Applying for Summer Internships while on a year abroad

Hello,

I am currently in my second year of university on a four year MEng degree. I have secured a summer internship at a large engineering firm this summer, however next year (penultimate year) I would like to apply to consulting firms.

I will be abroad from august 2018 and I probably wont return during my year abroad until June.

I was just wondering, what are the procedures to applying for summer internships while on a year abroad. I've seen lots of people on LinkedIn who've completed year abroads but have managed to secure internships in their following year.

I was thinking of applying to strategy/management consulting at MBB and the big 4.

How would the recruiting stages differ to a local candidate for say KPMG? Almost all these firms require case study exercises so I doubt I could do them over the phone? Would I have to go to the firms office in the country I am doing my year abroad in?

I would love to hear advice from people who've been in this siutation or know of anyone who has done a year abroad and applied for summers.

Thankss xxx

Hello,

I am currently in my second year of university on a four year MEng degree. I have secured a summer internship at a large engineering firm this summer, however next year (penultimate year) I would like to apply to consulting firms.

I will be abroad from august 2018 and I probably wont return during my year abroad until June.

I was just wondering, what are the procedures to applying for summer internships while on a year abroad. I've seen lots of people on LinkedIn who've completed year abroads but have managed to secure internships in their following year.

I was thinking of applying to strategy/management consulting at MBB and the big 4.

How would the recruiting stages differ to a local candidate for say KPMG? Almost all these firms require case study exercises so I doubt I could do them over the phone? Would I have to go to the firms office in the country I am doing my year abroad in?

I would love to hear advice from people who've been in this siutation or know of anyone who has done a year abroad and applied for summers.

Thankss xxx

Hey, I got a Big 4 summer internship while studying abroad. I still had to do an assessment centre and was in London at the time so that was OK. For my partner interview I went to their office in my host country and did it on a conference call. If you have specific questions just ask

Hi, did you apply for consulting? I would have to do case study interviews which I think would differ from most other schemes.

Were they generally kind in handling in the year abroad situation? I will be studying in Asia, so a trip back to London will be very difficult?

Thanks

Hi, did you apply for consulting? I would have to do case study interviews which I think would differ from most other schemes.

Were they generally kind in handling in the year abroad situation? I will be studying in Asia, so a trip back to London will be very difficult?

Thanks

I was placed in a small team, so likely less competitive than going straight for Consultancy, but the team was a combination of Consultancy and another area so it was a great place to try.

I didn't do those, no, I did have to prepare a short presentation for the final interview is all.

They were very understanding through the whole process and were very responsive to my concerned email when I was told I had a final interview (at the assessment centre they said there were no interviews!) It was easy to arrange the conference call.

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful - however they found my year abroad to be a big asset through the process, so I think they'd try and accommodate you. Also, if you apply as early as you can, you will probably attend assessments and interviews over the Christmas holidays.

Thank you for your reply!

I will definitely as early apply as possible! Your role sounds very interesting? Do you mind sharing more about the specifics of your summer internship on here? I am interested in strategy consulting, but coming from an engineering background I have limited business knowledge relative to others.

You're welcome hmm not sure where to start! It was a diverse team that combined tax and technology consulting. By diverse, I mean everyone's role was a little different. We had direct client facing staff who travelled to business sites (including abroad) and who were more on the consultancy side. Then people responsible for working with various other departments within the firm and with governmental organisations. Finally, there were the technology people - coding and software development.

Because it was small and quite specialised it was not a direct option for applying, just fell under tax - I originally applied for audit but they matched me with that team. I am very glad they did!
I also worked with a team responsible for managing a national business award, and other interns tried out different teams as well so sometimes there can be a bit of flexibility

I'm afraid I don't know anything about Strategy Consultancy in particular, but I imagine some of the work in that field is similar to some of the work in my team. I would say, just take the placement as a learning opportunity and try out as many different tasks as you can, that' how you learn what you would like to do (or avoid!) in your future career.

If you wanted, I can give you a list of some more specific tasks I did - let me know if that would interest you

Thanks for the advice, its greatly appreciated.

Yeah at the end of the day its just an internship, and the experience in itself will be an eye-opener.

I've never really considered tax and audit, but I will definitely have a look!

Are you joining the team you interned at, was this big 4, or are you moving onto different things?

Thanks

This might also be useful for people on their year abroad applying for internships this year!

https://herbusinessnow.wordpress.com/2018/11/19/que-6-top-tips-to-find-a-summer-internship-on-your-year-abroad/

I certainly will be, is anyone else in the same position?

Given up on it, going to use the summer to stIudy for my GMAT to up my chances of getting into a prestigious masters. Then do an internship in my penultimate year of study after 3rd year, which is possible... Even in your field of study with a masters offer. Seems more exciting then missing a nice summer in Asia.