| Topic Name: |
Preparation for a consulting summer |
| Message Name: |
Advice |
| Date Posted: |
04/25/2003 |
| In Reply To: |
I am a first year MBA student about to begin my summer internship at Booz Allen. I was wondering if somebody could advise me regarding preparation for the upcoming internship? Is there a place I could pcik up advanced excel etc. |
| Message: |
marketingconsult--
Hope they are still doing Booz Cruise this summer! (Though given the economy, it might be a swing around Boston Harbor or something).
Here is some quick advice:
--Typical strategy internships are competitive analysis/research and basic financial modeling (straightforward DCF or financial statements). So, the key courses for consulting internships are intro comp strategy, intro marketing, intro corporate finance, and intro accounting. I suggest that if you've taken all those, you're set and don't really need to prep more content-wise. But I do recommend you organize or summarize your notes so you can reference them and pop them in your suitcase.
--Be sure you are facile with research sources (OneSource, Hoover's, 10K's, etc.) because interns may (not always, but many of them) do a lot of industry and competitive analysis. Jot down all your online resource passwords.
--For Excel, I suggest you just be comfortable structuring and laying a DCF analysis and output graphs, plus being comfortable enough with Excel help to be able to look something up and apply it in a reasonable amount of time. Bring a few examples on a CD-ROM so you can reference them if necessary. Some people do a ton of Excel in their internship, others don't. I think the odds are good you won't need to be a power Excel user but will need to put together a few charts.
--I would also find out if Booz-Allen is doing a short training session this year and what is involved in that.
--Lastly, if you can find the 2nd years at your school who did a Booz internship last year, ask all of them the same question you asked here, because that will be the most valuable.
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