Forté Foundation: Tips for Kickstarting your Internship Quest

Networking and asking a lot of questions will help you stand out in the crowd early on in the recruiting process.

For example, Hong (pictured) says Liberty Mutual’s corporate development program is designed for people starting in a management consultant role to grow into a general manager role. She said: “We don't expect to hire an expert in the insurance industry, we're looking for candidates with sense, so they have the capability to learn new things very quickly.

“I think showing passion, curiosity and eagerness to learn is what makes candidates stand out.”

Hong also thinks demonstrating you can process huge amounts of data to identify patterns and trends and how to use the data to drive a business decision is a huge bonus.

When Chevron interviews for internships and full-time positions, cultural fit, interest in the sector and company are very important. Lourdes said: “It’s fine if you don't have a background in the energy sector, but we're looking to understand if your ‘why’ is coherent and compelling.

“The internship can be a bit more of an exploration. For full-time, we want to know, is this the right fit for you for several decades, which is a little bit different than some other MBA models.”

Lourdes also says demonstrating you’ve done the legwork is important. Do you know the basic things you should know about the company or program? However, one major point to demonstrate is whether you’ve reached out to your business school’s network within the company.

She said: “It's always a big warning sign for me if I see a Harvard candidate and they haven't reached out to me. If they haven't, that's a concern for me because you haven't done the basic research and used the network.”

If you don’t do the basic legwork, it raises the question on how interested you are in the company. Checking off those simple boxes are good indicators that you're serious and you put in your time and research.

You won’t always be successful in your internship search, and so it’s important to manage rejection. Lourdes said given the state of the world right now, people going to business school need to be more flexible and resilient.

She said: “I'm optimistic it's going to open more opportunities, but you're probably not going to have the business school or internship experience that you thought you were going to have when you started this process.”

When thinking about the internship, Lourdes said you should remain focused on your objectives and remain flexible on how you meet them. She said: “Don't get wrapped up in what you want in this one internship with this one company in this one location, because that may not exist next summer because of what's going on in the world through no fault of your own.”

Think about the skills you want to build, what long term factors you want to test, and find ways to satisfy that, even if it's not through the same opportunity you were dreaming of when you applied to business school or wrote your application.

Lourdes said: “It's two years, which is a long time and not a very long time. While the summer internship is very important, think about the timelines as a bit more fluid. It's a long career journey and it doesn't stop at the end of your internship or the end of your MBA program.”

In this new normal, companies have been able to pivot and create new internship experiences for MBAs. Allison (pictured) said Accenture pivoted 650 analysts and consultants all to virtual orientation.

She said: "It means we're able to pull in people from all around the country. While you may not get to meet in person, you’re able to meet people from a ton of different offices, and as it's such a big company, that's been really helpful and encouraging.”

Alison also noted there’s a lot more flexibility and openness connecting with people in general. She said: “Accenture has a very open-door policy. Typically, leaders are very open to meeting people, particularly interns. I think everyone's very willing to speak to those folks and it's even easier in the virtual setting.”

Virtual recruiting was already seeing an uptick at business schools with companies like Amazon and Google recruiting in this manner for a few years. But to some, it’s still a new concept.

As everything has shifted online in recent months, it’d be unsurprising if internships were soon virtual too.

Hong admits Mutual Liberty has been encouraging flexible working and virtual collaboration for a long time, so working form home wasn’t a hard switch, adding businesses and organizations are equipped with the technology and tools to support employees.

She said: “Especially now during this very unique situation, people would understand this is a new norm in business, and everybody will work together to overcome those challenges.”