Unsuccessful consulting recruiting season - what now?

As the title suggests, I unfortunately received no offers from any of the summer positions I applied for in management consulting. From reading other posts on this topic, I understand that I should turn my attention to securing some sort of corp strat or business internship at a F500, but I have no idea how to approach this. Unlike the big consulting firms, these companies don't actively recruit at my school, and I'm unsure of whether I should actively network or just spam my resume to as many companies as possible. 

Any tips on how to approach recruiting for non-consulting summer roles, especially regarding getting the interviews?

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Does "unsuccessful" mean applied to 20-30 firms and got no replies? Bombed a handful of interviews? I think a truly "unsuccessful" season is when you've applied to 100+ firms and got 0 replies. My point is that you can keep applying to the hundreds of strategy boutiques and mid-size firms out there before you give up. If they all reject you then the issue my be with your CV, in which you may need to bolster your skills (standardized tests, life experiences, languages etc.). So, where do you stand?

 

Good point - I definitely fall into the first category. I think my question then still applies to the hundreds of boutiques and mid-size firms, because so far, I've gotten interviews at every single firm that does OCR (MBB) but have gotten dinged at every single firm that doesn't. This suggests that my CV is strong enough, but I'm just not getting any looks when I just apply through company websites. Also, worth mentioning that I'm an international student, so I'm not eligible to apply for most mid-size/boutique firms.

 

I think it might be the opposite actually. OCR usually reduces the bar to get an interview (because they already have x spots allotted for interviews for that uni) whereas if a firm doesn't recruit at your campus, you are essentially creating an interview spot for yourself. I get the struggle of being an international student (I am one, got an IB offer tho) but reach out to alums. There has to be at least some firm that might be open to sponsoring (which you don't even need at this point).

 

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