What should I do now?

Question

Hi, I am seeking advice from consultants concerning my current situation.

I am a French student who landed an end study offer at Oliver Wyman in Paris, which is really great for me. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic situation, my starting date has been delayed to January 2021 (instead of September 2020). Therefore, when I will finish my master's degree in one month, I will be left with 6 months of free time.
I am very stressed about the situation as it seems that most of my classmates will start in September or even earlier (probably remotely). I don't really know what to do now, I am afraid that not working/interning during this 6-month gap will look bad for me.
My goal is to land a full-time offer after my internship, which is common in Paris. However, I am not sure how easy it will be to get a full-time position considering the pandemic and different needs of consulting firms next year. In addition, the Paris partners have offered the opportunity to convert my end study internship into a full-time position if I successfully passed two interviews with two partners in September. However, I don't feel this is something I can manage, I am not confident in my interviews skills and I don't have experience in consulting. In case I fail this last round of interviews, I will keep my internship offer.

I have read many posts about what to do to prepare before entering consulting (preparation for Excel, Powerpoint, networking, soft skills etc), but still, considering I have 6 months ahead of me, I am unsure as to what to do. Should I find a job for a couple of months? How can I make the most of these 6 months? Will it look bad to the two partners I will meet in September if I am not working/interning?

Please excuse me for this long message, as you can see I am quite worried.

Many thanks,

Answer 1

Hello!

I see two different courses of action here:

1- Accepting that you will start late and using the time to prep

If this was the case, I would suggest you to deep-dive in Excel. Excel skills are part of the core skill-set of consultants, and it´s great that you want to practice them. PFB a list of the most popular commands:

Basic operations: SUM, SUMPRODUCT
Text transformations: CONCATENATE, LEFT, RIGHT, & operator,
Connecting different datasets: VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX(MATCH(),MATCH())
Conditional-based operations: SUMIF, COUNTIF, SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, COUNTA
Learn how to analyze data using Pivot Tables

There are plenty of online materials:

Microsoft Support: https://support.office.com/en-us/excel
Kubicle: https://kubicle.com/personal (go for the 7 days free trial - Excel for Business Analytics)

2- Keep interviewing for MBB and land another offer for sept

If you passed OW, you already did all the prep needed, and you would have no pressure at all if you tried again with other companies.

This, by itself, it´s a learning, even if you don´t land other offers.

Finally, you can also do both at the same time, try again with other companies and learn excel and other skills.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Answer 2

Hi,

I recognize the concern - it'll all work out in the end, I promise :)

Let me respond with a very short+clear recommendation. You should do two things: Get a job AND prepare for interviews.

In my view, there's no downside to this. Can you let me know if you have something else holding you back in this aspect?

By the way, if anyone is interested in trying out cases that deal with other impacts of COVID-19, check out these two cases:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/brain-teaser/beginner/coronavirus-times-194

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/candidate-led-usual-style/intermediate/chinese-chess-191

Answer 3

Hi there,

I wouldn't be particularly worried about a 6 months gap in school. Esp given the COVID situation, you have a valid reason for the gap, so it wouldn't look bad on you. No need to FOMO.

Regarding how you can make the best use of the 6 months, though, definitely you can do 2 things:

Get prepared for your end study internship; get familiar with all the tools and hard skills to get a head start. This would be no-regret move anyway
Continue to prep for case interview, given that you would have interview in Sep if you want full time job. And if you prepare well, you can also apply other companies for full time too. So I see this as no-regret as well.

Best,

Emily

Answer 4

Dear A,

First of all, my congratulations to your offer with Oliver Wymann. This is really great! Just to take your stress out, I would like to say that it doesn't matter now and in future also what you are going to do in upcoming 6 months, because you are going to start with one the top firms in January 2021. So be patient.

At the very end you could also take a leave and travel around (if you can afford it), because after you start, your free time will shrink significantly. Also, you may take an internship, but honestly, I would simply just use this spare time and spend it with your friends or on your own. You can also devote this time to taking care of yourself, your health, your family. I've got a chance to do a sub articles some time ago, and it was definitely one of the best time in my life.

If you need any further advice, feel free to reach out and I would be happy to help you.

P.S. I'm also preparing the candidates for successful start in their career and design a program specifically for that purpose.

Wish you good luck,
André