Management Consulting Intern Review

The work placement was incredibly enjoyable. The atmosphere was always positive and supported and i felt included in the team from very early on the internship. I managed to build good relationships with both my team and the client and really enjoyed getting to try new things and learning about the client's way of working.

My colleagues were always supportive and welcoming and encouraged me to achieve my best. My successes were celebrated by the whole team which was an important part of the overall friendly atmosphere. I felt like my colleagues assigned work to me that was rewarding and important, and were impressed when I took on additional work.

My supervisor was always ready to help me with any task, be it checking some of my work before it was sent off or a larger overarching issue. He was always helping me to achieve the goals which I had set at the beginning of the internship by supporting my ideas, and going a step further by using his own network to further my exploration of the company.

Because of the nature of the project there was sometimes a big difference between how busy days were. Some days were heavily client facing with more contact hours, whereas other were more desk based and independent. However because of the supportive work ethos at the company, no one ever got too overwhelmed or stayed bored as everyone helps each other with their workload.

The extent of the responsibility which I was given was a welcome surprise. Early on in the project I was trusted to lead sessions and to meet with the client without supervision from the team. This made my experience far more interesting as I felt that the work I was doing was more integral to the team and the success of the project.

Organisation is a crucial skill both on a placement and in your degree. Ensuring that your day is planned effectively, that you are keeping in contact with important people and that you have set realistic goals and deadlines are all crucial skills which I have managed to hone over the course of the internship and that I hope to take forward into my degree

As we were working at the client site, the general atmosphere had to be professional to an extent. However this did not prevent us from building an excellent relationship with the clients and within our team, and our socials helped to build upon these bonds. Coming to work was never boring and I always left with a smile.

The internship was very organised, with three days of specialised training to start with, and two days to settle into the main office before being sent out to client site. Once at client site, the project I was on worked on a weekly cycle and therefore was very structured and easy to fit into, despite joining midway through the project

There was a lot of investment in me as an individual, as we had three days of specialised training before we started at the client site, and even at the client site I has weekly meetings to check up on my progress and constant assistance to help me develop personally and professionally over the course of 8 weeks.

Future employment prospects are very appealing. The company has a clear structure through which you travel professionally, meaning that when I accepted the offer of becoming an associate I knew that I would be on track to achieve more and more the longer I was with the company and get to be involved in lots of interesting projects

Because there were only two interns in the intake I was in, there was personally not much of a social scene amongst the interns, as we were working on two separate projects. There were however socials and team dinners which involved the wider consulting team and also my personal team, which provided great opportunities to improve relationships and to meet new people.

Birmingham city centre, where the main office is based, can be quite expensive because of transport and food expenses, however the client site was not in a very expensive area. However the cost of living did not affect me whilst on the internship as I was staying with family and could therefore not speak accurately on the real cost of living.

The nightlife in Birmingham is incredibly good. There are a number of great restaurants and bars in the city centre that vary enough to suit every occasion. There are also a large number of clubs, but also other social activities which were suggested for team socials, for example mini golf.

There were a few activities to get involved with outside of work, for example when I joined they were picking a football team to play a friendly match. While during the internship there is not much of a chance to get involved in extra-curriculars, lots of the people working in the office talked about the activities they were becoming involved in which sounded really interesting and varied.