As Master in Management student at FS, I have the chance to follow the 3-day Model- Basically, all of our classes are condensed into 3 days: Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Therefore, I decided to make use of my 3 ‘free’ days and look for a part-time job related to my studies. As a working student, you may work up to 20 hours per week and are therefore able to attend classes during the rest of the week.
Before joining FS, I had already done two internships at KPMG, first In Luxembourg then in Frankfurt. Last September, I then started there as working student in Digital Strategy Consulting.
If I were to describe my 1st year at FS, I would suggest you start picturing a pyramid. On each of the edges, you can respectively read: Social Life, Sleep, and Academic Success. The rule is the game is that you may only chose 2 out of the 3, so it’s your call! But jokes aside; I must admit that working besides your studies requires a lot of self-discipline and excellent time management. Once you find your personal routine and you get used to it, balancing the 3 edges of the pyramid becomes natural.
During my time at KPMG, especially through my position as a working student, I got the opportunity to support the team on various topics in different projects. This helped me get a better understanding of the booming topic digitalization and experience it hands-on. As a part-time supporting member of the team, you are responsible for assisting your colleagues in diverse tasks and jobs, which enables you to get a great overview of the department.
In comparison to interns, working students are not able to be in the office every day. As a consequence, we miss out on a lot that happens during our absence. More effort is therefore required from our side to keep up with the fast pace in consulting. Therefore, I would still suggest you look for a full-time internship for during the summer break as it is important to be fully involved in projects from start to end.
If you have the chance to work in a company of your choice alongside your studies, do it! As a working student, you can gain an infinite amount of experiences and are able to rotate jobs more often than you would be able to in the future. Overall, you can get strong insights of the working environment and develop business relationships which contribute to expanding your future professional network. Working student positions open a lot of doors and can be a good entry into the job market.