Summers At Bain & Company | Ruchira Arora

I was really happy when I had cracked one of the best offers on campus. Unfortunately, due to the COVID pandemic, the internship had to be shifted to a virtual model. All the stories heard from buddies and seniors about how amazing an experience it is in office, travel, and accommodation, now could not be a reality for us. Dreams were shattered, hearts were broken. But kudos to the firm, they handled the situation extremely well. Whether it was delivering the laptops to us during the lockdown, setting up a virtual desktop connection for students whose laptops couldn't be delivered on time, virtual training sessions, team activities - they made sure we experience their true culture. I have had sleepless nights sometimes, but I have also experienced the team bonding and the fun they have while working - it was simply amazing!
During my internship, I worked in the private equity practice area. Typically in consulting internships, people work on one project or a part of a project. I got a chance to work on three projects, all in different industries! My first project was with a private equity fund, where I had to engage with some portfolio and target companies. The next two projects were sector scans of two industries, where we had to analyze the industry and compare different assets to find the most suitable one(s) for investment if any. Given the sensitivity of the cases, I will not go into further detail.

During my internship, I got an opportunity to interact with lots of people, with each teaching me something new. The teams were very transparent in giving feedback, which also gave me an opportunity to identify my weak areas and work on them. My strengths were also appreciated by them, which always gave me confidence and motivated me to work on myself and improve as much as I can. During those two months, some days were hectic where I worked late till night, while some days I got free early. In one of my teams, we used to have a morning catch up call, with a quiz, and we used to take turns to become the quizmaster. We sometimes had Friday game nights where we played Pictionary or codenames. The overall journey involved lots of work, but lots of fun as well!