What if I didn’t get a consulting internship?

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I work at a business school. So we teach (yes), stay curious about business (yes), and also cheer students on to get great jobs (definitely yes). Set them on the way to career satisfaction and success. Many business students (undergraduate and 2 year MBA) are aiming for management consulting roles.

Consulting is uber-competitive

Inevitably, there is a cadre of students who did not get consulting internships. Let’s remember, a consulting firm will interview hundreds of people, and select a few dozen. No biggie. Do great work, love the one you are with.

How to make the most of your internship?

Do great work. Get a return offer. Learn how to learn. Develop life-long relationships. Experiment, try new things. Reverse-engineer your resume. What do you want it to say at the end of the 8 or 10 weeks?

Also, can we agree that there are management consulting elements to all jobs?  Scope, clients, projects, process, change management, data analysis, storytelling, persuasion, and getting results?   

Specific to consulting full-time recruiting, 5 things come to mind. . . 

1. Know what consulting firms look for

This is not difficult. If you go to any of the big 3, big 4 consulting firms, they give you tons of coaching on how to do great on the case interview, live a “day in the life of a consultant”, and generally understand what kind of people they are looking for. If you are too impatient to do that research, here is what I would posit: 

2. Find the gaps in your resume

Consultants are process-focused. You should be too. What are consulting firms looking for (see #1)?  Where do you stack up against the (seemingly) impossible list of Uber-consultant perfection? What are the things you need to be “good enough” and where do you need to be “excellent?” 

  • Good Enough: GPA, credentialed, legitimate experience, networked, client presentable
  • Excellent: case interview, specific and clear strengths – far above others; clear competitive advantage 

2a. Double-down on what makes you unique 

I teach strategy, and it is often summed up simply as “what’s your sustainable competitive advantage?”  Are you being different?  What’s your economic moat, that makes it hard for others to copy-cat you? What trade-offs are you making to be a better you? As a partner once told me, “Don’t fight a fair fight.”  Namely, find where you have an unfair advantage and do more of that. 

Yes, you need the basics. As a minimum, you need to meet the threshold for all the criteria mentioned in #1. You need to be smart, aware, fun and eager. After that, you need to be a MUCH BETTER version of you. Take your passion, match it with grit, hard work, and clear deliverables. If you are passionate about ABC, do you have proof of your work? Do you have white papers, patents, blog posts? Can you prove it? 

After recruiting in separate rooms, the interviewers will close-loop over dinner and pick their favorites. You need to crush the case (given), but also have a clear story which gives the recruiters hope that you will be a partner one day. Are you memorable? Are you a bet worth backing? 

3. Get relevant (consulting) skills and experience 

So back to reality. You did not make the final round at the consulting firm you wanted. What can you do?  Remember, your resume should be MORE attractive after the internship experience. Here’s my short-list. For experienced consulting senior managers and recruiters, please chime in: 

  • Can you do client service?  Can you work cross-functionally with tight deadlines?
  • Are you process oriented? Can you break down problems into buckets for key drivers?
  • Do you understand the US work culture?  (NB: show you “get” American work environment)
  • Did you tackle difficult problems? Even if you are a Poet, can you do Quant work?
  • Did you become more valuable after the internship? Can they bill you out at $200-400 per hour? 

4. Do project-based work 

One thing about consulting work which I love is that it has a start, middle, and end. Consultants benefit from the fact that problems get scoped, and projects have a timeline. Consultants are seriously type-A about breaking problems down, documenting results, creating interim deliverables, pre-wiring the results with managers and clients. During your internship: 

  • Get a return offer; do great where you are. Show that people want to hire you.
  • Make 1 slide a day; get good at telling stories on PowerPoint.
  • Expand your network across the organization; show your organizational breadth.
  • Do great work (of course), anticipate the questions anyone would have on your work
  • Fight to have a final report out; design your internship so there is a sense of finality with your work
  • Don’t be a FOMO person; while you are there – be 110% dedicated. Don’t keep your eye on the exit.

5. Stay curious

For me, this is one of the most important metrics. Are you naturally curious and like solving problems?  Management consultants are paid to solve difficult problems by taking messy data, structuring it, shepherding recommendations through the organizational chart, and getting the client (organization) to change. In the end, have a great internship. Do great work. Stay positive. Get great experience. Gain skills. Build relationships. The world is small, but life is a long time.

Seasoned consultants – help – what other advice do you have for business students graduating from undergrad and MBA, who have an internship this summer?  What should they do to prepare for the full-time consulting recruiting season? 

Cynical post-script:

There is forever FOBO.  Fear of a better offer. I’ve had it many times in my life. Heck, even now. Yes, we are continually seeking more and more exclusive groups to belong to.

Please accept my resignation. I don’t want to be a member at any club that will have people like me as a member. 

– Groucho Marx. 

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