Internship Full Time Quest: What should I do next?

Question

Hello,

For context, I'm currently CTA (Case Team Assistant) at an MBB for one month, with an option to extend into a 3 month CTA or a 1 year full time role, depending on my performance.

I have just finished my first week. Overall, the feedback was positive and they mentioned my attitude was great and I was hardworking, and the work was good too. Only thing to improve on was how I communicated my results. But here is my concern:

My roles so far have only been very far into the backend (eg. slides refining, cross-checking data, market analysis), and things are kept pretty confidential. I had to investigate and infer what the client's goal even was, and I am not in the group chats with the managers for the same reason. Nonetheless, I am still going all out for the tasks that I'm given, and have also tried networking with the managers there and on that side things seems fine.

When I received the offer call a month ago, they said I would be evaluated on execution of tasks, how well I think, and also how well I fit in the team. But since I'm not doing much "consulting" work, I'm not sure if I'm on track to extend my CTA or become a full-time analyst.

May I please have advice on this? What should my next steps be ?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi there,

First, congratulations on landing the CTA role at an MBB firm—it's a great opportunity and a step towards a potential full-time offer.

I understand your concern about the lack of visibility into the client-facing aspects of consulting work, but rest assured that what you're experiencing is quite common for CTA roles, especially early on. Two pieces of advice:

Be patient -- it's only Week 1! You're getting solid feedback so far, and it's too early to make a definitive assessment about the nature of your engagement with teams. As you continue to prove your value to the team, build your hard and soft skills, and get more exposure to the work you will be responsible for, your value to the team will grow. I imagine you will get more opportunities to become more embedded in the case team flow.
Take the feedback seriously and act on it. It's very common for new joiners (CTA or otherwise) to lag in communicating effectively with senior folks internally and externally. If you haven't yet, look up the pyramid principle and try to employ that in your emails, research summaries, and verbal comms. In short, you need to lead with the key takeaways and support your conclusions with a structured presentation of the facts and data to support it (think of this as a recommendation at the end of a case interview -- assuming you did these as part of the recruiting process).

I can tell you are committed to exceeding expectations, and I have no doubts you'll crush the internship. Best of luck!

Answer 2

Hi there,

To make the most out of it and get a return offer, there are a few things you should do.

1. Perform well at your core tasks (ownership of your work, analytics, double checking your work, visualization, communication) and improve quickly (your EM and partners evaluate not only what you can do right now BUT how quickly you develop and what potential you have for the future.

1b. Learn from your peers, either by asking (don't be afraid to ask) and by observation.

2. Be visible in front of your team, client, partners, and office. Speak up, take the opportunities to lead meetings, present, and contribute your opinion (this is the single biggest reason why interns do not get a return offer if they fail to show that they are here)

3. Network, make sure people know you across the office/practice

4. Manage your stress. Find a way to balance work and life. I have recorded a session for PrepLounge on this topic: https://youtu.be/4VK8wL_xsmQ?si=go1vmIEiAmwLz76T

Reach out if you want to learn more! I coach people on getting the entry right and have also written a book about the topic called Consulting Career Secrets.

All the best,

Florian