To understand how to succeed at an internship, it's important to understand the purpose of the internship for the firm and the team you're placed into.
Internship programs are a huge investment for firms to run. Internships on Demand estimates that a 12-week internship costs employers an average of $21,000 per intern! With the high salaries that interns are paid, consulting firms likely spend way over that amount.
But why? Why invest so much money on people who may not commit to the firm or even the industry?
Obviously, firms aren't randomly throwing cash around! It's all part of a strategy to find and keep the brightest minds early on, before anyone else does – and to make sure they're really a good fit for the firm in the long run.
The main reason is to lock in top talent early. Here's how one consultant puts it on Reddit:
The biggest benefit for us though is locking in top talent early. If you only recruit during the full-time cycle, you're left with... what's left.
What each firm defines as "top talent" is different. Some firms chase after Ivy League grads. Others focus on high-achievers at top public schools. Whatever the case, they want to snap up the best talent they can before their competitors do.
As a consultant explains in another thread, the high costs of internships are just a part of running a consulting firm and building its future.
I don't think we really try to milk value out of our interns so there's no attempt to "rationalize" their cost to the project - we just accept that paying for relatively low-value interns to start learning the trade is a cost of doing business.
Not every intern will stick around, but that's okay. The firm's goal is to fill their future employee pipeline with as many promising candidates as possible. Some interns will love it and come back full-time, and some will decide it's not for them. Either way, the firm keeps moving forward, stocked with fresh talent.
Hiring someone new, especially a student with little to no job experience, is a big gamble for any company. Here's why it's tricky:
So, internships are pretty much a trial run for both you and the firm to see if there's a good fit for the long haul.
What does this mean for you as an intern? It's not all about how much you can add to a project right away. Truth be told, most interns aren't going to make a huge impact immediately. Here's how one consultant puts it:
No one expects an intern to save the world or even a project or even a deliverable. Dont cause stress for your team members, dont do anything embarrassing in front of the clients, ask questions but not too many questions, be fun and sociable and enjoyable to be around.
In simple terms, it's less about your immediate output and more about long-term things like who you can become in the long run and how well you mesh with the people you work with.
Next, you'll want to understand what role interns play on the teams they're on.
You might think they're expected to contribute to their team in groundbreaking ways. However, that's not actually the case. The consultants you'll work with know you're new to the game and don't expect you to provide any solutions. In fact, the same goes for entry-level hires as well.
We don't expect entry-level hires to provide solutions.
– Consulting manager @ EY
In that case, what purpose do interns serve for the teams they're on? On Reddit, you'll learn that interns serve as:
Here are the original comments:
I use them for enthusiasm and as a means to get associates managing people and start preparing them for the next role (time management of self and others, QC [quality control] of other people's work, mentorship).
For us, ... you get lots of bonus points for coaching come review season.
"Bonus points" most likely refers to how some firms evaluate consultants on how much they contribute to the firm outside of working on client projects and coaching counts as a contribution.
So while firms will make it seem like the internship is all about you, it isn't – at least not for the people you'll be working with.
The consultants mentoring you will be evaluated on how well they mentor you. This will in turn factor into whether they get promoted. So do your best to make yourself "coachable" and easy to manage.
The sooner you figure this out, the more your presence will be appreciated. As another consultant puts it:
Try to make others around you look good and let them know that’s your goal.
So now you understand what you mean to the firm and your team. Let's dive into specific things you can do to succeed (or at least not fail) at your next internship.
But first, rest assured. Your chances of getting a return offer are high.
A significant proportion of interns in top consulting firms receive full-time offers at the end of their internships. For instance, McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and Boston Consulting Group report conversion rates upward of 80%
Another consulting manager who spoke to us shared that it's quite hard to fail an internship.
You have to really try hard to fail an internship. Either you just don't care or you're just not getting it – like maybe it's not the right industry for you.
– Consulting manager @ EY / Former consultant @ KPMG
Let's dig deeper into how you might fail a consulting internship, so you know what not to do.
If a firm has concerns about putting you in front of a client, that's a red flag. One former consultant (and international student) recalls not securing a return offer for this reason.
I came out of a three month internship at a local consulting company. I was not able to secure a full-time job offer ...
The communication barrier ... was what cost me my full-time offer. The feedback I received was that I was unable to communicate concisely and clearly and they had concerns putting me in front of clients.
I also tend to speak too fast or stutter at times. I also had a lot of uhms and uhs in my speech when I was nervous.
As an intern, you may be asked to help out at meetings with clients. As you're new to the field, you'll want to be careful about what you do or say in front of clients. Accidentally embarrassing the firm is another reason you might fail an internship.
Probably the most important thing ... is to not do anything to embarrass the team in front of the client (dumb statements/rambling) or say something that creates unnecessary work.
What's with this emphasis on clients? For more context:
Consulting clients pay hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to work with the firm. If you are put in front of the client, would you help the firm extend the relationship or would you put the relationship at risk?
– Former consultant @ Bain in Case Interview Decoded
The next way you can fail an internship is if you give off the impression that you just don't care. After all, if you don't care about your internship, how can your future team trust you'll care about the actual job?
In consulting, there are many ways to give the impression that you don't care. One example is not offering to help your team members.
After your internship, your direct manager will be asked whether they'd want to hire you back. There will be roundtable discussions.
Just don't make a horrible impression and you'll get asked back. To my memory, we only had one intern who we didn't extend an offer to - they were a little too chill. They never asked "Is there anything else I can help with" and they just kinda left for the day. Usually, it's better to ask – you'll leave a better impression.
– Consulting manager @ EY
Another way you might give off the impression that you don't care is if you don't ask questions.
Imagine if you're in a call. If a more senior person is talking about something more complex and asks "Are there any questions?" and everyone is silent, it could be because:
- They know the material.
- They're scared and want someone else to ask the question.
- They don't really care.
Unfortunately, not asking questions can make it seem like either you know it all (which is unlikely) or you don't care.
Obviously try to think through things on your own, and then ask questions to fill the knowledge gap.
But we know that you don't know everything, so it's OK to ask questions. I ask my senior managers and partners questions too.
Also, if you always show up late, browse social media during work, or dress sloppily – these all imply that you don't really care about the job.
Nobody wants to work with someone who's a pain. This means someone who is a burden to the team.
During your internship, you can expect to get lots of feedback from your managers. You should try to implement that feedback as much as possible and learn from your mistakes quickly. As one consultant bluntly explains, if you don't, you're "wasting their time."
- Attention to detail. I don't expect interns to always have cogent analyses, but I do expect correct spelling, punctuation, correct cell references in simple Excel formulas, formatting, power point consistency, etc.
- Learning from mistakes. Nobody "formats to expectations" the first time. But if you're still making mistakes after the fifth explanation then you're wasting my time.
Also, keep in mind that you're new to consulting and still learning. As an intern, focus more on learning than taking a lead on things. Here's how a consultant puts it.
Be careful when giving your opinion or input too much, especially if given forcefully. A lot of higher level consultants and clients frown upon a college student or recent graduate with no experience saying “this is how we did this on management 101.” Your time will come and you will be able to take more of a lead later on.
Now that we've covered what not to do, let's go over what you can do to succeed.
At the very least, you'll want to let others know that you care about what you're doing. One consultant recommends asking questions and taking notes.
Ask good questions and take copious amount of notes so you aren’t asking the same questions. It also has better optics when you are seen writing things down.
Sometimes, you'll be put in a position where it's hard to contribute to anything. I knew of interns that were basically doing nothing because the people that they were tagged to were on the bench and not even on a project.
Or you get put on a team where the client doesn't want to give interns access to any sensitive data. And it sucks, but it's what you make of it that matters.
So as an intern, I'd expect you try to network and get yourself out there as much as you can, especially knowing that you're there for a limited time.
If you know you're not making a contribution, make that known. Talk to people and see what they need help with. Maybe help out with a proposal for instance.
You're going to be evaluated on how many people did you talk to, who did you talk to, what did you do in your time, how did you spend your 6-8 weeks.
If based on that evaluation, you fall on the lower tier of candidate pool -- let's say we're going to take these top 5 candidates and you're one of the bottom 5, you're not going to get a return offer.
In consulting, you'll have managers, but you'll need to be able to work independently and manage yourself. A big part of that is managing your time properly – making sure you're spending your time on the right things so you don't waste company resources.
When asked what's expected of interns, one consultant responded:
PRIORITIZE TASKS. If you don’t know what you should be prioritizing then ask your lead.
A McKinsey intern actually said that she was asked to spend a week just planning out how she would spend her time for the rest of her internship.
First things first: you must lay out your work plan and get alignment on what you’ll be doing. Your work plan will include:
- The problem to be solved,
- Key analysis to be completed,
- Data to be collected,
- Clients to interview and syndicate with.
You’ll share your work plan with your manager and with the partner on the project.
During my consulting internship, I worked on my work plan for most of the first week! It felt frustrating that I couldn’t actually dig into an analysis right away.
One day, I even joked to my manager that whenever we’re done reviewing my work plan, I’d like to get to work!
It may feel repetitive to spend so much time outlining what you’ll be doing, but this is a really good way to understand how consulting projects work. It’s also important for making sure you’re focused on the right things and can work efficiently.
For more tips on what qualities you should demonstrate (or try to work on) during your internship, see Big 4 consulting: What skills you'll need to get in as a student.
We hope this gives you a better idea of what it's like to be a consulting intern and what's expected of you.
Remember, it's not the end of the world if you don't secure a return offer. It could be that the firm wasn't a great fit for you and that you may be happier somewhere else.
If you're still on the hunt for a promising opportunity, check out all the internships we have in the field of consulting!