Securing a Consulting Internship

Hi all, I'm a student at the University of Georgia with a liberal arts major (GPA: 3.94). I'm currently participating in a internship program designed to expose minorities to corporate career paths, and think that consulting may be the ideal career path for me. I'm trying to secure a consulting internship for my junior year and obviously as a non-business major, I'd love to know more about:

what type of consulting do liberal arts/creative majors lean towards?

what is the best way to go about securing an internship at a top consulting firm?

how can I translate my background experience to the consulting realm? (participating in a Google business and tech program (BOLD) this summer as well as a medium-sized sales internship)

Thank you, I'd appreciate any feedback!

 

Hi! You might want to remove some of the specific details about yourself because it would be pretty easy for people to figure out who you were based on the things that you mentioned.

There isn't necessarily a type of consulting that most liberal arts/creative majors tend to pursue because most people tend to aim for MBB or the consulting arms of the Big 4 firms (ex. EY-Parthenon, PwC). You can major in anything and pursue consulting because firms are looking for the smartest people overall, not in any particular field. Obviously, Accenture and Deloitte may favor more technical majors since they focus on tech consulting. STEM majors often perform well in interviews because there's a lot of brainteasers and mental math, so be sure to brush up on your math and practice cases. 

The core parts of consulting would be problem-solving and strategy, so most skills that you gain from your internships should transfer over. I think that it's really important to focus on your story and why you feel that consulting would be an ideal fit in comparison to the other industries that you've explored, and try to make it personal instead of feeling pressured to fit into a mold because it will make your story sound more genuine.

 
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you're in a fantastic position to recruit for consulting in the upcoming cycle. I'm not sure if uga is a target school, but your gpa, google internship, and frankly your diversity status are exactly what top consulting firms are looking for.

check with your career center to see if mbb and t2's recruit on campus - if they do, make sure to follow their instructions for campus interviews this fall. otherwise, that means your school is a non-target and you'll have to go through non-target recruiting, which basically means networking with consultants (linkedin is a good place to start), getting referrals, and then going through a more ad hoc process for interviews. you should also participate in recruiting events for women and underrepresented minorities to make these connections - reach out to the recruiting teams of the offices you're interested in (atlanta is probably your best bet) and ask them for the schedule of events as well as to be connected to a consultant. it sounds like you have a very strong resume though, so getting an interview should not be too difficult. 

then, you'll have to practice case interviews. there are a lot of resources online as well as prep books you can purchase (case in point, case interview secrets) but the most important part is getting live practice with real consultants. when you do networking calls, you should always ask whether they'd be willing to run cases with you. 

feel free to dm me if you have specific questions! 

 

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