Over the summer of ‘24 I had the pleasure of interning at Cambridge Management Consulting, an organisation founded by Pembroke William Pitt Fellow Tim Passingham back in 2015. The company now operates globally, encompassing consultants with a huge range of industry expertise reaching all four corners of the globe. Cambridge MC seek to drive business growth with their clients, offering novel solutions to a range of contextual issues surrounding structure, workforce demands, marketing or the digital space, to name a few. They have a particularly strong environmental focus – 2021 saw the founding of EdenSeven, a new branch of the company centred around “data-driven sustainability strategies”. This is paired with a keen support for charitable causes – in 2023, the company engaged in 200 hours of pro-bono consultancy for charities. With this all put together, I found the company remarkably intriguing and was fortunate enough to be offered a six-week internship over July and August.
During my internship I was keen to work from Lisbon, my home city, and use Portuguese in a daily context to enhance my professional understanding of the language. Given their international reach, Cambridge MC were very accommodating with this and put me in contact very early on with Charles Orsel Des Sagets, Managing Partner for EMEA, LATAM and Asia, who identified two key tasks for me: the first involved procuring clients for Cambridge MC and their new branch, Cambridge Connect, in the Iberia region. The second involved performing a similar task for a client named Orchest, a mobile connectivity solutions company operating in Latin America. This meant I was able to utilise Portuguese daily when contacting companies by phone and by email, as well as dust off my Spanish too. I thoroughly enjoyed finding clients for these organisations and managed to contact 200+ throughout the internship. The process of data collection, organisation and contacting businesses was a challenge, but one that I found offered a fascinating introduction into corporate life. The internship was carried out primarily through remote working, which offered me the flexibility to work from libraries, coffee shops or from home, which I found I valued highly. That said, there were instances when I went into some physical offices, in an attempt to meet the right people to which I could market Cambridge MC’s services. I found this enjoyable too.
For the internship I received a generous LEAP grant that I spent on professional work clothes suitable for the hot Portuguese summertime.
Upon completion of the internship in August, I was invited by Tim to attend Cambridge Tech Week (September 9-13), the city’s premier conference showcasing its booming tech industry, of which Cambridge MC was a gold sponsor. Despite my academic background being in Politics and Sociology, I was eager to attend the conference and get first-hand insight into the tech opportunities on offer on my doorstep. A significant portion of the conference was held at Pembroke College’s new auditorium on the Mill Lane site, which made attending the conference remarkably straightforward!
The conference ran for five days, beginning with a range of introductory seminars offering an overview of the Cambridge tech scene and its potentials for growth, as well as some of the challenges it faces. Following this, lectures over the course of the week zoomed in on key themes, with mornings and afternoons each dedicated to different topics such that the week encompassed as many different talking points as possible. I was particularly intrigued by the afternoon spent on Climate Tech, which offered a huge array of pitches and presentations by a host of clean tech entrepreneurs aiming to make a positive difference both nationally and internationally. This afternoon was well attended by high-ranking professionals at organisations such as Cambridge CleanTech, PwC and Cambridge Zero. This topic also offered me the opportunity to analyse the socio-political implications of climate technology, and the growing need for cross-sector collaboration when it comes to implementing immediate solutions to the climate crisis. I found applying my academic degree to a very novel context particularly rewarding!
The conference also hosted an “Innovation Alley Exhibition” at the Corn Exchange, at which a range of organisations pitched their technology solutions. I was given the freedom to roam through the exhibition and hear from all the various organisations, each of which were presenting cool and exciting gadgets that represented the very cutting edge of the Cambridge tech world. I was also given the opportunity to help at Cambridge MC’s own exhibition and talk to potential clients about the roles and opportunities offered by Cambridge MC.
In all, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Cambridge MC this summer. The whole team was very welcoming from the beginning and has been a fantastic support network throughout the internship. The hope is that I can continue working with Cambridge MC ongoing and I’m keen to follow their undoubtedly upward trajectory over the coming years! I also want to extend a huge thank-you to Hannah and Kate from LEAP who originally put me in contact with Tim – without their support during the arduous internship-searching process I wouldn’t have been able to work with Cambridge MC!
