About me
Hi guys, I am Abhay Kinagi, a to-be fourthie from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. I love reading and going for long runs. I like mechanical engineering and research, but I have wanted to work in consult since my second year after I learned about it.
This summer, I interned at L.E.K Consulting, and it was surely a fantastic experience, got to learn a lot, met amazing people, and partied hard! I will be sharing my intern experience through this blog. I hope you find this blog helpful.
Internship season preparation and the process
As the internship season drew closer, everyone geared up the preparation and resume-making. I had some clarity about wanting to apply for Consult and FMCG (it is completely fine if you didn’t have this figured out and it is pretty essential to have backups as the process is luck-based as well). After submitting the resume, I began with my case prep. I watched the videos put by Case Interviews Cracked (CIC) on their channel, which gave me a good idea of how to go about case interviews. I was part of a few case groups where we would practice cases from CIC, which was super helpful and framed perfectly. I was lucky to be part of a great case team. We would also solve cases from the IIMA case book and discuss our approach later. Later, the shortlists started coming, and I wasn’t on the shortlists of the first two companies whose shortlists came. I stopped my preparations after that. Luckily, I got a shortlist after that brief period and eventually got a couple more that included L.E.K consulting. At the back of my mind, I wanted to get into L.E.K consulting because of the sectors (Education and Healthcare) they worked in.
All the consult firms assign buddies to the short-listed candidates with whom you can do mock cases, get valuable feedback on your performance in mock cases, and get insights about consulting, the firm, and the firm’s culture in general. Although it is said that these cases aren’t evaluative, they are. They don’t expect the candidates to ace the cases, so there is no pressure. One should ensure that they are able to communicate their thoughts well, follow a proper structure, and ask the right questions, and they will be fine. There are usually a couple of cases that you will solve with your buddy from each firm; just ensure that you work on the feedback you receive from your buddy. Before the interviews, ensure you prepare your resume well and the basic HR questions like Why consult and why firm ABC? I have heard cases where people mentioned Company A’s motivation at Company B, so yes, let’s ensure that doesn’t happen.
Apart from the shortlists at consult, I also had an FMCG shortlist for the final interview. Since FMCG firms come on the 2nd day of Non-Tech day one and I had kept consult firms over FMCG firms in the preference list, I didn’t interview for it. As mentioned earlier, I wanted to get into consult during that time, so that was the order of preference. Each FMCG firm that visits IIT-B has a slightly different process, so I would recommend talking to relevant seniors selected in those firms to learn more about the nuances of their process.
On the interview day, it was a relatively smooth process for me, and I got into L.E.K quite early in the day and didn’t want to interview anywhere else. I have heard people who have had multiple interviews at multiple firms; in such a situation, just ensure that you are calm, keep giving your best, and don’t panic, keep proper communication with your runner.
Internship Experience
As the internship dates approached, I was a bit nervous and didn’t know what to expect; talking to seniors who interned at L.E.K last year helped me understand how to go about things and what to expect. The best advice I received was to go with the flow and not overthink about it. We had a week-long orientation where we were told about the various tools used, the culture of the firm, and other relevant things. The first week was very chill as the orientation ended early, so the entire cohort spent a lot of time together, and I met some great people from other IITs.
At L.E.K, we are allotted a career coach who guides us and solves any issues that we may face. My career coach was an IIT-B alum, and we got along well during our first meeting.
After the first week, I was staffed on a case in the education sector, and our client was from Southeast Asia. The team members were helpful and ensured that I wasn’t thrown into the case directly; they explained the case and the ultimate objective and gave me a reasonable amount of time to understand the case and get used to working there. A great thing at L.E.K is that the cases are shorter, and hence, I got to work on two cases. The first case was 70% when I joined. The team had launched a survey, and one of my primary tasks in the first case was to analyze the survey results. The second case was a longer one and a strategy case. Seeing an entire case helped give me a perfect idea of what a consulting case looks like. My work revolved around handling a lot of data and performing extensive analysis in Excel, bringing insights, and later sliding it out on PowerPoint to drive the story we wanted.
The best thing about the firm is that the people here are amazing; everyone is approachable, helpful, and fun. The work hours were long, but working with my team was fun, where everyone was super supportive, and the dynamic work I was allotted.
L.E.K was an amazing two-month experience where I learned a lot of things and met some fantastic people
Important things to remember
Keep believing in yourself, working hard, and giving your best, and you will get something amazing! Have backups, don’t be fixated on one profile, talk to seniors in relevant domains, and know how to prepare for a particular profile.
Remember, it is just an opportunity presented to you; try to make the most of it, and don’t get too worked up. This doesn’t define your career, and there will be many more opportunities.
All the best!
