Consulting in the Capital: Interview with Melissa

Source:  Google

Name: Melissa

Company: Booz Allen Hamilton

Position: Civil Management/Technology Intern

Paid or Unpaid: Paid

Living arrangements: Living with my aunt and uncle in DC 

Favorite at the desk snack: either a Luna bar or Scooby doo gummies 

Coffee or tea?  Tea. There is a Starbucks in my building and I usually get iced tea or a very berry hibiscus refresher

Summary of the company (in your own words): Booz Allen Hamilton (generally referred to as Booz Allen) is a management consulting firm. They do a lot of defense and intelligence contracting for the federal government, but they also do commercial consulting in markets like health and energy.

Summary of your department (in real language): I work in the health group within the “Civil Commercial Group.” There is a commercial health group and a civil health group, and I am working in the civil health group. This basically means that I am on the team that does work for governmental agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs, among others.

Source:  Google
Booz Allen's offices

Give a summary about what your job entails: The above paragraph may sound cool but I personally do not actually do any work for the agencies. My job pretty much entails doing a lot of research on the current ideas and events surrounding health. The research I do is mostly internal, meaning that I am doing research whose purpose is to educate higher up officials in Booz Allen so that they can be better equipped to win contracts/work from the government.

Busy rating (out of 5): 3.5.  I find myself bored on some days but generally I can always find something to do, even if it is just helping someone else out on their project. I listen in on a lot of phone calls and go to meetings which keeps me occupied on the slow days!

Interview difficulty rating: Not too difficult, I had two phone interviews each a half hour long. The questions they asked weren’t bad, it was basically just me just having to talk about myself and I also had to send in a couple writing samples.

Involvement with the other interns: My team has 5 other interns who are all really great. They are all older so I feel like a baby compared to them but they are all super nice and helpful. I really like getting a chance to work with other people on the research because it definitely breaks up the monotony of the day. 8 hours pass by so slowly if you don’t talk to anyone all day! We all generally sit together at the office if we can.

Office environment:  It is kind of intense. The dress code is pretty strict, I have to wear a suit sometimes.  Everyone is really nice, but it is a very fast-paced environment so it is stressful at times.

Type of workspace (cube, table, office, etc):  Booz Allen is kind of weird with the way they organize the office. They do something called “hoteling” where you have to book a room reservation online. Offices generally have two desks, so you are almost always “hoteling” with someone else. They started doing this recently so that they could save money by eliminating office space. There are a bunch of offices in the DC area so people can basically work wherever they want, which makes it easy for those people but it is kind of a pain to always have to remember to reserve a room. And it is almost guaranteed you won’t ever be in the same room two days in a row. It’s cool because I get to meet new people that I don’t usually get to work with, but I kind of wish I had my own permanent space. It is nice though because if I plan in advance, I can get a room with one of the other interns on my team.

Melissa's desk at Booz Allen Hamilton

What has been the most enjoyable part of your job thus far? Getting to work with and learn from the other interns! Because they are all older it is really cool to hear about their previous summer experiences. I also really like that my managers are really accessible and nice, so I’m never afraid to ask questions or set up with a meeting with them just to catch up on what I’ve been doing.

What has been the most challenging part? I did not realize how much of an adjustment it would be. 8 hours is really long, and I’ve never had a desk job before so it was kind of hard having to sit in the same place for 8 hours a day at first. It has also forced me to be more independent. I don’t have a lot of oversight—no one ever really checks to make sure I’m actually doing my work so I have to keep myself on task.

What did you do that had the most impact on the company?  I assisted on the making of a presentation that is going to be presented by the company at a big health conference in Nashville late July! It’s been really cool to see that come together.

What did you do to prepare for the job?  I did a lot of business clothes shopping. I didn’t really know what to expect so I didn’t really know how to prepare for the job! The biggest preparation was definitely getting my travel plans in order since I am in DC. They didn’t really give me a lot of information about what I’d be doing at the company so I had no clue what to do to prepare!

What do you expect to learn?  I wanted to do an internship this summer so that I could just get some kind of real world experience (and also not be bored to death). I am pretty fickle about what I want to study at school, so I was hoping something like this would also be helpful in that it would push me in some sort of direction as far as a major goes. I also just wanted to see how a big firm like this operates and does business!

What did you learn? I have never been bad at time management, but this has definitely helped me become even more efficient with my time! I have deadlines that I need to meet so I always have to make sure I’m on task. I have also learned a lot of business etiquette- like talking on the phone and emailing people. I hate talking on the phone generally, but I have to make a lot of phone calls so I have gotten a lot better at those skills. Additionally, I have gotten better at talking to people in person too, which I think is a really important skill to have. Through my research, I learned a lot about health care which has been really cool. It has definitely sparked an interest that wasn’t there before!