Junior Year Consulting Internship

I am an international undergraduate student from Zimbabwe at a top state school (see username for hint) majoring in Political Economy. Given the trend of my lackluster academic performance, I anticipate my GPA to be around a 3.17 by the time junior year applications are due at the end of fall.

On campus, I am currently part of a consulting group, investment group, and a committee that deals with the allocation of fees. I am also currently working a Corporate Strategy internship at reputable and industry-leading multinational.

First of all, do I even stand a chance at a top ten consulting firm such as Accenture for example, or should I jump ship early and try my luck elsewhere? Second, could someone please elucidate the recruitment process for me as I know nothing about what to expect.

 

That's on the lower end. I remember when I was doing Big 4 advisory recruiting, there was an unofficial cutoff around 3.4 when doing resume screens.

Not sure what you mean by jumping ship elsewhere. But if you mean looking at lower tier consulting firms, I'd say might well as try for all consulting firms and see what sticks. Helpful that you have good extra curriculars and an internship. You'll need to focus a lot more on networking to make sure that your resume doesn't get thrown out in screens and that you get the interview invite.

 

Thanks to all, I appreciate the responses so far.

@Aura505, by jumping ship, I mean forgetting about consulting altogether and tailoring my efforts more effectively at alternative fields.

I know my GPA is on the low side and will hurt. What I was asking: for example, for any "solid" IB, it's 3.5+ (probably 3.7+) or bust. I wanted to know if something similar exists for the "solid" consulting firms in the US.

@gpck, I'm actually on an F-1 student Visa. I've know the sponsorship process is a lot easier since I can claim the internship as just OPT.

 
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Best Response

Honestly applying through online applications is a shit show. In terms of finding an internship I suggest creating a list (maybe an excel file to stay organized) of firms that you think you have a chance with and start cold emailing/calling directors/VPs. This worked for me big time, however it is much easier to pull off when targeting smaller shops. Draft up a perfect cold email and just switch around a few things for each firm you target. Remember it's a numbers game, you only need one to work out.

It really depends on your network as well. The info I mentioned above is sort of a last resort kind of thing. That being said it does work (for banking at least) and I think you may be able to benefit from it as well. All in all, start making connections in the industry and start thinking of non-traditional ways to break in.

Good Luck.

 

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