Internship - Booz & Co

Hi all, this is Omair Rana Ross MBA Class of 2013.

I am from Toronto Canada, but prior to joining Ross I spent my previous 18 months working in London UK as the European Business Manager for a Software firm.

This summer I will be interning with Booz & Co (a Management Consulting firm) as part of their IT Strategy Practice in Chicago. I've been offered a position as a Summer Associate, and am looking forward to my first assignment.

Training will take place in Washington followed by 8 weeks of client work. I'm expecting a significant amount of travel, but I should spend every Friday in my home office.

Even though I don't have too much information about my actual position, I do know that the people at Booz & Co all seem to love their jobs. It will be extremely challenging, long hours, but the quality of the experience and personal development opportunities at this firm are second to none! It will be awesome!

My wife and son will be with me, and we plan to enjoy every weekend in Chicago which is one of the best cities to spend a summer!

Ideally if all works out, I should be able to convert this internship into a full time position. As my son was born in Michigan, it would be great to live and work full time in the United States!



Blog Post #2! - June 17th

Hi all,

It has been a ridiculously busy first week of work. In addition to training which was hosted in Washington, for I met a 50+ interns from all over the world, my family and I moved from Toronto/Ann Arbor to Chicago.

1 day after moving in, I learned that my client site will be in Boston for the entire summer! Such is the life of consulting :)

As I have only had training to this point, I have yet to experience the Booz & Co office environment. And on that note, Booz & Co, not Booz Allen Hamilton which is a completely separate business that we are unaffiliated too.

In addition I will travel directly to the clients site next week, so the office environment will have to wait. However I am expecting an entirely different work culture from my previous life. Travelling Mon-Thur with people I do not know, but fully expect to develop very strong personal and business relationships with should be exciting.

One thing that became very clear from training, is that consultants want to work with people that they genuinely like. We are going to spend more time with each other than our own families, we will be stuck in airports together, miss flights together, etc. We better really enjoy each others company!

My client is in the financial services industry, and I'll be working with a team supporting optimization of their IT infrastructure, as I am part of Booz & Co's IT Strategy practice.

In terms of personal support, Booz & Co has made a huge effort! I have been assigned a junior and senior mentor from the Chicago practice. The Job Manager of my project has overloaded me with information, and I am still days behind on reviewing all of the material from orientation. There is no shortage of work or challenges, and I am expecting an awesome summer.


Finally, from a settling into Chicago perspective, we are still getting our feet wet. Only been here 2 nights, its an awesome city and reminds me of my hometown (Toronto). Friendly people, excellent food (DEEP DISH PIZZA's...500 calories per slice at least), hot summers (30C+ each day). I hope to find some time for golf on the weekends.

Until next time,

Cheers!

Omair