Hello folks! I am Anisha, a final year undergraduate student in the Department of Economics and also a senior editor at Insight. Thus, yours truly was privileged enough to have a say in whether she wanted to write a summer blog. I enjoy playing keys and am a self proclaimed food connoisseur. I also have a knack for executing the most impromptu escapades very successfully. This summer, I interned at Nomura Research Institute (NRI), a Japanese consulting firm, in their Investment Strategy Consulting division, at Gurgaon.
Deciding the domain
My decision to stick to non-core as my portfolio of choice was more of a series of eliminations than anything else. I did not deem myself fit for academia owing to a lack of undying passion for my subjects; I had given up on coding in my first year itself and had thus bade goodbye to tech long back.
Among non-core roles, FMCG never opened for economics (internally cries seeing packages) and product companies did not come as early in the season. I did not have very high hopes for finance companies due to lack of enough knowledge. Consult appealed to me as it promised interaction with interesting people (read CEOs) and good exit options (cause what if?). More importantly, I had somehow been fed into the delusion that I would get to travel around and explore places. Aight, I quickly learnt that’s not supposed to be exciting in the consulting world, business trips do not always leave you with enough time to do actual exploring. Also, since consulting is basically where everyone who is still figuring out what they want to be when they grow up ends up, I ended up following the crowd.
Preparation
Processes for most consult firms involve resume screening, buddy processes and case interviews. I began working on my resume sometime around the end of June. Resume making can be a tedious process (funny how little we think we have done in life until we begin to write it all down and forcefully have to fit it in one tiny page). Definitely get your resumes reviewed by as many seniors and friends that you trust will give you good advice.
Coming to case prep, I found some friends who were interested in consulting, and we began practising cases with each other around the beginning of July. Our resources were mainly the revered Case Interviews Cracked (CIC) youtube playlist and book. Other good sources for questions included the IIM-A and the SRCC case compendiums.
Once shortlists are released, almost all of the Day 1 firms assign you buddies. They also try to delude you into thinking it is not evaluative (one never knows). Try to do at least two cases with your buddy and utilise their feedback to the best of your abilities. Also make sure that you display interest in knowing the firm’s culture and work.
The season
My Day 1 was an utterly disastrous miserable weekend plagued by the chaotic atmosphere in the LHC, absolute randomness of selection processes; and followed by rejections from the two firms that I had shortlists for.
Dejected by whatever I had witnessed on non-core day 1, I decided to begin with external apping right after two days. Fortunately, Nomura opened its IAF very soon, and I made it to the shortlist. Unlike the other consult firms, they did not have a buddy process.
D Day arrived. I was at the LHC in formals once again. There were three panels interviewing shortlisted students: i) Investment Strategy Consulting, ii) Automotive Industry Consulting, iii) Strategic Design and Digital Transformation. I was very fortunate to have been shortlisted into a panel that I considered myself most fit for, the first one. My interview consisted of an interesting unconventional case that my interviewer spun off from some of my resume points, which felt more like a discussion rather than a solution oriented problem; and HR, where we ended up talking a lot about the creative arts, Japan and of course, why NRI. Despite having a wonderful interview, I did not want to keep my hopes high after what had transpired the previous weekend. Towards the end of the day when the interviewers had left, there was informal news going around about selections. I did not hear my name go around. The exhausting day had left me too drained to fully process the sting of yet another rejection; I was oddly at peace. I headed to Cafe 92.
About an hour later, while we were eating, my best friend received a call about selection gossip. He heard my name mentioned in passing. We quickly returned to the LHC, where another friend, who was aware of the selections, played a prank on me, making me believe I had been rejected again. With almost tears in my eyes, I nearly left the LHC before he finally revealed that it was all a joke and I had made the cut.
I had made the cut.
I could finally relax. I wouldn’t have to continue my external apping. That day, I hugged every second person I bumped into (Okay this is probably an exaggeration, but please understand what I mean, I did hug many).
The Internship
Come summer and I was grateful for being a Delhiite despite having had to breathe polluted air for the last 10 years of my life. The office was in Gurgaon, and I was able to save on accommodation costs thanks to living with my family in Delhi. The internship lasted for a period of 8 weeks.
Working at a Japanese consulting firm has its own set of perks. Most of the clients at NRI are Japanese, and they also have many Japanese and Korean employees. One thus gets a chance to interact with people from different cultures, and to also very frequently taste Japanese confectioneries gifted by clients. My personal favourites were all variations of the YokuMoku cookies.
I got the chance to work on an entire project completely from beginning till the end, a second project that I got to be part of from its proposal stage to the first phase, and a third project that was beginning when my intern was almost over. All of these projects were in completely different industries and thus, I had a very fulfilling experience overall.
Albeit a lot of the work boiled down to grunt research, databasing and deck making, which is true for consulting in general, discussions with my project members proved to be extremely insightful and elevated my knowledge of different industries. People across all levels of the hierarchy were extremely approachable for any kind of discussion, from lunch table talk to professional advice. Travel advice that we wrangled from our seniors was instrumental in helping my co-intern and me plan our trip to Ladakh right after our internships. : )
Another plus: It was on rare occasions that I had to stay back in the office until very late hours, unlike most consulting firms. I was slightly unfortunate to not have had the chance of interacting with clients directly, but many other co-interns did get an opportunity, it depends on a case-to-case basis (cries in FOMO). However, the management also tries their best to ensure that as an intern, you are satisfied and able to extract as much learnings as possible and are not feeling overburdened by work. The work pushes one to be adaptable and flexible – to find solutions to data crunches in the most cost effective ways; or the fact that just as you’re starting to get comfortable in a particular industry, you might suddenly find yourself switched to a project in a completely different field; or to be in constant search of new tools to make grunt work easier. Also, even though you are just an intern, all your inputs are also given due consideration. Many of the slides I created also made it into the final deliverables sent to the client, which definitely gave me a great sense of satisfaction.
Apart from work, all of us interns had an enjoyable time at the firm. I have lost count of the number of treats our seniors took us out for. One of these times that we went ice skating, I ended up injuring my knee and limping around in the office for the next two weeks. Being from Delhi, I also had the additional responsibility of touring people around the city. Oh, also, our office had this really cool space called the Relaxation Room with sofas and bean bags, one could just lay down and nap there for a break. All in all, these 8 weeks flew by and we managed to make the most out of it.
Concluding Note
Internship season can be incredibly stressful, but remember to pause and take a breath now and then. Take that long walk to Hiranandani, grab some ice cream with your friends, and vent about everything that went awry on your interview day. It’s alright! The process involves a lot of luck and external factors that are not always in your hands, so stop being harsh on yourself. Celebrate each other’s successes and share each other’s pains, a strong support system goes a long way in keeping you sane throughout the season.
It’s perfectly fine not to have a clear idea of the exact role you want for your internship and be confused between a few profiles. Your third-year internship is, in the bigger scheme of life, simply a tool to help you gauge whether a particular field is right for you or if it should be crossed off your list. Just be careful enough that you do not apply to each and every company out of fear of missing out, if you’re already sure you wouldn’t enjoy the role and instead feel forced to the office for 2 months.
And please, don’t be disappointed if you did not make the cut on Day 1. It is just the beginning of the season, Day 1 is only a sneak peak, there are going to be tons of good companies that will come later in the season, some even as good as Day 1 if not better. And not getting an intern through the PT cell is not the end of the world, many people have found amazing internships by applying outside the campus. That’s where your IITB tag can truly shine. Have faith in yourself and keep pushing forward—you’ve got this!
And, feel free to reach out to me anytime if you feel the need to. : )
