Strategy Consulting Graduate Internship Programme 2021

Our four-month internship programme offers graduates a fantastic opportunity to gain career-enhancing experience, with the chance of securing a permanent role in the team on completion.

Who we are and what we do

Cognosis are a London-based boutique strategy consultancy. We unlock revenue growth potential for businesses and brands.

We are a small but experienced business; for over 20 years, we’ve been igniting growth for clients across more than 60 countries.

Our specialism is building commercially credible growth strategies that engage leaders and their teams. This means our work centres on competitor, portfolio and group-wide business strategy.

We work across multiple sectors with many exciting and instantly recognisable clients and brands. Recent projects have seen us working with ABInBev, Clarks, Diageo, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Sport England, AkzoNobel and Laithwaites Wine.

The opportunity

We can offer you an exceptional internship experience to get your consulting career off to a flying start. Expect intellectually engaging, varied work, and an opportunity to be close to the action.

We work with board level clients as well as strategy, marketing and innovation teams. Client interactions are frequent and, as a small firm, gaining exposure to some truly interesting people and brands during your internship is a tangible prospect.

You will get to know your new colleagues quickly and find them generous with their time and experience; we are not big on hierarchy at Cognosis and everyone’s contribution is valued.

All in all, our interns tell us that the experience they have gained on our programme has been invaluable.

What to expect

From week one, you will join one of our project teams and start contributing to our client work. You will be assigned a buddy and mentor and take part in our intern induction programme, which runs alongside practical work experience to provide you with the skills and knowledge you need to succeed.

No two projects are the same, but your role will typically involve research, reviewing and structuring strategic documents, and analysing data. You will be presenting and explaining your findings to senior team members and clients. You may also be asked to contribute to the preparation and organisation of client workshops.

Who we are looking for

If you are a bright, curious, self-starter, who enjoys mixing the interpersonal with the deeply analytical, then Cognosis is probably for you.

At Cognosis we each bring something different to our team. We believe difference enables us to create better strategies, and pride ourselves on an inclusive environment where diverse thinking and experience is valued.

Our applicants come from a broad range of academic backgrounds too. Rather than seeking specific qualifications, we look for graduates who can demonstrate how their academic achievements can be applicable to our work, along with great EQ and a genuine excitement for business strategy.

You will have an ability to understand and interpret significant quantities of qualitative and quantitative information and possess first rate written and oral communication skills in order to explain and present your findings in a clear, concise and engaging manner.

A highly organised individual, you will be resourceful, flexible and unfazed by tight deadlines.

Finally, you will be passionate about developing insights to unlock business challenges and bring energy to all that you do.

Anything else

• It is essential that you have fluent written & spoken English and an ongoing right to work in the UK.
• Experience using Excel & PowerPoint to examine and present information would be advantageous.
• As our internships often lead to an offer of employment, candidates must be able to take up a permanent role on successful completion of the programme.
• Our client base includes companies from the alcohol, tobacco and gambling industries – you must be comfortable working on projects in these areas

What we can offer

Our interns receive a monthly salary of £1,900, plus annual leave, and support towards setting up their home office.

Upon receipt of an offer as a permanent consultant you can expect:

• Annual base salary of £32K
• Share of annual “profit pool” payment
• 25 days holiday p/a, increasing with service
• Stakeholder pension scheme
• Sales Incentive scheme
• Life Assurance
• Season ticket loan
• Cycle Scheme
• Recognition scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme

We are currently working on a “remote first” basis, and with a planned full re-opening of our office in August. We value a balance between time with the client, time with the team and personal flexibility. On return to the office we anticipate the team will be required to spend roughly half their time office-based or on client visits, with the option to work from home for the remainder, if they choose.

How to apply

We are now recruiting for our September programme, commencing on 6th September 2021.

Please complete the application questions and submit your CV.

Deadline for applications: 2nd July 2021. Early application is encouraged.

Please note, you must be available to take part in a Zoom interview w/c 19th or 26th July and to attend a half-day assessment centre in our London Waterloo office on 5th or 9th August.

Further Candidate Information

Candidate privacy statement

As part of our recruitment and onboarding process, Cognosis collects and processes personal data relating to candidates. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use that data, and to meeting our data protection obligations. Cognosis takes the security of this data seriously. We have internal policies and controls in place to ensure that data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused, or disclosed, and is not accessed except by authorised employees and third parties in the legitimate and proper performance of their duties. Data we collect will be processed and stored in line with our privacy policy. Please feel free to contact us should you have any queries.

Diversity monitoring

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are based on principles of fairness and equality, are free from bias and do not discriminate under the Equality Act 2010.

To support these aims, we would like to better understand the profile of our applicant pool. All applicants are therefore invited to complete a diversity monitoring questionnaire. This information will not be stored with your application and will not be used in any part of the individual selection process. There is no requirement to complete the questionnaire if you do not feel comfortable to do so.

Any information you choose to provide will be stored and processed securely in line with our privacy policy (https://cognosis.co.uk/privacy-policy).