Ayush Kapoor and John Navia share how their consulting internships challenged their assumptions about being ready for the workplace. Through meaningful relationships, curiosity, and increasing responsibility, they discovered where they could contribute and what they wanted from their careers. Hear their advice on pursuing opportunities despite self-doubt, learning through experience, and balancing professional ambition with personal values.
Ayush Kapoor [00:00:00] A lot of freshmen are trying to find internships and they're worried about, oh, I don't have enough business experience. I don't have enough Excel experience. I feel like companies aren't really looking for that business acumen when you're a freshman. They're looking for the soft skills that you have.
Intro/Outro [00:00:14] You're listening to Business Edge, the podcast for professionals looking to excel in the workforce. In each episode, our guests take a deep dive into their personal and professional experiences to give you an edge in the marketplace. This podcast is brought to you by the Commonwealth Leadership Alliance.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:28] Welcome back to another episode of the Business Edge podcast. This is Chrissy Vasquez and with me today I have Ayush Kapoor and John Navia. Welcome guys. Thank you for joining us.
Ayush Kapoor [00:00:37] Thanks for having us. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:38] So we are talking internships. I believe you have an internship at a major consulting firm. Yes. And you've been doing that for two summers now.
Ayush Kapoor [00:00:46] Yes, so we both interned at McKinsey and Company. It's a consulting firm. And we're both in the Austin office right now. And we did this our freshman summer and our sophomore summer, and we're about planning to go back full time.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:00] Oh nice. So talk to us a little bit about how you even approached wanting to get an internship and how you prepared to even apply for an internship.
Ayush Kapoor [00:01:09] Yeah, so my freshman year, everybody is talking about, yeah, how can we get an internship? So I was just looking around and actually John reached out first. We looked into applying to Deloitte and then we got connected with the recruiter through LinkedIn actually. And we went through that process. It wasn't necessarily about finding specifically what we wanted to do because we didn't really know what we want it to do. We just wanted some experience to kind of hone in what we think we would want to do in the future. So that's why we picked consulting to go off with because consulting is a wide variety of industries and you get a lot of different experiences and through that, you could kind of find what you're really interested in, if it's consulting or if it working in a specific industry or whether it's accounting or whatnot. So we just wanted to get a broad experience through consulting. And yeah, so we did the internship and we both really were fond of consulting. So we stuck it out. Nice.
John Navia [00:02:15] And I think kind of following up on that, I think we really had no plan kind of coming into college about what consulting was, what investment banking was, but I think after talking to some of our peers who are more, who have parents who have kind of done the business route, or family, or friends who are really familiar with it, we kind of ultimately decided that consulting was the route because of the large industries, the large experiences that you kind of get from, and it's a diverse experience that you get. And so I think getting to explore all those industries and in retrospect, now looking back of how much we've learned through those diverse experiences and how much learned about specific industries has kind of ultimately led us to be excited for our careers in consulting.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:02:54] Is there an industry within your clients that you get really excited about?
Ayush Kapoor [00:02:59] Yeah, so my first summer I was in the consumer industry and I liked it, but I didn't know if I really wanted to do that moving forward. And then my second summer I did healthcare and I really enjoyed the work that I was doing. I thought I was really helping other people. I also really liked the people that I was working with in the healthcare sector. So I think going full-time, I'm gonna focus on the healthcare sector.
Ayush Kapoor [00:03:24] Nice.
John Navia [00:03:25] And I think for me, my freshman year, I was up in New York, I was working in the New York office and my job was to coordinate. We started the McKinsey Serves New York pipeline and so we were managing a large budget to kind of work with different nonprofits, talk to different board members and kind of grow our presence in the nonprofit sector in McKinsey. And I Think McKinsey plays a very vital role in kind of consulting nonprofits and taking on that not-for-profit kind of initiatives to help make an impact in their community. And I think, although I'm not very passionate about procurement, I was on a lot of procurement projects this summer, but I think I was able to kind of learn a variety of skills. So when students really wanna, or interns wanna go into a specific industry, I sometimes advise against because you really gain a diverse perspective about how to actually learn about a specific industry, even though it's not something that's your peak industry or peak interest, I feel like it's still very important to be able to understand a specific industry, learn about something, and just find niche things that really help you make an impact for your clients.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:04:25] Great. Talk to us a little bit so you talk to you connected to the recruiter through LinkedIn. How did you prepare for the interview? What was the interview like?
Ayush Kapoor [00:04:33] Yeah, so the way that most consulting firms work is that you have a first round is just a resume screening. So you put in your resume and then I feel like that's where they do most of the cuts, I guess. So once you get through that process, it's just a small pool of applicants that get the interview. And mainly for the resume screening, I know a lot of freshmen are trying to find internships and they're worried about. Oh, I don't have enough business experience. I don't have enough Excel experience. I feel like companies aren't really looking for that business acumen when you're a freshman. They're looking for the soft skills that you have. So are you involved in non-profits? Do you have leadership experience? How involved are you in your community? Just what type of person you are? Because when you are doing the internship, that's where you're supposed to learn all the business acument. It's kind of, are you willing to learn? That's the biggest thing.
John Navia [00:05:29] And I think that's a vital role kind of hitting back on what he said. It's not necessarily about like hard technical skills that you come into the internship with. Yes, it is definitely a value add for your internship experience, but I do think what these companies are really looking for somebody who is ambitious, who is curious to kind of learn from people who have been in industry, who are established in their industry, who know the industry best. And then also aside from that, I think what really helps kind of a student understand and get a better feel of the industry or the internship is kind of having different coffee chats with people from all different tenures ranging from partners who have been there from 10 plus years and then from new analysts who even who interned and now are in full time there, kind of seeing what their experience is like and how they originally liked their first six to a year experience there at whatever consulting firm it kind of is.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:06:16] So I think that's a great point, the informational interviews. What type of questions do you ask in those type of meetings?
John Navia [00:06:22] I think what type of questions I would kind of ask or from what I can remember, I think kind of what is something that they kind of wish they knew when looking in retrospect to their time in college and kind of looking for different experiences and then kind of what experiences set them apart from this diverse kind of applicant pool because ultimately I feel like what the beauty of consulting is, is a diverse experience that everybody brings, everybody brings a different perspective into this unique field and ultimately that's what helps you solve these complex problems. You're not working individually, you're working with a team to sell, with everyone who has experienced different things, they've went through different things in colleges, studied different majors, we have art history majors, finance majors, but everyone cohesively works together to kind of tackle these complex problem.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:07:08] Any questions you ask in informational interviews with people? Or meetings.
Ayush Kapoor [00:07:13] A lot of people tend to go for more general questions, but I thought what helped me the most is that I was asking really specific questions. I also put them, I was ask questions that put them in the same shoes that I'm in right now. So what did they do when they were a freshman in college? Like what's the biggest feedback that they got that impacted the trajectory of their career? Also asking them questions like that are not related to where it kind of helps the conversation flow a little bit better and helps gain those connections with these colleagues, yeah.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:07:46] Getting to know them personally outside of their their work personality.
John Navia [00:07:50] And I would put, necessarily, a very huge emphasis on that point, because many times when students kind of reach out to recruiters or people who work at the company that they want to work for, I feel like at times it can kind of seem to be a little bit transactional. So actually getting to first introduce yourself and have a conversation with them, and then you can go into the work or what they actually do at their job. And then I think something that's really important is kind of following up after on what, or thank you for taking the time to speak with me, and then also staying connected throughout your tenure, even if things don't necessarily go well, or like you don't get the job that you really wanted, being able to maintain those connections, I still feel is very vital in succeeding and ultimately building a good network.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:08:32] Sure, yeah, knowing who you've met with and trying to remember, oh, I met with John, he's interested in this, I'm going to connect these people together, yeah.
Ayush Kapoor [00:08:40] And one of the biggest parts about LinkedIn is that having a alumni base from your college, you can just go search up and see who works at the firm that you wanna work to that went to the college that you went to. And if you reach out to them saying, hey, I go to this college, I'm interested in this role, they're a hundred times more likely to answer your message if they're alumni at that college, so.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:09:02] And even taking it, you know, you could go to the call drop, but you could also go AKPsi and say, you know, I'm a member at Iota, let's, you know, just in working, would love to hear what the culture's like or if you have any recommendations. And then that, as we've talked to, the referrals are so big as well, so then it opens the door.
John Navia [00:09:19] And I feel that kind of leveraging the network that you have right now is you're gonna miss, one, you're going to miss 100% of the shots you don't take reaching out. And then two, even if you get one person to kind of accept and actually meet with you, that's the person that you ultimately create that lasting connection with, not something that's just very transactional. Yes.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:09:40] And if they have a good conversation, you can also follow up. Is there anybody else you recommend knowing what my goals are? Any other people you recommend that I reach out to talk to us a little bit about what your expectations were when you started your internship? Were they met? Did you find some different things? What was that like going into that process?
Ayush Kapoor [00:09:59] So when we both started, we were both freshmen. And of course you feel like that imposter syndrome because you're a freshman, this is your first internship, you don't really know what you're getting yourself into and you're working with some of the biggest people in the world, like you're doing really good things for the community. So when I was going into it, my expectations were that I would just be handed some like work on the side and not really be contributing to the project. But actually throughout the course of the internship, that my team made it so that I had a really big role on my team and it didn't just happen from day one. It's on day one I had small little tasks. I was taking notes at meetings and then they would kind of build up my workload as they gained trust in me and saw what my output was. And then towards the end of the project, I was owning my own work stream, which was really amazing because I expected to not be really that involved in the project but I was, at the end, managing my own work stream. And I was even presenting my work to the client that we were working for. So I feel like it was a great opportunity to really learn and way different from what I expected to get out of it.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:11:09] That's an amazing experience and it just speaks so much to you take initiative, you work hard and you get those opportunities. What about you, John?
John Navia [00:11:17] Yeah, and I think following, I completely agree. And I think our internship kind of exceeded any kind of expectation that I kind of had. It was a very transformational process. You go from not knowing, no one really knows, or at least for me, I didn't really understand what consulting was. And I actually going through the process and seeing what that learning curve kind of looks like, at first it's hard because... You're onboarding, you're learning a whole new industry, you're consulting, you're client-facing, you have no experience, and they just kind of not necessarily throw you in, but want you to learn and adapt, and that's ultimately why I feel like it's the beauty of consulting. You learn fast, you meet with different people, client-facing, you get these different experiences. And I think kind of noting on that imposter syndrome, I think McKinsey is filled with the caliber of people that are very high-achieving and have accomplished so much in their life, and I think for an intern kind of stepping into that role is ultimately very scary, but, and I kind of went into the expectation with, oh, we're gonna have intern work. We're gonna be, oh, you want us to do like an Excel thing or something really minute and small. But I think with this experience, they kind of give you a workload. They let you manage your own workstream. And of course you have, they provide so many different resources for you to actually grow and be comfortable. You have a PD, you have an EM, and then you have like your own personal manager who helps you throughout your whole process on the project. In the- you have any questions, at midnight I would text my JEM and she would respond to me and ultimately help me. And I think it's a very beautiful and transformational process that you go from being a small and scared freshman who's like, I have no idea what I'm contributing to to the end of two years to being like, I'm officially a value add to my group. I can contribute to solving these complex problems.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:13:01] And what I heard in both of you is stepping out of your comfort zone too, right? Like that growth happens when you're uncomfortable.
Ayush Kapoor [00:13:08] [00:13:08]Definitely. [0.0s]
Chrissy Vasquez [00:13:08] [00:13:08]So I always tell people get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Yeah. And you'll have a lot of growth and opportunity. [4.3s] What is the one piece of advice that you would give to somebody looking for an internship?
Ayush Kapoor [00:13:19] I would say reach out to everyone and apply to everything because there's limitless opportunities out there and even if you're not getting the one that you're hoping for at the current moment that you are in right now, you will definitely find something and that internship that you get will segue into something else that you want to do and you'll keep scaling up your entire career. But just don't be demoralized if you don't get would your dream job off of the first internship that you apply to. I think there's numerous opportunities out there and there's tons of opportunities and if you're looking for consulting, there's a tons of different firms, even if it's not the specific firm that you're looking for, there's ton of specific firms for consulting and you can just scale your career up that way. So yeah, just don't shy away from anything.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:14:08] Take all the opportunity you see.
John Navia [00:14:10] And I think following up on that, I would just, one thing I wish I knew my freshman years, like never be scared. Never be scared of rejection, never be scared of somebody not answering you on LinkedIn or somebody not answering your call, like that is the point. Then that's the beauty of kind of growing your network because you find these niche people who really value and want to see you kind of, your career trajectory just explode. And I think when you have that foundation of people and that support, that's ultimately who you should bank on to kind of help you succeed. Throughout your professional career.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:14:41] Great two tips of advice. Thank you so much for giving us time. As we end, we have our signature question. Tell us about a time that your values were challenged. What happened and how did you handle it?
Ayush Kapoor [00:14:52] So I would say the biggest time my values were challenged was when I stepped in the role as professional chair for Alpha Kappa Psi. So the way we had traditionally done it in our chapter was that professional chair would be kind of hands off. They would just do like one big resume review to everybody and not really help the majority of the chapter get internships. But I didn't like the way that it was run and a lot of my fellow exec members were telling me, oh yeah, just do one big event and just kind of get it done with so you don't have to really worry about it. But I really wanted to have an impact on the people and stepping into my role as the professional chair, I really want to have impact on our members and really increase the internship placement rate and help the students get internships that they actually wanted to do. Instead of ones that they just had to do. So I would go to every single new member meeting and do one-on-one resume reviews. And I was basically taking another class for time commitment-wise of just meeting with folks, trying to help them align their career goals with internship opportunities, tailor their resumes, interview prep, and all of that. And I feel like that was different from the way that we had previously run it in our chapter.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:16:17] I love that passion and wanting to take it to the next level. What about you, John?
John Navia [00:16:21] I think a time when my values were kind of challenged was my first two to three weeks kind of in my internship at McKinsey. I think I ultimately never really realized that work-life balance and how important it was. I feel like I was investing so much of my time into my work and trying to get the return offer and just ultimately trying to learn as much as I could. But then I started to realize the things that were most important to me, like kind of going to the gym and hanging out with my friends and talking to my family was kind of getting jeopardized at the expense of my time commitment to work. And so. Kind of reflecting back, I talked to my manager and I expressed my concerns about this, about going to the gym, I'm not having time, and ultimately, kind of establishing that work-life balance and those boundaries that were very important and kind of, and then I kind of realized that you have to invest a lot of time to kind of learn and then to grow and I think it's very important to find a balance between those two of growing but also realizing, staying true to your values of what keeps you you, what keeps your strong, what keeps healthy and what keeps you happy.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:17:23] I love that you were so proactive. You really have to advocate for yourself and nobody's gonna tap you on the shoulder and be like, hey, you're working too much. You need to take off. Well, it was great chatting with you guys. Thank you so much. We appreciate it and good luck in your new roles. Thank you.
Ayush Kapoor [00:17:36] Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:17:39] Absolutely.
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