2nd year student looking to intern within MBB

Hi there,

Q: I was wondering what I should be doing to compete with other students from target uni's within this next year. Also considering I don't have much work experience , what's best to highlight in my CV.

To get a consulting invitation, you will need to work on 3 things: a great CV, a great Cover and a referral.

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1) CV

The key elements they will look for and that you can optimize are:

• University brand
• Major
• GPA
• Work experience
• Experience abroad
• Extracurriculars and volunteer experience

The fact you don't have consulting experience is not a problem if you structure your CV correclty.

Red flags include:

• Low GPA
• Lack of any kind of work experience
• Bad formatting / typos
• 3-4 pages length
• Lack of clear action --> results structure for the bullets of the experiences
• Long paragraphs (3-4 lines) for the bullets of the experiences with irrelevant details
• Long time gaps without any explanation

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2) COVER LETTER

You can structure a cover in 4 parts:

1. Introduction, mentioning the position you are interested in and a specific element you find attractive for that company
2. Why you are qualified for the job, where you can report 3 skills/stories from your CV, ideally related to leadership, impact, drive and teamwork
3. Why you are interested in that particular firm, with additional 1-2 specific reasons
4. Final remarks, mentioning again your interest and contacts

In part 2 you can write about experiences that show skills useful in consulting such as drive, problem-solving, leadership, teamwork and convincing others.

It is important that in part 3 you make your cover specific to a particular firm – the rule of thumb is, can you send the exact same cover to another consulting company if you change the name? If that’s the case, your cover is too generic.

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3) REFERRALS

This is probably the most important point, in particular if you want to apply to the ME where you may not have direct links otherwise.

To find a referral, you should follow three main steps:

1. Identify the people that can help you
2. Write them a customized email
3. Have a call and indirectly ask for a referral

As general tips:

• Don’t use LinkedIn for your communication – emails work better. You should target 30% conversion for your messages; if you are not achieving that, there is space for improvement
• When sending emails, your goal should be to organize a call, not to ask questions – you can then use the call for the questions
• You need to close the call with an indirect request for a referral – don’t leave that to chances. There are specific ways to phrase it

You should prepare three main things before the call:

• Your own pitch. 3-4 lines should be enough
• 3-4 questions on the personal experiences of the person. Avoid to ask questions about the company
• A closing question for the referral. It should be an indirect request to avoid being too pushy

You can find more information on networking and referrals here:

▶ How to Get an MBB Invitation 

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If you need more help please feel free to PM me.

Best,

Francesco

Hi there, 

From my point of view, specifically for your case, there are two main things to optimize for to even get to the interview stage:

1. Getting a referral - this will increase your chances to pass the screening. Try and reach out through the alumni or career office at your university to former students who are now MBB consultants and get on a call with them for 10-15 minutes. If the call goes well, ask for a referral. Don't be shy about it. Most people would be happy to do it. 

2. Gaining some consulting experience - try and either get an internship with a small consulting firm, or join a consulting club or even find some internship where you can show that you exercised consultant-like skills. Basically, recruiters want to see that you've had a long-term interest in consulting and that you started developing some skills in that area.

Best,

Cristian

Hi there, 
to be very honest, unless you have an impressive extra-curriculum activity or any other wow achievement all MBB will be very hard if you are from a non-targeted school. I would recommend not to give up, but also to apply to smaller boutique and 2nd tier consulting to gain a few years experience, that can offset the school and then you will have greater chances. 
Lucie
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The reality is that getting an internship from a non target school at MBB in the UK is very very difficult. They tend to be extremely OxBridge focused. You will need to have a first class in terms of grades and you absolutely have to network to be considered for an interview. Have you reached out to anyone from your Uni at MBB yet?

Hi there,

1. Build up your background - get consulting experience from part-time programs (experiential programs at your uni, ImpactConsulting, etc.)
2. Network extensively - aim to get referrals
3. Get a professional Resume review - to make it as strong as possible

Good luck to you!

You will need a strong “marker” of excelence (ideally academics) coupled with a well round resume (meaning extra curricular activities, ideally where you can stand out as well) plus a referral.

This is the ideal. Anything that gets you closer to the ideal will increase your chances.