Internship Spotlight: Lavender Mao ’27, Bain
Lavender Mao ’27 spent her summer driving digital transformations and preparing for work as full-time consultant.
Internship company and location: Bain & Company, Boston, MA
Hometown: Ningbo, China
Pronouns: she/her/hers
The SOM classes you use on the job: Leading Organizational Change, Competitor, and The Workforce
Go-to work lunch: A salad loaded with vegetables
After-work routine: A relaxing walk through the Boston Public Garden, followed by a workout and some reading
Favorite thing about my internship city: Wandering through downtown Boston, hiking nearby trails, and taking weekend trips to coastal towns such as Manchester-by-the-Sea and Rockport
This summer, I joined Bain’s Boston office as a summer associate, primarily working on a technology transformation for a large media and entertainment company. The client’s technology capabilities had become fragmented across its business units, creating duplication, inconsistent services, and unnecessary costs. Our team assessed which capabilities should be centralized, analyzed the cost base and savings opportunities, and designed the supporting operating model and governance. The work gave client senior executives a clear path to capture meaningful savings and build a more unified, scalable technology organization.
I was drawn to Bain by its supportive culture, the high-impact work the firm does, and the abundant opportunities to explore different industries, capabilities, and communities within the firm. I wanted to sharpen my consulting tool kit, think more strategically, and focus on the questions that matter most to senior leaders, while also strengthening my communication and leadership skills. The internship delivered exactly that. I received meaningful ownership, frequent feedback, and constant encouragement to develop my own point of view. I felt both supported and challenged throughout the summer, which made the experience especially rewarding.
I leaned on the SOM Consulting Club during recruiting season. The club provided thoughtful, structured training across every stage of recruiting, from preparing for coffee chats to walking through each major case interview module and building the fundamentals step by step. It also organized additional casing teams that paired first-year students with second-year leads for regular interview preparation. Beyond the formal programming, the club leaders and second-year students who had gone through consulting recruiting were extremely generous with their time, offering mock interviews and candid advice throughout the process.
The club also supported me and my classmates after we received summer offers, hosting internship preparation sessions focused on succeeding during the summer. Second-year students who had previously interned at Bain opened up about their own experiences. Their guidance helped me understand the internship structure early and think intentionally about the relationships I wanted to build.
Several SOM courses were directly relevant to my work. Leading Organizational Change helped me look beyond organization charts and consider how leaders and employees would experience a transformation. Competitor shaped my approach to benchmarking by encouraging me to understand the strategy behind each company’s choices. The Workforce helped me think more carefully about how changes in roles, capabilities, and decision rights affect people in their daily work.
The firm assigned me a mentor, Dorothy Chen ’25, who played an especially important role in my experience. Before the internship began, she helped me think through my goals and how I wanted to approach the summer. During the internship, our regular check-ins helped me navigate both the firm and my case. Her practical, hands-on advice accelerated my progress and gave me confidence when I faced new challenges. Having Dorothy and other SOM alumni in the office gave me an immediate sense of belonging.
The internship was intense and pushed me to grow quickly, but it was also genuinely fun. One of the most memorable parts of the summer was experiencing Bain’s “work hard, play hard” culture firsthand. My case team found ways to have fun together almost every day, and the summer associate cohort danced at the summer meeting, traveled to Maine for whitewater rafting, and joined many social and networking events throughout the summer. I also teamed up with other SOM alums in the Boston office to hold a SOM happy hour that brought current students and alumni together, which made the workplace feel even more welcoming.
Before SOM, I spent five years in digital transformation consulting. I came to business school hoping to move into broader strategy work with greater exposure to enterprise-level decisions, and this internship was exactly the transition I had been looking for. Bain allowed me to build on my technology background while working on strategic questions involving operating models, organizational design, governance, and senior leadership priorities.
The summer also gave me a clearer view of where I still want to grow, especially in executive communication, leadership, and strategic thinking. This year at SOM, I plan to use my remaining courses and resources deliberately so I am even better prepared when I return to Bain as a full-time associate. I’m going into my final year at SOM more excited than ever about the consultant and leader I hope to become.
