Summer consultancy internships: Why you should swap the beach for the office

With many companies offering previous interns permanent jobs, TopMBA.com sets out the facts about why summer internships in consultancy for MBA students are so important. 

According to a 2007 survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC)™, a survey of nearly 700 companies around the world found that 62% took on MBA students as interns over the summer months. Of these, almost three-quarters considered employing their interns before looking at external candidates for full-time roles.

The typical company also reported that half of its new MBA hires would come from the internship pool. It looks as if sacrificing the beach for the office over the summer is a useful time-investment for ambitious MBA students. And with demand for MBAs reaching new heights, the choice of internship is broader than at any time since the late 1990s. Major employers are competing for the best students and options are no longer limited to the very large organizations that provided opportunities in the past.

The London office of A.T. Kearney, one of the UK's most prestigious consultancy firms, offers places to, on average, eight of its ten summer interns. Emmanuel Hembert, Principal at A.T. Kearney says: "We take summer interns for a period of between one-and-a-half and three months, recruiting them from the same schools as our full-time staff, (London, INSEAD and Manchester). They get the exact same training as all consultants, though it is shortened for the summer interns." In the best cases, interns gain valuable experience by immediately working on projects with clients so that they have a genuine experience of the life and work of a consulting and a client team. If you are looking for an internship, carefully consider the companies that can offer the mot productive hands-on experience.

Employability is another key word. Interns want to know that they might get a fulfilling position at the end of it, so be aware of the company's reputation and statistics for employing interns before applying for a position.

The main idea of an internship is for the incumbent to have the time to assess the job and to decide if consultancy is a job that they really want, while the company simultaneously assesses the intern. Hembert says: "We need to believe our interns will be successful here. At the end of their stay there is an evaluative committee to decide who will be offered a permanent job. It's a good way for both parties to see if they would like to work with each other."

So are there percentage limits on internships? "There is no limit to how many summer interns we will offer full time positions to; it really depends on their performance - if they all excel we will make all of them offers. It is clearly less risky for us to hire someone we know than a hire through the normal recruiting process," Hembert says.

The timing of applications for internships depends on the school's individual recruiting period so you should know about this when applying for any business school. Work out how much time you have, what industry you'd like to work in, and start researching which companies suit you best.

For interns in consultancy, the challenge is to apply yourself to the real job of a consultant on the client side and to adapt very quickly to the company, the client and the project team. You are expected to perform at the same level as a normal consultant. As Hembert says: "It is very challenging and we put them through a rigorous program of work and development. A good intern is one who is eager to learn, who is adaptable and feels comfortable working directly with a project and a client immediately when arriving at A.T. Kearney. Successful interns are hands-on, analytical people, with a good strategic mind. Those are the types that will succeed. We also look for a passion for learning, and a readiness to push into the unknown so that you are always developing. That means being entrepreneurial, taking the initiative and aiming to make a difference, not just theoretically, but in the real world. We need people who want to work alongside clients, rather than in some form of teacher/pupil relationship. It's collaboration, not lecturing, that achieves results."