About Gaby: Gaby Cornelio (’23) was born and raised in Los Angeles. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a double major in Economics and Media Studies. After graduation, Gaby worked for The CW TV network, first in integrated marketing then in partnership marketing, helping grow viewership for its streaming app. After trying out the marketing agency life, she transitioned into tech, joining the member experience group at Tinder. At Anderson, she recruited for consulting while also exploring venture capital. Outside of school, Gaby loves to watch the Hot Ones show on YouTube, visit theme parks, go on road trips, and spend way too long on Tik Tok.

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Hi Everyone! I’m Gaby Cornelio, and this summer, I am a Summer Consultant at EY Parthenon based in their LA office. I’m aligned to the Transaction Strategy & Execution group this summer, but full-time consultants would start as generalists who could work in other service lines as well, like Turnaround and Restructuring or Value Creation. EY Parthenon specializes in M&A consulting, but they also have strong corporate and growth strategy practices as well. To be completely honest, consulting wasn’t my initial focus when I entered business school, but I’m very excited to have this internship opportunity right now to decide if this will be the next step in my career after graduation.  

At the start of the internship, all of us interns were on the edge of our seats before finding out which project we were going to start out with for the summer. I scanned for my name down the “Intern Placements” excel doc and saw that I would be working on a post-merger synergies project for an advanced manufacturing client. Quite the mouthful! Although these terms felt so foreign to me a few weeks ago, my team – consisting of a senior director, director, and two senior associates – has allowed me the space and time to learn and contribute as much as I can during these ten weeks. It’s not easy jumping into projects midway through, but as a consultant, it’s something you might encounter and will need to know how to catch up quickly.

Within two weeks of my joining the project, we co-located (i.e. when a team spread out geographically meets up in one office to work together) in New York at EY’s newest Manhattan office. Being able to work side-by-side physically with my team was valuable when getting to know each other and collaborating. While traveling every week is less common in the industry these days, this trip allowed me to get a taste of what the typical consultant lifestyle might be like as you travel between cities to meet with your team and the client. Day to day, I am helping update synergy models, maintaining a status tracker for the team, and making sure that any client-facing documents and decks are presentation-ready. If I’m not working on these things or in team meetings, I am having coffee chats with other practitioners at EYP, meeting with my internship counselor or peer buddy, attending practitioner panels, or enjoying one of the many social and community service events they hold in the summer (we’ve done Beach Olympics, volunteering at a food bank, Top Golf, small group dinners with partners, and even a meditation class). I will say that the breadth of projects that the interns are staffed on this summer is very wide, and the daily workload truly varies intern to intern. I’m keeping in mind that, just like a full-time role, every day can be different depending on the type of project, the phase of the project, and your clients’ wants and needs.    

If I can share any advice to you as you look for and embark on your own summer internships next year, it’d be this:

–   Internships are for exploration; use this time to try out something new and be open to new industries and functions. You’re not locked into whatever future role you wrote your MBA application essays about.

–   Push yourself and take risks. Business school is the best time to be uncomfortable and think beyond what you thought you would be or should be doing.

–   Don’t shy away from skillsets you might be weaker in. I’ll be the first to tell anyone that Excel and financial modeling isn’t my strong suit, but it is a skill that I have been trying to strengthen during my time at Anderson and during the internship. Being honest with your team about your strengths and weaknesses, and working to improve on those weaknesses, will help you become a more well-rounded professional.

If you’re considering consulting, a career switch, or just want to chat, please don’t hesitate to reach out. And lastly, good luck and, most importantly, have fun!

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Student Blogger: Gaby Cornelio ‘23

Undergrad: UC Berkeley (’15) – B.A. Economics, B.A. Media Studies

Pre-MBA: Tinder, The CW

Leadership@Anderson: VP of Technology, Anderson Student Association; VP of Operations, Anti-Racism Committee; Net Impact Board Fellow