Struck out on consulting… now what?
Struck out on consulting.. now what? (Rising Senior)
Hey everyone looking for some advice because I feel pretty stuck right now.
I’m currently a junior at a semi-target school, majoring in Public Policy. I transferred from a CC where I had a 4.0, and now I’m sitting around a 3.4 GPA here. (\~3.7 cumulative)
Last summer (sophomore year), I had an international business development internship, so I thought I was in a decent spot. But the issue is I didn’t really understand how early and structured consulting recruiting is. I essentially joined the cycle late this year and missed a lot of deadlines for top firms.
Since then, I’ve been applying where I can but haven’t had much traction at all. It’s been pretty discouraging because I feel like on paper I’ve done some solid things:
• International biz dev internship + local startup consulting internship (fall semester)
• Built a 7-figure e-commerce business over the past \~3-4 years
I’m also basically first-gen when it comes to this process I didn’t really have guidance on timelines, networking until it was kind of too late.
At this point I’m trying to figure out:
• What I should be doing for this summer (2026) to stay on track for consulting FT recruiting
• Whether consulting is still realistically attainable for FT given my situation
• If I should pivot to something adjacent (strategy roles, smaller firms, etc.) and try to lateral later. If so - what can I possibly do to get an internship this summer?
• What I might be doing wrong in terms of positioning / networking / applications
Would really appreciate any advice - especially from people who were in a similar spot or didn’t follow the perfect recruiting timeline.
Thank you for reading!