Hi there,

Congrats on getting the internship!
The first thing to do is take some time to celebrate and rest :)

To perform well at MBB you need to focus on improving different skills that will help you become a top performer:

• Structured thinking
• Interaction with people
• Problem-solving
• Work with various information
• Excel and PowerPoint
• Time management and resource management

Think about your weak points and how you can fix them. You could also find courses online to improve some of them.

Also, the first couple of weeks are probably gonna be stressful for you. Here's what can help you prepare and go through them in a calmer way:

• finish all your pending tasks (doctor appointments, burocracy, any house chores, meetings etc.) so they don't draw your attention away from work
• take some good rest - do sports, go for walks, meet friends
• once you've started, create and follow a strict daily routine
• at work, show yourself as curious, eager to learn from your colleagues and to make connections. Be open and friendly

In case you are looking for a coach to be your guide, friend, sounding board, best practice advisor, feel free to get in touch with me. I have been a coach during the 'First 100 days in consulting role' for several candidates from PrepLounge who have made it to MBB. Happy to support you as well.

Some other useful pieces of advice you can find here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-be-prepared-to-start-new-role-in-one-month-6947

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/job-at-mbb-now-what-5993

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/books-related-to-management-consulting-5208

Hope it helps! Hit me up if you have any further questions.

Cheers,

GB

(edited)

Hi there,

Congratulations on your offer!

These are the tips I usually recommend for MBB prep:

• On the technical side, Excel will be the most important technical thing to master at the beginning, in particular for VLOOKUPs and Pivot tables; you could also review PowerPoint if needed. You will likely receive training on this once you start anyway.
  • Tip for Excel: learn how to use the keyword as much as possible and relegate the touchpad to the minimum – this will skyrocket your productivity in the long term. Some computer programs such as KeyRocket provide tips to improve on this.
• For better communication, two great books are:
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie (classical on how to manage relationships)
  • Never Split The Difference - Chris Voss (great negotiation book)
• For mindset, some great books are:
  • 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)

Below you can also find a list of things that could be useful to practice during your first weeks:

1. Take notes when your manager tells you something – 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 in consulting (and in any industry in general): 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. Consulting (most likely also your new industry) is a people business and you should build a good network both within and outside the company. A good start is key to develop good relationships long-term
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

The interns that were most valued were ones that could contribute most to a project. To contribute the following is most desirable

• A positive attitude and willingness to help with ANY task (cant prepare for this but is crucial to success)
• Great excel modeling skills - many suggestions on this, my favorite is trainthestreet it is by far the best for excel modelling
• Being good at making slides - read my favorite book Say it with Charts by Gene Zelazny
• Being generally a good team mate and bringing positive energy to the team

All the best with the internship!

Udayan

(edited)

Having been a McK summer intern as well as having had many summer interns on my team as a manager, I agree with Udayan. Perhaps my personal bias but I would much rather have fun and easy going intern on my team than one who is intense and overly prepared. In that regard, I would actually avoid worrying about how to prepare and just make sure you are fully engaged with the team during your internship, being proactive, contributing and listening to feedback. There is no expectation that you have prior experience and you typically will be staffed on a team with a manager and/or senior consultant who has the capacity and ability to coach you from scratch.

I can only speak for McKinsey but the interns who I've seen not get an offer after the summer were either those that had behavioural issues and/or really didn't listen to the feedback they received (i.e., uncoachable). Being some what familiar with Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel is a bonus but not a strong prerequisite.

Being an intern was one of the best times at McKinsey having spent over 6 years. It's your chance to decide whether the specific MBB is the right place for you. People typically go above and beyond to make you feel welcome and comfortable. It may not feel like it but it's genuinely a risk free way as MBBs (unlike investment banking) hire interns with the intentions of recruiting strong talent early.

Good luck!

(edited)

Hi, first of all, congrats on the offer!

I would work on excel and PowerPoint but be relaxed about all the rest, you'll learn the most by doing

Best,
Antonello

Hello!

Congrats of that offer!

If there is one thing I wish I had done before joining McKinsey, that would have been Excel. It can really be a game changer, so I would really focus on that (more than pptx, industry knowledge, etc., that are nice-to-have, but not deal breakers).

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)

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi,

the other coaches have provided very useful input - I ll try to keep it short and very PRACTICAL:

• Work through Advanced Power Point training (however, every firm has their own little PPT tools - but still it is good stuff)
• Advanced Excel Training - do not expect to do a lot in Excel as an intern - focus on the basics (pivot tables, basic functions, advanced functions) and - if you want to blow away your supervisor Macros). No need to REINVENT the wheel - go online and download advanced models on every topic imaginable and (1) try to understand how they work and (2) keep them on a stick so you can literally use parts (i.e. nice formulas, layouts etc) as inspiration. Great consultants re-invent, Awesome consultants base their work on sth else to be even better
• Read:
  • Keith Ferrazzi - Never Eat Alone (best networking book in the world)
  • Bain - Profit from the Core
  • Bain - Net Promoter Score
  • Bain - Lessons from Private Equity Any Company Can Use
• Watch videos on / get aquainted with:
  • Outlook - your life will be much easier if you know how to use Outlook and can use it efficiently (e.g. send delay)
  • OneNote - it makes me nervous if people come with messy papers - use OneNote - best tool you ll have on your MBB laptop
• Make sure you network nicely and create a nice impression every single day (especially first 50% of your internship) - it is a people's business - you will not be hired only for having nice Excels or fancy PPTs (which they most likely wont be with interns)

Best,
Denis

Hey there,

Congrats on your offer!

Since there is already some good advice posted by my fellow experts I thought I'd give you my perspective as well.

When I got the full-time offer some years ago I did the same. I reached out to people I knew in McKinsey and people who interviewed me to ask: what can I do to make the start easier? how can I prepare?

The answer from everyone was: Relax! Enjoy your time before you start and don't think about it. You will figure it out on the job. I followed that advice and it made sense to me once I joined.

When you start at an MBB there are 2 ways to learn:

1. Formal training. The formal training sessions/ weeks/ days in the beginning, are nice, however, they are more for networking and meeting your peers. You learn some interesting concepts and get some useful tips from more experienced consultants BUT
2. Constant and implicit learning on the job is where it's at. No matter if you are a newcomer or a veteran after 2 years, you will always find yourself on a steep learning curve. As soon as you barely mastered one skill or the skills needed for one level in the hierarchy, you will take care of things, which are expected from a more senior colleague. This cycle never ends. You are expected to learn on the job, learn from your colleagues, your mentors, sometimes even the client. So basically a newly promoted Engagement Manager has the same 'struggle' as a new-hire Business Analyst. They both need to work in a completely new environment and role.

Knowing that, if we now go back to square one in your MBB journey it makes perfect sense to enter the firm with a blank slate with a lot of curiosity and eagerness to soak it all up and quickly learn the ropes.

No book, no training, no coach can prepare you for your first day, your first week, your first engagement. Nothing matches the experience and the learning and this is a good thing (also the reason why ex-MBBs are valued highly on the job market).

You will learn everything you need to master while doing it. You will be thrown in the cold water and need to swim. However, your colleagues will always be happy to help you and mentor you. And for the rest, you will figure everything out along the way. The key here is always to ask for tips, shortcuts, feedback, etc. Don't be quiet if you get stuck.

Also, if you start at McKinsey for example, for every technical problem (IT, Excel question, etc) there is a Global Helpdesk and the rule is to call them for every problem you can't solve within 5 minutes. They will fix your computer, guide you through Excel formulas, etc. I guess BCG and Bain have similarities here.

Lastly, if you have no domain knowledge about a certain industry or topic, read through the internal library of documentation (which is endless) and call some of the firm experts on the topic. Usually, they are happy to offer you a short call to get you up to speed.

Don't sweat the small stuff and enjoy the ride!

Florian