Summer Intern Review

Was interesting to see how consulting actually works on a daily basis. The culture of the firm helped and the people that you work with definitely made it more enjoyable.

Coming in as an intern, you assume that you're there to do menial jobs, but they utilise you as a full-time member. Your views are appreciated and actually contribute towards the end deliverables.

The support and guidance is rather limited, given that it is learn-as-you-do on the internship; however that is the nature of consulting. My manager did help in providing a direction to work towards and also providing input on the work that I was doing as feedback.

Each day was different but every day was definitely filled with work to do; whether it was work for the day, or preparing for another day. However, if there are some things that you want to attend, or just have a plan to have dinner with friends, then as long as you are done with work or let your manager know, it is definitely a good work-life balance.

The responsibility given was much more than expected. You're given a certain piece of work to do and are responsible for it, with input from the manager and consultants. It's reassuring that the team is willing to trust the work that you do and expect you to produce quality work.

Your learn to communicate with teams of people that you've never worked with before, and in some cases, you'll work with people who are much more senior than you, especially clients where as a consultant, you can be interviewing market heads and directors about their company in an effort to help. You realise that apart from your studies, there are other skills that have to be developed in life that will be necessary once you join the world of work.

The office is rather quiet, but sociable at times. People generally work hard and independently, unless they're sitting with their team members and are actively discussing things, although some of the time meeting rooms are used for that type of thing. Outside of work, there are events on most of the time, and if not, then there are project dinners and lunches that are normally set up and creates a good healthy atmosphere away from work.

Apart from a few hiccups due to the large group size, it was run very smoothly. In general, the interns knew what they were doing and teams knew what was happening. It is down to the intern themselves to inform their teams of their respective intern events, but aside from that, teams are quite clued in on what happens on the internship programme, as are the rest of the office.

In the 2 months, the company has basically invested some training in the intern in the hope of being able to give the intern a full-time job offer. There is not much formal training, as training is done on the go, but colleagues are always willing to help anyone who is stuck, especially with excel!

Being an intern, it's an invitation for you to show the company what you have to offer them. The work you're given is exactly the same as an analyst's, so being able to perform well, or at a decent standard is something that will make you stand out and increase your chances of a return job offer. All the intern has to do is to show that they are willing to work hard, and accept feedback and work on it, as well as trying their hardest to produce quality work and a return job offer should be simple enough.

Our intern group was definitely tight-knit. Most of the interns came from similar/same universities, but also were very willing to interact with each other. We had 2 sets, 1 group of MBAs, and 1 group of undergraduate interns, yet there seemed to be no divide between the 2 groups.

Living in London is not cheap, as expected. Socialising is also not cheap, but given that most socials were company provided, it was cheap for us interns. Living costs were perhaps the biggest barrier to most interns, but being an intern that studies in London, I was fine for the Summer and the duration of the internship.

There is night-life if you're willing to actively search for it. Most people will go to a bar/pub nearby and have drinks after work, or just go meet friends from other companies after work.

There are some, but not too many enough to completely burn you out every day. There are a few dotted around the internship, opening dinner, mid-term event and closing night, as well as a few every now and then (such as lunch & learns). For activities such as sports, the interns have to find out by themselves and actively search and join those networks in order to do so rather than be notified by the company.