Women In Business - Management Consulting Review

by PwC

Best Student Employer

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

3.2/5
  • About You
    3.5
  • The Company
    3.3
  • Everything Else
    2.6

    About You

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy the insight?
  • I really enjoyed the Women in Business programme. It gave me a really great insight into the working culture at PwC and what it is like to work in the professional world. It was great being able to shadow female leaders within management consulting and see the sort of work they do when having reached a higher level. The great thing about the programme is that you are also able to meet PwC employees who have just joined the company on the graduate programme so you get to hear their insights of the company as well as meeting employees who have been there for years.

    4/5

  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued during your time at the company or firm?
  • I felt very valued while being at the company. Everyone I worked with treated me like a usual colleague and member of the team. You are given a laptop for the week and a PwC entrance pass, both of these items make you feel like you are in full time work at PwC which is nice as you truly do feel like you are working for the company. There are so many employees that work at PwC that most will assume you just work there rather than being a university student. This is great as you truly get to experience what it is like if you were actually working there.

    4/5

  • 3. How much guidance/support did you receive during the insight?
  • The programme is set up so that you are assigned a female leader for the week. If you had any queries you could always ask that leader and equally there were other people you could send emails to for example the HR employees who organised the women in business programme. On the first day we were greeted by an employee who was with us for a few hours to help set up our laptops and show us around. They were also really great and I was able to send emails to them throughout the week if I had any issues.

    4/5

  • 4. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and information you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
  • I developed many skills throughout the week but not necessarily skills that will be relevant to my degree. For example I was constantly networking with other employees which is a very important skill to have. I do feel that the programme could have been designed in a way to help you gain a few more skills for example it would have been useful if I was able to do some research / give a presentation to help build those presenting skills.

    3/5

    The Company

  • 5. How well structured was the insight?
  • The insight was fairly well structured. There was a clear person who was assigned to meet us on day 1 and we were given clear female leaders to shadow for the week. There were a few issues with some of the others on the programme not having laptops for the week (which was quite annoying for them) and it felt slightly disorganised when we all arrived as we were sent the arrival information at the last minute. However these were small issues that were sorted shortly after. Because you are shadowing somebody, everybody's week will vary hugely as what you do with your week depends on what your female leader is doing that week. So the nature of the programme meant that there couldn't be much structure.

    3/5

  • 6. How was the general atmosphere during your insight?
  • The atmosphere was great. Because you're literally doing the work of your female leader the atmosphere will depend on what they're doing, what floor they're working in, whether they are spending the day going to meetings etc. Overall the PwC Riverside More office (where I was based) has a great atmosphere and is in a really buzzing area of London. I also had to go to client's offices because this is where my female leader was based for the week so of course the atmosphere here was completely different to the PwC office.

    4/5

  • 7. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
  • I felt that the company do invest in you as they allow you to shadow a leader who is high up in the company. This means you are able to attend really cool things like meetings, conference calls, partner/director meetings etc. They also give you an interview at the end of the week to see if you are suitable for the summer internship. However, apart from this, you don't get much other formal training. You gain personal development more though talking to others / what you learn from your female leader.

    3/5

  • 8. To what extent did the insight help you to understand what it would be like to have a full time role with the company or firm?
  • The insight helped me very much. This insight week is very different to others. With some insight weeks you spend a week in classrooms doing presentations and research with others on the programme or you spend the week going to presentations given by employees of the firm etc. However with this you are shadowing somebody for the week which is the best experience you'll gain in terms of understanding what it is like to work for the company as you get to see their daily routine. Of course you are shadowing somebody who is a lot higher up but you are still able to get the idea of things,

    4/5

  • 9. How much did the insight help you in understanding the company culture?
  • The insight helped me very much. This insight week is very different to others. With some insight weeks you spend a week in classrooms doing presentations and research with others on the programme or you spend the week going to presentations given by employees of the firm etc. However with this you are shadowing somebody for the week which is the best experience you'll gain in terms of understanding what it is like to work for the company as you get to see their daily routine. Of course you are shadowing somebody who is a lot higher up but you are still able to get the idea of things,

    4/5

  • 10. How valuable was the content in helping you to decide on your future career path?
  • This is the only area I felt that was slightly disappointing. Because I was shadowing a PwC partner who worked in management consulting her work was very very different to what a new graduate would be doing. e.g. she went to meetings and attended conference calls all day long. This is great to see and a fantastic opportunity to attend them however as a new graduate this is not the sort of work I would be doing. Therefore I still fully wasn't able to understand what a management consultant actually does.

    2/5

    Everything Else

  • 11. Were you paid or reimbursed adequately for this experience?
  • I was paid about £250 for the week.


  • 12. Were there opportunities for networking and meeting other employees of the company or firm?
  • There was no formal networking sessions or evenings however you do meet a lot of employees on a daily basis. Therefore you have to be pro active in getting to know other employees, asking them about their work and emailing them to catch up and go for a quick coffee to learn more about the work that they do. Many employees are willing to help and answer any questions that you have. Really make use of the laptop they give you by sending a few emails to the people that you meet to catch up with them if you want to know a little more about the work that they do.

    3/5

  • 13. How were the networking/ social event opportunities?
  • There were no networking opportunities organised in the week.

    1/5

  • 14. Did you find out about activities that employees can get involved in outside of work?
  • I didn't actually find out about this. There wasn't much mention of what goes on outside of work however if I asked about it i'm sure there may have been activities that employees can get involved with. One of employees I spoke to was part of the PwC choir so there is an example of an outside of work activity.

    3/5

  • 15. Would you recommend this insight to a friend?
  • Definitely! amazing opportunity and I had literally had one of the greatest weeks of my life. A true insight into working life at PwC

    5/5

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Details

Insight / Vacation Scheme (< 4 Weeks)

London

September 2016


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