While at university, the most basic form of assessment of new skills learned is through the completion of homework assignments. During lectures, students learn new formulas, memorize methods, or practice more advanced techniques. They then apply their newfound knowledge to a set of problems outside of the classroom. Once a solution is reached, the submission is graded, and the student receives a score on how well they learned and implemented this new skill.
This type of assessment utilizes the first three steps in Bloom’s Taxonomy:
- Remembering
- Understanding
- Applying
To assess more complex skills in a scaled-up manner, students are often assigned projects. Usually given more time and allowed teammates, these assessments require much more thought and effort to complete. There might be multiple components to the project, written and verbal deliverables, and extensive analysis to complete. As a result, the student develops a greater skill set by analyzing this larger assignment.
This form of project utilizes additional steps in Bloom’s Taxonomy:
- Analyzing
- Evaluating
For the ultimate assessment of one’s skills, a student might participate in a semester long capstone design project, conduct a semester long research study in a laboratory, or develop an innovative product for a start-up company. While students tend to receive a clear description of the problem in homework assignments and projects, the problem is much less defined in an open-ended assessment of this caliber. As a result, students must utilize their entire skillset to define and understand the research question, develop a framework and list of tasks, and conclude with a final design or set of experimental results.
This kind of large-scale assessment will utilize all of the steps in Bloom’s Taxonomy, including the final one:
- Creating
Preparing for a career in consulting contains milestones that roughly resemble this process. First you learn the elements of a case interview, memorizing frameworks and implementing strategies. These interviews are relatively short and focus mostly on applying skills. This utilizes some of the first few steps in Bloom’s Taxonomy.
The parallel to group projects are case competitions. The prompt serves as the problem statement, then the teams must split up to conduct research, perform calculations, synthesize results, and determine recommendations. This type of assessment tests analysis and evaluation skills for all involved, and these competitions are much longer than traditional case interviews.
What then is the equivalent for semester long research projects? Enter pro-bono consulting projects. These ten-to-fifteen-week engagements simulate the work of actual consultants, albeit less hours per week than a full-time employee. Student teams must distill information about the problem from the client, then they must attempt to create a solution complete with research, analysis, synthesis, and conclusions. Just like the senior capstone project or independent research study, the pro-bono consulting experience utilizes the entirety of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Participating in pro-bono projects is truly the best way to test the consulting waters. These projects offer multiple benefits over the case interview and case competition. First, receiving periodic feedback by engaging with the client in update meetings allows the project to change shape and scope depending on early results. This feedback process allows the final deliverable to be the best possible solution that was iterated upon and revised throughout the project. In addition, there is ample time for extensive research and data collection. In contrast, data is often provided during a case interview, and there is usually only a single week to conduct research for a case competition. Finally, the longer project time allows different members to assume and explore consulting team roles, something that there is usually not enough time for during a case competition.
So, how do you participate in this type of consulting practice? Well, consulting can be thought of as “brains for hire” so there are many places that would love to have a consultant on board to solve difficult problems and conduct extensive data analysis. There are few places to start when it comes to finding projects:
- University Consulting Clubs
- University Departments or Academic Start-Up Incubators
- Local Firms or Alumni-Run Companies
Obviously the first place to look would be at your university consulting club, whether they are geared towards advanced degree candidates, undergraduate students, or MBA programs. Many of these clubs already offer pro-bono consulting opportunities, so just get involved in the organization and apply for these positions. In addition, some clubs outside of consulting offer pro-bono consulting such as non-profit support organizations or student government boards. If you are curious what an example program looks like, take a look at Duke University’s Advanced Professional Degree Webpage: Pro-bono Consulting Program – Duke APD Consulting Club.
If your consulting club does not offer pro-bono consulting, considering starting it up. If your university does not have a consulting club, consider starting a club or creating a pro-bono side gig on your own.
When trying to identify potential projects or clients, start nearby to your university. There are always departments or offices that could use consultants for short term projects. For example, residential life might need someone to sift through hundreds of housing survey results, in order to provide recommendations for improvements. Many academic departments might need someone to analyze enrollment numbers over the years to determine trends. Academic tutoring teams might want simpler tools for providing sessions and retaining tutors. These are just some examples of easy places to look for possible consulting projects, all you must do is go and offer your services.
In addition, many universities are creating startup and incubator environments for academic spinoff companies. These small startups do not yet have finished products or revenue streams, plus they often lack a full staff, so voluntary pro-bono consultants are perfect for them. Student projects for startups might include market research, product development, competitor analysis, and possible merger and acquisition studies. While academic departments might need more help when classes are in session, the benefits of consulting for startups would be the potential of year-round projects.
Finally, students might want to look outside the university for possible projects. For local connections, you might want to reach out to nearby firms that might need the services of a student consultant. Some of these firms might also participate in senior capstone design projects for engineering majors, so they might also entertain the thought of additional services from aspiring student consultants. Thinking bigger than just the local firms, students might want to utilize the university’s alumni network to find consulting projects from around the state or country. While traveling to these clients might be more difficult, in this virtual world, anything is possible.
Remember, you have plenty of skills and experiences. Do not hesitate to ask people what problems they need solved. You never know who might want to hire your brain.
Ricky Hollenbach is a third year Ph.D. student at Duke University in Mechanical Engineering, studying unsteady aerodynamics and mechanical vibrations in jet engines and turbomachinery. He aspires to become a management consultant in the aerospace and defense fields.
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