The internship is best suited for final year undergrad or grad students, recent grads and/or those with under 2 years of experience who have a genuine interest in a consulting career.

Applications are accepted via our website, typically twice a year. Your complete application will include your CV, transcripts, and responses to a few short answer questions.

We generally run application cycles twice a year. Applications open in October, for the upcoming summer internship period (May – October). Applications open in late May, for the upcoming winter internship period (January – April). Internship applications will only be accepted during the application intake period, which is roughly 3 weeks.

Once the application in-take period is closed, the candidate evaluation period (including interviews) is roughly 4 weeks.

Successful applicants are expected to complete their internships during the designated internship period.

To apply for the internship, you will need to submit your CV, student transcripts (if applicable) and responses to 2 short answer questions. These responses are the first application piece evaluated so note this is the first-impression opportunity (not your CV or cover letter). Applicants who make it through the first round of review will be invited for an interview.

There are 2-3 rounds of interviews. First round interviews assess your aptitude for the kind of thinking we do at Gemic. You may be asked to evaluate news articles or thought pieces that relate to business, culture, research methods and / or project management. Second round interviews will assess more foundational skills such data synthesis or content development.

A third round of interviews may be conducted where candidates will meet with a top leader in the organization.  In recent cycles, the decisions have been very hard because so many of you are amazing candidates!

The internship interview process does not involve case studies at this time.

It sounds trite, but the best advice is to be yourself! We’re interested to learn what you can specifically and authentically bring to the Gemic community.

Besides a good night’s sleep, another way to prepare for an interview is to have a clear agenda of personal or professional details you’d like to share and a prioritized list of questions you’d like to ask us.

Also, keep in mind that your interview may be held remotely. You’ll want to secure an environment where you can read attentively, carry on a conversation, think out loud, and jot down notes.

Above all, don’t be afraid to be open and explorative. We want to understand how you process, probe and play with information in order to come to productive insights.

The internship will take place in person in the office to which you’ve applied (with the exception of Abu Dhabi in some cases).

If you’ve selected or are eligible for more than one location, you will be assigned to an office based on vertical you’re being considered for, your physical location, and your work authorizations. Additional placement factors may include the need for particular interns with particular skill sets in different offices and remote work capability.

Unfortunately, we are not able to sponsor visas or work permits in any country. You must have prior legal work authorization in the country to which you are applying.

Interns are paid monthly and compensation for each office is as follows:

New York: $3,600 (USD); Berlin: €2,200 (EUR); London: £2,100 (GBP); Toronto: $3,700 (CAD), 9,000 Dhs (AED).

We aim to work with leading global companies that have the potential and desire to reimagine our collective future; we aim to be their trusted advisors and partners, rather than just their strategy vendors. Ultimately, this means that we see each project as an opportunity to navigate big, hairy, audacious questions with long-term impact, rather than as one-off transactions.

Our areas of focus are: Societal Impact, Social Tech, Business Transformation, and Health.  Strategists specialise in 1 or 2 areas and build their expertise within their dominant practice.  In the detailed posting and application for internships, you’ll find detailed descriptions of each “vertical” as we call them, and be asked to apply to the vertical that best aligns with your background and interest.

As an intern, you’ll hit the ground running as an equal member of your project teams, and while no two projects are the same, you can expect to participate in day-to-day thinking, research, analysis, report writing, client meetings, and potential business travel.

To ensure a smooth transition into the role, you’ll be paired with a coach, who will help you to outline and meet your goals for the internship.

Besides client work, interns also have the opportunity to participate in a variety of internal groups and initiatives related to upskilling, business development, cultural and thought-leadership.

Examples some workstreams you’ll contribute to or own include:

• Cultural analysis — researching societal and industry trends to help team members understand the cultural and market landscape their clients are navigating
• Competitive analysis and brand auditing — looking at competitor and out-of-category brands to help team members and the client understand what peer companies are doing and what they can learn from them
• Fieldwork analysis — reading and gathering themes from team members’ field interviews to help with synthesis
• Analysis of client documents — reading the client’s internal documents and communicating takeaways with team members to help them understand the clients strengths and challenges
• Note-taking — attending internal and client meetings and capturing key comments, questions and takeaways for team members
• Desk research – analyzing the client question and finding relevant sources and pieces of information

Our work often focuses on developing foundational human or cultural insight, brand strategy, innovation strategy, or foresight. Details here.

Clients typically partner with us when they seek to develop growth strategies with profound value to people, society, and shareholders, in both the near and long-term future. More here.

As an intern, you’ll be assigned to a project team based on project availability and resource needs, but additional factors may include your skillsets and passion areas. Oftentimes, Gemic also takes a global approach to building project teams, meaning that Gems based in North America may have an opportunity to work with Gems based in Europe.

The internship is one of the pathways to an entry-level Strategist role at Gemic.

Toward the end of your internship, your coach/manager will collect feedback from your project team members and provide a recommendation to the Leadership Team, who will make a final decision on whether to extend an offer for full-time employment, if applicable.

Ultimately, a job offer is not guaranteed and will depend on factors like positive feedback from team members, contribution to Gemic’s thinking and culture, recommendations from coaches, business needs of the company, and candidate availability.

There is no typical Gemic profile, but overall, we look for creative, intellectually curious, brave, and humble humans who have a demonstrated interest in the intersection of business and culture and a love for solving big challenges through cultural competence and narrative-building/storytelling.

Generally, we look for the following skill sets:

• Demonstrated intellectual curiosity or achievement (this is most likely academic or professional, but we will consider other serious examples)
• Research and analysis skills
• Strong self-management and time-management skills
• Thoughtful and clear communication, inclusive of active listening
• Ability to think strategically, including developing frameworks for understanding business challenges or cultural phenomenon
• Ability to formulate compelling insights and points of view

Our most desired qualifications include strength in some fundamental skills that will best position candidates for successful engagements. These include:

• Proficiency in Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides functionality and design elements to contribute to slide-making and development of presentations that effectively communicate strategy and recommendations
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets
• Research management and analysis – ability to conduct research, manage large volumes of data, and offer strategic insights relevant to the client question; ability to synthesize data and present with an imaginative, storytelling approach
• Critical thinking – ability to ask incisive questions and challenge assumptions, contributing ideas to strategy development

As a global team of thinkers, we believe that a diversity of perspectives makes us better, not just at decoding the world today, but also at building the future we want to see.

We intentionally seek global talent from a variety of academic, professional and experiential backgrounds and our growing team includes a mix of anthropologists, political scientists, economists, journalists, historians, technologists, futurists, designers and beyond.

We have made a specific commitment to increasing the racial and ethnic diversity at Gemic because diverse teams are more successful by nearly every meaningful professional metric and because strategists from diverse backgrounds bring voices and perspectives that have been historically underrepresented in the top tiers of consulting.

That said, we know that Black people, Indigenous people, and other People of Color experience unique barriers when it comes to access, professional development, networking and leadership opportunities within the consulting industry. In response, Gemic has invested in several initiatives aimed at providing support and resources for diverse talent, including an anti-racism task force that serves to implement best practices of DEI within the workplace and the BIPOC Strategist Working Group, which serves to foster support and sense of belonging within Gemic.

Interns work a typical 40-hour-per-week schedule, but given that we operate on a project-based model, you can expect each day to vary based on your active projects and the needs of those projects.

It’s important to know that consulting comes with the occasional period of intensive work –– particularly before a deadline!

However, Gemic prides itself on being a people-first workplace that is committed to supporting the holistic well-being of its employees. This includes creating mechanisms for Gems to “check-in” with their support team, routinely soliciting company-wide feedback on work-life balance, planning projects to ensure teams have adequate support and bandwidth.

Importantly, Gemic does not valorize over-working, micro-management, or facetime, and Gems are trusted to approach their daily work in ways that balance their personal wellbeing with optimal productivity.

Gemic is committed to providing learning and development opportunities to all employees.

As a new hire, you will be paired with a coach who will help to onboard you to Gemic’s ways of working and set formal goals for your development.

Full-time hires also receive a yearly budget to use on independent learning, tools or resources that further your professional and personal development and wellness.

Feedback is also a significant part of the workplace culture at Gemic and Gems have both formal and informal opportunities to give and receive feedback relative to their participation in a project or other type of organizational initiative throughout the year.
Finally, Gemic has instituted a transparent matrix of roles, with guidance on responsibilities, benchmarks and promotions between roles.

This matrix is shared with every new hire as a tool for you and your coach to ensure alignment on professional goals.