Students perspective on consulting career events

Meeting with an international student keen to work in the consulting industry

HEC Paris career department organized two successive events dedicated to the consulting sector. The consulting event, which took place a few days before the International Consulting Forum, acts as a unique opportunity for students from all programs to informally interact with and gain valuable information from HEC Alumni working in consulting. This event constituted a good way to prepare for the consulting forum. The latter brings together the most prestigious consulting firms to present their jobs and internship opportunities worldwide.

Zheli Zhang, a Master in Management student (M1) who attended both events, tells us about her experience.

I attended the Consulting Event and the International Consulting Forum. I had previously done two internships in consulting before I came to HEC, thus, for the consulting event, besides wanting to find out “what is consulting”, I felt more interested to know “what is the consulting like in France/Europe”. Then, I was also curious about the divisions of a consulting firm in Europe especially for some smaller-scale consulting firms.

After a first talk by several alumni from firms such as Accenture and The Boston Consulting Group, I talked to one alumnus who works in a digital marketing department. We talked about the differences between her division and management consulting, the importance of digital methods in the future of consulting, the intellectual property of a company and how to satisfy the clients.

This conversation helped me to understand this new field within consulting in depth and made me curious to discover even more about it. In the Consulting Forum, when talking with a McKinsey representative, I found out about the passion he has for his job and the processes involved in his work.

The forum has given me the chance to learn how to approach a similar event in the future.

I have set myself the aim of establishing clearer targets for my consulting career so that I can know what my next steps will be in achieving them.

Other students who we have met at the International Consulting Forum also shared their positive impression of their experience at the forum.

SiyI Ding, a MiM student declared “I’m really satisfied with my experience at the consulting forum. Not only do you have the opportunity to meet big firms, but also smaller boutique companies with their own highly specialized strategy.”

Pascal Ten Bras, a MSc Strategic Management student from the Netherlands said “I had the opportunity to meet some firms I’ve never met before. I was interested to discover that in smaller boutiques focused on France, you can actually apply even if you’re not fluent in French.”