My path toward consulting

Vilina Gupta

07-18-2024

I’m from Bangalore, India, and came to Purdue intending to study computer science. I’d chosen a minor in general management, and it opened my eyes to a world I wanted to be a part of. I realized I wanted to learn more about business than software engineering.

Consulting was one of the main fields that I wanted to enter once I became a management major. Once I graduate, I'm planning to go into consulting, specifically supply chain consulting, though I would like to move into strategy consulting or management consulting. I’d even like to have my own business one day.

Right now, I’m a peer consultant for Daniels School students. A peer consultant acts as the middleman between a seasoned professional who can give you a career coach or give you career advice.

If students want clarification about how to proceed in their career, they're sometimes too shy to ask a career coach. When they ask a peer consultant - someone their age who's going through the same experiences - it becomes much easier and less embarrassing to ask those questions. As a peer consultant, I help people with their resumes, cover letters, mock interviews, LinkedIn pages, how to apply for jobs, and the general process of how to navigate the business school to make the most of their experience at Purdue.

Aside from my job as a peer consultant, I’ve pursued several internships to build broad business experience. The summer after my sophomore year, I went back to India and interned at Ernst & Young as a consulting intern. It was an eye opener, giving me insight into what consultants do and how their world works.

The summer before my senior year, I had an internship at Cummins as a product management intern. While it wasn't related to consulting, I discovered other avenues available to me if I don’t land my ideal position right away. Some roles are project management and product management. I learned what goes into those roles, like the marketing side and playing with numbers.

It was harder to find that internship. As an international student, I must be careful which companies I give my time and energy to because not all accept international students for internships or full-time positions. Networking helped. I heard through my organization, Women in Business, that Cummins was providing internships to international students. I reached out, asking if another member would connect me with the Women in Business and Purdue alum who worked for Cummins. We had a couple conversations, and she pushed my application a bit forward and that helped me land my internship.

These organizations - Women in Business and Alpha Kappa Psi – are crucial for business students. Women in Business helps women across campus who want to be business leaders and move up in the professional world. It focuses on membership, service, and building professional development skills, which are extremely important. I joined when I was a sophomore because I didn’t know anyone in the business school yet. I wanted to start building my own network and find mentors, especially among women who are either international and have been in the same position I have, or who can help open avenues for me. My first semester in Women in Business, I was a general member. The second semester I became the HR director, after which I ran for an executive board position and became the vice president of internal relations for a year.

I'm no longer in the organization, but it's been a great learning experience because it taught me the ins-and-outs of HR and gave me some experience as to how people manage and build on those skills, especially organizational and time management skills.. A lot of the soft skills that I now have stem from that experience.

I’m now in one of the biggest business organizations on campus, Alpha Kappa Psi, which is also the oldest business fraternity in the United States. It’s open to all genders and people.

I've held multiple positions within Alpha Kappa Psi. When I became a brother -- that's what they call members -- I was a fundraising chair, which was a great experience because I worked with an executive board member and learned the ropes. Next, I became a corporate outreach chair, where I fostered connections with companies and their recruiters to encourage them to host events for us and help us build networks. Now I am the vice president of professional development, which includes creating opportunities for professional development within the organization. I'm in charge of two committees, the professional internal committee and the tech committee.

Community is one of the most important discoveries I’ve had at Purdue. Boilermakers are very supportive. They give you a chance to experiment and fail and then learn from those lessons, which is something that might not be available at other places or even when you enter the workforce. Having that little safety bubble is one of the biggest takeaways from my time in the Daniels School.