if unable to get consulting internship after junior year, what internships to do to get consulting FT?

I'm going to be rising junior at a target school. Did an ibanking internship at a regional boutique this summer. My goal is management consulting, MBB would be great, but of course I wouldn't mind something like Parthenon-EY or Oliver Wyman. I'm going to prep for the case interviews and hope for the best. The seniors before me said that very few people get consulting internships the summer before their senior year, most are recruited for FT the coming fall. Since I have a finance internship under my belt, should I try to recruit for ibanking and use that to leverage into consulting next year? The problem is, I don't think i'll enjoy it that much due to the nature of the work and the long hours. But if that will help me get into consulting, i'm willing to do it. Or should I try for an F500 corporate internship? thanks!

 

What they said. Anything that is name brand and strategic in nature. Hell....even marketing can be a great internship for consulting because you answer some very strategic questions regarding topics like how much you want to invest in older product lines or what segment of the market you want to target with upcoming products.

 

I agree with what others said, but I will go against the general WSO sentiment and say that the F500 internship "requirement" is a bit misleading - at least it was at my school (your school may be different). I went to a target and the only real common denominators among the students who received MBB/D/LEK/OW/Parthenon/etc offers were a brand-name internship (or two) and networking with current alums. And of course, solid case prep.

Most of us didn't do corporate strategy gigs during junior summer, and we certainly weren't penalized for it. The industry of your internships didn't matter as much as the fact that you'd worked for a recognizable employer and proved yourself capable of something strategic in nature.

 
Best Response

In no particular order:

  • Finance internship at F500
  • IBD internship at a BB
  • Operations internship at a BB
  • Marketing internship at F500

If you do a linkedin search of analysts at MBB & Big 4 consulting firms you'll find any internship under the sun during their junior summer.

 

No problem. Also to address your other point, I actually think some firms are trying to fill most of their analyst class with returning interns. So there may be more slots for internships than for FT. It's going to vary by firm though.

 

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