‘The culture at Strategy& is friendly, informal and diverse’

Fleur has just finished her three-month internship at Strategy& Amsterdam. Are you curious about her experience as an intern? Then read on!

Open and ambitious culture

I chose Strategy& because of the size of the Amsterdam office and the people working at Strategy&. Furthermore, towards my internship offer, I directly felt a connection with everyone from Strategy& I met along the way. Everyone had the same open, fun, interested, and ambitious mindset. With roughly 100 consultants, you can work on many different projects, locally and internationally, and with a diverse group of colleagues. Moreover, through all the social outings you are able to get to know everyone in the office on a personal level and the office therefore soon felt like a family.  

Kick-start your internship at the firm

The first two days of my internship we were welcomed in the Amsterdam office and were upskilled to be a strategy consultant in no time. There were meetings with colleagues from different levels as well as training sessions to get us up to speed quickly. I was already staffed on a project in my first week, which allowed me to hit the ground running and really learn by doing. I eventually did three projects across three different industries over the course of my internship.

On the first project, we worked with an international team for an investment firm on a large acquisition. I was in charge of building a strategic dashboard where we could track the acquisition process and do resource planning. Furthermore, I conducted market research and I even interviewed several industry specialists to retrieve specific insights.

What I really appreciated was the fact that I was a fully acknowledged member of the team on every project. As a result, I performed similar activities as other team members. For example, I assisted on typical strategy consulting tasks like building excel models and drafting deliverables for the client, but I also actively engaged in team discussions, conducted independent research and interviewed various experts. There was always room for my input and views on matters and this was actually actively encouraged by my manager and peers.

^{This picture was taken during an outing with the healthcare team. Even though I already finished my internship for two months, I was invited to join as I did my last project within healthcare. A great example of being a part of the family, even when you are no longer working for Strategy&.}

Continuous development and assessment period

During my time at Strategy&, I received continuous support to succeed as an intern. For example, I had weekly meetings with my mentors to discuss my personal development and learning goals. In addition, I learned a lot about giving, receiving and proactively asking for feedback. At first, it feels a bit uncomfortable to frequently ask for feedback. However, along the way you learn that this feedback helps you to make the best out of your internship and continuously improve as a person and professional.

I also received a 360 degree personal assessment of my performance for which all of the colleagues I worked with provided input. The outcome determined whether I would receive an offer for a full-time position. The last day of my internship was nerverecking, but as soon as I saw the bottle of champagne and happy faces of my mentors I knew that I ended my internship in the best way possible.

Informal and diverse culture

The culture at Strategy& is very friendly, open, informal and diverse. All colleagues made an effort to get to know me and are genuinely interested. An example of the flat culture is that you can find yourself working at a desk with one of the partners working at the desk next to you. Everybody treats everyone in the office the same way, no matter if you are an intern who joined only a month ago or a partner that has already been with the firm for over 10 years. One time I was having lunch by myself because I was a bit late and a partner walked by. He immediately joined me and we had a great talk during lunch.

Lastly, the diversity in such a small office was something that really stood out. We work together with 25 nationalities making it fun to learn about different cultures. I also became close friends with international colleagues who helped me throughout my internship while I introduced them to the Dutch culture.