Author: Taylor Warfield, Former Bain Manager and interviewer

Last Updated: September 10, 2026

 

A KPMG consulting internship is a paid eight to ten week summer role in KPMG Advisory that pays roughly $27 to $48 per hour, uses two live video interviews instead of a long case gauntlet, and is designed to convert strong performers into full-time offers. This guide walks through every Advisory track you can apply to, the real recruiting calendar, what the interviews actually test, and how to turn the summer into a return offer.

 

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Key Takeaways

 

The KPMG consulting internship sits inside KPMG Advisory, runs about eight to ten weeks in the summer, and is the firm's primary hiring pipeline for full-time consultants.

 

• Pay runs about $27 to $48 per hour depending on city and service line, with reported analyst intern rates above $41 in New York

 

• Advisory applications post in early September, roughly three weeks after Audit and Tax, and fill on a rolling basis

 

• The process is two live video interviews, mostly behavioral, with a short case appearing in Strategy and Deal Advisory rounds

 

• You are capped at two active applications and cannot interview for two roles at once, so track choice matters more than volume

 

• Your offer is tied to the office you intern in, and KPMG does not guarantee location changes afterward

 

• Advisory interns need US work authorization, since consulting practices are not on KPMG's sponsorship list

 

What Is the KPMG Consulting Internship?

 

A KPMG consulting internship is a paid summer role inside KPMG Advisory, the firm's consulting arm, lasting roughly eight to ten weeks at 40 hours per week. Interns join client engagement teams in one of KPMG's 80-plus US offices, attend a week of national training at KPMG Lakehouse in Lake Nona, Florida, and compete for a full-time return offer.

 

Advisory is the fastest growing of KPMG's three practices and employs more than 11,000 professionals in the United States, according to KPMG's Advisory careers page. That scale is why the consulting internship looks different from an MBB summer program.

 

You are not hired into a generalist pool and staffed wherever. You apply to one specific service line in one specific office, and you spend the summer doing that service line's work.

 

KPMG's careers site reports 80-plus offices and 36,000-plus employees and partners across the US, and states that the firm grew faster than the other Big Four consulting firms globally in fiscal year 2025. Advisory has absorbed a large share of that growth.

 

What Do KPMG Consulting Interns Actually Do?

 

KPMG consulting interns are staffed onto live client engagements rather than parked on an intern side project. Day to day, that means building analyses in Excel, pulling and cleaning client data, drafting sections of client deliverables, and sitting in on working sessions with the client team.

 

The specific work depends entirely on your service line. A Strategy intern builds financial models for a transaction, while a Risk Services intern tests controls and documents findings.

 

A Technology intern maps data flows for a systems migration. None of those summers looks much like the others.

 

Two things are common across all of them. First, you will use KPMG's internal AI tooling, which the firm has pushed hard: KPMG reports that 95% of its employees and partners are trained on AI, that it has released more than 400 AI learning courses, and that 64% of employees use Microsoft Copilot regularly. Second, you will get formal feedback that feeds directly into the return offer decision.

 

The internship also includes a week at Lakehouse, KPMG's training campus in Florida. That week is genuinely useful for networking, because you meet the peers who will be your first-year cohort if you both convert.

 

Which KPMG Advisory Track Should You Target?

 

KPMG Advisory is split into two main groups that hire interns: Consulting and Deal Advisory & Strategy. Each group contains service lines that recruit separately, interview against their own job descriptions, and offer very different day to day work.

 

This is the single most consequential decision you make, and most candidates make it carelessly. Pick the line whose skills you can already prove.

 

Advisory track	What interns work on	Common majors
Strategy (Deal Advisory & Strategy)	Transaction strategy and performance transformation, financial modeling, value creation analysis	Economics, Finance, Business, Mathematics, Statistics
Transaction Services (Deal Advisory & Strategy)	Financial due diligence on buy and sell side deals, accounting advisory, corporate finance support	Accounting, Finance, Quantitative Finance
Customer & Operations (Consulting)	Customer experience redesign, procurement and supply chain, healthcare and state government operations	Business, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing, Health Administration
Risk Services (Consulting)	Forensic and fraud investigation, financial services regulatory compliance, cybersecurity and technology risk	Risk Management, Accounting, Cyber Security, Enterprise Risk Management
Technology (Consulting)	Data engineering and integration, enterprise systems work, data and AI strategy roadmaps	Computer Science, MIS, Data Analytics, Information Systems
Corporate Services (Consulting)	Finance transformation and enterprise performance management, global business services, human capital	Finance, Human Resources, Organizational Psychology, Management
Federal (Consulting)	Change management, program delivery, federal risk and controls, federal cyber and technology work	Public Policy, Political Science, Public Administration, Business

 

Source: KPMG Advisory service line descriptions and Degree Matcher, KPMG US careers site, 2026.

 

Strategy is the closest thing KPMG has to traditional management consulting, and it is also the hardest to get. If your goal is eventually moving from Big 4 to MBB, Strategy and Transaction Services give you the cleanest story.

 

How Much Does a KPMG Consulting Internship Pay?

 

KPMG consulting interns earn roughly $27 to $48 per hour depending on office and service line, with analyst level Advisory internships in high cost cities clustering above $40. KPMG does not publish an official intern pay band, so the figures below come from Levels.fyi submissions and Glassdoor estimates.

 

Intern role and location	Hourly rate	Sign-on	Source
Business Analyst Intern, New York City	$41.00	None reported	Levels.fyi
Data Analyst Intern, New York City	$42.33	$2,000	Levels.fyi
Data Scientist Intern, McLean, VA	$42.31	$2,000	Levels.fyi
All KPMG interns, estimated average	$35	Varies	Glassdoor, Aug 2026
All KPMG interns, typical range	$27 to $48	Varies	Glassdoor, Aug 2026

 

Sources: Levels.fyi KPMG internship submissions and Glassdoor KPMG intern salary estimates based on 549 submissions, August 2026.

 

Run the math on a ten week summer at 40 hours per week. At $41 per hour, that is $16,400 in base pay before any sign-on bonus, which is competitive with Big Four peers and only modestly below MBB summer pay.

 

Where the internship differs from MBB is the full-time step up. The KPMG consulting salary for a first-year Advisory associate lands well below an MBB first-year package, so weigh the internship as an entry point rather than a compensation play.

 

When Do KPMG Consulting Internship Applications Open?

 

KPMG Advisory internship applications typically post in early September for the following summer, roughly three weeks after Audit and Tax roles open in mid-August. That is about 10 to 12 months before the internship starts, and the seats fill on a rolling basis while the window is still open.

 

Here is the sequence to plan around:

 

1. Mid-August: Audit and Tax internship roles post first, along with remaining roles from the prior cycle
   
   
2. Early September: Advisory and consulting internship roles go live on KPMG's early careers site
   
   
3. September through November: rolling review, with interview selections typically made within two weeks of applying
   
   
4. Two weeks after interviewing: most offer decisions land, sometimes paired with an invitation to visit the office in person
   
   
5. June through August: the internship runs, including one week of national training at Lakehouse

 

The rolling structure is the part candidates underestimate. A posted window that stays open until November does not mean November applicants get equal treatment, because the best office seats are gone by then.

 

Apply the week your track posts. In my experience coaching candidates through Big Four cycles, the single highest-return move is submitting in week one with a decent resume rather than in week six with a perfect one.

 

Sophomores and freshmen have an earlier door. The KPMG Embark Scholars program identifies students 18 to 24 months out, and the KPMG Advisory Talent Program, Ace the Case, and the Global Advantage Program all feed the following year's intern class.

 

Who Is Eligible for a KPMG Consulting Internship?

 

Core Advisory internships target juniors interning the summer before senior year, with a preferred GPA of 3.0 or above stated on most KPMG intern postings. The harder gates are not academic.

 

• Work authorization: KPMG lists the early career practices that historically consider visa sponsorship, and Advisory is not among them, so consulting interns need US authorization

 

• Application cap: you are limited to two active applications and cannot interview for two roles simultaneously

 

• Location commitment: KPMG designs the internship to convert interns in the same city, and does not guarantee location changes afterward

 

• In-office expectation: interns work approximately 8am to 5pm and must live within commuting distance of the assigned office

 

• Class year: you generally need to return to coursework after the summer, which rules out students graduating that spring

 

The two-application cap deserves more attention than it gets. It converts a numbers game into a targeting problem, and candidates who spray applications across five offices discover they have burned both slots on their weakest fits.

 

The location rule matters just as much. If you want to end up in Chicago, intern in Chicago, because picking the best KPMG office for you is effectively a full-time decision made a year early.

 

What Is the KPMG Consulting Internship Interview Process?

 

KPMG's published process is two live video interviews with business leaders, held after a resume and transcript screen. Advisory candidates often report a short case or business judgment component inside the second interview, but there is no multi-round case gauntlet of the kind MBB runs.

 

The full sequence looks like this:

 

1. Online application: about 10 minutes, requiring a resume and an unofficial transcript, submitted to one specific role and office
   
   
2. Screen and assessment: a resume review, sometimes paired with a pre-recorded video or aptitude component depending on the cycle and office
   
   
3. First video interview: almost entirely behavioral, covering teamwork, initiative, handling criticism, and why KPMG
   
   
4. Second video interview: typically with a Director or Managing Director, weighted toward situational and business judgment questions, with Advisory candidates reporting light case and Excel questions
   
   
5. Decision or office visit: most decisions land within two weeks, and some offices invite finalists in person before extending the offer

 

Both interviews tend to be conversational rather than adversarial. That is a trap for underprepared candidates, because a friendly tone makes people ramble, and rambling is how you fail a KPMG interview.

 

KPMG's own assessment tooling varies by cycle and office, and the KPMG aptitude assessments used for some early career roles test numerical and logical reasoning under time pressure. Confirm your specific format with the recruiter rather than assuming.

 

What Interview Questions Should You Expect?

 

Expect roughly three quarters behavioral and one quarter business judgment. KPMG publishes sample interview questions on its careers site, and they map cleanly to the STAR format.

 

The published examples include describing your most challenging situation and how you handled it, a time you solved a problem creatively, a time your work or idea was criticized, your most successful effort at promoting teamwork, and a goal you set for yourself in the past year. Prepare four to six stories that can flex across all of them.

 

You will also face motivation questions. Interviewers want three specific reasons for choosing this firm, and a strong answer to why KPMG names actual service lines and initiatives rather than describing a large global firm with good clients.

 

For the behavioral half of your prep, my fit interview course covers 98% of the questions consulting firms ask in a few hours. Building a story bank first makes the rest of your prep much faster.

 

The case component is lighter than at strategy firms but real. Strategy and Deal Advisory candidates report short profitability, market entry, and operational improvement prompts, and the KPMG case interview tends to reward practical implementation thinking over elegant frameworks.

 

If you want to build case skills quickly, my case interview course takes you from beginner to top 10% candidate in about seven days. For an Advisory internship, even a moderate level of case ability puts you ahead of most of the applicant pool.

 

How Do You Turn the Internship Into a Full-Time Offer?

 

KPMG states that the internship program is designed to convert high performing interns into full-time roles in the same city. Conversion is common for strong performers, but it is never automatic, and offices without headcount sometimes cannot extend offers no matter how well you did.

 

Having managed and evaluated summer interns at Bain, I can tell you the evaluation is narrower than interns expect. Three things drive the rating.

 

• Reliability: work comes back on time, correct, and in the format your manager asked for, every single time

 

• Self-direction: you ask sharp questions once, then run with the task instead of checking in on every step

 

• Feedback response: the same correction never has to be given twice, which is the fastest credibility builder available to an intern

 

Notice what is not on that list: brilliance, novel insights, and staying late. Interns who chase the impressive idea while missing deadlines get worse ratings than interns who quietly deliver clean work.

 

Ask for a mid-internship review at the two week mark rather than waiting for the formal checkpoint. That gives you five or six weeks to fix anything, instead of finding out in week seven that your manager wanted a different level of detail all along.

 

8 Tips to Land a KPMG Consulting Internship

 

Tip #1: Apply the week your service line posts

 

Advisory roles go live in early September and get reviewed as they arrive. Interview selections are typically made within two weeks of applying, which means the class is partly built before most students have finished polishing.

 

Tip #2: Spend your two applications deliberately

 

You get two active applications and cannot interview for two roles at once. Use one on your strongest service line fit and one on an adjacent line in the same office, rather than scattering across cities.

 

Tip #3: Choose the city you actually want to live in

 

Return offers are tied to the internship office and location changes are not guaranteed. Treat the application as a decision about where you will start your career, because that is what it is.

 

Tip #4: Mirror the job description's language on your resume

 

KPMG intern postings repeatedly name teamwork, analytical reasoning, and specific data tools including Excel, Alteryx, SQL, and Power BI. A KPMG resume that uses those exact terms clears the screen far more reliably than one that describes the same work in your own vocabulary.

 

My resume review and editing service gives you unlimited revisions with 24-hour turnaround if you want a second set of eyes before you submit.

 

Tip #5: Build a story bank of six STAR examples

 

KPMG's published sample questions cluster around teamwork, initiative, handling criticism, creative problem solving, and goal setting. Six well-chosen stories will cover almost every version of those, and the KPMG behavioral interview rewards specific numbers and outcomes over general descriptions of character.

 

Tip #6: Prepare a light case even though it may not appear

 

Advisory and Strategy candidates regularly hit a short unprepared case in the second round. You do not need MBB-level case fluency, but you do need to structure a problem out loud, do clean mental math, and end with a recommendation.

 

Tip #7: Network into the specific office before you apply

 

KPMG runs recruiter-hosted virtual sessions and campus events year round, and attending them puts a name to your application in a rolling process. A KPMG referral from someone in your target office carries real weight when a recruiter is deciding who gets an interview slot this week.

 

Tip #8: Have a Big Four backup plan running in parallel

 

Deloitte, EY, and PwC recruit on almost the same fall calendar, and the interview content overlaps heavily. Preparing for a Deloitte consulting internship costs you almost nothing extra once your KPMG prep is done.

 

The KPMG consulting internship rewards early, targeted action more than any other Big Four program, because the two-application cap and the rolling calendar punish candidates who wait. Pick your service line and office now, get your resume into the job description's own language, and submit the week Advisory roles post in September.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

How hard is it to get a KPMG consulting internship?

 

It is hard, but less about raw academics than most candidates assume. KPMG posts a preferred GPA of 3.0 or above on its intern roles, so the transcript bar is lower than at MBB firms. The real constraints are timing and geography: KPMG recruits on a rolling basis, caps you at two active applications, and ties the offer to one office.

 

Do you need a case interview for a KPMG consulting internship?

 

Sometimes. KPMG's published process is two live video interviews, and most of that time is behavioral. Advisory and Strategy candidates frequently report a short, unprepared case or a set of business judgment questions inside the second interview, so you should prepare a basic case structure even though the case is not guaranteed.

 

Does KPMG sponsor visas for consulting interns?

 

No. KPMG publishes the short list of early career practices that historically consider candidates requiring visa sponsorship, and it covers the Korean and Japanese Audit and Business Tax practices, select Tax roles, and Audit Data Engineering full-time positions. Advisory and consulting internships are not on that list, so you need US work authorization.

 

Can sophomores apply to a KPMG consulting internship?

 

Core Advisory internships target juniors interning the summer before senior year. Sophomores and freshmen have separate doors: the Embark Scholars early identification program, the KPMG Advisory Talent Program, Ace the Case, and the Global Advantage Program. These pre-internship programs feed directly into the following year's intern class.

 

How long is the KPMG consulting internship?

 

Roughly eight to ten weeks over the summer at 40 hours per week. KPMG states that interns work regular business hours of approximately 8am to 5pm and must live within commuting distance of their assigned office. One week of that is national intern training at KPMG Lakehouse in Lake Nona, Florida.

 

What is the return offer rate for KPMG consulting interns?

 

KPMG does not publish a number. The firm states that the internship program is designed to convert high performing interns into full-time roles in the same geographic location. Conversion is strong for interns who perform well, but it is not automatic, and offices without headcount sometimes cannot extend offers regardless of performance.

 

Is KPMG consulting a good place to start a consulting career?

 

Yes, particularly if you want implementation work, technology consulting, or risk and deal advisory rather than pure corporate strategy. KPMG Advisory is the firm's fastest growing practice with more than 11,000 US professionals, and the training investment is unusual for a Big Four firm. Exit options into industry finance, strategy, and operations roles are strong.

 

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