Two Months Of Exploring Consulting With A.T. Kearney

After you bag the internship it’s all about partying and also a bit of prepping oneself to get set to work with some of the smartest folks. Once the summers phase wanes off, you slowly settle down finally letting your hair down. It was during the end term exams that I received a mail from A.T Kearney mentioning my project location to be Malaysia. This got me excited again, as an international consulting exposure would give me a very broad picture of how industry and especially consulting worked outside of India.

(Work location - Petronas Twin Towers!)

Phase 2 - Struggle

The first day at internship began with me landing in Kuala Lumpur at 7am local time and rushing to the client office, the ATK team greeted me with a lot of enthusiasm as interns are always seen as people who would bring fresh energy with them. The people were very friendly and made me feel at ease. The best part was the team’s mix of varied ethnicity and cultural backgrounds.

However, once the workstream and the entire module was explained to me, I realised the gravity of the piece being handed over. The project was about end-to-end process simplification and increasing efficiency of a market leader. My particular module involved launching a minimum viable product in selected locations of KL.

The first 2 weeks seemed overwhelming as it involved multiple client stakeholders (around 40+ client members across 5 cross-functional divisions). Consulting, from what I learnt is a place where you test the waters and deep-dive at the same time. You get all in and then try to manoeuvre your way up to stay afloat and then slowly become comfortable in what you are doing. And this is possible because of the firm’s highly collaborative culture. At A.T Kearney people believe in giving and taking constructive feedback on a regular basis.

Phase 3 - Learning & Adjusting

The best part of the internship was that in a span of 2 months the magnitude of things you learn is humongous. It is always good to seek frequent feedback from the mentor/ manager to know what is exactly expected out of you and how you can quickly improve yourself.

Broadly focus is on having a – a) Strong problem-solving skill set, b) Client satisfaction and c) Building strong rapport with the team. These are also the parameters you are judged on along with communication skills and professionalism.

It is also very important to have a strong rapport with the client. Client at the end of the day is your most important stakeholder and it is important you satisfy them. I was lucky enough to have a very understanding and amicable client. As part of my role in the workstream I was required to run scrum meetings with a client team. The client team was so cooperative and we had such great dynamics by the end of the workstream that they brought us a customized cake as a token of appreciation. These small gestures made me feel all those long nights spent working worth it.

Phase 4 - Final decision

It is necessary to understand that while you are being evaluated for your performance by the firm, you should evaluate the firm as well. Summers are the best way to get to know if you actually enjoy doing the consulting work.

Bonus Phase - PPO Call! 

I started with four phases but couldn’t help mention this one. The call from the Partner! When extended the offer, I was super ecstatic to join the firm back as a full-time employee. Looking forward to gaining richer experiences. 

Key Takeaways From The Internship

• It has been very wisely said by Michael porter that the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. At any given point of time there is always so much to do and only limited amount of time in hand, that it becomes of earnest importance to know how to prioritise and filter tasks.
• Procrastinating can be catastrophic. In consulting the nature of work is highly dynamic leaving very little space for postponing things.
• Talk to people, listen to people. A lot can be resolved by talking to people, seeking advice, and diligently following them. Most people in the firm genuinely believe in collective growth and will not leave any stone unturned to help you out.
• Whether you choose to stay in consulting for a long time or wish to experience it as a short stint, one thing is rest assured that it changes you for better. The fast pace and agile way of working teaches you to be adaptive to any situation irrespective of the level of the challenge.

Some Other Perks of Consulting

Perk#1: Get to know and work with a bunch of smart, friendly and talented folks.

Perk#2: Travel to your heart's content and get ready to live out of your suitcase.

Perk#3: Fancy places to stay and fancier places to work.

Tips To Crack The Consulting Interview

• Doing some good quality cases with like-minded people helps you gain the confidence required to crack a case on the D-day of the interview.
• Going through casebooks, past year experiences of seniors and following the videos and website of Victor Cheng is helpful
• Try not to confine yourself too much to the frameworks, as on the day of the interview it is the first principles which come handy more often than not
• Being confident is a game changer. No matter how overwhelmed you are you need to remain calm and confident. Fake it till you make it.

A final word of advice….

No matter what you decide to do, and where you decide to work, always try finding your “Ikigai”.