Select Penn students were given the opportunity to interact with some of the top consulting firms in the nation on Friday at the sixth annual consulting conference hosted by Delta Sigma Pi. The conference was held at the Doubletree Hotel in Center City. The intent of the conference, according to its organizers, was to bring top Penn students and consulting firms together. Participating firms included Andersen Consulting, Cap Gemini, Ernst and Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Delta Sigma Pi, a co-ed business fraternity at Penn, holds a consulting conference every year in order to assist students in finding consulting jobs, as well as to help companies recruit students. Some of the companies who were there had representatives who were alumni of Delta Sigma Pi. About 500 resumes were collected and reviewed by a committee within Delta Sigma Pi. The committee then selected 250 of the strongest, most well-rounded candidates. Those in attendance were primarily juniors and seniors, although a few exceptionally qualified sophomores came as well. And while the majority of the students were enrolled in Wharton, College and Engineering students were also chosen because of the companies' desire for diversity in potential employees. "Delta Sigma Pi is a prestigious business fraternity, so I decided to come out and learn about all the different consulting companies," said Wharton senior Ibrahim Majeed. Added Kathleen Ruane, a College and Wharton senior, "It looks like a great way to find out about all the consulting groups that are out there." The one-day conference included several panel sessions hosted by various consulting companies, a keynote address by Marcy Lerner of Vault.com and a buffet breakfast, as well as a formal sit-down dinner. Panel topics ranged from "Firm Size and Its Importance" to "Travel and the Consultant." Attendees were assigned to certain panels based on preferences indicated during registration. The panel on "Why Consulting?" was hosted by Arthur Andersen, Bain and Company, Mercer Management Consulting and First Manhattan Consulting Group. Employees -- some of whom were recent graduates of Penn -- related their experiences in consulting to the audience of about 50 Penn students. "If you're interested in business and if you want to hone analytic skills, you should go into consulting," said Bain employee Caroline Chen, who graduated from Penn in 1998. The hosts shared both the positive aspects of consulting as well as its possible drawbacks. They conceded that the long work hours -- sometimes more than 80 hours a week -- could discourage some people from working in the field of consulting. Nevertheless, they also cited the intellectual challenge, varying types of work and opportunities for networking as excellent reasons to work as a consultant.
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