The Role of the Summer Associate

L.E.K. Consulting offers the Summer Associate Program to undergraduate students who are interested in gaining insight into an Associate career. This internship involves spending 10 weeks working as a Summer Associate, allowing the intern to experience case work in our office environment and meet our team.  This position is available in all of our global offices.

Associates are the core of an L.E.K. case team. The insights that L.E.K. develops to help our clients win are based upon the very strong research and analytical skills of our Associates. Some of the Associates specific responsibilities include:

• Gathering primary data on markets, competitors and customers through database and Internet searches, market research and other commercial reports, internal client data, and telephone and in-person interviews.
• Developing detailed strategic and financial analysis, which will be utilized to determine the recommendation. Examples include: developing a spreadsheet model of market growth and competitor share, developing a valuation model for a company or product using discounted cash flow analysis, or determining probability distributions of an acquisition value.
• Working with the case team to derive insights, conclusions and recommendations based on the analyses. A Summer Associate must transform what he or she has learned into a valuable and integral element of the client’s strategic direction.

The Role of the Summer Consultant

Life as a Management
Consulting Intern

L.E.K. Consulting offers the Summer Consultant Program to MBA students interested in gaining insight into a Consultant career. This position is available in our U.S. and London offices. Summer Consultants at L.E.K. are typically the most experienced case team members dedicating 100% of their time to a single engagement; as a result, the role of the Summer Consultant has a high level of responsibility for guiding and managing the case team, including:

• Identifying the critical issues –Summer Consultants work with Partners and Managers to outline the key business issues needing resolution. L.E.K. Summer Consultants develop the business acumen necessary to quickly identify the key issues early in their career.
• Structuring analyses – Once the key issues have been identified, the Summer Consultant typically forms a plan to find the answers to these critical questions. They will layout the strategy to the team for finding information on market growth drivers, competitive profiling, or broad market trends.
• Managing the team’s day-to-day activities – L.E.K. assigns two undergraduates to every one Summer Consultant, implying that management of less experienced colleagues is as much a part of the Summer Consultant role as solving business issues. A significant responsibility for L.E.K. Summer Consultants is guiding and mentoring more junior Associates on a day-to-day basis.
• Solving the case – At the end of the day, our clients expect high quality, actionable answers to their business problems. Summer Consultants are on point to ensure the team is on-track to accurately solve the problem and deliver an answer. Summer Consultants supervise analyses, develop the structure for the final output, provide quality control, and in most cases, participant in the delivery of the conclusion with senior management for the client.