Job Description

                                                                               Consulting

If you try and ask a consultant what they do, they all answer, “Well….it depends.” When I started applying for consulting internships, I had no idea what it was and couldn’t find a straight answer. Over the course of the year, I found that management consulting, in its simplest form, is problem-solving. You try to pick apart a client's situation from a third-party perspective and provide solutions they might have overlooked.

I did a management consulting internship this past summer. It was the first in a two-part internship. I spent most of the time working on proposals for a client and suggesting changes to improve company efficiency and user satisfaction.

I would describe the experience as a mix of the following jobs:

• Adventurer
• Data Analyst
• Designer

Adventurer
This was my first “real” job. I had worked in the food industry before, but it was completely different. I took advantage of the opportunity and experienced the following:

• Traveled to Florida
  
• Networked with others
• Shadowed many departments

Before covid, traveling was a big part of the consulting industry. It made it easy to meet and create closer connections with clients. After all, who wants to make multi-million dollar deals with someone they do not know?  Covid changed the industry. There has been less required traveling and an increase in virtual meetings. Fortunately, the first week of the internship involved traveling to Florida. I spent the first few days networking with partners, managers, and fellow students. Like most jobs, it’s good practice to make a good impression and develop your network. Throughout the day, we attended presentations, and at night we explored the Disney Coronado Springs resort we were staying at. When we returned to Los Angeles, I spent much of my free time talking to the full-time employees and asking about their experiences. I wanted to absorb as much information as possible. I got a deeper understanding of each sector within PwC and gained nuggets of knowledge.

Data Analyst
For most of the internship, I worked with data to find the weaknesses and strengths of the client. To do this, I did the following things:

• Combed through excel files
• Used software to organize data
• Discovered key insights to solve problems

It is insane how much information hides in data. Data that looks useless to an untrained eye is gold to a consultant. Raw data is extremely hard to work with and only makes sense when organized  I used programs like Tableau to organize data and Power BI to visualize it. For example, an excel file containing 10,000 user complaints is hard to analyze. But, if you group similar complaints you can find the biggest priority and fix it. Then you can create a pie chart to easily share the findings with your peers and clients. It is also important not to analyze data blindly. You should have a complete understanding of the project before trying to draw conclusions based on data.
 

Designer
By working closely with my managing director, I found that data was only as good as its presentation. To effectively use the information I discovered, I designed a presentation by doing the following:

• Highlighted key concepts
• Avoided confusing graphics
• Used minimal words on the deck

There is a delicate balance between data and presentation. You risk losing your audience's attention if you focus too much on data points and don’t explain why they are relevant. It's good practice to explain the story behind the data. Make sure the client understands why the data is useful without spewing out random numbers. Also, you have to be concise. Cramming too much information in one slide or graphic is confusing and diminishes the importance of each point. Presentations that are not organized well are both hard to understand and easy to miss important points. Finally, nobody reads the slides! Your audience might glance at bolded words but will never read paragraphs. You must design the presentation to focus on key points and engage your audience in person.