unique stories and perspectives through a blog series called, My Credera Story.

This week you’ll get to know Daniel Youman, a Manager in our Management Consulting practice. We sat down with Daniel to learn a little more about his story.

Daniel's Credera Story

How did you find Credera? I went to Texas A&M and graduated with an Industrial Engineering degree. After college, I took a job at Texas Instruments but had always been interested in a consulting career. From the beginning, I believed my wife and I needed to be aligned on what we would do professionally, and that led me to realize that a career where I had to travel full time would not be successful for our family. Eventually, I heard about Credera from a friend and loved what I heard. I knew it was a company with strong values and more of a local model for consultants who wanted that experience. I came for an interview and fell in love – I quickly trusted our leadership and enjoyed everyone I talked to. I was drawn to the high caliber of people at Credera and their emphasis on work life integration within a consulting career.

What is unique about your Credera story? I’ve really grown up in my career at Credera. In the four years that I’ve been here, I’ve learned ten times what I learned in my previous five years of work experience. It’s been a perfect mix of challenge and balance. I have gotten the opportunity to participate in projects small and large, local and across the country, and in roles varying from Analyst to a Project Director. It has been wild and fun.

While I love my career, and want to continue to progress at Credera, another huge priority for me has been being a good husband and a father. I have been married seven years and have three boys under four. My wife and I both work full time jobs and the boys are also wild and fun.

How has Credera supported you as a working dad? There’s a culture of support here. If you’re a new hire at Credera, you learn quickly that we respect an employee’s priorities with family and travel. It’s not a scary conversation to tell your leadership that you’re pregnant or taking paternity leave – and I would know. There’s a chance I’ve taken the most advantage of Credera’s paternity leave policy. I had been here for a little less than a year when my wife and I got pregnant, and then was the first to take our newly offered paternity leave.

Credera’s support didn’t just happen when I took paternity leave though, it happened in the staffing process in the weeks and months before and after we had our children. It wasn’t just paternity leave, it was everything around it – decisions about what projects I was placed on, how much to put on my plate, and considerations for travel.

There have been many times in my time at Credera where I’ve gone to leadership with questions about not being able to travel because my wife was traveling for work, and every time the answer was “let’s get creative and make it work.”

I’ve also seen this modeled by leaders that I look up to at the firm. I’ve watched some put up boundaries to prioritize their family and still be extremely successful here. I know there is a trade-off, but I don’t feel hindered in my career because of these tradeoffs.

Biggest lesson you’ve learned so far in your career? I’ve learned to think more strategically and more intentionally about how to do my work and structure my life. I have learned that work and life have many parallels, but one that is consistent across industries, careers, or life phases, is that we all live in a world of constraints with limited resources. It is up to us to be intentional and prioritize where our energy, passion, and time is spent. Look where your time is going, and you will find what your passions are.

Any advice to other working parents? First, set your own priorities. If you don’t set your priorities, someone else will set them for you, and those will probably be misaligned to what yours are.

And second, fight like crazy to develop yourself and grow in your career. If you are complacent in your work or home life, the current will take you downstream. So, fight like crazy to gain ground.

Working At Credera

At Credera, we have a culture that values the many unique perspectives, backgrounds, and histories that our employees represent. If you’re interested in a career at Credera and beginning your journey, please visit our careers page.