Internship preparation

Hey, 

Congratulations on the offer! It will be an exciting experience, for sure :)

Don't stress too much about preparation. If you got an offer it is because they deemed that you have what it takes to succeed in consulting. You should start with an onboarding week with few trainings that will show you the essentials but at the end the most progress you will make is learning on the job. It will be the role of your first managers to correctly onboard you and show you the ropes.

If you want to prepare, you can 

1. Work on your excel skills, find a shortcut sheet on google and practice. That will significantly improve your speed which can be quite useful. You can try to understand how to structure an excel model, but that can be done on the job
2. Work on your writting and communication skills. You can read the famous pyramid principle from Barbara Minto to understand how consultant do their thinking and storytelling  
3. For ppt, make yourself familiar with the firm-specific tools e.g., additional ribbon, presentation / slides libraries once you joined (during the onboarding week or before you get staffed)

You can also look at the thread below about the first project, that will give you elements on how to kick the ground running.

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-was-your-first-consultancy-project-12841

Hope this helps

Hi there,

Congratulations on the offer!

To me, the best way to invest the free time you have now is to… read. You won’t have much time to do this later and reading is one of the most undervalued growth opportunities available today.

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READING LIST

Personally I don’t have much time to read, so what I do is to listen to books – Audible is great for this. You can easily listen to a book per week with minimum effort. You absorb books differently when you listen, so you have to check if this works for you.

The following are some books I would highly recommend. You can expand the list with anything you want to learn – just try to find a few really good books on that topic.

• The Compound Effect – Darren Hardy (great book on long-term planning)
• Tiny Habits – BJ Fogg (excellent, science-based book on habits formation)
• The Mediations – Marcus Aurelius (written ~ 2000 years ago but incredibly actual – the personal diary of the most powerful man in the world at the time)
• The 80–20 Principle – Richard Koch (very smart life tips from one of the founders of LEK)
• Peaks and Valleys – Spencer Johnson (crisis management tale – from the same author of the famous “Who moved my Cheese”, I personally found this book a lot more interesting and applicable)
• The Gap and the Gain – Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy (excellent book in terms of mindset for happiness) 

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TOOLS

You are probably ok with the basics of Excel and PowerPoint, if not you can take a quick course to review the basics. You can check in advance with your office if they recommend training on any other tool. One of the most important things you can learn with any IT tool is shortcuts – they will increase a lot of your productivity.

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INDUSTRIES

If your office specializes in specific industries, it would be good to get a minimum knowledge of them in advance. However, don’t stress out too much about this, you will learn most during the job.

You can find some tips on recent consulting trends related here:

▶ https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/consulting-industry-trends-2022

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FIRST WEEKS

Below you can also find some tips for the first weeks I usually recommend – you are probably familiar with most of them, but could be good to review:

1. Take notes during meetings/discussions with your manager – this will help you to remember details and will show you care about them to the team.
2. Always double-check. The first impression is very important when you join a new company: if you show you are reliable from the beginning, you create a reputation of a reliable person. Double checks should be done on expectations for your job, your Excel analysis, your slides – basically everything.
3. Define priorities before starting any set of tasks. The majority of the results usually come from a subset of activities – this is true also for your tasks in consulting. You have to identify which they are and prioritize them – the application of the so-called 80-20 rule or Pareto Principle. Alignment on priorities and expectations is particularly important with your manager at the beginning of the project.
4. Socialize with your colleagues and start to build a network. You should build a good network within the company. A good start is key to develop good relationships long-term. More difficult to do during COVID – but there may still be opportunities for virtual gatherings. Try to take advantage of as many as possible to build connections.
5. Organize your private life activities. You want to organize your calendar to leave some space for personal activities (sport/ friends/ family). This is not easy but can be managed if you organize well, and long-term will be critical to keep a balance between work and private life. Also, it is better to align with your manager/teammates from the beginning on your core needs, so that there are no surprises later­ on.
6. Ask for feedback every two-three weeks – this will show you are proactive and willing to learn.
7. Ask for help when you don't know what to do – better to let know you are in trouble with meeting a deadline than missing the deadline.
8. Be social and respectful with the support staff – these people are great and influential as well in the company.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi there, congratulations on this new journey!

I agree with the excellent advice given by Mamoun and Charlotte earlier. On my opinion, the key areas to focus on to prep - with the amount of effort devoted to each depending on your current level of skills - are:

1. Mental math

2. Excel: keyboard shortcuts, advanced functions (eg. Index-Match),  modelling 

3. PPT shortcuts

4. Business notions: CAGR, NPV, P&L reading, etc.

5. Communication skills: business email writing, effective presentation, pyramid principle of communication 

6. Familiarity with recent major business events

7. Expertise in the fundamentals of your chosen sector, if you aim to be part of a specific practice.

Hope this helps! Best of luck!

Hi there,

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Know that no-one can perfectly prepare for the job and that's the point: You will mess up, you will learn, you will be trained and supported. That's OK!

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First: I have a consulting survival guide handbook with 25 key tips for surviving the consulting world. Feel free to message me for it!

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Second: In terms of things you can learn/do to prepare beforehand:

1) Daily Reading

• The Economist, The Financial Times, BCG/Mskinsey Insights

2) Industry deep-dives

• Learn, in-depth, how the industries/companies your office advises, work. (PM me for an industry overview template)

3) Analytics tools

• Alteryx, Tableau, etc.

4) Excel

5) Powerpoint

• Best practices/standards
• Different layouts
• Quickly editing/updating slides
• Thinking in PowerPoint

6) Presentation skills / sharp communication

• There are some online/virtual classes for this

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Third: In terms of doing well in your role when you're there:

1) Understand the context/prompt (what role are you in, what company, who's watching, etc.)

2) Understand the objective (what, specifically, is expected from you...both day to day, and in your overall career progression)

3) Quickly process information, and focus on what's important - Take a lot of information and the unknown, find the most logical path, and focus on that.

4) Be comfortable with the unknown, and learn to brainstorm - think/speak like an expert without being one

In summary, there will always be a flood of information, expectations, competition etc. and not enough time. Find out which ones matter when. (i.e. be visibile and focus efforts on the things that people care about)

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Fourth: Here are some great prior Q&As for you!

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/what-makes-a-good-consultant-how-to-get-a-good-review-6790

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-hard-is-it-to-excel-in-top-consulting-firms-6762

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-become-an-engagement-manager-and-partner-quickly-6722

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/need-to-learn-skills-in-the-ample-free-time-before-starting-at-an-mbb-what-should-i-do-6774

Dear candidate,

first of all, get all personal items out of the way, set yourself up for success by completing your personal todos. Secondly, if you have time prep your soft skills when it comes to communication, analysis and structuring. You can even do some chart reading, PPT prep is great, but it is not necessarily needed. More important is to build actual consulting skills. A lot of material on PrepLounge will enable you to do so.

Best regards

Hello There, 

Congrats on the offer. I agree with the immediate response below. Do not stress out about the preparation. Just come with a positive attitude and an eagerness to learn new things and you will be ok. You will have plenty of support and resources during your time here to ensure you are successful.

Happy to connect further offline if you have any clarifications or concerns

Good luck !

I would generally recommend not spending much time with preparation, as you will learn on the job in a much more effective way. And you will progress more in a couple of weeks in consulting than in a month on your own…

But I understand that in an Internship you want to hit the ground running and make sure you get an offer after 1-2 months of work.

Doing a refresher on powerpoint and excel is a wise thing to do. Learning some of the shortcuts as well. However, don't bother to go to the “advanced” stuff. In excel, knowing the most used formulas and how to work with Pivot Tables is usually what you need.

If you get the chance to know in which industry you will be working, taking a couple of days to read about it is also a good use of time.