Semi-Target school, ~3.7 GPA, solid experience — still can’t land an internship. What am I supposed to do?
I’m honestly getting pretty discouraged with recruiting and wanted some real advice.
I go to a top school, have about a 3.7 cumulative GPA, and feel like my resume is pretty solid. I’ve built experience outside of school as well - including running a pretty successful business and doing some project-based work that’s pretty relevant to consulting/strategy roles.
I’ve also been doing what everyone says to do: networking with people at firms, getting my resume reviewed, preparing for interviews, etc.
The problem is I can occasionally get interviews, but I can’t seem to convert them into offers.
Most recently I went through the process for a strategy/AI consulting internship. Made it pretty far in the process and thought the interview went reasonably well, but after waiting almost two weeks I ended up getting rejected. Situations like this keep happening where I get somewhat close but not all the way there.
What’s really stressing me out is that I graduate in 2027 and still can’t even land a summer internship. It makes me wonder if I’m doing something fundamentally wrong or if the market is just that competitive right now.
For people who’ve been through this before - what do you actually change when you’re in this position?
bump, in the same boat as you
Praying we make it through, I’m actually so scared to graduate and have nothing. Feel like I’m doing everything right too
same boat, considering delaying grad
Breaking in is basically a two-step equation. First you need to get into enough interview processes, then you need to convert at least one of them
If you’re occasionally getting interviews but not landing offers, that usually means two things need to happen at the same time: you need more interview opportunities, and you need to tighten your actual interview performance
On the first point, the most reliable way people get pulled into processes right now is through referrals/someone internally flagging their resume. So the question isn’t whether you’re networking or not, but if your networking is actually translating into that. A lot of conversations stay purely informational, which is helpful, but it doesn’t always move your resume into the interview pile
On the second point, once you do get interviews it becomes about execution. That means really dialed behavioral stories, strong technical/case prep depending on the role, and ideally doing mock interviews with people who will give blunt feedback
Most people who eventually break in had multiple processes while having a relatively high conversion rate. When both of those move in the right direction, it’s very hard to not land something
I think the space is just really competitive. You have to really stand out. You say how you’ve done projects and networked, which is great, but you also have no experience outside of your own business, which is nothing to scoff at. It’s such a messed up situation because companies prefer interns who have already had internships, so it leaves people who have had none or one, to be left in a terrible situation.
As for me personally, I didn’t even know I wanted to do consulting. I have slightly above a 3.5, I guess a target school (not top tier), and have never cased before. I always just cold apply, and because I have experience in a more niche area of consulting and have technical skills (power query, building apps with Codex/Claude Code, consulting project for a company), I was able to land a strategy internship for this upcoming summer. I also have had 2 other internships (in the niche area but not consulting), so that also greatly helped.
Before landing this internship, I’ve had countless interviews, only got 1 other offer, and none of them were consulting, so I got this strategy internship on my first try. I think all you can do at this point is continue to apply and hope for the best. Regardless, you need to gain some experience, so this means even applying for business/financial analyst roles, because it’s better than being a senior and having 0 internships under your belt. Just keep pushing, you’ll eventually land where you’re supposed to be. Good luck man, I wish you the best
It is a hard market right now, absolutely. Getting the offer at a top firm is very difficult. Not sure what your entire background is, but 3.7 GPA is a decent indicator (good, not golden).
The amazing news is that we have MBA programs for this exact purpose! If I were you I would comission into the armed services (Airforce is most competitive) and apply to M7 in a few years. They love military and 3.7 beats the GPA at everywhere except GSB... You can reliably get consulting interviews from any of the M7... and their acceptance rates are mostly ~20%+ (so, apply to at least 5).
Alternatively, try to lock down a niche role (cancer research at a big medical school, grid capacity modernization at a high-profile utility, computer vision engineer at a defense contractor). IMO, kiss of death is moving into a white collar role at a small, low-growth space that won't let you A) attend an M7, B) won't let you lateral to MBB, and C) won't have the compensation you're looking for.
Obviously this is totally just my opinion! Huge grain of salt is totally warranted.
there is slowing demands plus AI, outsourcing, so I think getting in at this point is very competitive and difficult. Many firms are laying off and I also heard from colleagues about a hiring freeze so your situation is not strange at all. To get in you prob have to really stand out, have skills in more niche, technical areas (be a specialist) or be very lucky.
there is slowing demands plus AI, outsourcing, so I think getting in at this point is very competitive and difficult. Many firms are laying off and I also heard from colleagues about a hiring freeze so your situation is not strange at all. To get in you prob have to really stand out, have skills in more niche, technical areas (be a specialist) or be very lucky.
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