Hear from FTI Consulting Interns and Their Experience

On this episode of the internship show, we speak with Kelsey Lem and Teneuge Gupta from FTI Consulting. Kelsey and Teneuge are just finishing their internship experience at FTI Consulting and share how the company has supported them throughout their time there, what they've learned and give advice to students about why they should check out FTIs Consulting as an employer of choice. Stay tuned the show's coming up next. Kelsey and Teneuge, thanks so much for taking the time and joining the show. Of course, thanks for having us. Super excited to have both of you here and want to start off with a couple of introductions. Kelsey, do you mind introducing yourself and talking a bit about your role at FTI Consulting? Of course, it's nice to meet you all. My name is Kelsey. I am currently in Technology Consulting, Inter, in San Francisco office and within our technology segment we rotate between three different rotations including ediscovery, digital forensics and information governance and we hope you can dive a little deeper into each of those rotations a little bit later on. Thanks, Kelsey. And Teneuge, same to you, you might introduce yourself and talking about your role right now at FTI Consulting. Yeah, thank you, Parker. So hi everyone, my name is Teneuge and I am in the New York office this summer at FTI Consulting. I'm within the corporate finance and restructuring practice, specifically healthcare business transformation and within that I'm doing work under the life sciences team this summer. So excited to have both of you here and really chat about your FTI Consulting experience. Kelsey, can you share a bit about your background and then would love to know what drew you toward a career at FTI Consulting? So I saw you business administration with concentrations and information systems and business analytics with the mind of history at Boston University and these really strong interest in data as well as business really kind of drew me to FTI. So I initially actually heard about FTI from various upper-clothsmen and my consultant group as a freshman. And then I basically heard a lot about how they enjoyed their experiences. And then as a sophomore I learned about the FTI impact program, which I applied to in around September and then where I learned about different segments and got to network for the various FTI professionals. I love hearing from friends, right? Word of mouth goes such a long way when you're looking for that next employer. So to news, how about you, talk a bit about your background and curious what drew you the FTI as well? I'm going to be a senior, this upcoming fall at the University of Pennsylvania. And it's funny enough, last year in the fall, I took a classical negotiations and basically we're doing mock simulations of a negotiation case and my partner happened to be an FTI incoming consultant and we started getting into our case and at the end of it we just started talking. He told me his interest in healthcare and I shared mine as well. And he had a really powerful story and I shared mine as well and he was super supportive and both of us started talking and he was just giving me advice for my career growth and progression and he was super down to earth and pushed me to apply to FTI consulting. Again, that strength of word of mouth I think resonates in both of your stories and super excited to dive into that a bit. He'll see briefly mentioned it, but you got involved in the FTI impact program. Can you talk a bit about that experience and how it influenced your interest in what you're doing today at FTI? So it was a program that I participated in and I did my sophomore year and I think it was a really cool opportunity because consultants from all different levels all the way from consultants to senior managing directors were there to share about their work and then each segment was basically spotlighted by one of the segment managing directors and basically provided some case studies at the time of work that they will do so they highlighted the birdie made off case as well as the ad-cheerage case which I thought was really cool and I think that really taught also did a really great job in setting up different networking opportunities for us. So it was a really good mix of learning more about FTI but also actually getting to talk with consultants one-on-one. So I actually remember I chatted with someone out of the Chicago office within the technology segment and we shared a love for history because you majored in history and not really resonated with me because you could see how even though it didn't seem super relevant to me at the time, that history minor kind of had a reason within the technology segment which kind of encouraged me to apply more. So the impact program was really great and I feel like I was able to get a really good understanding of FTI even before interviewing and learning more about it throughout the internship. That early knowledge is always super helpful and so great to hear that the FTI impact program gave that to you and here you are at FTI today. To news, can you talk a bit more about the healthcare segment that you're working in and why are you so passionate about the work that you're doing? You know, I guess the reason why I'm more passionate about the work I'm doing this summer is to give you a little bit more of background. I have a really big exposure into the healthcare industry. It all started with just a personal autoimmune condition called alipusia dealt with throughout my life. Just like, you know, hair loss and I was really involved with the National Alapusia Area of Foundation early on in my life and you know, I was doing a lot of work on the policy side advocating for some healthcare bills but you know, my interest later through different and you know, I was more interested in some industry work. I worked for a pharmaceutical company last summer right in Boston. I really loved it but you know, this summer I really wanted to try something new but still in the healthcare space. So you know, now I'm doing life sciences consulting. It's more client, client facing so I think it's giving me a new fun, interesting perspective and you know, it's scraping on the other side of things. Thanks for sharing to news. I think that's so, so exciting and you know, just impactful that you can carry a passion into your career which I think is something that FTI consult me that really delivers on. And Kelsey, can you walk us through, you know, kind of your work on the projects during your time at FTI and you know, any kind of key learnings you've taken away from those projects at FTI? Yeah, I'd be happy to. So I feel really lucky that I've actually been able to see projects from its entire life cycle. So all the way from initial scooping calls, even to producing documents to counsel at the very end. You want to see that entire what we call the electronic discovery model was really, really cool. And with cases with banks, food distributors, software companies, manufacturing firms, like getting the overview of all these different industries within this technology, all the work that we're able to provide them is really interesting. I think one of the coolest things about working at FTI that I was able to learn this summer is that every single time I see like a news headline, I think about like, oh, I wonder if like FTI is the face behind the name, right? And just getting knowing that we're working on such impactful projects, I think it's been one of my favorite parts within tech. And then essentially within an industry that's changing so much within tech as well as data just growing exponentially across everywhere. I think it's really cool that tech is always on the forward-facing edge of it. So on one of my projects this summer, we employed a machine learning model to help with coding, responsiveness of these various hundreds of thousands of documents, which sped up review a lot faster, which would be on client expectations as well as we were able to use new technologies to help assist with our review, which is super cool. And we were able to find insights on how that machine learning model was helping provide insights on the client side. And it was just really interesting to be able to see that process of setting up the model, kind of explaining to Council how this actually works. But I think that was a really great example of how tech consultants try to stay kind of in front of everything and deliver valuable insights will also kind of leverage in new technologies. I think that's awesome to be able to see that end-to-end impact from start to finish giving you that projection of what the career of the TTI could ultimately look like as well. To news, anything from your experience working on projects at FTI that you'd want to highlight, I know you've been able to travel during your internship, which also very unique I would say. So my experience at FTI has been amazing, especially in the project I've been working on this summer. As you mentioned, yeah, I've been able to travel twice. It's been great. We went to our client's site and we're conducting interviews and I got to meet a ton of the different stakeholders involved with the entire process and just got to learn a lot more about how a specific pharmaceutical company works. Also just like the work I was doing, I got to sit behind pretty much every single client call. So I was able to learn from the consultant on the project, the senior consultant, the director and also the managing director, which is something as an intern, it feels really good to get that experience. I love that. And I mean, outside of the work that you're doing to news, what's your experience with the culture at FTI, Ben like anything kind of stuck out to you? What I've noticed is that everyone's super welcoming. I think that part of the reason why this is the small tight knit culture between projects, there's only one, or at least for me, but most of the cases it seems like as well, there's a consultant, a senior consultant, a director, a managing director and you get to closely work with every single person and your team, including the managing director. And as an intern, I feel like a lot of places you might not really have that exposure. And throughout the summer, they've had a lot of different events for the interns and just diversity events where all of us are talking to a bunch of different employees at the firm and a lot of these employees happen to be doing. to be some of the senior staff and every single time, we attend, they're always so welcoming, they're trying to get to know us, which really makes us feel good and eliminates that hierarchical structure. You would typically get at a lot of different firms. - I totally agree, just the openness and willingness to have a conversation with in-in turn, if you are a manager partner, et cetera, goes a long way. Kelsey, anything you'd add to your experience with the culture at FTI, what's impacted you? - Yeah, my experience very much aligns with Tunisia's. I think the culture is honestly very unbeatable. One of my favorite memories from the summer was literally day one when we were in the office, we were crowded by every single tech consultant in the office and they're like, hi, I'm blah, blah, blah, anything like that. The fact that now we're flexing on it 10 weeks later, I've worked with all these people now and these are people that I chat and ask them, I know what they're doing on the weekend, someone beats a lemon bar or something like that. And I think the fact that it just took only 10 weeks to get to know these people so well was really neat. I think the San Francisco office also has a very unique charm to it where everyone here is just so intelligent and also really funny and huge, huge foods. We've done so many food outings, I think, which has been super exciting. And even throughout the summer, similar to I think the New York office, we've been able to do a lot of fun outings. We did lunches, office visits, a giant game. Actually later today, we're going to the exporter's forum, which is like an interactive science tech museum here in San Francisco, which we're all super excited about. But they really do do a jam pack summer for us to make it the most memorable experience. But also not an up and a partner with you just mentioned with the networking as well. Like everyone is more than happy to chat with you. I reach out to people not expecting a response, but every single person got back to me. Just me asking like, I really just want to know what you do, honestly, sometimes a little, like other parts of the segment as well, then they were more than happy to chat with me. So I think that part of FCI is that it's people really make up his culture. And like, what about be the same without people? It sounds like from both of your experiences with the culture at FTI, it kind of almost breeds this inherent mentorship opportunity. Kelsey has mentorship played a role in your intern experience. Have you learned or grown in any aspects, maybe, of yourself in your professional career from that? Yeah, totally. I think FTI does a really amazing job of setting up the support system for you from day one. So we all have a coach who effectively serves as our manager, but in a fancy term. In our orientation advisor, which is our mentor, everybody, anything like that. And from week one, they were my biggest supporters, number one cheerleaders. They brought me onto their teams. They helped them with all the projects. And with my bajillion questions, they were always more than happy to answer all of them. I actually had expressed to both of them that I was interested in something called case management during week one, because that's where my background also kind of lies. And they went out of their way to introduce me to one of the case managers, figure out how I can actually apply case management skills onto our projects. And I think the fact that they really were trying to find ways to really fill out, well, I was requesting what I wanted to learn this summer. I'm really appreciative all the time and effort they put into my growth. My away also, she was definitely my biggest supporter throughout the summer. She would always check it on how I was doing, like, on a personal level that asking, like, was I balancing my workload well. And I think that having that built-in mentorship program, their mentorship aspect in FTI has been, obviously, one of the best parts of the summer. To news, anything you that you're experienced relating the mentorship of FTI? I think Kelsey definitely touched a lot upon it, but just to add, having your OA, orientation advisor, someone a little more junior, there's a consultant for me, the same consultant who was staffed in the same project as me as the summer. So it really worked out well. So she could be realistic with the amount of work I had and assign me different tasks, try to constantly just challenge me, and also just be there if I ever needed any help. And also, having a coach as well, kind of like that higher level person, she would always be really supportive to me. I actually got to meet her one time when I was traveling to Boston. She's based in the FTI Boston office. So as soon as I met her, she gave me a hug, which was very welcoming. So yeah, I think mentorship is a huge thing here at FTI. And I think that definitely gained a lot of my skills, because they're constantly trying to see you succeed every single person there. This has been so awesome to hear both of your firsthand experiences. Now at the end of your FTI internship, I'd love to close out the show. And if you were talking to a student who's just hearing about FTI for the first time, what's kind of one thing that you'd want them to know about the firm? One of the coolest things up, I feel like it gets hard to say quantify what FTI actually really does, until you actually talk with consultants. But the phrase is experts with impact. And I do think every single person you meet here is an expert in whatever they do, whether that be qualifying and whether that be typing my own segment. And they come from all your friend walks of life. There's previous FTI members. There's lawyers. There's technologists, all that type of stuff. But no matter how intelligent, how smart, how funny all these people are, they're so easy to talk to. They're people at their core. And again, just builds into that culture of FTI again, where I'll be talking to someone like the coolest experience where they went to an article to do X, Y, and Z collection. And then they'll crack a joke and ask us to go get boba right after. I think that perfectly sums up my time at FTI, where it's so many smart people, but also such kind of genuine people that you really want it to know. Thank you both. This has been a great conversation. We appreciate the time. Of course. Thank you, Parker. Thank you, Parker. So fun chatting with Taneusz and Kelsey from FTI Consulting. To learn about their internship experience, hear how FTI supported them throughout their program and so much more. Stay tuned for the next episode of The Internship Show and have a great day.