If you’re reading this, you’re probably preparing for the upcoming intern season. Well, not to fret about it: I’ve been through the same process, and the key is to keep going and not look back.
Just a quick intro about myself before we delve further: I’m Parvik Dave, a fourth-year undergrad doing my B.Tech in Electrical Engineering, and pursuing a minor in Management from SJMSOM. This article is about my experience during the intern season, followed by my time as a Summer Associate at Strategy&.
During my second year, I was utterly confused about whether to go
into core or non-core in the future. I was (still am 😊) a part of
the tech team AUV-IITB and had reasonable exposure to core
electrical. However, I was doing a management minor on the side,
whose courses had also piqued my interest quite a bit. Ultimately, I
decided that I wanted to get more exposure to non-core before coming
to a final decision. So, I interned at a startup in the digital
therapeutics domain as a Business Analyst in my second year. Lucky
for me, the founder and CEO of the company was an ex-consultant from
McKinsey himself. This allowed me to interact with an ex-consultant
and get some exposure to the work consulting involves. I enjoyed the
experience and finally settled on non-core for my third-year intern.
Then came the ominous intern season. The first thing to be done was to prepare a proper, presentable resume. I drafted a resume, sent it to seniors I knew to get their input, and made the necessary changes. After several drafts, I finally managed to make my resume presentable enough. Now, consult companies look for particular things in a resume. The first, of course, was a decent CPI (which I thankfully had). Second, and perhaps the most important, are the so-called “peaks.” Peaks are hard to describe: they’re essentially distinctive and impactful things you have done in whatever activity you were involved in: it can be sports, academics, PoRs, or just about anything. The interview shortlist happens solely based on the resumes.
The next step was to prepare for the interview. I followed the standard preparation method that most seniors had suggested. I practiced cases from the book Case Interviews Cracked with a friend, did guesstimates, and did some HR prep. Since I was also applying for a couple of finance interns, I practiced probability and solved some puzzles. After all this prep, I felt pumped: I would ace the interviews. Then the shortlists were announced. I didn’t make the cut for some of the IAFs I’d applied for. I felt pretty dejected. All that pump and vigor I’d had was starting to wane off. Thankfully, my friends and family supported me throughout the process and got me back to focusing on what I had in hand.
On D-day, I was wracked with nervousness. But once the first
interview started, that feeling died down, and I eased into the
interview. The first interview went reasonably well: it began with
some introductions, followed by the interviewer giving a
guesstimate. It was a bit involved, and it took me 40-45 minutes to
get through it, but I felt happy in the end. Sometime later, I got a
call from one of the ICs that I was being called for a second
interview. A partner took the second interview from the firm. Once
again, it started with some introductions, but this round was
majorly HR. The partner asked me about my previous summer
internship, and we discussed the digital therapeutics sector and its
future. We talked about what consulting would be like, interns’
work, etc. After this round, I was pretty confident I’d be selected
here. And when the results were announced, I was elated. Fast
forward to May 2022, and my internship stint begins. I was staffed
in Strategy&’s Gurgaon office. Going to a new city always comes with
its own set of challenges. The oppressive heat (trust me, not fun),
the pollution, and the more-than-usual angry people certainly didn’t
help me warm up to the city. It took some time, but I finally
managed to acclimatize myself. My friends and I often went
sightseeing on weekends and did whatever fun things the city had to
offer.
During the two months of my internship, I worked on several projects. Work usually involved researching a client’s problem and using that research to strategize or form hypotheses to be tested. This was then presented to senior people from Strategy&, who would relay this to the client. Preparing decks and documents was bread and butter here. Sometimes, there was also a time crunch, and the client demands needed to be met in a short period. That meant putting in extra hours and working late into the night to ensure the deliverables were ready when asked for. Initially, I had much catching up to do. I’d joined in the middle of an ongoing project, and there had been quite a bit of progress. The learning curve was steep, but my manager helped me through it. He was enthusiastic, always energetic, was a great mentor to me, and now we’re good friends! Despite that, a significant portion of the work involved self-learning, although I’d say this is to be expected. The senior people don’t have the time to teach you everything, and they want you to start contributing as soon as possible. Overall, my internship experience was terrific. I got to meet and work with some fantastic and highly talented people. I learned a lot from the entire process: not just about core consulting but also a few essential life skills along the way. The internship wasn’t all work either. We had several get-togethers and parties during the two months, which were loads of fun—two months swept by in what felt like the blink of an eye.
I hope this blog helps you out on your journey and offers some
clarity. Feel free to reach out to me in case you need help. My
contact details are:
Phone: 9408325200
Email: parvikdave@gmail.com