This is a follow-on Q from a question I asked here previously (thank you to you guys who responded! I’ll be reaching out to you directly for advice/mentoring soon if that’s alright!) In summary, I’m attempting a hard pivot into strategy consulting after working 6 months out of a master’s. Here’s what I have to work with:

• Bachelor’s from Univeristy of Oxford, 1st Class, Biology
• Master’s from University College London, 2:1, non-business subject
• Product Designer for 6 months at a well-known corporate company
• (For a BCG app) almost certainly 1 referral from a current BCG associate

I’ve got a decent selection of extracurriculars to pad out my app too. What I am worried about right now, though - is the clear lack of any direct consulting experience. This isn’t just consulting internships, but also a lack of involvement in consulting societies, consulting projects…. I do really regret ‘wasting’ my years at uni (though obviously that was not my intended career path back then) and making use of resources I had around me to do so.

Nonetheless, that’s what I’m grappling with right now. I know it’s still possible to break into consulting without any direct experience. But my main question is: are there any short-term, remote opportunities to gain some experience for my CV? I am currently in a full-time job, so an actual in-person internship would be off the cards. Whether this is some sort of certification, student consulting project, pro-bono work… I am aiming to applying for the upcoming consulting cycles which start around September, so have about three or four months to possibly gain any experience. Am so willing to put in time for this over weekends, end of weekdays etc… but don’t really know where to start.

Any ideas really appreciated! Or perhaps some thoughts about just applying to consulting without direct experience in general… is really feeling rather deflating currently…