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Life Dinner: Why
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Don't lol - have a life instead
If you're a fellow masochist determined to not have a life for the sake of a consulting career - try not waste your summer on Gucci internships, have a life now wile you can.
Instead, the best thing you can do is meet people! For all their talk of transparency and standing against nepotism - knowing people and getting referred are by far the best ways to get in.
People will bomb their case interviews and still get in if there's enough voices in the firm vouching for them.
I imagine this is the case everywhere, I know first hand it is in BCG and Kearney. Literally know someone who got into BCG with bad case interviews cause he dated the posh kid of a partner.
To meet people go to any and all events and put yourself out there - go up and talk to consultants, and don't just talk cliche consulting questions. Cold emailing or calling uni alumni to catch up for a coffee and ask for advice is great too - just make sure you maintain relationships throughout your uni career.
There are plenty of blogs or courses online to help with some basic networking/interpersonal skills.
Other than that the best thing you can do - by far - more than any internships or extra-curriculars - is get the best grades you can. Grades get interviews, everything else comes after that.
Seems like you're set on cases anyway, you can always practice these but there are diminishing returns if you are already decent. Your case performance can also be improved with soft skills - so improving your networking ability will also improve your case interviews.
In summ:
1) network network network
2) focus on your grades first over anything else (including internships)
3) do well enough at the case interviews
P.S. presumably you're across the other interview related stuff - like making sure you can speak to things like strengths and weaknesses or your story for why consulting - PrepLounge is a good resource for this
P.P.S. in terms of internships, I don't think it matters what you did before as much as people say - what matters is how you tie it into the narrative of your story for why consulting. So a summer working for a not-for-profit art gallery can be more valuable on your resume than having a Big 4 internship if it fits your story (and you're hitting other points like grades and case performance)
For context, my background is merchant banking focused on public equity markets and a switch to consulting for the past 2 years
Thank you so much for the detailed advice! I really appreciate it! I'd definitely start going to more career events and put myself out there!