-


About Charlotte


Charlotte Langer is an Associate based in our Copenhagen office. Charlotte has a background in corporate law, but after completing an internship at BCG, she decided to switch lanes to pursue a career in consulting instead. We connected with Charlotte to hear about her decision to change career path and how being an intern at BCG was a decisive factor. 

.  .  .

Pivoting My Career Path


When I first started studying Law, I had a clear idea that I wanted a career as a corporate lawyer. During my first four years of studies, I worked for some of the big corporate law firms in Copenhagen, focusing on M&A, employment law and IT law. However, as I progressed through my studies and different student jobs, I became more reflective on my interests and what I would value in a future full-time job. We probably all know the feeling of trying to keep up with the fast pace of modern life, juggling many different responsibilities – sometimes forgetting to stop and reflect along the way. In my experience, it is worth spending dedicated time to do personal check-ins. This is what kickstarted my change in career, as I dedicated time during my semester abroad in Australia to understand what I wanted professionally.

When reflecting on whether you are on the right career path, key questions to ask yourself are:
-    What is it about your current field of work or studies, that you find truly interesting?
-    Looking at your long-term career goals, is this field supporting you in that direction?
-    What are important factors in your first full-time job? (e.g., learning & development, client interaction, project variety, people diversity, social culture, flexibility etc.)

When I started answering these questions, I realized it was the strategic aspects in the business problems we faced at work that interested me the most, as well as the client interaction. Taking action on my reflections, I quit my job and pivoted my career to work at a startup consultancy firm during my final year of studies. This job reinforced my decision to change career path, as I was energized by the strategic focus and interactions with internal and external stakeholders. However, ever since doing a case competition with BCG during my studies, I had also been curious to see whether management consulting in particular would be a match for me – so I applied for an internship at BCG.


Internships: Ideal to Test Whether Consulting is For You


My internship was key in my decision to start at BCG full-time. It gave me the chance to validate my assumptions about management consulting and how it matched my own reflections and priorities. If you consider management consulting as your career path, whether you are changing field of work like me or have a more “classic” background, I would recommend doing an internship here. An internship is a unique opportunity to get a thorough understanding of the work we do, the culture we have, and who we are as people.


If you are looking to do an internship at BCG, or are about to start one, I'd like to share my best tips when interning at BCG:
See your internship as a two-way street. Not only should BCG test you; you should also test BCG to see if it is right for you (something that is easy to forget during an internship!)
Remember attitude is key. Bring positivity, an open mind, and eagerness to learn. 
Be curious. Try to get a 360-view of BCG – including our social life and company values.
Leverage your team. You are never expected to solve everything by yourself, and leveraging the whole team’s brainpower is key to succeed.
Practice your growth mindset. Seek feedback and see areas of development as fun growth opportunities. (BCG is very diverse, so comparing yourself to others can lead to frustration)

.   .   .


Kickstart your consulting career by  applying for an internship at BCG



AUTHORCharlotte Langer (she/her) designation Associate

About author: Copenhagen, Denmark

BLOG HOME PAGE
Blog Similar