Muskaan Gupta

The summer internship at BCG exposed me to huge learning opportunity, to bring my ideas to life. Overall, the internship was beautifully structured and each module given to an intern had a lot of scope to explore and experiment with. I worked out of the Nariman point office of BCG and led all the meetings with the client for my module. I was given the liberty to take decisions and manage client expectations. Apart from all this, BCG ensured we all partied and had fun while working.

BCG really values its people. It ensures that all its resources are well motivated and healthy, and are able to manage the workload. The case teams are extremely supportive of each other and while each one has his/her own module to manage, there is never short of help. Regular feedback sessions and update meetings are held with the senior management, who constantly guide on how things can be done better. As an organisation, they ensure each employee gets suitable number of cool-off periods, both during and after the case. They organise a lot of fun parties and CTOs are always looked forward to!

The biggest learning from this entire stint was developing a “never give up” attitude. Since I was responsible for my own module, there were a lot of things to handle, and naturally multiple things didn’t turn out the way I had thought. My manager constantly motivated me to develop a more exhaustive and practical approach. This brings me to my second learnings which was to break free from textbooks and have more practical solutions, which may not be the best solutions on paper. Lastly, the experience nourished my communication skills by heaps through constant interactions with multiple stakeholders within the firm as well as with client.

This was my first consult experience and naturally a lot of scope to improve. The key to succeed is to always align. I learnt it late, but it is always better to align for everything you plan to do before you actually do it. Ideas have to be brainstormed at length to understand its innovation, creativity and practicality. Thus, in hindsight I believe I should have interacted more with my Project Leader and discussed ideas to understand the unforeseen flaws and expected difficulties that may come during implementation.

I was helping a PSU bank drive digital adoption through its contact centre. It was an independent module in the entire case and I was managing it end-to-end. The best thing about the entire internship was that everything I did and every little suggestion I made was valued and discussed with client and senior management with utmost seriousness.. I implemented a few of my suggestions before the internship ended and that was the best feeling- to be able to drive impact and see your ideas being exercised on ground to make a change.