Hosted by Lumanity
This fall, we will be featuring blog posts written by PhD students who participated in Career Services’ Career Exploration Fellowship (CEF), a program that helps doctoral candidates explore their career interests through networking opportunities with advanced degree professionals. Click here to learn more about CEF.
Describe your experience working with your host.
Varun Bahl was an excellent host. During the duration of the program, we met every 2 weeks to check in, talk about a career in consulting, and discuss the informational interviews I had with some of his colleagues. Also, we had a small casing project in which I got a sense of what to expect in consulting and had the opportunity to present it in front of some of his colleagues at Lumanity. He was such a great mentor, always making sure that all my questions were answered and providing great examples to help me understand the concepts for the mini project.
What did you learn from this opportunity (about yourself, potential career fields, the job search, etc.)?
I learned a lot about a career in consulting—what it’s about, work-life balance, etc. During my informational interviews with Varun’s colleagues, I had the opportunity to talk to individuals in different positions and learn about the different roles and responsibilities at different levels. I also learned how to do informational interviews and now feel more confident setting them up.
How did your CEF experience benefit your future career plans?
It was great to get to network with so many people working in consulting at Lumanity and gave me the opportunity to practice informational interviews. Also, Career Services offered really good workshops about preparing a resume, LinkedIn, and informational interviews that will help me to prepare whenever I start job searching.
What was the most valuable part of your CEF experience?
Doing the mini project really helped me to get a sense of what I would do if I were a consultant. I learned to think as a consultant and was exposed to the many different concepts that are important for an indication prioritization project. This was really enlightening, and I really enjoyed the process. I may continue to explore consulting in the future.
Top reason PhD students should apply to the CEF program?
I totally recommend CEF to explore a new career path. In my case, I did not know much about consulting until I joined this fellowship, and this was a great way to explore this career and figure out ways to continue preparing for this career path.
