Urboshi Pal is a rising MBA2 interning at PricewaterhouseCoopers. At Stern, Urboshi is specializing in Strategy and Leadership & Change Management. Outside of classes, she leads Stern Women in Business (SWIB) as one of the 2018-2019 Co-Presidents and is also a Graduate Ambassador on the MBA Admissions team.
NYU Stern’s “Summer Internship Series” sheds light into Sternies’ internship experiences. Posts are written by rising MBA2s who are currently working at their summer internship.
It’s Monday morning, and I’m finishing up my last few sips of coffee before heading out the door for the week. I tuck my heels into the front pocket of my suitcase and slip on my comfy flats for travel. With my Amtrak app pulled up on my phone in one hand and my Metrocard ready to go in the other, I take one quick look around the apartment before closing the door behind me. By now, I’ve got down the most efficient route to Penn Station from my apartment, so in a matter of 20 minutes, I’m walking onto the train and settling in for a quick ride to Trenton, NJ…welcome to the consulting commute!
This summer, I’ve been working as a Senior Associate Intern at PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”) in their People & Organization Practice within Health Industries Advisory. PwC is a multinational professional services firm that offers its clients a broad range of assurance, tax, and advisory services. Within Advisory, there are five major industries: Consumer Markets, Industrial Products and Services, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Financial Services, and Health Industries. Cutting across each industry are practices specializing in specific consulting capabilities, like People & Organization. Health Industries Advisory People & Organization, or HIA P&O for short, focuses on strategy, human capital and talent management, and change consulting projects for clients across the healthcare industry.
I’ve been traveling each week to our client’s offices outside of Philadelphia to work on the change management work stream of a large-scale technology transformation. As an MBA intern, I’m expected to own my work from Day 1, making for an especially engaging and productive experience. It’s been really interesting to see real-world applications of concepts and theories we’ve discussed in the classroom. In particular, I see lots of parallels in my client work to cases we’ve discussed in Leadership in Organizations with Nathan Pettit and Strategy with Sonia Marciano. I feel that I’m able to contribute a unique perspective to my team as a result and hopefully add value to the overall work stream during my short tenure on the project.
While it was certainly an adjustment as first, I’ve fallen into a comfortable routine with the Monday-Thursday travel. I’m typically at our client’s offices from 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM, and I stay at a nearby hotel during the week. We usually sneak in a team dinner or two and leave the other evenings open for working out, relaxing, or catching up on non-client work. I return to NYC on Thursday evening and spend my Fridays in PwC’s newly renovated offices by Bryant Park. After checking in with my client team to make sure we’re squared away on work for the week, I catch up with some of other NYC-based HIA P&O folks and listen in to our practice-wide knowledge sharing and development calls. There are 15 Sternies at PwC this summer, so it’s also been great to learn about the different projects everyone is working on over drinks or dinner at the end of the week.
If you’re interested in consulting as a post-MBA career, I’m sure you’ve already heard the standard recruiting advice: start doing cases early and frequently, reach out to lots of consultants at your target firms, attend every firm-sponsored event, etc. While all of that is definitely important in making sure you’re prepared to do your best at the interview, it doesn’t really help you make the most of the summer once you’re in. My advice is to use the recruiting process to find the firm that’s the best cultural fit and be true to yourself about what’s most important to you. Consulting is a challenging yet incredibly rewarding lifestyle. By finding people you feel comfortable with and values that resonate with you, you’ll position yourself to take advantage of all that a top consulting firm has to offer, and hopefully have some fun along the way!