To set yourself up for success, consider the following:

• A strong GPA (3.5 or above, with a minimum of 3.0)
• A strong resume → Get your resume reviewed early and often by Purposeful Work!
• A strong network of alumni, friends, and connections within consulting organizations to advise and advocate for you before, during, and after the application process
• A clear understanding of application timelines and deadlines, particularly the critical internship application period taking place the summer of your sophomore year or the fall of your junior year
• A clear understanding of the consulting landscape, your areas of interest, and how your values, strengths, skills, and even personality lend themselves to your success in those areas of interest
• A fundamental understanding of how consulting organizations evaluate applicants, including: case interviews, case studies, pymetrics assessments, and behavioral interviews, which are used to assess how well you understand consulting work and how well your knowledge and skills would translate to consulting work  

To stand out in a sea of competitive applicants, take advantage of opportunities for personal research and professional exploration.

• Vault Guides are available in the Career Center: Resources section of Handshake to provide you with a basic and broad understanding of the consulting landscape. Set up a new account with your Bates email, dive into the industry guides, and explore the breadth of opportunities across financial services, the top firms, and typical interview questions. Additional research online and with individuals in the industry will provide a deeper and more dynamic understanding of what the work looks like with different types of consulting.
• Purposeful Work offers job shadows, roadshows, spotlights, employer information sessions, practitioner-taught courses, and other activities that can help you figure out your interests and potential pathways that might align with those interests, while connecting you with alumni and recruiters who can offer unique insider perspectives on organizations. While we often rotate through alumni, organizations, and industries represented in our programs, anyone who has connected with us in the past is generally more than willing to connect with students going forward.
• Take the time to do the necessary research on organizations of interest. Explore organizational websites, particularly the careers sections on undergraduate recruitment and hiring, as well as social media platforms like LinkedIn, X, and YouTube. Check out Handshake Events for recruitment and educational events put on by organizations throughout the academic year as well as the summer. Express interest, participate in virtual activities (with your Bates email), and think critically about why you’re drawn to specific organizations and their opportunities. You need to be able to thoughtfully and articulately answer the WHY (this industry, this organization, this role) question in order to be competitive against other high-performing candidates. Here’s where the Bates Purposeful Work mindset can work to your advantage: Be prepared to talk compellingly about how your strengths, interests, values, and experiences align with the position/organization/industry you’re applying for.
• Equity and inclusion considerations: More and more organizations within the industry are focused on improving diversity and representation, particularly by recruiting more women, historically excluded minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, veterans, and individuals with disabilities — and now also individuals coming from first-generation and low-income backgrounds. If these identities apply to you, watch for and connect with these efforts, initiatives, and programs, many of which focus on first-year and sophomore students. Additionally, it’d benefit you to explore programs that often serve as partners to organizations that care about representation, such as: Enrich Scholars, GenHERation, MLT, and SEO.

While large consulting organizations recruit predominantly from Ivy League institutions, business schools, and large research universities, they often leverage alumni from small liberal arts colleges to make connections with their alma mater. Additionally, more organizations are moving towards being institution-agnostic. Bates has a broad network of alumni at many of the world’s largest consulting organizations, including consulting organizations that vary in size, scope, industry, and focus.

• At present, we have several alumni at Accenture focused on intern recruitment for the strategy and technology practice areas. They recruit every summer for opportunities that commence the following summer.
• Additionally, we have significant alumni representation at Analysis Group, which engages a cohort of students in an externship program every winter and recruits students as Purposeful Work interns every summer.
• We have several alumni at Deloitte eager to network with students interested in learning more about Deloitte specifically and consulting generally, and provide more insight on internship and full-time opportunities and tips for applying and interviewing.
• Utilizing the alumni section of the Bates College LinkedIn page, identify alumni at organizations and in roles of interest and reach out to learn more. Whether alumni are currently at organizations of interest or have been at those organizations previously, they can provide unique perspectives on their experiences and pathways. And while alumni may not be actively engaged in recruitment, they may still have useful connections, strategies, and wisdom to share. Consider them as potential advocates, mentors, and even mock interviewers as you navigate the industry. If you’re new to networking, check out our how-to guides on making professional connections.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Avoid using alumni simply for referral purposes. If they don’t know you, they’ll be highly unlikely to support you as a candidate for consideration. Make sure to leverage alumni for what they can share about their experiences within their organizations and industries. The best way to make a good impression is to be prepared and thoughtful. Do your research. Don’t ask questions you can find the answers to on the internet. Tailor questions based on whom you’re talking to. Don’t end the conversation before asking whether they have other connections you could speak to. Always follow up with a note of gratitude and appreciation. Make sure alumni remember you positively. If you’re nervous, book an appointment with Purposeful Work so we can walk you through the basics and offer guidance.
• In collaboration with colleagues in Alumni Engagement, we’ve established the Bates College Alumni & Students in Consulting LinkedIn group. This space was created in response to alumni and student interests in connecting around consulting support, specifically guidance, mentoring, networking, opportunities, and resources. Student requests to join the group will be reviewed and approved by Purposeful Work. This is a great place to source alumni who are particularly interested in supporting students. If you’re brave, it’s also a fantastic space to put yourself out there and pose questions to the group.

Many consulting organizations tend to hire full-time consultants primarily from their pool of summer interns. To ensure that you’re well-positioned for full-time offers after graduation, you must be ready to apply for intern positions by the summer of your sophomore year or the fall of your junior year. And yes, we know that’s quite early, which is why we try to share this information as early as possible so you don’t miss out. Check out this general breakdown of application deadlines by industry.

Mid-size, boutique, and industry-specific consulting organizations tend to hire full-time consultants both from their pool of summer interns (if one exists — some organizations don’t hire summer interns at all) and through fall recruitment activities with seniors. Large consulting organizations may open up application windows for seniors if there are spots to be filled based on capacity and hiring needs.

Before you submit them, be sure to have your materials reviewed by the Bates Center for Purposeful Work team to ensure that they’re the strongest they can be.

Case interviews are an important component of the interview process for many large consulting organizations, where they’re used to assess your analytical thinking and problem-solving skills in real-time with an interviewer walking you through a business problem.

If the concept of case interviews is new to you, check out the relevant Vault Guides available in the Career Center: Resources section of Handshake focused on case interview preparation.

To be clear, not every consulting organization uses case interviews as part of their interview process. Some organizations use case studies, which is an opportunity to expose you to the kind of work that you’d be doing in the role and gauge how well you can apply your knowledge and skills to specific tasks, like analyzing data and presenting your findings.

Some organizations may give you an assignment several days in advance of the interview with instructions to complete the necessary tasks before the interview takes place.

Regardless of what the interview process entails, recruiters will generally make you aware of what to expect so that you can prepare accordingly. The goal is essentially to mimic the work so they can assess how well you’d perform with similar tasks.

Many consulting organizations provide guidance and support for case interview preparation on their websites. For instance, consider Boston Consulting Group’s Preparing for Case Interviews. When you’re exploring consulting organizations and opportunities, check out what information organizations make publicly available.

Another widely used resource is Marc Cosentino’s Case in Point book. The text has gone through many iterations, but even if you purchase an older version, the content will likely be relevant and valuable. Additionally, Purposeful Work has placed several copies of the 10th and 11th editions on loan/reserve at the library for students to check out.

One of the most valuable things you can do with case interviews is practice, especially with another person who’s also working on case interview preparation. The idea isn’t to memorize frameworks for case analysis, but to actively engage with the interviewer in the process of breaking down and thinking through the problem presented to you.

Your Bates education trains you to think critically — case interviews, case studies, and other interview formats attempt to draw out those skills by testing your application of them in real-time.