What I liked
The culture at HBR is phenomenal. Every person I talked with over the summer was incredibly friendly, outgoing, and helpful, and it truly felt like a tight-knit community, which is what I had been hoping for at a smaller firm of around 400 people. Every coffee chat invite I sent out was accepted, whether it was with a first year consultant or a member of senior leadership, which I thought was pretty cool. It was great to get to know and be known by people throughout the firm, which you don't really get the opportunity to have at much larger companies.
From a work perspective, I was always busy but never overwhelmed, which I appreciated. I was able to help on two separate real-time projects with my manager and coach while also spending the summer putting together a capstone presentation with other interns. The capstone project covered a topic that was pertinent to the firm and some of our recommendations ended up being utilized, and I liked that the capstone had a more meaningful purpose than just being something to do when we didn't have anything to work on with our other projects.
