My first two weeks at AAB Consulting have been busy (in a good way)! I have just joined the team as an intern during my summer break from the University of Edinburgh, studying economics.
I wanted to learn more about what a consultant does, how they operate and whether this type of career is a good fit for me personally. The Consulting arm of AAB is relatively small in comparison to some of its competitors, which as an intern is perfect for getting a look into the inner workings of the industry and what it takes to become successful.
What are your first impressions?
I think as a young person joining any company, it can be intimidating meeting new people and getting into the rhythm of working in new ways.
Meeting each member of the team individually put me at ease. There was one common theme of question; what do you want to get of your time here? Searching for summer placements (or full time jobs) often puts us into the mindset of “what value can I add to an organisation?” I think it is also important to consider whether the organisation has the capabilities and drive to support your goals. From just talking to the team and creating a personal development plan, I feel that the team at AAB put investing in skills at the core of what they do.
As specialists in delivering transformation and building organisational agility, I was expecting to adapt to a new way of working. It became apparent very early on that the team practise what they preach, implementing agile methodology for pretty much everything. Working in an agile team isn’t rocket science, much to my surprise, particularly when you are supported through the process by a capable and invested team.
It’s been two weeks, what have you actually done?
I came into the internship wanting to experience the whole consulting lifecycle through business development, developing client relationships, planning and project delivery.
AAB Consulting, as a fairly new company, has a lot of ambition. Hence, it important that it spends plenty of time developing its IP, value proposition and networks. I have been working on a couple of streams in this area including market research and development of our proposition models.
The breadth of client work so far has been wide including tender review, delivery support and research, giving an holistic overview of how each segment fits within the company. One key observation over the last week is that typically there will be multiple projects at different phases and as a consultant you have to switch between each project seamlessly, whilst still making time for business development. I suppose the cliché phrase is that ‘each day is different’ but that certainly does hold true here.
I’m looking forward to the next 8 weeks as I get involved at a deeper level on a number of great projects such as the IMPACT30 programme and learn more about what goes on here!