So this past Thursday, two of my friends and I were invited to this USC Student Leaders Accenture Conference dinner. Accenture is a consulting company, that I hope to get an internship with, that specializes in Information Technology. I was surprised how many people did not know much about what consulting is. Basically, whenever a company has a problem, they will come to a consulting company, like Accenture, who will put together a team of people who are knowledgeable and well equipped to come up with a solution for the client. Pretty much any kind of engineering can go into consulting, which is nice, and you get to work on a multiple of projects which means you’re not stuck doing the exact same thing everyday. So this dinner was mostly a networking experience. It started off at their office in El Segundo, which I found out was about 3 minutes from the beach! We were given a small tour of the office, a presentation, and a drawstring backpack full of free stuff. For the last hour we all walked across the street to this USC Alumni owned restaurant for light snacks and mingling. I will have to admit, networking is not easy. You have to act professional, yet have a personality. You must ask good questions, but still seem knowledgeable about the topic. It definitely takes practice. The whole point of networking with recruiters is so that they get to know you better on a more personal level for when it comes time for them to review your resume for a possible internship or job. Although, most students probably aren’t worried about meeting recruiters and getting to know them when they’re only freshman and sophomores, it helps to start building those relationships early on. Plus if you start early, you’ll do better when it really counts as a junior or senior because of the experience.
