Intern

My role was to work within teams on specific projects for clients. Over the course of my time I worked on three different projects in completely different areas contributing to the team by organising and sitting in on interviews, conducting Excel analysis, creating PowerPoint slides for the client, and partaking in discussions about the direction of the project. I worked closely with the other team members throughout each project, frequently catching up with them and discussing how I was doing.

Over the course of the internship I became much better at: Using Excel effectively to create market models and analyse data Creating slides for the client that would deliver information and key messages Working closely with other team members in a small team and communicating well with them I also got to try out conducting interviews for a couple of the projects that I worked on which was a big learning curve - but very rewarding as I started to become better at them.

Yes I was given a lot of responsibility - as an intern you are treated as a normal member of the team with the responsibilities that that entails. That meant that if I was asked to do something it would have a direct use in the project, and I would be expected to carry out by myself (although I could always ask questions if I wasn't sure what to do). It was really rewarding producing work that would be used directly on the project - and even given to the client!

A lot - there were various people providing more direct support, as well as plenty of other people who were more than happy to provide advice or help with specific things. My managers were always extremely helpful and patient, and I had a dedicated senior person who I could talk to throughout the internship about any problems I was having. I also had a buddy who was more junior in the team - every week we met up for coffee so that he could see how I was getting on and answer any questions, which worked really well.

The company culture and atmosphere was excellent. Everyone was extremely friendly and we frequently had drinks as a larger team, as well as doing things within project teams. As well as that the interns were treated very much as part of the team and included in any events that were going on. We were encouraged to chat to members of the team a lot and they were always very welcoming. One slight issue was when it came to diversity - there was not a huge amount of it, so at times the company felt quite homogenous. I'm not too sure what their corporate social responsibility was like - but I don't think it was that strong.

I had a wonderful time on my internship. It was really exciting getting to do real work on interesting projects which were also quite short term - it meant that everything was always moving quite quickly. I feel like I developed a lot of really useful skills which will definitely be helpful in the future and I met a lot of really lovely people who made the whole experience really fun. It ended up going by very quickly, and I enjoyed every moment of it - as did all the other interns.

Yes

I think one very important bit of advice that I'd give to anyone applying is to not worry too much about doing things to show your interest in consulting or business generally. At the end of the day they're looking for people who are enthusiastic with a specific skillset - how much time you've spent doing societies around consulting doesn't really bother them. I'd also say that in the interviews the best thing you can do is be yourself and ask lots of questions.