Interning at Deloitte

Hi everyone! My name is Claire Boston and I interned with Deloitte Consulting this summer. Rather than the traditional internship experience, Deloitte decided to create a 2-week virtual experience for their 2020 intern class. The virtual experience was comprised of many zoom sessions, virtual coffee chats with practitioners and an intern project to help give us a feel for the company!

The zoom sessions consisted of large webinars with top Deloitte executives and practitioners, electives centered around the importance of wellness at the firm, and smaller networking sessions with other interns and practitioners. My favorite webinar was with the CEO of Deloitte, Dan Helfrich. I particularly enjoyed his discussion about “everyday equations” and how they can make the work day more enjoyable and efficient. One example of an everyday equation is challenging the standard 30-minute meeting by shortening the meeting to 15 minutes when possible. This makes meetings more efficient and frees up time for practitioners, particularly in this virtual environment when days are filled with back to back zoom meetings. The electives on wellness made it clear that the firm puts a heavy focus on the physical and mental health of its employees. We had several sessions on meditation and mindfulness, and even had a chair yoga session! Finally, I really enjoyed the smaller networking sessions with practitioners. The best way to figure out where your interests fit within the firm is to talk one on one with people about the projects that they are working on. Based on the conversations that I had during the internship, I found the life sciences space to be very interesting. I’m hope to work on projects in this space in the future!

While we didn’t get to work on a true consulting project, the intern project was very helpful to get a sense of how Deloitte approaches problems. I worked with four other interns to determine how retail banks could respond to new customer demands resulting from COVID. We had an awesome Senior Consultant advise us along the way, and were able to present our idea to the US Head of Banking and Capital Markets. I was in awe at the plethora of resources that we had at our disposal, as well as the expert knowledge of so many at the company.

Overall, Deloitte did a wonderful job providing us with a valuable virtual experience. I was Deloitted by the generosity of practitioners with their time, the value the intern project and the positive culture of the firm.

P.S. I spent my spare time playing with my parents’ new puppy, Sadie! She is a spunky, 3-month-old West Highland Terrier 😊