Success Story:
A year ago I was a Civil Engineering student that was originally admitted as a bioengineer. Long story short, I had no aspirations of becoming an engineer but I did hope to apply the analytical skills obtained as a science/ engineering student to a successful career in business.
I learned of you and consulting a year ago. I switched my major…to [specific science major]. This was a subject that fascinated me, and I still had every aspiration to pursue a career in business. I was also now aware that I wanted to pursue a career in consulting.
I suppose I’m just crazy enough to choose the most difficult route to an already extremely competitive field. Having been an engineer for close to two years at this point, my GPA was extremely low for the top management consulting firms (2.8). Since then (one year) I rose my GPA to a 3.3. This was still not nearly competitive enough to gain every interview there was to get.
However, I knew that with extensive networking and with a continued extreme success in my classes I would ultimately end up at a top management consulting firm. I have also had a number of business related internships that certainly helped me through the process in communicating my credibility as a science major.
I continued to push, over the last 6 months I have probably run up to 70 cases. I knew that if I ever did land an interview, I would have to be flawless because my chances were few and far between.
This entire quarter went by. I went through rejection after rejection. I struggled to obtain interviews. I was convinced I would have to pursue a boutique firm for this summer and leverage that for full-time recruiting in the fall.
A few weeks ago; however, I landed an interview with [boutique consulting firm]. This was the one interview I had. I went through the first round as a Business Analytics Associate intern (it was the only job position available through the campus recruiting website).
I felt as though I bombed the case; it was like no case I had ever seen before as it was entirely, and supremely analytical. I was convinced I blew the one chance I had.
Meanwhile, I secured an offer with a boutique strategy consulting firm and was sure I would be working there over the summer. Two days go by and I receive a call, by some miracle, that I was invited to the final rounds at [firm interviewed with].
I requested to continue the interview process as a Business Associate as the cases would be far more in alignment with the kind I had prepared for. This time, I nailed the interview.
And here I am with an offer at [firm interviewed with] for an internship position over the summer. It was the one interview I had, and I got it. And I would like to thank you, Victor Cheng, for all your emails and your help. Your book was a huge help too, and I felt as though you were there with me the whole way through.
I look forward to continuing my successes and moving into full-time recruiting in the fall with a legitimate firm on my resume. I’ve broken into management consulting, and I’m ecstatic.