Back to The Consult Guide
Hello there, I’m Shreyam Mishra; a to-be fourthie from the Chemical Engineering department and I interned at L.E.K. Consulting in the summers leading up to my final year. I like playing chess, watching an alarmingly lot of standup comedy, and reading. Academically/ professionally I’ve sworn myself to a life of eternal confusion – having tried out pretty much everything under the sun (still exploring!) and having a decidedly love-hate relationship with it all. Regardless, if the past year and the intern season have taught me anything; it’s to find comfort in the uncertain. I hope to pass on the same message through this blog.
Cometh the Intern Season!
The intern season approaches almost suddenly – with little to no forewarning your friends will be getting their resumes reviewed, practicing cases, and posting online certifications on LinkedIn. If you’re anything like me, don’t let this fast-moving pace of others fill you with angst. It is the curse of this college that no matter what you do, there shall always be someone a step ahead of you; the blessing being that these very people can guide you on the road ahead.
For me, I spent the months of May/June doing some preliminary research on the various fields and talking to seniors, while doing 2 projects under IITB professors. Finally, with no knowledge of finance or coding, I narrowed my options to the following domains: Core, FMCGs and lastly Consulting. I couldn’t see much to prepare for Core and FMCGs, so I started my search of the famous ‘case groups’ for Consulting preparation.
Unsolicited Advice 1.0: Make sure you ease yourself into your case group and get comfortable soon. It’s important to not be competitive within your case group. Help is a two-way street and ensuring that you give honest, constructive feedback is the only way to expect it in return. Be consistent in your mock cases; it’s the only way to know your shortcomings before the interviews.
The month of July was spent shuffling between quickly wrapping up CIC (the bible of consulting prep) and refining resumes.
Unsolicited Advice 2.0: This goes without saying, but get your resume reviewed by seniors. Be shameless in reaching out for help to as many seniors as you trust (trust me, you can’t be worse than we were). Don’t worry about the holes they’ll spot, and have faith in the improvements they suggest.
Cometh the coveted Day One!
Fortunately, I had shortlists in three Day 1 consulting firms: BCG, Bain and L.E.K. along with one in HUL RnD. I was beyond elated, but the weeks between shortlists and interview day are some of the most crucial ones. Attend company PPTs religiously for FMCG companies (one of my interview questions was directly related to a slide from their PPT deck) and talk to seniors who have interviewed in them before. For consulting, it is absolutely pivotal to leverage your buddies optimally. Get to know them and the firm you’ve been shortlisted for well; make sure to do as many mock cases with them as possible, focus on the shortcomings they mention and work on them consciously. Do not judge your mock cases with buddies on an absolute scale, they typically tend to be trickier/tougher; instead judge them relative to your previous case and try to show your growth in every iteration.
The Intern
Before I knew it; the third year had come to a close and it was time to get started with the internship I had so willfully been looking forward to. I was curious about the kind of role and responsibility I’d get. Needless to say; the internship did not disappoint and the 8 weeks flew by at a frightening pace.
Since L.E.K. India work specializes primarily in Education and Healthcare practices; those were the two industries I got maximum exposure to. I was lucky to get staffed on multiple cases, 2 proposals related to education and private equity, one relatively long Brazil-based education strategy case, and a short US-based education benchmarking one. The hours were definitely long; sometimes stretching beyond midnight. My work involved taking expert calls, analysing data on Excel, copious amounts of secondary research (consulting jargon which you’ll soon learn :p), and finally making slides. LOTS of slides.
However, L.E.K has a fantastic work culture, with everyone being extremely supportive and accessible (also insanely smart). This created a brew of the perfect work environment causing one of the steepest learning curves I’ve seen for myself (oh also, the lavish parties and fancy dinners were a good incentive to stay late :P)
Parting Words
Congratulations if you made this far and thank you for bearing through my ramblings. I promise this ends quickly from here.
Unsolicited Advice 3.0: Intern season is a tough ride for everyone involved and it’s easy to compare your resume/shortlists/selections with others. My advice: talk to friends. Don’t treat them as competition; be happy for their shortlists, help them through their interviews and keep checking on them through this journey. It helps; trust me.
Finally, try your best to have faith in yourself. As all-important and hyped as it may seem; the intern season gets you just that; an internship. In the long run, this is likely to be just a short 2 months at some company in your vast lifetime. Don’t let it ruin a fantastic well-earned year at the institute. Instead, focus on improving your skills while having fun and things will figure themselves out sooner or later :)
Feel free to reach out to me if you feel there’s any way I can help you out. I am sure it won’t be too tough to find me ;)