Ultimately, no one consulting internship is superior to another or is guaranteed to provide you with more experience. The question, therefore, is not which internship is best for consultants, but rather which internships - or lack thereof - are included on the resumes of working professionals who get the jobs at firms such as BCG, Bain, McKinsey, etc. LinkedIn happens to be the best source of information to gain accurate, real-time, and objective data about these professionals to come to a conclusion.

While LinkedIn is home to the profiles of millions of professionals, we choose to focus on alumni from the most elite schools because (by all accounts) they have the highest success rate of transforming students into full-time professionals at large firms. This success is largely due to two main reasons. First, university advisors aren’t biased in the ways firms might be. Second, they have the most resources, the most experience, and some of the most successful students (as far as getting into consulting goes) in their alumni networks.

At the end of the day, professional consultants come from all different universities, but the experiences of those who graduated from an Ivy League school are particularly worth observing and gaining insight from. These students understand how competitive consulting can be and therefore chose or omitted summer internships to help them have an experience that helps them secure a role at a top firm.

Our Methodology

LinkedIn is a rich resource hub for working professionals, but we understand that students don’t have the time to analyze dozens of profiles for the important information we are about to provide. We searched for individuals working at the top consulting firms (McKinsey, BCG, or Bain) in full-time roles after graduating from an Ivy League institution. Note that, for privacy, we will (1) never mention individual profiles and (2) never mention trends that are so unique that their source would be easily identifiable. 

Beginning at the End

We found around two dozen profiles on LinkedIn that matched our criteria. After analyzing them, we found the majority of these consulting professionals fit into four distinct categories: Did MBB (McKinsey, Bain, and BCG) consulting internships (52%), did a non-MBB consulting internship (24%), did a non-business internship (16%), did no internship (8%).

Let’s explore each experience in more detail.

MBB Consulting Internship (52%)

Due to the criteria we used to find profiles on LinkedIn, it comes as no surprise that the vast majority (52%) of consulting professionals we came across spent a summer interning for one of the Big 3 firms (Mckinsey, Bain, and BCG). Most of these profiles included the roles of Summer Business Analyst or Associate Consultant Intern at these firms.

In these roles, students are expected to collaborate with senior consultants, client managers, and executives on every part of the consulting process. Essentially they simulate consulting, decide if it’s for them, and grant the firm an opportunity to assess them. However, crucially, it is important to note that for most firms there are more full-time roles than there are internships, and securing an internship is by no means essential.

In fact, these top firms have an incredibly low acceptance rate due to the number of positions available versus the number of qualified applicants that apply. McKinsey infamously only has a 1% acceptance rate for interns. The benefit of an MBB internship is that students are creating connections and showing their strengths, so many times they are hired on in full-time positions after graduation (however it is not guaranteed).

Another viable option for every undergraduate looking for a full-time consulting experience outside of the classroom is Beacon. Similar to many internships, Beacon offers a fully immersive (1-10 weeks, which is more flexible) experience where each participant is taught directly by an alum of one of the elite consulting firms as they complete a hands-on project.

Time and time again, Beacon alumni often land consulting offers because of their time in our program because (1) it shows their consulting ability and (2) interest in the field gained by studying abroad. The first of these reasons can also be obtained through an internship, while the opportunity to study abroad is unique to Beacon.

Non-MBB Consulting Internship (24%)

Another common theme among the internships of Ivy alumni we profiled on LinkedIn was a non-MBB consulting internship. Many (24%) included a consulting internship at a smaller firm or business that includes many of the same responsibilities you would find at an MBB internship.

These internships can be beneficial for students who are seeking more experience in the field but who may not have been accepted to an MBB position (or who simply wanted to work closer to home or gain a different perspective). As you can see, completing a non-MBB internship does not mean you won’t be able to work for one of these firms in the future. The profiles that stood out the most included specific details about what the individual accomplished during their internship that likely resonated with the top consulting firm they currently work for.

Non-Business Internship (16%)

Non-business internships are also a viable option for consulting undergraduates, as proven by the 16% of profiles we found that highlighted them. Some profiles that stood out included research internships spanning a few distinct industries. While these internships were not related to business or consulting, the profiles explained in-depth the skills and attributes they learned from the experience that are core competencies for consulting.

For instance, McKinsey explains that problem-solving skills are important for consultants because “helping clients solve problems and implement solutions requires strong intellectual abilities and rigor, as well as a practical sense of what works and what does not.” If you complete a non-business internship, make sure you can quantify your accomplishments and tie the transferable skills you learned to a career in consulting.

At Beacon, our fellows learn about consulting but and are also honing important career skills that can help them in entry-level positions across different industries. Beacon welcomes undergraduates from all backgrounds and class years who are interested in consulting to join our program.

No Internship (8%)

Finally, we can’t overlook the few profiles we came across that did not include mention of an internship. While this may be because they left an internship off of their professional profile, an internship is not a requirement for obtaining a position at a top consulting firm (though it definitely helps).

In these scenarios, it’s extremely important for new graduates to properly explain the experience and skills they obtained in the classroom. From group projects to individual achievements, these consulting firms and recruiters will be interested in hearing about your abilities in relation to how they can help you excel at a full-time consulting job.

That’s All!

We hope this information gives you more insight into the internships professional consultants did during their school summers! See our blog for more resources, and consider our consulting programs to gain experience in the industry.

We have seen first hand that the top consulting firms want a “can do, will do” attitude in applicants. Beacon is the global leader in high-learning-curve elite-brand business experiential education in & surrounding the University years. Beacon operates short-term study abroad programs (1-10 weeks) over school breaks, taking place primarily in the U.S. and Europe, aimed mostly at undergraduates and graduates, and following a management consulting approach to learning. Beacon’s mission is to help build a world where elite early-career business skills and jobs are available to more people.

Beacon does not imply an endorsement from these institutions; however, it seeks to disseminate important truths about this topic to as many students as possible, in order to help students navigate the often stressful consulting admissions path.

But not every extracurricular makes sense for a future consultant. While there are many activities to choose from, you want to dedicate your time to the one or two that resonate the most with admissions offices and recruiters. Which ones? It’s easy to say “the one you feel like doing,” but what if you are open to many things? Are some activities objectively better than others?

Why LinkedIn and Why the Ivy League?

We don’t have a final answer for you because there isn’t one. But this article seeks to give you some data to consider: what extracurriculars actually show up on the resumes of people who actually get jobs. And the best way to do that is to look through LinkedIn since it provides accurate, real-time, objective data on working professionals.

Why focus on students and alumni from the most elite schools, and not just all LinkedIn profiles of consultants? Because by all accounts students at these institutions succeed the most at entering consulting firms--not just in absolute numbers, but in terms of the percentage of applicants who get in. One of the reasons for this success is the brand that Ivy alumni have by virtue of graduating from an Ivy League institution. However, another part of the reason is also that they get the best advice to be ready for consulting at graduation. Why? Because (1) these institutions have the most resources to give the best advice to their students and (2) these students have the most peers and alumni to learn from. Bottom line: Chances are, the “Ivy to Consulting” LinkedIn profiles are particularly worth looking at and learning from.

We’ve Done the Work for You

You say “wait, are you asking me to spend hours going through LinkedIn? What about my classes, given that GPA is also a major determinant of being hired at a consulting firm?” Don’t worry, we’ve spent the time doing that and are summarizing the lessons in this article.

A note on our methodology: we searched for individuals working at the top consulting firms (McKinsey, BCG, or Bain) in full-time roles after graduating from an Ivy League institution. Note that, for privacy, we will (1) never mention individual profiles and (2) never mention trends that are so unique that their source would be easily identifiable. Keep in mind also that not everyone’s extracurriculars are listed on LinkedIn and that these numbers may slightly understate the percentages. 

Let’s Start with the Conclusion (A Practice You’ll Learn in Consulting)

By analyzing just under two dozen profiles, we found the majority of these professionals participated in these 5 extracurriculars: Consultant Clubs (75%), Business/Entrepreneurship Organizations (60%), Fraternity/Sorority (42%), volunteer work (50%), and holding leadership positions at various clubs (25%). Let’s detail each in turn.

Consultant Clubs (75%)

Every Ivy League, and almost all top universities in general, have at least one consulting club. These spaces are typically the best way for future consultants to gain exposure to the industry and make professional connections, so it is no surprise that the majority of the profiles we analyzed (around 75%) mentioned this extracurricular.

One profile that stood out was a consulting professional who participated in the Yale Undergraduate Consulting Group. According to the club’s official website, “As a member of the Yale Undergraduate Consulting Group, students can hone their critical thinking skills and perform consulting services in areas and industries they most care about.”

This group and similar ones at other universities are often the first time students can gain hands-on consulting experience on projects small and large. These aspiring consultants can work with companies spanning different industries, helping them to explore their passions “and allow interested candidates to become leaders and innovators within the consulting industry and beyond.”

The experience at consulting clubs, such as those of Yale and Columbia, is in essence similar to that of Beacon in that each seeks to provide University students with elite-level consulting experience. The difference is that Beacon is a full-time experience (1-10 weeks), and each participant is taught directly by an alum of one of the elite consulting firms, in an intense project. 

Beacon alumni often land consulting offers because their experience (1) shows consulting ability and (2) consulting interest, all of this gained (3) while studying abroad. To an extent, the first two of these reasons can also take place in a consulting club on campus.

(Other) Business or Entrepreneurship Organizations (60%)

Another common theme among the extracurriculars of Ivy alumni in consulting roles on LinkedIn was their involvement in business or entrepreneurship organizations at university--beyond just the consulting clubs. Many profiles (about 60%) included involvement in one of these clubs during their time on campus.

Business and entrepreneurship clubs help students gain a better understanding of how companies operate, which is essential for consultants who will need to analyze a business’s strategy, operations, etc.

Fraternities & Sororities (42%)

Hundreds of thousands of students join fraternities or sororities during their college years. While there is a large emphasis on the social scene in these extracurriculars, many are also career-focused. Through our research, we found a handful of professionals (about 42%) that participated in Greek life during their time as undergrads.

On this topic, Columbia’s Undergraduate Student Life says, “Fraternity and sorority membership can be one of the most enriching experiences a student can have. Membership into one of our values-based chapters provides students with a close community of peers. Through leadership development, learning, philanthropy, and civic engagement, students grow and thrive.”

Other societies focus on business and help students learn valuable skills through hands-on experiences, professional speakers, and networking events. Many undergraduates choose to join a fraternity or sorority with an academic reputation so they are simultaneously making connections and actively learning about their chosen career path.

Is it essential to join one of these? Definitely not. Fraternities and Sororities can have both great and terrible reputations, and both for real reasons. They can have destructive social environments, most notably through how they relate to alcohol (and possibly drugs). If this is what you expect in joining one we cannot emphasize enough that you should stay away. No benefit from these institutions can ever be worth destructive life habits. They won’t make you successful in consulting, and most importantly they won’t make you successful in life.

You can be successful without them. If, on the other hand, you expect the environment to be healthy, you should consider it. Just remember that every activity has an opportunity cost, and decide carefully. 

Volunteering (50%)

Another common extracurricular activity mentioned on the LinkedIn profiles we evaluated was community service. Around 50% of our sample participated in volunteer work or community service at an Ivy League institution and include it in their profile.

While there is no one volunteer position that is better than the other (because it must be something you are passionate about), one profile that caught our attention includes a current MBB consultant who volunteered at the Science Olympiad at one of the Ivy League institutions (where he/she attended). This volunteer position shows their passion for the sciences and also demonstrates their time spent honing other important consulting skills, such as interpersonal abilities and communication skills.

Check out the list of the nine consulting industry’s key competencies here (this is in the context of a PhD-authored study that found that 92% of Beacon alumni progressed on the competencies, but it’s worth seeing the list regardless of your interest in Beacon’s programs).

Leadership (25%)

Finally, we can’t overlook that nearly a quarter of the consulting profiles we analyzed on LinkedIn made mention of a leadership position at various clubs or organizations they participated in at university.

Clubs, organizations, and sports are all ways for students to explore passions that might not be related to their chosen field. Columbia Undergraduate Admissions explains that “In meeting rooms and auditoriums, theaters and playing fields, brownstones and practice rooms, students pursue their passions,” and it’s no wonder that, upon graduating, some of the most successful alumni did just that. 

It’s important to note that most of the LinkedIn profiles we reviewed included participation in a club unrelated to their major at school, but the ones that stood out were the handful that highlighted a leadership position in said organizations. For instance, one profile co-led their Ivy League institution’s Debate Association. While the association doesn’t have obvious ties to consulting, it does show their interest in other subjects and implies they are likely a skilled speaker and presenter (which are important skills for a consultant to have).

That’s All!

We hope that helped! Check out more resources in our blog, and consider our consulting programs. Consulting firms look for “can do” and “will do.” Beacon runs short-term study abroad programs that utilize an elite-tier consultant to guide you in an on-premise consulting project for a top organization. Beacon alumni often land consulting offers because their experience (1) shows consulting ability and (2) consulting interest, all of this gained (3) while studying abroad. 

Beacon is the global leader in high-learning-curve elite-brand business experiential education in & surrounding the University years. Beacon operates short-term study abroad programs (1-10 weeks) over school breaks, taking place primarily in the U.S. and Europe, aimed primarily at undergraduates and graduates, and following a management consulting approach to learning. Beacon’s mission is to help build a world where elite early-career business skills and jobs are available to more people.

Beacon does not imply an endorsement from the institutions mentioned in this article; however, it seeks to disseminate important truths about this topic to as many students as possible.

But where should you begin? There’s lots of information online, but one has to constantly wonder about who is right. One unique approach that we think is possibly the best is to look at what career advisors tell their students — specifically the advisors and other administrators at elite institutions. Why those institutions? Because:

1. They are not biased to simply market themselves and increase the number of applications (as consulting firms could theoretically do).

2. These Universities face the most pressure from their students, who have the most interest in elite consulting.

3. These institutions have the most resources. They cannot afford to not have great advice. And their students succeed at obtaining roles in consulting more than students at just about any university in the world (and there are over 20,000 universities). 

In fact, elite consulting is so driven by top schools that the phenomenon even affects MBA admissions; for instance, at a program like Stanford’s MBA, the most selective MBA program in the world, a very large share (not very far from half) of its entering class comes from just 4 universities (some of which profiled below).

The purpose of this article is to democratize that advice so that students at other schools — including other elite schools — see what is being said. Many elite colleges have advice for their own undergrads that we’ve compiled for you. Here it is.

Princeton University

This elite college, clearly one of the top five in the U.S., has some words of wisdom for students who want to get into consulting; always begin your search for internships and jobs early.

They emphasized that while prior consulting experience isn’t typically required to apply for internships or full-time consulting roles, it definitely helps. This means the first thing you should do when starting this career path is to look for opportunities to gain experience. And when you are applying to these first positions, make sure to highlight your critical thinking and analytical skills along with your interpersonal capabilities. Firms will be looking for someone who can learn information and solve problems quickly, so you must prove you have those skills even if you’ve never held the position before.

You should also give concrete, quantifiable examples of what you’ve accomplished, such as successful projects you’ve completed in class or leadership roles where you helped a campus organization reach a goal. This demonstrates that you are not only action-oriented, but that your decisions helped you reach measurable results and outcomes.

Princeton also insists that most large firms start recruiting for internships and jobs more than a year in advance. Make sure to start applying for these roles as early as your sophomore year. Even though that sounds early, it would be for an internship for the summer after your junior year! But if you’re past that, remember that people enter into consulting later as well — many around age 30 when finishing an MBA program.

The university provides additional resources to its students to help you learn about this field, such as the Vault Career Guide to Consulting. Many other universities also provide this guide to their students, so check your institution.

Columbia University

The experts at Columbia, another Ivy League school, offer similar advice to undergrads when it comes to understanding the recruiting timeline — always start applying early! However, they go into more detail about the process that is essential for helping students prepare for the rigorous recruiting requirements.

Consulting interviews typically consist of multiple rounds of meetings along with behavioral and case interviews. The latter can be especially difficult to navigate if you’re not prepared. The university recommends reviewing each firm you’re interviewing for beforehand to understand their niche. This will help you understand if it’s a good fit for you and what you must do to prepare. Then, you should practice case interviews early and often.

This starts with reaching out to your larger community for support. Whether that be a consulting club or online archive, you can begin gathering resources and assistance as early as possible. Then, you should begin dissecting the readings available to you online or through your university. Two weeks before your interview you should practice cases with friends to build confidence and polish the transferable skills necessary for most cases. In the day leading up to your meeting, get lots of rest so you’ll be prepared.

Columbia University also has an extensive network of alumni profiles that they encourage students to contact for more career insights. This insight is valuable for students of many universities, though it is less applicable the fewer alumni your school has in consulting. This is one of the problems that Beacon seeks to solve: to provide everyone with elite-level consulting experience in its study abroad and study away programs, the kind that exceeds the level that even students at elite institutions receive.

Yale University

All the same advice from the previous colleges holds true at prestigious Yale University. That being said, this institution goes into more detail about the most popular consulting specialties their undergrads should consider. This includes management/strategy, financial, information technology, and human resources/staffing consulting. They emphasize that larger firms may require all kinds of consultants, while boutique firms may require an even more niche expert, such as a life sciences consultant. 

Finally, strategy firms, which are the most elite and the most desired by students at elite schools, are almost always generalists, i.e., you come in for your smarts, analytical skills, people skills, and, crucially, desire to succeed (and to work long hours doing demanding work for demanding clients and demanding consulting firm partners).

Before getting into consulting, make sure you have an idea of what kind of firm you want to work for and any specialty you may want to pursue. Yale also recommends students who are interested in the field read Consulting Magazine. The flagship publication has all the latest information on consulting careers, thought leadership, and corporate strategies that are great for individuals who are interested in consulting or are seasoned professionals. 

Stanford University

Stanford is the most selective undergraduate institution in the world (and there are more than 20,000 universities worldwide); so let’s pay attention to what they’re saying. Stanford Consulting is a very sophisticated club for undergraduates and graduate students who want to excel at major firms, banks, and tech companies in the future. It also provides plenty of advice that anyone interested in consulting should know about.

The organization reiterates the importance of having the skills to nail the personal and case interviews. In preparation for the latter, the consulting club at the university compiled a list of helpful resources for students (and you) to review. Many of the links are free resources and practice cases that are ideal for helping you prepare for your initial interviews into the world of consulting.

Other skills the school advises their students to hone include, communication, flexibility, leadership, teamwork, and overall business knowledge. With a balance of these qualities and good preparation, you will be a well-rounded consultant ready for your first position.

Northwestern

Northwestern includes these same skills on their career advancement page. But in addition to this information, they also disclose what a consultant typically does on a daily basis. They include actions like pitching proposals and making presentations, researching clients, and organizing customer datasets as responsibilities for this role. 

This advice shows you how important consulting skills are applied each and every day in the job. Consultants will also be responsible for reporting on the data and trends they find as well as implement a new strategy if needed.

The school also advises their students to understand that there is no one correct response to the case interview. As overwhelming as they may seem, this portion of the interview is simply to give firms a glimpse into how you solve problems and analyze new information. While you can prepare by reviewing common types of cases, you will still need to think on your feet during the process and come to the best conclusion.

That’s It

We hope that helped! Check out more resources in our blog, and consider our consulting programs. Consulting firms want two things: can do and will do. The first is ability, the second is interest. And there is no better way to show interest than actually do consulting (which Beacon Fellows do), to really see if it’s for you, and to then explain that (from experience) in a resume, cover letter, and interview.

Beacon does not imply an endorsement from these institutions; however, it seeks to disseminate important truths about this topic to as many students as possible, in order to help students navigate the often stressful consulting admissions path.

While no two interviews will be the same, there are some common qualities and skills these firms look for in their potential employees. In fact, with a bit of research, you are likely to find a detailed guide for interviewing at each of the top three. Whether it’s a case interview or general tips for making the most of your time with the team, the information you need to succeed is at your fingertips. What’s harder to find online is a summary of the tips and information the top three firms are providing on their sites - so that’s what we are doing in this article. While we do not speak for the firms, we hope this rundown is helpful as you seek to understand their culture and hiring practices.

Below, we have summarized some of the key aspects of what each firm claims to look for as it interviews candidates. With plenty of links to reference, this article offers a starting point for your continued research so you can walk into the interview with confidence.

Communication & Networking Ability

Consulting is a never-ending process of networking: you must be able to market yourself to new clients in a way that highlights your skills and builds trust and empathy. You will also frequently need to summarize complex situations down to the essentials, communicating in a clear and concise manner. While these skills are tested throughout the interview process, an early opportunity to shine comes with the more traditional experience interview. The interviewer will try to ascertain your company fit by asking you about yourself, your interests, and eventually moving into past experience and qualifications.

This is a good opportunity to concisely highlight your past achievements, your leadership abilities, and the results of your work. Keep in mind that it is better to be specific and quantify your accomplishments, the same way you would present your results to a client. Not only does this give the interviewer a better understanding of your abilities, but it will also help you differentiate yourself from the competition with objective results.

Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving Ability 

As you know, the case interview is a unique section of a consulting interview designed to test your ability to approach complex problems. While it can seem intimidating, it is important to remember that case interview questions are not meant to stump you, but rather create a framework with which to highlight your analytical and creative problem-solving ability. As such, each of the big three firms have helpful advice and practice cases listed on their websites to help you prepare. 

It is helpful to remember that there is no right or wrong answer to a case interview; rather, the goal is to learn how you solve business problems. It is in your best interest to remain transparent and thoughtful about your reasoning, and clearly define your understanding of the problem and your resulting recommendation. View this as an opportunity to build rapport with your interviewer by discussing the issue at hand and offering innovative solutions.

A notable extension of this practice is the written case interview, as highlighted by Bain & Company. Though not every position will require one, preparing for the possibility will ultimately benefit your ability to develop recommendations for any case challenges presented. Essentially, you will receive more time to consider a client’s business case, but will also be expected to present a fully developed recommendation to your interviewer. This process mimics client interaction, displaying how you present and defend your ideas under scrutiny.

At McKinsey & Company, at least in some cases, they take the case interview a step further with a Problem Solving Game, developed in association with psychologists and game design experts. This digital assessment measures your cognitive skills while offering insights into your critical thinking abilities. Without the ability to practice in advance, you will be required to rely on your innate analytical skills and prove your ability to solve problems under pressure.

Passion & Curiosity

Whether you want to describe it as passion or entrepreneurial drive, the core characteristic interviewers are looking for remains the same: you have the desire to tackle challenges with an open mind. Management consulting firms often look for candidates armed with an innate curiosity, who thrive when offered a versatile and expansive network of learning opportunities. Given the fast-paced and ever-changing nature of a consultant's daily tasks, having the ability to adapt and ask the right questions is an essential trait that will help you shine in the role. 

For the duration of the interview, you will have multiple opportunities to prove your intellectual curiosity. For example, asking clarifying questions during the case interview and analyzing the data for essential information shows that you know how to efficiently direct your curiosity. Or, towards the end of the interview, indicate that you’ve done your research about the firm and position by asking insightful questions.

As a student, you have a unique opportunity to connect with recruiters from each firm on your own turf. BCG, Bain & Company, and McKinsey & Company all know the incredible value bright, dedicated students offer, and will frequently host events and seminars on campuses around the globe. Use these occasions to network with the company and other students pursuing the same career, utilizing their expertise to continue learning and expanding upon your own skillset.

Networking can lead to valuable opportunities to build out your resume, but you can also pursue options on your own. Programs such as ours here at Beacon Fellowship can help you gain real-world consulting experience by working under a Project Leader from one of the top firms. Becoming a successful consultant means maintaining a rigorous work ethic, even when you’re tired from extensive travel and working on a client that you’re less excited about. As with any job, an employer wants to assess whether you have both the ”can do” ability and “will do” interest, and nothing shows interest better than dedicating a few weeks of your break to studying abroad with Beacon in pursuit of consulting experience.

Beacon is independent of any consulting firm (it is meant to be that way) and we do not imply here an endorsement from them; we do, however, see it as part of our mission to democratize access to information about consulting careers and to ensure that everyone understands this world, which is a world that students even at elite institutions (let alone others) often struggle to understand

We here at Beacon compiled a list of ways you can not only identify whether the aerospace or aviation industry is the right career path for you, but ways you can get an internship with industry leaders who can provide invaluable insight into the work, career options, and projects. 

The Importance of Experience

Most aerospace and aviation students are already very entrenched in the world of studying and academic work. This work in and of itself can seem time-consuming and challenging, but it sets the stage for the real-world experience of an internship, which creates a powerful and impressive image for future employers.

Pandemic Effects on Air Travel Hiring

Before even looking at the challenges of landing an aerospace internship, it helps to look at the current industry landscape (and the landscape we will see in the next couple of years), especially the concern of how COVID has affected hiring and prospects for the future.

As you know, the aerospace and aviation industries have suffered an unusually long downturn in hiring as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as it’s significantly affected all of our plans in the past year, the industries have had to adapt and discover new ways to continue innovating and growing. While at a glance, it might seem as though the industry is suffering and that it might be time to look at new industries to find internships for professional success, we recommend that students still consider and decide if indeed aviation is for the long-term. If it is, persistence is key. Note that there is a world of opportunity living in the aerospace industry, and it’s ripe for the taking for qualified students who want to make a good impression.

The Long-Term Orientation of the Aviation Industry

An important fact to remember about the aerospace and aviation industries is that they are very long-term oriented. Most businesses we interact with on a day-to-day basis are very focused on short-term goals, or immediate plans, as they should be in the B2C world. Aviation, however, is a much longer game. As you know, the planes and equipment designed and developed in these industries usually take years to perfect and then remain in service for decades after the fact. This means that the projects conceived this year won’t even enter the full phase of development, testing, and real research until much later.

What this translates to when it comes to hiring and internship opportunities, is that the industries are always going to be looking for fresh minds and driven students who want to make a difference. These innovations are not for those who have short-term goals in mind, These are for those who are looking far down the road and seeing what the true accomplishments can be. This doesn’t mean hiring isn’t affected (it certainly is), but there’s a natural limit to this. 

Aligning the Industry With Your Strengths

The approach, then, becomes looking at the steps you have to take as a student to decide where you should focus your efforts in this process. Understanding what type of goals you have, and what type of aptitude you have for very engineering-heavy work is important in the internship-seeking process.

Looking at your academic performance and how well you adapt and evolve within your courses is a leading indicator of how successful your internship will be.

Look at your performance within mathematics-heavy courses, physics, engineering, and other science-based specialties, and see if they are your strong suits. Those with high performance not only when it comes to grades but also in terms of inventive thinking and intuitive understanding of the work are those who will find success in the world of aerospace.

The Two Big Reasons Internships Matter

After determining if an aerospace internship is a valuable investment for your future career, the question becomes, why is such a labor-intensive goal valuable for your future career? When it comes down to it, there are two major reasons why internships carry such a big weight in the world of professional development and sustained careers. Both have to do with dedication and a demonstrated ability to go above and beyond the demands of traditional career paths.

Real-World Experience

Compared to classroom work, internships build a great deal of value, both tangible and intangible.

From the tangible perspective, you have actual, actionable experience with hands-on mentorship coming from people working in the industry. This will give you a perfect idea of what works in the industry will be like, and how you can expect to put your classroom work to use. It’s hours on-site, and hours of meaningful work, that create students who will be leaders in any industry.

The Signal to Employers

From the intangible perspective, internships impact how your future employers will see you when they look at your resume. A resume full of extensive classwork is impressive to a certain extent and absolutely necessary to be seen, but it only shows a certain amount of initiative and drive. Internships show a true desire to do real work and work with real people. It goes above and beyond and paints a very good picture for future employers.

The Best Approach for Current Students

The Value of Internships in Any Industry

First and foremost, the best approach for those seeking gainful careers upon graduation is to look for an internship opportunity in any industry. Regardless if you’re seeking employment specifically within the aerospace or aviation industry, or if you simply examined your skillset and determined a different career path is more suitable for your expertise, there’s rarely a scenario where an internship won’t improve your standing among the competition.

The good news is, even for those who decided to take a different path away from aviation, there is a world of internship opportunities and resources available to help you land a position with a strong mentor who can give you valuable insight into your future career.

Identify New Internships Based on Experience

It helps to “reverse engineer” your search for internships and start from the beginning, looking at the experience already on your resume and looking at what the next logical step would be. Seeing a story unfolding across your resume as you continue your journey through academia will help you see where the next challenge should take you.

For example, if you see that you had a very successful academic project and presentation on the engineering and success of recent aviation innovations, this would be the perfect experience to leverage in applying to firms who are looking for an intern in their engineering department. It’s not only that the project was successful from an academic perspective – it shows outside-the-box thinking and anticipates a long-term goal. 

Consider Beacon

The Beacon Fellowship has an extensive array of options for students who are seeking valuable internships in the aviation and aerospace industries. Our programs – which follow a management consulting model and have students from engineering, business, and other fields – allow students to study abroad in an internship setting in several fields, and aviation is one of Beacon’s biggest strengths. One example is our Airbus internship, where undergraduate students from several U.S. universities worked inside of Airbus’ Madrid facilities in a project with their team, full-time, during an academic break. Although Beacon programs are not paid internships, they are a way to both study abroad and obtain an aviation internship (regardless of whether your background is in engineering, business, or any other aviation-related field).

Contact Beacon regarding elite aviation internships

If you found these tips helpful and would like to explore more about The Beacon Fellowship, contact us today for more information on how to advance your career.

It helps then, to get a look into what the world of being an intern for management consulting firms is like. It’s a new environment for most interns, as many have never had true professional experience before, and their first taste is going to demand a lot of effort, a lot of learning, and a great mindset towards challenges.

We here at Beacon have assembled these insights to help not only our own students but anyone who’s considering the world of consulting, so they can understand the workload, the expectations, and ultimately, why the reward is so great.

Communicating With your Team

Communication is one of the key elements of making a great team able to produce great work in any industry, but in the world of management consulting, the importance is multiplied.

As an intern, you’ll likely be working as a part of a large team across several modules or projects. This means that it’s very easy for details to get lost in the weeds and tasks to slip through the cracks if communication is not open, honest, and continuous.

There’s going to be so much information flying around that being organized is going to become critical to staying on top of your work. We recommend not only keeping your own projects and tasks organized by project and by delivery date but also sharing these notes openly with your team so everyone knows where you are in your projects and if they have resources or information that may be helpful.

Beyond simply staying organized, an intern should be prepared to put in extra hours outside of the traditional schedule (when possible) in order to stay ahead of the game. Using your evenings and mornings to organize your tasks, complete bookkeeping assignments, and send out all your communication messages can make each workday that much smoother, and provide the consultants with a clear perception that you are on top of your game and ready to tackle the day.

Collaborating

The world of consulting means more than just a lot of work. It also means a lot of different kinds of work. This is because consulting is spread out across countless different industries and requires expertise from many different sectors. All of this adds up to collaboration being a key element of success.

The key responsibilities of the interns in the world of management consulting are usually going to be focused on compiling and putting together the nuts and bolts of the presentations. This means Google Sheets or, more often, PowerPoint (yes, PowerPoint) This means working with your teammates to understand all the different facets of data and getting their take on the different angles of analysis before everything gets finalized.

This close collaboration reinforces the need for constant communication. Communicating with your team about different edits to presentations and making sure everyone understands how the story fits together is crucial for ultimately creating a top-notch product.

In situations where there are multiple teams working on the same project, communication becomes even more important. When there are multiple entities making changes and bringing different insights to the project, making sure you know where your expertise can be flexed and making sure the rest of the teams know that as well is what makes projects run smoothly.

Working Under Project Leaders

Beyond collaboration with your teammates and with other teams, collaborating and learning from the experts you’ll be working under is even more valuable.

The project leads of management consulting firms such as McKinsey or Bain will have at least a few years of experience under their belts and know how to navigate the challenges of management consulting. The fact that they’re often providing you with real-time evaluations and feedback on your work lets you always be creating the best possible product, and learn the best ways to self-evaluate. Their understanding of the process, managing deadlines, and the ins and outs of editing and storylining are what make them such a valuable asset.

The key thing to look for and take note of, is not necessarily how they make plans, but how they change them and adapt to new information. The world of consulting is based on adjusting preconceived ideas based on new data. Take notes on this leadership, as this ability is invaluable.

Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

Stepping outside your comfort zone and experiencing new lines of work, new tasks, and new people is of course one of the biggest and most exciting draws of the management consulting industry. However, it’s also one of the biggest challenges.

The world of consulting means becoming knowledgeable in an industry you might be unfamiliar with very fast. Not only do you have to become familiar with the industry, but provide insights that people who have been working in it during their whole careers might not have discovered. It sounds like a daunting task, but there’s a long record of examples that show just such an exploration can make for not only great projects but newfound passions.

Developing Evergreen Skills

Beyond the specific industry insights you’ll gain, and the valuable knowledge you’ll learn from project leaders, the “evergreen skills” you’ll pick up will be valuable for your entire career.

Evergreen means skills that are always valuable or are constantly in need. Sometimes it’s the most simple skills that end up being the most valuable. Excel is always going to be a valuable skill. If you think spreadsheets are old fashioned or out of date, thinking about them and understanding them lets you see why they are irreplaceable and essential in business and in the administration of any organization. Knowing how to find an intriguing story in a world of numbers will never not be valuable in the world of business. And for early-career people, spreadsheet skills are an area where they can become top-notch relatively quickly. You can’t become truly an expert at an industry in a few months, but you can be well on your way towards Excel expertise in a few months. You can’t become an expert in the summer, but you’ll build the momentum you need.

Beyond Excel, the skill of putting a deck of slides together in a cohesive and compelling way is something that will always set you apart from others. The numbers will always be the numbers, but a presentation that tells a clear story and makes data-backed recommendations is what creates success. Ensuring you cultivate and build those skills are among the most important in your internship, and they will continue to be valuable long afterward.

About Beacon

The connections and habits that Beacon provides go a long way in creating strong professional networks and valuable analytical skills.

Beacon alumni are hired by elite firms every single year. Even as we continue to recover from a pandemic, the world of consulting continues to grow, and smart, capable students are in high demand. It’s widely known that firms are very particular about how they select. 

If you found these tips helpful and would like to explore more about The Beacon Fellowship, contact us today for more information on how to advance your career.

A critical element of looking ahead into the world of consulting internships in 2021 and 2022 is seeing how the firms will be looking at you. In the world of education, it might be easy to simply look at grades, assignments, and other convenient measurements of success and think that you’re a shoo-in. However, firms are going to look at accomplishments and skillsets with much more nuance than a typical classroom, even though grades do matter.

As a current university student, your skill sets and track record can be easily broken down into two different categories, both of which are equally important in the world of management consulting. It’s going to be a game of maximizing not only what you have done, but also what you’re capable of doing in the future. This is the basis of “can do” and “will do”, the two skills that consulting firms ultimately want. If you were running a consulting firm, you’d want the same two elements. 

The Concept of “Can Do”

The concept of “Can Do” just means you are able to do the work. And what is the work of an entry-level consultant? The Answer is the work of analyzing. But what does that even mean? It means ultimately to take in a bunch of data (usually quantitative data but not always), meaningfully and efficiently turn it into something useful to your more senior fellow consultants and ultimately the client. That can mean anything from doing some Excel calculations on big spreadsheets from the client all the way to researching a bunch of websites in a niche industry to identify common themes.

As you can imagine, the ideal entry-level consultant has a lot of “can do,” and he or she is mostly using smarts, diligence, organization skills, focus, etc, ie, things you don’t primarily learn in a business class or in college in general. And this is what explains the large number of non-business non-economics majors that obtain consulting jobs. It’s simply the case that what you learn in those courses isn’t directly relevant to your “can do.” That doesn’t mean your major doesn’t matter. In fact, all else equal, who would you hire, an economics major or a history major if they were identical in every other way? You would at least be tempted to prefer the Economics major since that person shows ability with numbers which might suggest talent in analyzing. But there is little in the Economics coursework that will actually be used in the job. 

And how do you show “can do”? Put yourself in the shoes of the consulting firm. You want to hire someone that can analyze a lot and well. You don’t know everything about your candidates other than their resume. How do you know that they are capable? Certainly having an analytical major such as math or economics helps. Again, it’s not necessary but it does help. If you wanted to hire someone, what would be the biggest indicator that they can process a lot of information well and succeed in doing so? We believe one of the biggest things is GPA. It’s not popular to say so but we believe it’s true. GPA is imperfect but correlates with ability. It also correlates with a desire to achieve as we will see below. Again, it’s not the only thing that matters, and it must be viewed in context, but it does show “can do.” If all you know about 2 candidates is that they are the same in every way but in GPA, you would assume that the one with the higher GPA will actually produce better day to day work. As long as the person is motivated! But that’s a separate topic from “can do.” Let’s talk about motivation.

The Concept of “Will Do”

The concept of “Will Do'' is a little less tangible, but just as important. You may have the ability, but are you willing to use it, especially when you’re tired? It’s Monday morning at 4 am and you’re about to wake up to go to the airport to fly to Iowa for the 10th week in a row. You’ll spend your first 4 days of the week in a hotel there (and yes, much of that will be back post-Covid). Are you really motivated to do the work? Consulting firms know that the best consultants want to do a great job, day in and day out. This job is hard, and they can't afford to hire someone who isn’t all in. And do you think every applicant to consulting is dying to do it? You already know that’s not the case. Lots of people apply to consulting because other people are applying, because it’s prestigious, because “why not,” because it keeps your options open. If you are hiring, do you want that type of candidate, or do you want someone dying to do it, motivated to do it, excited to do it, in a way that will be long lasting? The decision is obvious. You want a candidate that has “will do.”

This is a very necessary trait in the world of consulting, as it’s incredibly rare for a consulting task to be carried out exactly as it was initially planned. As the project is carried out, inevitably new information comes to light, new problems are discovered, new team members have shuffled around, new deadlines added, and many other obstacles will suddenly and frequently be added. A “Will Do” is an asset in the consultant’s balance sheet.

With these two principles (can do and will do) serving as the framework, the question remains, what are the 3 pillars of evidence to showcase your fit when seeking a consulting internship (or for that matter, a job)? The answers are your grades, your actionable skills, and your consulting experience. Showcasing each of the 3 pillars under both “Can Do, and “Will Do” is what sets candidates apart, and leads to a stronger full-time career.

Pillar 1: Grades

First and foremost, as alluded to above, your grades are going to be a massive part of your summer internship process, and are usually the first thing that consulting firms will look at when selecting candidates. Ensuring that you’ve started your college career strong, and shown dedication throughout your entire college career is key to being recognized for academic ability and integrity. The strong grades showcase the “Can Do” in a candidate's goals.

The “Will Do” portion of grades is that, again, good grades are usually a mix of ability and perseverance. Yes, this is not always the case, but it’s a rule that generally holds true. And while it’s not always fair, for the most part, if you have good grades, you both have the ability and you have the desire to do well in class. And consulting firms want both “can do” and “will do.” This might not be what you wanted to hear, but it’s the truth. We wish we could tell you that it’s all about having previous experience in consulting since Beacon is all about that, but that’s not the only factor (more on that below).

Pillar 2: Skillset

The second pillar is the skill set you bring to the table. This refers to the practical skills and knowledge of tools used day to day in the world of consulting. When you're early in your consulting career, this pillar is a priority and a solid opportunity to set yourself apart from the competition.

Again, as mentioned above, you don’t need to have technical skills to go into consulting, and very often candidates don’t have them. But it helps. The most important two skills would be to be an expert level understanding of Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint. While these tools are fairly standard, it’s often surprising how few people are true experts in their use, and know-how to get everything out of them. Again, you don’t need them, but it helps.

As a great starting point, make sure you know how to use VLOOKUP and INDEX MATCH functions in Microsoft Excel. These two functions will allow you to analyze and interpret massive quantities of data very quickly, and make insights in minutes that would take less experienced applicants weeks to come up with. That’s just a tiny example and there’s much more. Again, you don’t need these skills to be hired, but it helps because you’ll need the skills later. And having it helps show that you have “can do.”

And now you can guess what we are going to tell you. Again, put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter. You have two candidates, all the same, except one of them has this odd and eccentric strange hobby: they seem to have mastered a topic most people deem boring: Microsoft Excel. You, the recruiter, know that a consultant may spend MOST of his or her work, countless hours, using that tool. You know that most candidates are not that interested in consulting and they’re just applying because everyone else does. You know most people find excel boring and will continue to find it boring in their job. Again, you have 2 candidates, you can only pick one. Who do you pick? You’d probably pick the one with the excel passion! Chances are, that candidate cares more about consulting now, and will care about it more when the job gets really stressful! So, having skills helps to show interest. Again, you don’t need it to get an internship (or job), but it helps. 

So, as you can see, having specific skills helps with what you can do, and that’s obvious, but it even helps with “will do”.

Pillar 3: Consulting Experience

The third pillar, consulting experience, might be hard to come by in the world of academia before getting an internship opportunity, but can make a very positive impression on recruiters from firms.

Disclaimer: most people who got consulting internships didn’t have previous experience. So clearly, it’s not absolutely essential. But would it help?

Again, put yourself in the shoes of the recruiter. You have two candidates and they’re the same, but one has done consulting. You know most people applying to consulting aren’t that interested, and you know that “will do” matters. Who would you pick? Someone who has done, for instance, a Beacon Fellowship, where they worked under an elite former consultant (who often also went to a top MBA), and has lived consulting in a realistic way, or a normal candidate? Who do you think has the most genuine interest? Who do you think is less likely, when in the internship and later in the consulting job, to say “consulting is not what I thought it was, so I’m leaving?” The answer is clear: the person who has previous consulting experience is both more likely to be interested and, also, already has some of the skills needed in the job. 

The world of consulting is highly sought after by a large portion of undergraduate students nationwide. This attention means that not only are those with a true desire to get into the world of consulting submitting applications, but also those who are simply sending in an application because they heard through the grapevine that the field is lucrative or prestigious

This means the firms are now receiving applications that might not be from people who have a passion for the work, and they need a way of sorting those out so they know which applicants are valuable and worth advancing to the next round of selection.

Having some sort of consulting experience on your resume puts you in that list of people who, according to the firms, are worth keeping around.

As far as gaining consulting experience as an undergrad, there are a few ways you can go about it. One is to simply apply for a different type of internship at a firm in a very entry-level position. Even if your internship isn’t directly related to consulting itself, being present at the firm speaks volumes for future endeavors.

Another way is to reach out to existing consultants from your alumni program. Consultants, whether currently working at a firm, or if they’ve moved on to other projects, will usually be receptive to an undergrad from their alma mater The Beacon Fellowship also helps in this regard, as it places students in advantageous positions in the world of consulting to gain valuable experience and practical knowledge of the work. With many firms on offer and many available positions within the program, there are lots of ways to get the right experience for your future career.

How Beacon Helps You Build Your Experience

If you found these tips helpful and would like to explore more about The Beacon Fellowship, which is a way to obtain incredible consulting experience during your academic breaks, contact us today to explore resources on how to get started.

Why is this a big deal?

Offering high salaries and prestige, and some of the best learning and exposure in business, consulting attracts many of the world's best and brightest.

The Beacon Fellowship gives many such students, from the United States and abroad, the opportunity to experience real consulting under the guidance of a former McKinsey, Bain, or BCG consultant. As a Fellow, they gain expertise in foundational business & consulting skills and a significant leg up when they apply for internships and jobs at the top consulting firms.

During the course of the 4-week Fellowship, Beacon Fellows go through a rigorous vetting process, at the end of which the MBB alumnus Project Lead chooses the cohort's top six Fellows. The top Fellow receives a score of "6", the second Fellows receives a "5", etc.

Universities receive a Fellow composite score equal to the sum of scores for each of their individual scores. We're extremely appreciative of these universities for helping to prepare their excellent Beacon Fellows.

1st place (score of 16):

2nd place (score of 11):

Tie for 3rd place (score of 9):

Tie for 7th place (score of 8):

10th place (score of 7):

Tie for 11th place (score of 6):

Tie for 20th place (score of 5):

For more information, email us at contact@beaconfellows.org

What makes The Beacon Fellowship unique?

At first I didn't know much about the Beacon Fellowship, but when I got here I realized it was very different from other programs because of its very hands-on nature. There is real-world impact. Fellows actually have a lot of independence to decide where they want projects to go. It's a very rewarding experience.

Tell me about your Project Lead.

Yusuf taught me basically everything. I'm 19-years-old and pretty inexperienced. Yusuf taught me not to assume. Assumptions are the worst in the consulting world. You can't just come up with something and have no facts to back it up.

In general, Yusuf was very supportive in understanding my condition. It's a long story, but this time last year, I was in a bad car accident. I was supposed to do Beacon a year ago, but after the accident, I couldn't walk. I got a bad concussion and a brain hemorrhage. I still have lingering memory problems and panic attacks, and I basically can't function the way I used to. Nevertheless, I tried my best during the Fellowship and Yusuf was very understanding. He was thoughtful and paid attention to everyone in the cohort.

What are you future career goals?

Before I started Beacon, I was basically lost and confused. Then, after the accident I didn't even want to come because I felt I couldn’t put myself out there. But Beacon taught me so much; I’ve figured out at least where to start. I like marketing and design. I always thought they were just hobbies, but now I’m seeing that they are actually potential career paths that have a big impact on companies!

During our Fellowship, my Beacon team was working on the diner’s guide app for our client Edlinguist. It was a neat idea, but customer awareness was the big problem. No one knew about the app! And I realized that marketing was the issue; as easy as it sounds, it is actually pretty challenging to get the attention of the audience you are targeting. So, I'm starting to appreciate marketing a lot. My major is international relations, so now I'm trying to figure how out to connect marketing to that.

How was your experience at Edlinguist? Do you think LaNysha [the CEO] will use your marketing strategy?

I think she should use my strategy! I worked a lot on the app, website, and a social media plan. The app is great, but its potential is not realized at this time, and a huge part of that is marketing!

If you met a pre-accident version of yourself, the girl you described as “lost,” what would you tell her?

I would tell her to take things slow. Don’t worry so much. Calm down. Go do the Beacon Fellowship - you don't need to worry about "what-ifs."

The Beacon Fellowship will actually help you a lot, because it did! Let me tell you: not just the work experience but the friends - they changed my life. When I arrived in D.C., my Beacon roommates immediately noticed I was anxious. I was freaking out and feeling I’d get into another car accident. But then, I started putting as much effort as I could into working. I started doing things one step at a time. And I learned to let go of everything. I had been isolating myself, but then, all of my Beacon friends helped me deal with my anxiety to the point that now I don’t have to take as much medication as I used to. And I'm laughing all the time. This happened after one full year of sadness. It had been so hard to get out of all the difficulties that were clouding my life.

Ultimately, I'm so glad I came to D.C. because Beacon taught me a lot. It was hugely impactful for me. It changed my life and helped me figure out what I want, or at least started that process.

The Harvard Crimson reported in 2014 that almost 15% of the graduating Harvard class worked in consulting immediately following graduation – fairly large numbers for an industry that eludes definition for most students. And surely thousands of students beyond the chosen 15% bought or borrowed a copy of Case in Point just days before squeezing in the case interview between classes, only to quickly receive a rejection email from one of the big three.

But what’s all the hype about? Flexing your advancement into the next round of interviews may be an influential form of social signalling, but do these students know what they will be doing once they arrive to the office for training? Or why they want to do it?

The mystery that surrounds the management consulting industry, however, is easily dispelled by one thing: real consulting experience. Too often, though, this real experience comes at the cost of committing oneself to a full-time job or summer-consuming internship in an industry the student knows little to nothing about.

The Beacon Fellowship exists to give motivated students looking to understand if consulting is right for them and their career goals an inside look at this elusive but valuable industry. Beacon Fellows work full-time under the guidance of a McKinsey, Bain, or BCG alumnus on a real project for a client in one of several European locations, and receive dedicated training in core consulting competences. And eight out of nine of this past summer’s Project Leads, in addition to being veterans of the MBB firms, came from Harvard Business School. But don’t take our word for it! Here’s what a few of our alumni have said about The Beacon Fellowship:

“My project lead did an outstanding job. He always was there to help with problems and even more importantly teach us how to grow and be better consultants.” - Sam S., Princeton ‘21

In just four weeks, past fellows have put together partner operations playbooks, recommended innovative global expansion strategies, and conducted deep data analysis revealing insights that clients might never have noticed. Beacon is a chance to get ahead of the game and spend time with a mentor who can push you to excel in the same environment that you would encounter as a recent grad business analyst.

Ninety-eight percent of Fellows would recommend Beacon to a friend, and our talented alumni have received offers from several prestigious firms such as BCG, McKinsey, PwC, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deutsche Bank. Over just four weeks, our fellows have put together partner operations playbooks, recommended cutting-edge global expansion strategies, and conducted deep data analysis revealing insights that clients might never have noticed.

Why stop at case interviews when you could complete a real project for a major European tech startup that you could see implemented within weeks? With program locations throughout Europe, Beacon gives you the opportunity to learn about consulting in an exciting, fast-paced environment, all while accelerating your career and helping you discern whether consulting is the right industry for you.

Don’t stop at case prep. Do Real Consulting.

In case you missed the webinar, or just want to review it again, we’ve summarized part of his presentation in this article. Enjoy!

Who do management consultants work with? 

Management consultants work with just about every kind of company imaginable. The top consulting firms (McKinsey, Bain, BCG) offer services to companies in any industry, while other smaller, more specialized firms may focus on a particular technology or industry. While many of the insights discussed here apply to all of consulting, we’ll narrow our focus on the basics you’ll encounter in traditional management consulting firms.

What is the job of a consultant? 

Consultants break down complex problems into manageable pieces and solve them. What does that mean? Well, most companies are so focused on the minute details of an issue that when a bigger problem arises, such as choosing where to expand internationally or how to restructure after a merger, they can’t see the forest for the trees. They hire a management consultant who breaks down the problem for them and presents them with implementable recommendations. 

The top consulting firms have built prestigious reputations by delivering time-proven successful recommendations. It’s impossible to distill a complex problems, however, without structuring one thoughts and approach to the problem, which brings us to a vital part of the consultant’s work: frameworks. 

Frameworks help consultants break problems down and present solutions in a concise way. From structuring the problem, to strategizing a solution, to presenting before the client. We’ve broken down a few of the most common and universally applicable frameworks, and include some helpful links at the end to learn more about them!

Using the S.M.A.R.T. method helps you define a problem in terms that are Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Relevant, and Timebound. This eliminates ambiguities at the beginning that could come back to bite you later--e.g. uncertainty about how much the client wants profits to increase, when they want profits to increase by, or what the budget will be for their next move. 

MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) is a principle that governs how consultants form frameworks. No relevant bucket or item that makes up a framework should overlap with another one (ME), and together, the buckets should encompass the whole domain of options (CE). McKinsey is credited with starting the use of this term, but it has spread throughout the business world.

As an example, suppose a client asks, “When should we launch our app?” One non-MECE framework could structure the problem as: “next spring”, “next year”, or “in 5 years”. This framework is not mutually exclusive since there’s overlap between “next spring” and “next year”. It also isn’t completely exhaustive since it doesn’t account for the possibility of launching the app before “next spring”, or between “next year” and “in 5 years”. A MECE alternative would be: “this year”, “next year” and “more than 2 years out”.

Porter’s Five Forces is a popular framework that works well to evaluate many different types of companies across a variety of industries. It breaks down the forces that affect a business into 5 areas: competition in the industry, new industry entrants, power of suppliers, power of buyers, and the threat of substitute products. Consultants can use this framework to identify threats and find opportunities to guide a business toward a new direction.

What’s great about frameworks is they’re not just applicable to consulting. MECE is a great principle to consider in any sort of communication, and you can apply it to your current endeavors with great results (e.g. that group project with a fast-approaching deadline? Split the tasks into mutually exclusive categories so your lazy project partner can’t say “I thought you were doing that” the night before it’s due.) 

Visuals are hugely important in the consulting world as ways to convey complex information to clients concisely. If the client is paying millions of dollars to your firm to give him/her advice, he wants to understand the deliverable and be able to act on it. We’ll go more in depth in future posts on the details of consulting presentations!

A management consulting perspective makes problem-solving situations of all kinds more efficient and effective. If applying these frameworks to business problems for high-profile clients to create impactful results sounds exciting, consulting might indeed be your chance to succeed. And if it all sounds like a lot to handle? The Beacon Fellowship is a great opportunity to start learning and applying skills like these.

I’ve worked with Beacon for one year. I’ve spoken with thousands of students, parents, faculty members, and consulting firms during this time. I participated in our 4-week program in Madrid, learning consulting under a Bain alumnus, which also happened to be my first time out of the United States. You would think being out of the country and experiencing a new culture would be the most impactful experience I’ve had during my 12 months with Beacon...but you would be wrong. Turns out, it was actually while I was working with our Fellows this January - we partnered with The Salvation Army during our 1 week winter program in Washington, D.C. Okay, so what made it so impactful in such a short amount of time? And how do you define impact anyway? 

Impact is a tough term to quantify or measure, but it is possible. When something has a big impact, it's something that sticks with you. This week is going to stick with every single one of these students for many reasons, but I’ll highlight two:

1. The students learned high level analytical skills - not from reading a textbook, but directly from a former BCG consultant who also has 2 years of experience working in strategy at the United Nations. The Fellows were not typical students during this program - they were real consultants doing real consulting work, from market research and data analysis all the way down to creating a slide deck and presenting their recommendations to the client on the final day.
   
   

2. The Salvation Army is an amazing worldwide organization, but it has a lot of room for operational improvements. The work we did in just one week had a huge impact on this amazing non-profit.  

So what did we really end up doing in one week anyway?

We helped come up with solutions for several high level problems, but the most important one directly dealt with the red kettles. The biggest donation driver for The Salvation Army is their annual Red Kettle Campaign. This large-scale campaign involves placing over 200 red kettles in the DC area during the Christmas season. One of our major accomplishments during the Fellowship was doing a deep analysis into the performance of these red kettles with the end goal of trying to help maximize their donations (i.e. day of week, time of day, and location of kettles) and minimize their operational costs. The students got right to work doing research, brainstorming methodologies, analyzing data, and coming up with a fantastic presentation based on their recommendations and conclusions.  

The results …

The impact our Fellows had on The Salvation Army was truly something special. After doing a deep analysis on all of the hidden operational costs associated with each kettle, we found that The Salvation Army can actually increase profitability in one region by 13% by simply removing 5 kettles. How amazing is that? You’re probably asking yourself, well what if the kettles are moved to new locations? Our Fellows asked this same question. Upon researching new locations and using conservative estimates, profitability of this region would increase by a whopping 140% or 2.4x! 

Needless to say, The Salvation Army was blown away at the insight, data, and recommendations provided by our Fellows (who had no prior consulting experience by the way), and our fellows were amazed at the skills they learned, the impact they had on the client, and the relationships they built along the way. Keep in mind: this project happened over only a few short days, but was powered by ambitious, motivated students and an experienced project lead who could teach them the essentials of consulting on the fly.

On the last day after the farewell dinner at an authentic Brazilian restaurant in the heart of our Nation’s capital, literal tears were shed as the students were saying their goodbyes, knowing they’d see each other again sometime in the not-so-distant future. The impact this program had on the students, The Salvation Army, our Project Lead, and myself cannot be overstated.

I didn’t know what to expect when I landed in the Madrid-Barajas airport, and would definitely be surprised by what unfolded in the next 10 days. It was easily one of the busiest and most challenging 10 days I have experienced; and also one of the most rewarding. 

Maybe I should begin a little farther back… 

Working as an Admissions Coordinator for Beacon, I have spoken to hundreds of young business students all interested in what Beacon could do for them. I learned to answer their questions and help them understand what they should expect from the Fellowship. 

This was why I was so surprised when I myself got to Madrid and had so many questions about the upcoming days! There was so much ahead of me that was unknown. What would our project lead be like? How would the client interact with us (the fellows)? What will we be researching for this company?

The nice thing was that all of the Fellows were feeling the same way! I got settled into the apartment and introduced myself to my three roommates. These girls came from different backgrounds (one in material engineering, one in marketing and finance, and one in psychology) and from all over the US. We sat around our dining room table talking about what this next week would be like and they had many of the same questions going through their heads. It’s safe to say we were all happy with how the next few days played out. 

The first day at the client site was exciting and nerve wracking. Airbus is an international corporation filled with aerospace engineers and experts in cutting edge technology. The office space was bustling with different meetings and conversations that seemed very important. And there we were — 16 students from the US, most of us with very little experience in strategic consulting up until now. Everyone gathered in the main conference room and we listened to the Airbus representatives present their problem. I was furiously taking notes, making sure not to miss a thing. Our project lead, Viet,  divided us into four small groups. We were assigned different work spaces in the office and got right to work. My team was waist deep in research before we knew it. I had no idea my computer could even have this many tabs open at once! The afternoon flew by and suddenly it was 5 pm. The work day was over and we had barely scratched the surface!

The days were packed with things to do at the office and when we left the work we had Madrid at our fingertips! I had never been to Spain so I didn’t know where to go first. The group was super friendly right away and we all stuck together to find the best places to eat and the most important things to see! I loved getting to know all of the people in my cohort. By the third day I felt like we had all known each other for months! 

At the end of each day, Viet had all of the teams send him an email outlining what progress we had made and what we had learned. He told us how important it was for consultants to be able to reflect on what they had learned from each day so they could apply that lesson to their work the next day. This habit proved to be really helpful as the week went on. As a team we were able to look back on the day and discuss  what we had learned and how it had helped us with the project work. I think that this is an important skill to have no matter what you do, it makes each day’s work more intentional and rewarding. 

I was continually impressed by my peers during the project. There were so many different approaches and perspectives coming together to arrive at the final presentation! It was so cool to see how the dynamic of the group allowed everyone’s strengths to be highlighted and put to use. When it was time for our presentation, we were all super excited to showcase all of our findings to the client. I was impressed by how well all of the teams explained the research and delivered the recommendation to the Airbus representatives! The client asked a number of questions and we felt confident to answer them all and engage in a conversation about the next steps for Airbus. This was such a rewarding and encouraging way to wrap up the Beacon experience. It showed how important all of the research we had worked so hard on really was. I think that one of the best feelings was getting to share our findings with Airbus and receive their feedback and thanks for all our hard work! 

I never thought it would be possible to accomplish so much in 10 days, but I was proven wrong! It was an incredible chance to work with exceptional students from all over the US and learn from an expert consultant. Beacon has definitely changed the way I work; I’ll never forget the things I learned during my 10 days in Madrid!

Despite her initial worry that Beacon looked too intimidating, Kendra jumped at the opportunity to consult under a McKinsey Project Lead in Rome for 2 weeks. As leader of her project group, she learned “how to conduct client meetings, how to research information for proposals, and how to construct a client deck…To anyone who is considering an opportunity like this, or something else challenging and scary, go for it! I guarantee you will surprise yourself and be way more equipped to take on whatever it is than you think.”

We’re so happy Kendra overcame her fears and applied for Beacon, and we echo her exhortation and welcome you to apply for our winter and summer programs! You’ll learn key business skills led by an expert consultant and be surrounded by other talented, motivated students like Kendra—what’s stopping you?

Read the full article Trine University published about her experience here.

Early Consulting Firms

Commonly called the first management consulting firm, Arthur D. Little was established by its eponymous founder in 1886 to provide technical research and analysis to clients. Though Little himself was a chemist, his firm has long been hailed as the pioneer of professional services and consulting, and ADL set off a business trend that has only grown in its influence on business practices. Booz Allen Hamilton, founded in 1914 by Edwin G. Booz also claims to have invented the modern management consulting profession–and was the first to engage with government clients, serving NASA as a client since its founding in the 1950s. 

The Big Three

In 1926, Chicago professor and accounting expert James O. McKinsey (notice a trend here?) founded McKinsey & Company with the intention of focusing on finances, but quickly shifted gears toward management. His successor Marvin Bower established McKinsey’s reputation company that held itself to the highest standards of professionalism and encouraged commitment to personal values among its employees, values for which McKinsey is still well-known to a great extent. McKinsey was, for a time, the only “pure management” consulting firm. 

Competitors were soon to follow. In 1963, an Arthur D. Little employee named Bruce Henderson decided to break off and found his own company, which would become Boston Consulting Group. BCG adopted strategy as its focus from the very beginning, and in 1968 created the Growth Share Matrix, which still influences how companies plan profitability. 

Much as Henderson broke off of ADL to found his own organization, William Worthington Bain Jr. left BCG (taking many of his colleagues and clients with him) to found Bain & Company in 1973. Bain was quite secretive about processes and projects for the first few years but expanded internationally quite rapidly thanks to prominent clients and carefully recruited employees. While the most famous “Bainie” of the modern era may well be Mitt Romney, who saved the firm from a financial precipice as interim CEO in the 1990s, the firm has contributed to the development of business strategy and organization in many groundbreaking ways, including the invention of the Net Promoter Score metric. 

McKinsey, Bain, and BCG have established themselves as the most prestigious firms providing management and strategy consulting services, despite the many new companies that have sprung up especially in response to the new needs of the digital age. Their success is a testament to their high caliber and to the vision of their earliest leaders.

While the face of the industry has changed a lot over the years, understanding the history of MBB consulting will doubtless aid your search to discover whether the consulting industry is right for you–whether your desired specialties lie in business strategy consulting, information technology consulting, financial advising, or beyond! 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 1, 2019

”The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business approves The Beacon Fellowship as Business Education Alliance Member” 

ARLINGTON, Virginia —

The Assocation to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business has approved The Beacon Fellowship to join their Business Education Alliance. AACSB International (AACSB) is a global nonprofit association that connects educators, students, and businesses to achieve a common goal: to create the next generation of great leaders.

Synonymous with the highest standards of excellence since 1916, AACSB provides quality assurance, business education intelligence, and learning and development services to over 1,700 member organizations and more than 800 accredited business schools worldwide, including 90% of the Economists’ 2016 top 100 full-time MBA programs.

When educational, professional, and business organizations become members of the AACSB Business Education Alliance, they are part of a movement united to improve the quality of business education around the world. AACSB connects, shares, and inspires innovation and quality throughout the member network, as well as the business community. The collective strength of the organization is founded on diverse perspectives, a global mindset, and a commitment to making a difference.

By being part of the AACSB Business Education Alliance, The Beacon Fellowship can acquire—and share—insights that strengthen their training and development programs while helping to improve the quality of business education worldwide. On the cutting edge of competency-based learning, training, and development techniques, AACSB-accredited business schools offer expertise for Business Education Alliance Members to evolve and enhance workforce skills.

The Beacon Fellowship will be able to work closely with prominent business educators to help shape the future of business education, ensuring that the world’s highest-quality institutions continue to equip high-potential leaders with the skills needed to build a more prosperous future.

© 2019, The Beacon Fellowship. 4301 North Fairfax Drive, Suite #701. Arlington, VA. 22203.

Here are a few unexpected ways diverse fields of study outside of a major in business can prepare you well for management consulting.

Engineering

It’s easier than you think to switch between a career in engineering and a career in consulting, especially if you enjoy the idea of working at a tech company but don’t want to code all day. Most consulting firms even hire technological experts who are leveraged particularly for their insights in engineering or technology. The quantitative analysis skills of an engineer are attractive to recruiters because data analysis skills save consultant boatloads of time. Furthermore, given the shift toward digitization, the ability to tackle a business strategy problem while keeping numerous technological factors in mind can prove rare and valuable in consulting. Outside of the MBB firms, new digital-focused firms founded by big companies (e.g. IBM iX) have popped up to fulfill this demand. 

The Humanities

How do all those essays prepare you for consulting? Well, one of the key principles behind an effective Powerpoint presentation lies in distilling insights into easily understandable points. The prolific written and verbal communication of complex concepts required of a humanities major is excellent preparation for the high-stakes communication and presentation skills necessary in consulting. Furthermore, consultants work on problems that require innovative solutions, so creativity and outside-the-box thinking - attitudes fostered in the study of the liberal arts - will serve you well. Proof of success? Tech mogul Susan Wojcicki studying history and literature during his undergraduate at Harvard before working at Bain and becoming a world-famous CEO. 

Health/Sciences

Healthcare consulting is becoming more and more relevant as medicine, technology, and community become ever more interconnected. While a background in health may not be a requirement to be a healthcare consultant, it will certainly be a plus and a legitimizer in your interactions with the client. As social impact consulting gains traction and corporations try to stay socially conscious among heightened scrutiny, a biology major may be what innovative firms need to concretely ground their expertise. Needless to say, that’s set you up for an opportunity to impress and succeed.

Finance 

Similar to engineering, finance is a field heavily reliant on data science and thus an excellent preparation for in consulting. Finance is always relevant to a typical project tackled by business analysts, since even when the client’s questions doesn’t explicitly concern profit or investment, a consultant’s solutions must be aware of the financial cost and their effect on the company's balance sheet. A shrewd sense of the balance sheet and how companies operate financially gives you a step up in client dealings and collaboration with colleagues while consulting.

Long story short, don’t doubt your major. Entry-level consulting is one of the few highly competitive and highly paid positions where a technical degree is not necessary. Every day you’re learning the relevant skills that will help you succeed!

Consulting has many benefits that are widely recognized: exposure to elite clients across a wide breadth of industries, a steep learning curve, and a hefty salary. Isn’t it just prowess in Excel and PowerPoint and stellar networking abilities that allow one to succeed in consulting and receive these benefits? Far from it! Here are 3 valuable skills which entry-level consultants develop and which make consulting so sought-after.

Analysis

Distilling significant facts and insights from a heap of incomprehensible client data is an early critical step in creating a compelling deliverable. This analysis is often performed by using Excel to crunch numbers and release the core insights. Early-career consultants usually have no experience with the particular industry of their client, but their contribution comes in the form of speedily manipulating data.

Effective & succinct presentations 

Recommendations are often difficult for the client to hear (e.g. the need to lay off employees, having to shift away from an unprofitable product) which means consultants must acquire a particular presentation skills. They must simultaneously present recommendations in enough depth to show the robust scope of their work and do so in a way that can be clearly understood and communicated for later implementation. Great slides with fantastic visuals can drive home the depth of the analysis, while clarity, consistency, and efficient use of ink on the slide serves to convey a point in a compelling way. Even beyond PowerPoint, the ability to communicate prudently and effectively will serve one well. 

Understanding personal dynamics within organizations

Consultants have to develop complex, effective strategies with only a limited amount of time at the client site. When solving structural and operational problems, a shrewd understanding of the inner workings of a large company is necessary. One has to navigate corporate bureaucracy and be aware of the big picture while also being attentive to individual people at the client organization. With the high rate at which consultants are moved from client to client and the high stakes of each corporate interaction, the difficulty is only multiplied and consultants must swiftly learn how to get a feel for being around new people.

Whether you’re crunching numbers, presenting persuasively, or navigating the corporate bureaucracy, consulting will equip you with key skills useful not only in consulting, but in the world beyond.

1) Susan Wojcicki 

A humanities major during her Harvard undergrad, Susan Wojcicki worked as a management consultant for Bain before Larry Page and Sergei Brin started Google from her garage in California. Now she is the CEO of Youtube, and was one of Fortune’s ten most powerful Women in Business in 2018. 

2) Indra Nooyi

Indra Nooyi spent time in a variety of industries, including a stint as a strategy consultant for BCG, before becoming CEO of Pepsi. Pepsi’s sales grew 80% during her leadership, and Indra has won numerous awards for her executive leadership and graced Forbes The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list for several years. 

3) Bobby Lo 

Before he founded Vurb, an award-winning mobile search and discovery app, Bobby spent three years consulting for BCG. Since Vurb’s acquisition by Snapchat, Bobby remains a Snapchat product advisor and invests in exciting startups in various industries. 

4) Megan Whitman 

Early in Megan’s career she worked for Bain as a consultant and eventually rose to be a Senior Vice President. If you’ve noticed a trend among the consultants we’ve listed, you might correctly guess that Megan didn’t end her career at Bain. She is most famous as CEO of Ebay and then later Hewlett-Packard. Now she is the CEO of Quibi, a video startup set to launch in 2020. 

5) Steve Hafner

Steve Hafner co-founded travel aggregator Kayak, where he still serves as CEO. He consulted at BCG for several years--and describes himself as “One of the best powerpoint monkeys on their staff.” Is that a good thing? We hope so. 

6) Eric Baker 

Eric consulted for McKinsey and worked in Bain’s investment banking venture. While at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, he co-founded StubHub, and later founded Viagogo, another ticket resale company of which he is still the CEO. 

7) Dave Gilboa

Dave co-founded popular glasses retailer and social impact innovator Warby Parker after spending time consulting for Bain. He advocates for eye health accessibility and has received many acclamations for his commitment to entrepreneurship and the social good. 

8) Margo Georgiadis 

Margo worked at McKinsey both before and after completing her MBA at Harvard Business School. She filled important roles at various companies including Google before becoming CEO of Mattel, Inc. and most recently Ancestry.com. 

9) Kathryn Minshew 

Kathryn Minshew, a former management consultant at McKinsey, founded the career platform The Muse in 2011, the same year she made Forbes 30 under 30 list. She has already won numerous entrepreneurship awards at the age of 33, and will doubtless continue to create, innovate, and excel for years to come.  

10) Martin Roper

Years after he worked as a consultant for BCG, Roper began his 17-year tenure as CEO of Boston Beer Company, most well-known for the brands Sam Adams and Angry Orchard. In 2018 he transitioned to a more wholesome beverage as president of Vita Coco, the leading brand of Coconut Water.

The list goes on--every consulting firm has a list of illustrious alumni who started as associates or business analysts. You could be next!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 20, 2019

Contact: Brian Whalen, Chief Academic Officer

717-439-6983 | Brian.w@beaconfellows.org

”Students completing Beacon Fellowship abroad report progress on the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes Core Competencies” 

ARLINGTON, Virginia —

Students who completed a Beacon Fellowship abroad in Summer, 2019 report advancing significantly in the development of the knowledge, skills and behaviors required of successful management consultants. That is according to data from a study that assessed how students progressed on the Management Consulting Competency Framework, published by the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (IMC).  

100 Beacon Fellows completed an evaluation in which they rated their progress on a range of Core Competencies strongly associated with the Beacon Fellows experience abroad.  These competencies included client business insight, consulting business insight, assignment management, consulting knowledge, analytical skills, personal interaction (emotional intelligence). and ethics and professionalism. Overall, 92% of students either “strongly agreed (71%)” or “agreed (22%)” that they had progressed on these Core Competencies. The overall average rating was 4.63 on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = neutral; 4 = agree; 5 = strongly agree).

Significant progress was reported in essential IMC Core Competencies:

• 95% strongly agree or agree that they have a greater ability to take and maintain responsibility for their work and the impact it has on others.  

• 94% strongly agree or agree that they have greater insight into and a greater understanding of the management consultancy environment and its commercial aspects.  

• 94% strongly agree or agree that they have a greater ability to manage client assignments effectively by delivering timely solutions while balancing priorities and managing time effectively. 

• 94% strongly agree or agree that have a greater ability to capture, share, and apply knowledge in a structured way relevant to client engagement needs.  

• 94% strongly agree or agree that they have a greater understanding of how to work, interact, and communicate effectively as part of a consultancy team. 

• 92% strongly agree or agree that they have a greater ability to handle the complexity of the consultancy environment.  

• 91% strongly agree or agree that they have a greater understanding of the internal and external business factors that impact consulting clients.  

• 90% strongly agree or agree that they have a greater understanding of how to work with professionalism and integrity in the best interests of the client.

• 89% strongly agree or agree that they have a greater ability to apply analytical and proactive thinking to ensure robust and appropriate client solutions.   

According to Beacon Chief Academic Officer Brian Whalen, “This data shows the significant educational value of the Beacon Fellowship and how it is helping to educate the next generation of management consultants.”

Beacon Fellows work in consulting teams that focus on finding answers to clients’ real business challenges and problems. Each team is led by a seasoned professional consultant who serves as Project Lead to guide the team’s work, which produces a client solution that actually gets implemented. Beacon Fellowship programs are offered in London, Madrid, and Washington, D.C. in both summer and winter sessions.  

To view the complete results of the assessment study, follow this link. 

© 2019, The Beacon Fellowship. 4301 North Fairfax Drive, Suite #701. Arlington, VA. 22203.