Consulting internship during sophomore summer?

Hello fellow primates,

I currently attend a semi-target (think USC/Berkeley/UCLA/McKenna/Pomona) and will be a sophomore in the fall. I recently received an offer from a top consulting firm for summer 2014 (think MBB, Booz, Deloitte, LEK). However, I definitely think that I want to recruit for an SA position in IBD during junior year. I will be starting at a boutique ibank in the fall so I should be okay technical-wise and will have ibanking experience, but do you think possibly going for a BB sophomore rotational program or MM bank would be better (keep in mind the consulting offer expires before recruiting for those programs begins)?

Thanks y'all

 

Consulting offer cannot expire before recruiting. Tell the BB firms you're applying/interviewing for that you have an offer from, for example, Booz. They will call Booz and tell them that they have to wait until the you have finished interviewing with them. It works vice-versa as well.

What I would advise right now, is to contact any alumni you know at BBs and tell them your situation. They will advise you on what to do. If not, contact your career center. But I'm 100% sure that a firm cannot put a deadline like that and not give you the chance to interview anywhere else.

Good luck!

 

Interesting - although I'm not sure BB firms would be that willing to go that far for someone who just finished freshman year. The offer was part of a freshman conference I attended this summer, although they didn't say that up front when I recruited in March last year for it so it might actually be expiring in prior to recruiting. Also, it's more in the human capital area so imo it would be kind of hard to talk about during junior SA interviews

 
Best Response

Your biggest concern should be your GPA. A 3.6 wouldn't be an auto-ding, but it would significantly weaken your application's strength. Try to raise your GPA (ideally to a 3.7+ by junior year recruiting and as high as possible for full-time). If you have a "soft" major this even more important. Less important but still worth thinking about is your performance in quantitative classes if your SAT math section is sub-750.

I'm not aware of any big-name sophomore summer consulting internships, but you could position yourself well by landing an internship with a F500 company or boutique consultancy. Obviously, the more strategy oriented/substantial your role the better, and, to shore up your resume, you'll want to take on responsibility wherever you end up. If no competitive positions look like they'll work out, try getting funding through your school (or paying your way if you have the means to) to work for a non-profit in a foreign country that incorporates some kind of data analysis to evaluate their impact. They won't reject your free labor, it'll be a cool experience, and will give you something to talk about.

Make a basic LinkedIn profile if you don't have one yet and start connecting with your peers and family friends so you don't have to do it (and seem self-serving) next fall/winter in preparation for recruiting.

Finally, familiarize yourself with the recruiting process at Vanderbilt and the industry in general. That way, you'll have an idea of who to talk to and what to talk about when networking next fall/winter.

 

I believe the Booz Allen is strictly old WTB side (gov't work), don't know how it places into the WCB (commercial) side. However in general, it is very hard to jump from gov't work to commercial b/c there are a lot of gov't guys who want the prestige/salary of the commercial side.

My take would be try to leverage a BAH internship into M/B/B FT if you can't get a BAH commercial full-time.

 

I would try to contact alumni in the industry. Also you can probably get an interview with McLagan consulting if they have a location near you.

It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation. -Gordon Gekko
 

Do you really feel that it's necessary to post the same topic 17 times a week? If it wasn't answered the first time, it was likely a dumb question that has an extremely obvious answer, which you can find with 2 seconds of searching. Since you're lazy, here it is: you won't get MBB as a soph; especially if you're asking these types of questions.

 

For the record this is the 2nd time I posted this. I posted this in the consulting forum because I thought people would have more experience with this question. I have a legitimate question and, if you look for yourself, there are not that many topics about my situation lingering around. I know how to use the search function, and obviously, I did not find anything.

And I know the answer to that question. I just wanted to see what paths other people took on their way to top consulting firms.

 

"Does anyone know of any internships/programs that are associated with the top consulting firms?" Of course; they each have their respective summer internship programs... Just like any other major company.

"Also would you guys think they would consider me if I applied for positions strictly for Juniors?" If the positions are "strictly for juniors", then I think you answered your own question.

There may be short summer weekend/week-length "leadership conference" type things targeted to sophmores & juniors that you can find at MBB. However... Are these cool and interesting? Yes. Will they help you get into MBB the following year? Maybe not; its at most a week of exposure. McKinsey has one, but it is geared more for minorities & restricted to select schools.

P.S. Everything b2 said is most likely right. In any case, rude replies to rude answers won't get you anywhere... perhaps his post was somewhat justified.

 

It's difficult to get a internship at MBB as a rising senior, let alone rising junior. I'd imagine you would need a very strong network (eg your dad/uncle is a CEO) or be part of a minority program to get a domestic internship as a rising junior.

In terms of relevant experience to set you up for the senior internship or full time recruiting, I personally don't know helpful an internship at a F50/100/500 would be. I would recommend BTA-type consulting roles or a FO position at a BB. Finance and MC are very different but I always pick out the banking/trading interns - it's like a stamp of approval.

I can imagine where you mean by lower ivy, non-target. Start networking now to set yourself up for your junior year internship / full time recruiting.

I've never heard of the firm you mentioned so it would neither help or hurt you. In that case, the experience you would get is much more important.

 
Optimistic Consultant:

In terms of relevant experience to set you up for the senior internship or full time recruiting, I personally don't know helpful an internship at a F50/100/500 would be. I would recommend BTA-type consulting roles or a FO position at a BB. Finance and MC are very different but I always pick out the banking/trading interns - it's like a stamp of approval.

F50/100/500 internships would set you up very well for consulting recruiting, as long as it's more strategy related than operations related (even in marketing, etc. departments). 90% of F500 interns that I knew at my school, including myself, got FT management consulting offers. (Why that is isn't too difficult to figure out.) Similarly, the vast majority of people in my class at the firm did IBD, F500, or consulting (management or tech) internships before FT recruiting.

I'd imagine the same would work going from one internship to the next.

 

I am in the same boat as you. Top 25 private university, 3.9 GPA, studying Finance and Economics. Looking to go into Investment Banking. Would like to land an IB (or really any other finance) internship this summer at any of the bulge banks. Don't really know where to begin!

 

I'd highly recommend you email local strat. consulting firms and try to see if they would let you intern (perhaps for free if you are able) and just learn about the trade. Try to express your sincerest interest and not this as some type of resume booster for next summer.

Alternatively if you are a strong candidate try to get into a banking sophomore internship which will help you get interviews with MBB (and others) next summer for the junior internship.

Best of luck, Paradoxical

 

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