Hello my amazing and talented Anderson community! Rising second-year Emma Kessler here. A little bit about me to start: I was originally born in NYC, spent the vast majority of my childhood here in LA (the valley), went to the University of Michigan for undergrad, and after bouncing around a few cities post-graduation, I made my way back to beautiful Southern California. My pre-MBA professional background spans marketing, business development, and sales strategy. My first role out of college was at a virtual reality forward tech-startup called Avegant. After that, I spent 3.5 years at Live Nation within in their Media & Sponsorship division.
When I initially applied to Anderson, my goal was to land an internal strategy role within tech, media, or entertainment space (e.g., Netflix, Prime, etc.). However – as we all know – 2020 didn’t go exactly as planned, and as the media/entertainment industry was unsure of where it would fall in a post-Covid world, I decided to explore consulting. After a dozen+ coffee chats and an understanding of the job at hand, I realized it was a perfect fit. I spent the fall recruiting for consulting and tech and landed internship offers at both BCG and Apple. Spoiler alert: I chose BCG.
I’ve had an amazing experience so far this summer. We’re currently hybrid so I’ve been going into the office about 2 days/week. It’s really the perfect balance. Here’s a bit more on a day in the life:
Morning:
- Pre-Work. Wake up, walk my puppy Baxter, work out, get ready, etc. If I’m commuting to the office, I leave at 7:50am. Otherwise, I log on around 8:15am.
- Daily Stand-Up. This happens every day at BCG (8:30am on my current case). It is 30 mins for all core case team working members to discuss team priorities and upcoming external meetings
- COFFEE. At the office this is a nitro cold brew on tap. At home it’s a shot of Nespresso and frothed oat milk. Yum.
- Various Internal Meetings. Example 1: PTO meeting. PTO at BCG stands for Predictability, Teaming and Open Communication. We meet once a week as a team with a PTO facilitator to discuss sustainability goals the week. My current KPIs are 3x workouts/week and 1 truly protected evening to log off at 5pm. Example 2: Case Team Meeting (CTM). CTMs happen ~2x/week at BCG, depending on your client and MD/Partners (MDPs). These meetings are an opportunity for the working team to review content with senior leadership, get feedback, and make sure work is flowing properly.
Afternoon:
- Team Lunch. This is a great opportunity to network with the team on things outside of day-to-day work. It’s also usually something that can be expensed (a big perk of working on consulting)
. - External Meetings. These range from client kick-offs to work-in-progress meetings to presenting deliverables to expert interviews. Totally variable depending on the client, project, and team.
- EOD Check-In. Similar to the morning stand-up, this allows working team members to align on priorities going into the evening to ensure no one is working too late and that all necessary deliverables/timelines will be met. It is usually in a round-robin format.
- Time to Work. The afternoon is usually a bit more open than the mornings. This is a great time to work on slides, catch up on e-mails, or dive into some data analysis.
- Coffee Chats / Intern Events. I usually like to schedule 1-2 coffee chats per week in the afternoon to meet new people at the firm and learn about their experience at BCG. There are also weekly intern events like happy hours, lunch and learns, etc.
Evening:
- Log off. I usually log off or commute home around 6:30om to break for dinner / work out / spending time with my friends and family (really just Baxter).
- Additional work, if necessary. I typically log on for another hour or two post-dinner to finish up work. This is definitely on an as-needed basis and doesn’t happen every night. I have found that it is a great time to focus on key deliverables.
- Bed Time. Around 10:30pm I get in bed to catch an episode of Gilmore Girls, Friends, or Schitt’s Creek before going to sleep.
Student Blogger: Emma Kessler '22
Undergrad: University of Michigan '14
Pre-MBA: Senior Manager at Live Nation
Leadership@Anderson: President, Management Consulting Association; VP of Excursions, Anderson Wine Club
More...
How does this impact your International MBA decision?
I'd be glad to learn your thoughts on this story : Day in the Life: Boston Consulting Group