consulting Stories from UCLA Students
Meet Lahari Desireddi, an incoming associate consultant at bain!
Tell us about your recruitment process:
I applied for Bain a few weeks before my junior year began, had two rounds of interviews, and got my offer by Week 1. First round of interviews was 2 30-minute cases that are pretty straightforward. Final round was 2 45-minute rounds led by a senior manager and partner, with a mix of harder cases and behaviorals, and I got my offer the same day!
Why Consulting?
I’m someone that loves learning new topics and going into work knowing I’ll be doing something different everyday, and consulting’s fast-paced nature allows exactly that. It pushes you out of your comfort zone, from gaining a strong analytical skillset to learning how to coffee chat and engage with leaders of the largest companies in the world. I also met some of the most hard-working, humble, and most enthusiastic people ever in consulting, which always makes work more fun! :)
Tell us about your summer project & current full-time project:
I worked with a large media client this summer, where we helped design their marketing organization after a major acquisition. My project consisted of a lot of different parts, from looking census data to understand the organization’s marketing organization thoroughly to re-designing after conducting expert calls. Being in LA for a media client was exciting since I got to go to client site 2-3x a week and see all the changes happen live!
walk us through a day in the life?
Every day is pretty structured, with a beginning of day and end of day meeting, to ensure that everyone is on track and has proper insights into the direction that the project is moving in. During the day, my work would be a mix of building slide decks, conducting expert calls, and analyzing data on excel. After grabbing dinner, I would transition home and wrap my work up for the night! As an intern, I also have the privilege of going on lots of coffee chats throughout the week, grabbing things from Chagee to gelato with Bainies as mini breaks!
Meet athena luong, an incoming associate at LEK!
tell us about your recruitment process:
The biggest thing is to stay on top of deadlines early. I tracked consulting recruiting through Management Consulted and by regularly checking firm websites. For L.E.K., I had already visited the LA office, which helped me learn more about the firm. I also competed in an L.E.K. case competition, and my team won first place, which guaranteed us a first-round interview.
From there, the process was behavioral and case interviews. I focused mostly on casing, but also made sure I had a clear reason for why L.E.K.
why consulting?
I like consulting because you get exposed to very different problems in a short amount of time. During one summer at L.E.K., I worked across healthcare, consumer, and youth sports. I also liked how hands-on the internship was. Summer Associates are treated very similarly to full-time Associates, so you’re doing the analysis, talking to experts, and contributing directly to the client work.
Tell us about your summer project & current full-time project:
One of my favorite projects was a commercial due diligence for a youth sports company involved in a $100M+ transaction.
Our job was to understand how strong the business was and where the biggest risks and growth opportunities were. I looked across 15 brands, built a large research database, and helped lead around expert interviews after screening hundreds of candidates.
What I liked most was seeing how research and interviews actually turned into recommendations for the client.
walk us through a day in the life?
Every day is pretty structured, with a beginning of day and end of day meeting, to ensure that everyone is on track and has proper insights into the direction that the project is moving in. During the day, my work would be a mix of building slide decks, conducting expert calls, and analyzing data on excel. After grabbing dinner, I would transition home and wrap my work up for the night! As an intern, I also have the privilege of going on lots of coffee chats throughout the week, grabbing things from Chagee to gelato with Bainies as mini breaks!
meet Aryaman gupta, an incoming associate at bcg
tell us about your recruitment process:
I started casing in April and applied before the late-June deadline. My first round in late July included a Casebot interview and a virtual interview with a Project Leader. My final round in early August consisted of two virtual interviews with partners. Each virtual interview began with behavioral questions, followed by a case.
why consulting?
I'm not sure yet what I want to do long-term, so consulting felt like the best way to gain exposure to different industries early in my career and build a toolkit I can apply anywhere. The high-impact nature of the work also stood out to me, as consulting also lets me work on complex problems for some of the world's largest companies, and learn how to break them down and present answers clearly.
tell us about your summer project & current:
Over the summer, I worked with a media client on a corporate finance case. I had ownership over a specific workstream, which taught me how to structure problems and build a point of view I could defend. It also gave me exposure into how BCG operates day to day and how to communicate effectively.
walk us through a day in the life?
Morning: Team check-in to align on the day's priorities, then focus on key deliverables
Midday: Working sessions with teammates or case team meetings with partners to get feedback and iterate. Sometimes an expert call
Afternoon: Team check-out to review progress and align on evening priorities
Evening: Heads-down time to finish deliverables and iterate with my manager