Final Presentations, Client Deliverables, Internal/External Networking

Hello all,

Coming up to my last 2 weeks I have 2 major items to complete to round out my internship experience. Each intern is expected to present a year end presentation to their peers, as well as other full time Booz employees from their local office on Friday August 3rd. Forutnately the presentation is a low pressure environment, and is meant to be fun. The most valuable take away I will enjoy from the presentations, is that I will get to see what my 12 other intern peers (from the chicago office) worked on their entire summer. The 2nd major item was highlighted in my year end assessment, which is I needed more analytical experience (I may expand more on this in the next post).

The presentation itself is 5-8 power point slides, highlights the key take aways, learnings, and my contirbutions to the team and project. It also highlights the fun take aways outside of the actual work experience that each person experienced (in my case my 5:50am golf match with a senior partner, and the night I hung out with Shaq in the hotel lobby).

After 8 weeks I feel like I have a strong handle on the company culture in regards to the Chicago and Boston offices. And the reason I specify the office, is that I feel the culture and community of your city will have a profound impact on the people.

Chicago: Is a large office with a small town feel. There are over 200+ employees, but within the office there are several "communities" based upon industry practices. Whether those practices be IT, Financial Services, Engineered Product Services, CPG, etc each group has it's own network. And if you are considering a consulting career, this is a significant differntiator at Booz. Booz does not offer the generalist approach to consulting. Rather it provides a soft alignment model that has it's pros and cons. If you feel already have an idea about your passions (i.e., you love SOAP!!! ..CPG), even if you don't have experience in that field, I highly encourage you to consider Booz & Co. By joining the CPG practice you can ensure that your early experiences will be focused on that practice, and thus devleop your expertise earlier in your career.

This accelerated development is reflected in culture of the organization. So back off my tangeant, back to Chicago. The people are extremely friendly, and helpful. On Friday's in the office I have never felt intimidated to introduce myself to a Partner, Principal or other senior member to learn more about their practice. The challenge is, they are quite busy, and you may need to schedule time with their admins.

As this business (Consulting) follows an apprenticeship model, that is reflected at all levels throughout the organization. Every consultant was once a junior person who didn't know how to write a slide, present to a client, or manage a Vlookup function. They all learned on the job, particularly through trial and error and the support of their peers/mentors. Without that support, and formal/informal training, this business does not work. Once you get into the firm (and likely any other firm), it is in the best interest of everyone involved to ensure you are succesful. And that has been apparent throughout my entire summer. A great example is my job manager, entered booz with little to no experience using Excel. 5 years later he is one of the Excel rock stars who leads begineer and advanced internal training. He did not take any formal courses, rather learned by trial and error and support of his mentors.

A last point on Chicago, I love the city. For a big city life, the prices are much cheaper than others (New York, London, Paris, Toronto (my home town), and the space is much larger. I've never seen a downtown with such wide streets. As such, people in general are happier. I feel there is less stress to life in Chicago. People afford a higher quality of life with less money and it's reflected in the smiles and attitude.

A few words on the culture in Boston. Awesome city, incredibly small considering it's history and successes (do they ever lose in sports?!?!). The office itself is very small. Less than 15 people at any time (15 is generous), and the office essentially revolves around 1 or 2 clients. I feel it's a great place to work and learn from a project perspective, but because it is so small I don't think I would learn as much from a Booz culture perspective. In addition my networking opportunities are limited versus a larger office.

The counter to that may be with less people, there is less competition to stand out?  But that is a factor you need to consider when choosing your home office

That's all for now

Signing off
Omair

Eat, Sleep, Work, Network

You're social life in consulting, is going to vary significantly on your team, project, and location. For those of you who may get posted in a small town in the midwest that has 1 sheraton hotel your options after work may be limited. Having said that, it is likely you will really get to know your co-workers by the end of the internship.

For those of you who are posted in Boston, NYC, San Fran etc, there will be a lot more options. Having said that, your experience will end up being what you make of it.

In consulting, (and i'm sure many other fields) the social life is part of your networking, which is a significant part of your experience over the summer. In order for to obtain my full time offer, I am being evaluated on several factors which include the basics (written, communication, presentation skills, etc). But more importantly, am I a social "fit" within my team.

As a team we spend a lot of hours together, especially considering that we travel. It is not uncommon after a 10 hour work day, to have a 2 hour dinner meeting/discussion. That's a lot of time to spend with people you just met. And if you don't enjoy each others' company it feels a lot longer than 12 hours!!!

Those are just the days where I am on the customer's site (in Boston). On Friday, I am typically in my home office in Chicago where I need to network with the peers at the local office, mentors, partners, etc. OH and somehow find time with the family as well (wife and son).

It is a daunting task, no doubt but that is what we sign up for in consulting. You will find you come become very efficient with your hours, and flexible. One specific example, there was a partner at my firm who I really wanted to meet to learn more about his work and experience. We both happened to be golf fans, so we played a round of 18 holes on Saturday morning, at 5:50am!!! That was his only availability!

The "easy" part about the networking, is the firm knows how important is too network and have made every effort to make it easier for the interns. A sample of events that they have provided to date:

• Every friday happy hour in the office at 4pm. The firm provides food and drinks, which has a magic affect on attracting people
• Cubs game - Attended by associates, partners, interns, etc
• Taste of Chicago festival: Provided free food tickets
• Various nights out at local bars/restaurants etc

In regards to workload, I'm not going to lie. There is a lot of work to do. However, there is no cookie cutter model to predict your workload. It is dependent on a multitude of factors which include

• The client
• The partner/principle driving the project
• stage of the project (starting, mid, ending)
• proposal work vs deliverable work
• location
• team composition

In my case, our project was at the early stages. Within 3 weeks the project was cancelled, and restarted in a lesser capacity with half the team. There have been days where I worked 12 hours, others where I had light 8 hour days. Read other blogs, talk to other interns, there are those who work 14 hours days.

The message here...be prepared for variability. Do not expect a 9-5 lifestyle. But expect variety, interesting work, really smart people, and to be challenged on a daily basis.

Until next time..

Omair

3am wake up calls, 6am flights, avoiding the consulting 15lbs!

Hi all,

I am behind on my blogging! I am behind on a lot of things!!! The life of a consulting intern :)

My experience I would say has been atypical of that of other consulting interns both within my firm and at other firms.

I was fortunate to be staffed onto a project that was just starting up. It was follow up work with an existing client. However as it was starting up, the goals and directions were vague and fluid. In the first 6-8 days on the job, my tasks changed 3 times which included changing the manager(s) that I reported too twice.

In regards to reporting and just working with the people, it has been excellent. When consulting firms tell you its all about the people, the really do mean it is all about the people. My team is fun, engaging, and overall a brilliant group. What I find really exciting is the motivation of each member in the team to ensure I enjoy my experience and to provide mentorship. They are investing a lot of their time and resources into me as the intern, as they want to ensure that I do join the firm next year (at least thats how I perceive it!).

While in contrast, I am evaluating the firm, work, people, etc to ensure that I want to join the firm full time next fall. It's an interesting dynamic

So the reporting structure is very fluid. I have junior and senior mentors that I touch base with on a weekly basis, project managers, and then practice champions (those who over see the IT practice). Not to mention the myriad of firm Partners who are available to meet. It really is an open door policy for me to discuss my goals, challenges, needs with several people within the firm. Not nearly as hiearchial as I was expecting.

Now what makes my experience more atypical than most are two events:

i) In the lobby of our hotel last Tuesday night, as I was heading towards the bar to relax after a long day I walked into Shaquille O'neal. Now I'm not a small guy, I'm 6'2, but when I stood next to Shaq and shook his hand, I felt like a child. He was enormous. And one of the friendliest, if not the friendliest, athlete I ever met. He sat with us, chatted, took photos, and did the same for anyone else who approached him. He was in town filming a movie with Adam Sandler

ii) My project has been delayed. So I am currently "on the beach" so to speak, as the firm finds me an additional project. I really am getting the full consulting experience. Let's see how this plays out


In terms of getting my work done. I really do have a lot of freedom. Tasks are assigned to me, and I 'm expected to go get it done. My tasks have ranged from researching reference examples, modifying excel models, and building customer facing power point slides. In each case anything everything I have produced and shared with my manager has come back with "this needs work!". But that's ok! That's the way we learn in consulting. It's trial and error, iteration, receive and act upon feedback. It has been a great learning experience, in a positive environment.

Anyhow, enough of my rant for now

Until next time

Omair

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