The ultimate goal of any summer intern is two-fold: one, to secure a fulltime offer, and two, to learn more about the job, the industry, and the skills required for success.

That said, here are 7 must-do’s for people preparing to enter consulting summer internships. 95% of the advice is applicable for fulltime consultants as well.

1. Read the Economist and WSJ regularly

I discussed the reasons for doing so in the post on consulting books and periodicals. By reading these periodicals, you’ll have a better feel for business problems and solutions, and be up-to-date on current events once you start the job.

Also, start reading consulting blogs – these will give you a sense for a consultant’s daily life. See the Management Consulted blogroll as a starting point.

2. Contact the consultants from your firm that you met during recruiting

This can be through company presentations, interviews, meet-and-greets. Anything. If you haven’t been in touch, update them on your summer internship offer and ask for advice. They’re usually very happy to give you some pointers. Be specific in your questions:

Specific question: I’ll be working in the Dallas office. Do you have any advice on the right people to meet there, and any particularly good managers that I should try to work with?

Broad question: How can I make sure I do well in the internship?

Further reading: How to network with consultants 101

3. Initiate contact with recruiters and consultants at other firms

This is only if you’re interested in transferring firms post-internship. Say you’re summer-ing at Altman Vilandrie but would prefer to work at a bigger firm like BCG fulltime. By keeping in touch with BCG recruiters and consultants, you strengthen your chances for fulltime recruiting. Often, some of these firms will have summer networking events in preparation for fulltime recruiting

The key here is to be upbeat about your internship, but be direct in expressing your interest. Here’s a sample email:

4. Get all the business attire that you need

Don’t buy a suitcase until you’re confirmed on a travel case – you shouldn’t buy one upfront.

KillerConsultant has a great post on consulting dress code. My only advice is that it’s more important to dress neat than to dress fancy. From your interviews and office visits, you should have an idea of company dress code. Don’t stray too far from it, and have sufficient backups (for men, at least 2 work suits) so you’re not panicking at 11pm when you spill sushi and soy sauce over your only suit and there’s a big client meeting the next day.

5. Familiarize yourself with Powerpoint and Excel

This is only if you’re a complete novice!

It’s not useful now to become an Excel expert, unless that’s already a long-term goal. But if you don’t know what conditional formatting is, you should find out.

As long as you can Google Search, you’ll find plenty of resources to get started.

The whole point is that once the job starts, you’re going to be overwhelmed with material to learn, meetings to attend, people to meet, and so forth – you don’t want to be learning about VLOOKUPs at the same time. To do well in consulting, you’ll need to be “Excel proficient” if not “Excel expert”. Think difference between “conversational Spanish” and “native Spanish”

6. Start speaking the language

Look at the Consulting Lingo and Terms page. Like the step above, the goal is to minimize the number of times you look like a neophyte. It will inevitably happen, but keeping those situations to a minimum will bode with clients and partners.

7. Set a list of reasonable, specific goals

Goals should include meeting specific partners who work in areas that you’re passionate about (eg, retail marketing, Southeast Asian expansion) and specific company practices that you’d like to explore (this is more applicable to global consulting firms than boutiques). Having these goals will help you be more targeted and focused when deciding how to best spend your non-project time (which is limited already)

That wraps it up! The next post will cover key to-dos during the consulting summer internship.

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