Company Profiles: Interning at Bain & Company

Bain & Co. is a global consulting firm that helps the world’s most ambitious change makers define the world. The firm provides advice to public entities, private businesses, and non-profit organizations. They also offer pro-bono services that bring talent, expertise and insight to organizations tackling today’s urgent challenges in education, racial equity, social justice, economic development and the environment.

Pranav is a 5th year undergrad (Aerospace Engineering + IDDD Energy Systems) who interned at Bain & Co. in the summer of 2022. He is a quizzer and likes to tweet (@pranavcondur4 )

Shatakshi is a 4th year undergrad pursuing mechanical engineering, she also interned at Bain & Co. in the summer of 2022. She is a cruciverbalist (word games enthusiast) and a basketball player.

Anvith: Before starting your internship, what skills did you have to learn to be Excel or anything that helped you during your intern?

Shatakshi: Nothing much, we were given a week of preliminary reading material on PowerPoint and Excel, but we mostly learnt on the job.

Pranav: Adding to what Shatakshi said, for undergrads who might be interning at a consulting firm in the future, it helps to learn how to take good notes. I think it is a very important part of the job — especially for an intern. So it helps to be able to take good notes on the fly, in an actual meeting setting and such.

Shatakshi: Supervisors helped refine my note-taking method. Don’t worry if you think your notes are poor. They’ll guide you on the format and adjustments needed.

Anvith: What is the role of supervisors in your team?

Shatakshi: Supervisors are full-time employees at a Senior Associate Consultant or Consultant level. They’ve been with the firm for 1.5–3 years. Full-time employees have more responsibility but work essentially the same role as interns.

Pranav: To give you some context, the Associate Consultant Intern (ACI) program is designed to put you in the shoes of an Associate Consultant (AC). They’ll give you as much responsibility as a first year AC gets, and if you can perform up to the standards that they expect, you will be given a return offer (PPO).

A: That was the pre-internship experience. Now, can you describe your internship period briefly? when did you start working and where did you work?

Shatakshi: Our internship was eight weeks. First week was training in the Gurugram office with basic Excel and PowerPoint exercises and problem-solving and critical thinking. Also, sessions with partners to understand the world of consulting. Remaining eight weeks were mainly at home offices. I spent eight weeks in the Bangalore office, one week in Delhi. Weekends are completely free, you don’t have to work unless something really critical comes up andI didn’t have to work any.

Pranav: I Worked in the Gurugram office. The internship included a midterm review in Goa as well. Cases were allocated based on whether the teams could accommodate an intern.

Anvith: Can you discuss the problems you solved for clients and your learning experiences from them?

Pranav: I worked with a global fast-food chain on their strategy with aggregator platforms like Swiggy and Zomato. The problem was that not enough users were ordering from our client compared to their competitors. We analyzed the entire customer pipeline to find bottlenecks and fix them. Data was collected from clients, analyst reports, and industry reports. We analyzed this Data to get insights and put on Excel and PowerPoint slides while making it as crisp and concise before showing it to the client. I think case prep and working on a live case, gives you a lot of clarity of thought. You are very segmented in how you’re thinking. You have a list of things that you’re doing and you’re prioritizing what is needed immediately, what might be needed a couple of days later. You’re working on what matters the most at any point in time.

Shatakshi: While Pranav was working only on one case while he was there, which was the case with most of the Interns.

I worked on two cases in the tech space. My first case was with a SaaS (Software as a Service) company. They came up with a hypothetical product and asked us to test its market viability. This involved primary conversations with customers and competitors. My second case was with an IT services company, which was trying to improve its talent supply chain. We evaluated their projects, demand, and the most efficient way to fulfill it- whether through hiring, upskilling, or shifting people around locations. The first case was fast-paced while the second involved a lot of stakeholder analysis and convincing people to change their process.

Anvith: How would you describe your workplace, how was the environment with your colleagues that you worked with?

Shatakshi: The workplace was a fun place to work. My case team wasn’t in the same location, but two of my supervisors were from the Bangalore office and visited frequently. Even colleagues working on different cases were helpful and engaging. The office had a lot of fun events, games, and competitions. Every Friday we had events like board games, coffee or wine tastings. Colleagues were happy to help with any issue. Some of them were Insti alumni as well. It was easy to just engage in a random conversation if you’re having trouble with the case or just generally want to talk about anything else as well, they were always there.

We pride ourselves on being the best at foosball amongst the three offices. So I think a lot of games, a lot of competition was out there as well.

Pranav: I think the Bangalore people just pride themselves on foosball because they don’t play anybody else, they just play within their own little circle. I was in the Gurugram office, which was in this cool place called CyberHub with lots of restaurants and stores. We had regular intra office cricket tournaments, football matches and a spa weekend as well. Aside from that, there was also free lunch and a lot of other food in the office at all points in time (unlimited supply of coffee included).

Anvith: How did being an Insti student affect the transition to a consulting lifestyle?

Pranav: Adjusting back to Insti after two months of staying in five-star hotels was a shift. But, despite the long hours, consulting is still a lot of fun. At Bain, they focus on making life outside work enjoyable as well with lavish parties with plenty of food and drink. They also try to inject fun into work through in-office activities and initiatives. For example, when we were working with our client (the fast-food restaurant chain), we looked at user reviews on Zomato and some of them were really hilarious. The team would then share these funny comments with everyone and we would all have a hearty laugh. Working at Bain was enjoyable because when you’re working 14 hours a day with someone, it’s best if it’s people you enjoy working with and are fun to be around.

Anvith: Having to work those long hours, did Bain do anything in weekends for you to help rewind?

Shatakshi: What Bain does best for the weekends is by doing nothing on the weekend. It’s up to you to do whatever you want.

Pranav: On Fridays, work usually ends around 6PM, and the weekends are completely free but there are occasional Friday parties. Partners also host networking sessions or give life gyaan. If you’re feeling overworked, there’s a designated day off, usually a Monday, giving you a three-day weekend.

Anvith: How was your interaction with other interns? Which other universities did interns come from to Bain?

Shatakshi: Since it was the first year of recruiting interns, only interns from IITM and IITB were present. During the first week, we were all in the same location and had quality time together. We got along really well.

Pranav: I was the only intern from IITM in the Gurugram office. There were three others from IITB. Although I didn’t have an IITM support system, the IITB interns were nice and fun. We hung out on the weekends and even got to meet each other’s parents. One of the interns even got food from home for all of us. It was very nice to hang out with similar minded people.

Anvith: How was your typical work day and how would it start and how would it end?

Shatakshi: My team started at 10 AM. with a 20 to 30 minute morning check-in call with the entire team, including senior managers and associate partners, for every workstream. During the call, workstream leaders gave updates and other team members added any relevant information. Then, I had a conversation with my supervisor about my tasks for the day and worked on them for a few hours. Lunch was flexible. The day continued with discussions with my team or working independently until the end of the day, usually around 10:30 PM. On average, more or less this is how it used to be.

Anvith: How did Bain help in your personal growth and How did your interactions with senior partners and CEOs and the networking events help you?

Shatakshi: As interns, we didn’t directly converse with CEOs, but we did get to listen in on conversations between our leadership and CEOs, giving us insight into both perspectives. Conversing with senior partners and seeing how they think about problems helped us learn from experts in the field.

Pranav: Just being in the same room as some of these Partners/CEOs and watching them think was really amazing because obviously as engineers and as people who have gone through JEE and four years of insti, there is a set way in which we’re trained to think. But when you go into the workplace and see partners and other consultants think in a very different agile way, it was really cool.

And for our midterm reviews, we were flown out to an amazing resort called ‘The W’ in Goa by the beach for the weekend, which was great. And post our midterm reviews, we had a weekend to just have fun, play in the pool, not just with all the other interns, but also with some senior Bain folks and other insti alums and, which I think was a great, great experience.

Anvith: Any final thoughts to share with our readers?

Shatakshi: Definitely research consulting before deciding to pursue it. It’s not a good fit for everyone and there’s a big work-life balance issue to consider. Don’t just jump into it because others are doing it. But if you enjoy it, consulting is the best place to be. If you’re okay working 14–15 hours a day, it’s worth it for many people, including me and Pranav, as long as it’s what you want to do. Just as long as you figure out that’s something that you want to do.

Pranav: Agreeing with Shatakshi, internships are a way to try something you’re unsure of. If you like consulting, you can pursue it full-time. If you’re unsure about your career path and interested in problem-solving, math, analysis, communication, and working with people, consulting is a great place to be. You can exit into a specific field you like after multiple cases. If you’re still unsure, keep an open mind and treat the internship as a way to figure out what you want to do.