Summer internships are a crucial part of one's B-school phase, as one gets a flavour of how life post-MBA would turn out to be in your chosen domain and company. It gives you an ample amount of information and experience to decide what you actually want to do against what you thought you would like to do. Right from the time I had stepped into the college, I had heard quite a lot about Consulting and the firm A.T Kearney from seniors and liked the culture and the people constituting the firm, from what I heard and researched. 
Phase 1 - Excitement
It starts way before you sit for the interview. It is exciting to do some good case studies with friends and seniors. It gives you a good grip of the real-life problem statements you will face once you join the firm. The process is generally quite enriching as you brainstorm, evaluate the problem from every angle possible, reach a conclusion and get to hear out the point of views of your batch-mates and seniors.
(Work location - Petronas Twin Towers!)
Phase 2 - Struggle
The first day at internship began with me landing in Kuala Lumpur at 7am local time and rushing to the client office, the ATK team greeted me with a lot of enthusiasm as interns are always seen as people who would bring fresh energy with them. The people were very friendly and made me feel at ease. The best part was the team’s mix of varied ethnicity and cultural backgrounds. However, once the workstream and the entire module was explained to me, I realised the gravity of the piece being handed over. The project was about end-to-end process simplification and increasing efficiency of a market leader. My particular module involved launching a minimum viable product in selected locations of KL. The first 2 weeks seemed overwhelming as it involved multiple client stakeholders (around 40+ client members across 5 cross-functional divisions). Consulting, from what I learnt is a place where you test the waters and deep-dive at the same time. You get all in and then try to manoeuvre your way up to stay afloat and then slowly become comfortable in what you are doing. And this is possible because of the firm’s highly collaborative culture. At A.T Kearney people believe in giving and taking constructive feedback on a regular basis.Phase 3 - Learning & Adjusting
The best part of the internship was that in a span of 2 months the magnitude of things you learn is humongous. It is always good to seek frequent feedback from the mentor/ manager to know what is exactly expected out of you and how you can quickly improve yourself. Broadly focus is on having a – a) Strong problem-solving skill set, b) Client satisfaction and c) Building strong rapport with the team. These are also the parameters you are judged on along with communication skills and professionalism. It is also very important to have a strong rapport with the client. Client at the end of the day is your most important stakeholder and it is important you satisfy them. I was lucky enough to have a very understanding and amicable client. As part of my role in the workstream I was required to run scrum meetings with a client team. The client team was so cooperative and we had such great dynamics by the end of the workstream that they brought us a customized cake as a token of appreciation. These small gestures made me feel all those long nights spent working worth it.
Phase 4 - Final decision
It is necessary to understand that while you are being evaluated for your performance by the firm, you should evaluate the firm as well. Summers are the best way to get to know if you actually enjoy doing the consulting work.Bonus Phase - PPO Call!
I started with four phases but couldn’t help mention this one. The call from the Partner! When extended the offer, I was super ecstatic to join the firm back as a full-time employee. Looking forward to gaining richer experiences.Key Takeaways From The Internship
- It has been very wisely said by Michael porter that the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. At any given point of time there is always so much to do and only limited amount of time in hand, that it becomes of earnest importance to know how to prioritise and filter tasks.
- Procrastinating can be catastrophic. In consulting the nature of work is highly dynamic leaving very little space for postponing things.
- Talk to people, listen to people. A lot can be resolved by talking to people, seeking advice, and diligently following them. Most people in the firm genuinely believe in collective growth and will not leave any stone unturned to help you out.
- Whether you choose to stay in consulting for a long time or wish to experience it as a short stint, one thing is rest assured that it changes you for better. The fast pace and agile way of working teaches you to be adaptive to any situation irrespective of the level of the challenge.
Some Other Perks of Consulting
Perk#1: Get to know and work with a bunch of smart, friendly and talented folks.Tips To Crack The Consulting Interview
- Doing some good quality cases with like-minded people helps you gain the confidence required to crack a case on the D-day of the interview.
- Going through casebooks, past year experiences of seniors and following the videos and website of Victor Cheng is helpful
- Try not to confine yourself too much to the frameworks, as on the day of the interview it is the first principles which come handy more often than not
- Being confident is a game changer. No matter how overwhelmed you are you need to remain calm and confident. Fake it till you make it.