<aside> ✨ If you’d like to connect with Andrea, you can find her on Iscicle @ andreabarbero99300.

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Andrea is current undergrad at the University of North Carolina, where she is studying Business and Math. She was recently offered an internship with Bain & Co. as an Associate Consultant. We had the chance to chat with Andrea to learn about her journey as an international student in the U.S. as well as how she has approached her internship search. Here’s what she had to say:

Can you tell me about your journey as an Italian international student in the U.S.?

I think my international student journey is a bit atypical. Most of the international students I’ve met are from international schools in their countries. I just attended a normal public high school in Italy that didn’t have any international background or placement abroad. I always knew I wanted to do an exchange in the U.S., but wasn’t able to because of COVID. I actually ended up applying to US colleges at the last minute, which ended up feeling quite rushed.

When I actually moved to the U.S., everything was super new. I had to build my knowledge of the U.S. system on my own, which was very challenging, but also helped me learn how to do that research and to connect with others, which actually helped me later on during recruitment.

On the professional side, I did a lot of research when it came to applying for internships and jobs. My university is not located in a big city, so it’s harder to find part-time positions, mainly because a lot of companies want you to be in person (and a lot of roles are only open to U.S. citizens). As a result, at the start I could only find unpaid or smaller positions, but I feel that these have helped me build my resume, even since my freshman year.

Your incoming internship is in management consulting, how did you end up applying to roles like that?

I knew I wanted to go into business when I started college, but I was super undecided between finance and consulting. As an international student, I decided I wanted to follow a more conventional path as I figured those types of companies would be more likely to sponsor me. I ended up choosing consulting because I felt it was more flexible and would allow me to explore more areas than finance would.

However, after 1.5 years of recruiting in consulting, I realized that only four companies would actually sponsor my visa - which felt super scary. I spent that second semester sophomore year feeling really upset, because I knew what I wanted to do, but so few companies would be open to sponsoring me.

It’s amazing that you landed an internship at one of the few consulting companies that does sponsor. What was the mindset and strategy that helped you get there?

It feels really great because it was so stressful when I realized that so few companies sponsored international students. However, when I realized I could only apply to four companies, I decided I would focus and do my very best for those four. I began to network with people from all four companies - I did coffee chats and felt like they helped me so much, as I got to learn about company culture, gain insider perspectives, and figure out where I wanted to be location-wise. At the beginning of my college journey, I was always told to network, but I didn’t realize how important it was until I did. I think it’s so important to talk to people who are where you want to be - at your dream companies. It helped me realize where I wanted to be, and which company/location I wanted to be in.

Can you talk a bit more about your internship search strategies?

So what I did the summer between my freshman and sophomore year was that I “stalked” a lot of successful students: students who had gotten to where I wanted to be. I made a huge list of all the things they’d done, and I used that to create a list of all the programs they’d been part of. Many of them were very niche programs. Then, I would continue checking to see if applications had opened and if I could apply (many of them weren’t well-advertised, you had to find them on your own). If I saw that it was a smaller program, I would also reach out to people who had been part of the program to learn more.

Honestly, I spent literally hours and hours looking through 1000’s of programs. Some of them ended up being more useful than others. I do think early career programs are quite useful: you get early access to recruiting and you can also experience the job to better understand what would be expected of you.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with other international students who may want to intern in consulting, or generally are just on the internship hunt?

I think it’s a very tough process, but never lose hope and know there are so many ways to get into a specific field or sector/company. I think it’s very important to try. I will say that for people who can start from freshman year, please start as soon as you can. Join as many clubs as you can, build your network, look for opportunities – start making those lists I mentioned earlier, even before you go to college. SO many opportunities can open up for you, even the start of your freshman year. The sooner you start the better - but even if you’re beginning later, you can still find opportunities and succeed.

When it comes to networking, I’d encourage you to be genuine. I always saw networking as weird and didn’t really get it until I realized that it was just about making connections and being genuine. With this approach, I now enjoy the process. You may feel, like I did, that people who don’t know you probably wouldn’t be willing to help you, but the truth is that so many people, especially alumni, are so willing to give back. People are so willing to connect with you and to help you: you just need to ask. You may get some no’s, but I’m sure you’ll get some yes’s, too.

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