Student consulting – it does more than deliver

Student consulting would seem to most students as an obvious first step towards a career in consulting. It offers experience in dealing with clients, solving real-life problems and demonstrates your interest, all of which can add a lot to your CV. However, Sam Smith has recently argued in the post ‘Student consulting – Does it deliver?’ that the experience is detrimental to both the client and the student. According to Smith, the lack of experience, expertise, speed, and legitimacy of students in contrast to professional consultants means that both clients and students get little out of it and waste valuable time and energy that could be better spent elsewhere.

However, there is a problem with Smith’s view. It is based largely from the perspective of the client and implies that clients expect more of students than they are able to deliver. This results in a misplaced comparison between the abilities of an experienced consultant and that of a student one. The comparison is misplaced because nobody would expect a student to work at, or even remotely near, the same level as a professional because they are students. The clients who hire students do so to solve problems that they do not have the time or money to solve themselves, nor do they have the money to hire experienced consultants. The value of students does not lie in their experience, expertise, speed, and legitimacy but instead lies elsewhere.

From my perspective as an ex-student consultant and recent graduate, the experiences I gained from student consulting have been extremely useful, and its usefulness has not been limited to the consulting world either. Instead of looking at it from the client’s perspective, I am going to outline the benefits of student consulting from a student’s perspective to show that it is worth the effort.

It’s great CV and interview fodder

For most students, this will probably be the main reason why they join a student consultancy – it looks great on the CV and gives you something to talk about in interviews. This was definitely the case for me. I had done barely any extracurriculars in my first year and had not developed skills which were relevant to getting a job, so joining a student consultancy was a good way for me to show an interest in the commercial world and to develop relevant skills for my CV. Working as a student consultant helps develop skills that are transferable to most jobs, such as organisation and teamwork, so it’s a good foundation to have.

Smith may refer to student consulting clubs as the ‘kiss of death’ for interview success but as they imply in the post (I can’t tell Smith’s gender because he or she is writing pseudonymously), the key to success actually lies in the examples you give and what it says about you. The experiences you gain as a consultant can make great examples to answer competency questions as long as they show what you can do.  Whilst the art of answering these questions well can lie in how you tell your examples, it relies most heavily on what your examples are – I have been told by firms in the past that I should think carefully about which examples to use so as to show off my own capabilities and not those of others. If you don’t have examples that highlight you in a key role, working as a student consultant can give you the opportunity to create some.

You get to develop or learn new skills

Whether you realise it or not, student consulting does help you develop your existing skills and to gain new ones. Traits like teamwork, problem solving, and building good client relationships are just some of the key skills that employers look for which student consultancy can provide you with practice in. If you know where the gaps in your skill set are, take advantage of the experience to fill in these gaps. For instance, working as a student consultant provided me with some much-needed teamwork experience as my university course didn’t include any group work. Even if you later decide against a career in consulting, the experience will still provide you with transferable skills that are attractive to any employer, so it is a good experience to have in the bank.

Aside from improving yourself for others, the experience can also help you develop as a person. Your personal skills, such as confidence and time management and coping with stress, will likely be tested as you will find yourself in scenarios that stretch your capabilities in these areas. From this, you can identify any potential problems and use the experience to find a way to manage or solve these problems.

Even if you are not successful in gaining a place on a student consultancy, your experience from the application process can still come in handy. Some of the more competitive student consultancies have formal application processes, including a cover letter and case study interview, which mimics the application process of professional consulting firms. This gives you an opportunity to prepare and practice for these before the real thing. Most student consultancies are run by people with experience in applying, including students who have successfully gained an internship and/or a job from a professional firm, so asking for feedback from them can be a valuable tool.

It gives you an insight into consulting

Some may argue that student consulting is nothing like the real thing and thus is a waste of time, but as I have pointed out already, it can be helpful regardless of whether you want to go into consulting. Its usefulness can also depend on how much you know about consulting already – for a complete rookie like me, it was an invaluable experience because it gave me an insight into what a consultant actually does, even if it did not mimic it exactly.

The accuracy to which the experience mimics a real consulting firm can vary depending on the consulting society and their clients. Although the majority of clients that hire students are smaller businesses and charities, there are some societies that work with larger organisations and consequently operate in a way that mimics the real experience more truthfully. This includes working over an extended period of time on larger projects, travelling to and from sites and working more closely with clients to solve the problem. However, these differences do not make one experience lesser than the other and overall you gain the same experience of working in a team to solve a problem for a client.

Being a student consultant is also a good experience to have on your CV if you are finding it difficult to get formal work experience – consulting internships are competitive and the demand is much higher than there are places available. So, if you have applied to no avail or did not apply in time, the credit of working for a student consultancy may be the next best thing.

It can actually be enjoyable

I’ve talked a lot about how being a student consultant can benefit your CV and your chances of getting a consulting job, but let’s not forget that it can also be fun. Most people join student societies to meet new people whilst doing an activity that they enjoy, and student consulting delivers on both counts. Working closely with your team can lead to friendships that last well after your project is over, and who’s to say that you can’t have a team meeting over a drink in the local pub? Student consulting is as much a social activity as it is work, and incredibly rewarding work at that – the satisfaction you will feel from seeing your client happy with all the hard work you and your team have done will remind you that it was worth all the effort.

Conclusion

Clearly there is much more to student consulting than meets the eye. Contrary to Smith’s view, if your client and your team are aware of each other’s limitations and expectations from the start, student consulting does not disservice anyone and can instead benefit everyone. The experience is more than just what you can offer to your client but also what it can offer to you. So, to answer Smith’s question ‘Does it deliver?’, I would say student consulting delivers on much more than it promises.

Vivien Zhu is a recent graduate from the University of Oxford, which is where her interest in consulting first developed. She has experience working with consulting firms and in student consultancies and hopes to pass on her knowledge to those who need it. 

Image: Pexels

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