Consulting job applicants: 4 best case interviewees we ever trained

Consulting Job Applicants: 4 Best Case Interviewees We Ever Trained In this article, we will share the key lessons of the top 4 consulting job applicants we trained, as measured purely by their consulting interview skills. A consulting job applicant who was the first person in her country, and university, to join McKinsey At #1 is Sanda, an undergraduate from one of the poorest countries in South East Asia who barely spoke English. She was the first in her family to attend university, a university without a website, and became the first person in her country, and university, to join McKinsey. So what distinguished Sanda from other consulting job applicants we trained? First, she watched the videos so carefully that she could recall and apply all key concepts during her 1-on-1 consulting case interview coaching. Just how efficient was Sanda? We only did 4 hours of case interview coaching before she received her offer! That is just 240 minutes of one on one case interview training or half a season of the Big Bang Theory. Sanda clearly identified her weaknesses and requested help. For example, one of her consulting job interviews was in a luxurious restaurant, and she never been…

Part Two: Case Interview Preparation

I am going to start my consulting case interview preparation soon. I have decided to brainstorm what I need to improve in order to have a shot at getting an offer. In Australia, consulting graduate intakes happen in April 2012, so I still have over 7 months to prepare. However, as I mentioned in my previous post, I have a summer internship in an Investment Bank for 2 months. I don’t think I will be able to do any preparation at all while working those hours. That leaves me with about 5 months in total. I remember reading somewhere, a person was making comment on getting into Ivy League school and he said, the key is to “build a life, not a resume”. I divided my care preparation process into 4 main categories: (1) Polish up my resume and gain more experience I think “polishing up the resume” is a misleading thing to say. I remember reading somewhere, a person was making comment on getting into Ivy League school and he said, the key is to “build a life, not a resume”. As I mentioned in my previous post, I am in my University’s consulting club doing a bit of…

Part Thirteen: Case Interview Plan

Max is an aspiring management consultant who is looking to secure an analyst role with one of the top consulting firms for the upcoming recruitment cycle. His interest in management consulting was sparked by a failed McKinsey interview last year. In this series of blogs, he will be sharing his background, case interview preparation process, useful resources, and any breakthroughs or setbacks that he experiences. *** In my earlier posts, I went over some of the resources I discovered for case interview preparation. Now that I was armed with some frameworks and sample cases, it was time to actually set up an action plan. My personal goal was to have twenty to thirty live case interviews under my belt before any first round case interview in the upcoming recruitment cycle. I figured that case interviews, like everything else, has a learning curve associated with it, and I wanted to be extremely comfortable with the mechanics of doing a case by the time real case interviews rolled around. As I mentioned earlier in my posts, the lack of preparation for my first-round with McKinsey was absolutely embarrassing. The foreign nature of the case interview made me nervous, and that probably amplified…

Part Six: Case Interview Worries

Max is an aspiring consultant who is looking to secure an analyst role with one of the top firms for the upcoming recruitment cycle in September 2011. His interest in management consulting was sparked by a failed McKinsey interview last year. In this series of blogs, he will be sharing his background, case preparation process, useful resources, and any breakthroughs or setbacks that he experiences. *** For those of you who are also in the recruiting process, I would like to share some of my current case interview worries, and what I’m doing to combat them. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what’s worrying you! My two biggest fears are: 1) Not having enough academic firepower on my résumé. 2) Preparing for case interviews, and not actually getting a chance to apply my skills in a real interview. I feel that the caliber of candidates going for BBM jobs is higher than it is for other industries. To give you an idea of where I am in the food chain, I’ll share the following academic stats: • Top 10% in my engineering program at a premier Canadian university • 93rd percentile on the GMAT • Several…

Part One: Postal Service Case Interview Solution

Max is an aspiring consultant who is looking to secure an analyst role with one of the top firms for the upcoming recruitment cycle in September 2011. His interest in management consulting was sparked by a failed McKinsey interview last year. In this series of blogs, he will be sharing his background, case preparation process, useful resources, and any breakthroughs or setbacks that he experiences. *** Last time I shared with you a case I did regarding a bid for the broadcasting rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics – which I performed fairly well on. Today, I would like to share a case where I fell apart near the end. I hope that you find it useful to see where I made my mistakes, and what I could have done differently. Interviewer: Our client is German Postal Service. Historically, they have been the sole provider of postal service delivery service in Germany. A few months ago, the government passed a bill to deregulate the German postal service delivery industry. The client is forecasting a 20% drop in revenue, and they would like to know how to proceed. My Response: I just want to make sure that I understand the problem correctly. Our…

Firmsconsulting @ Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Emerging Leader Career Dialogue At the campus with muted red bricks and mortar, Firmsconsulting will again provide an opportunity for outstanding young consultants to spend a day with 3 of our partners – former principals and directors of McKinsey & BCG. In an early 20th century Victorian mansion, our partners will candidly unpack the likely challenges for incoming BCG, Bain and McKinsey analysts/associates/consultants as they begin their consulting careers. We want to share our unique personal experiences on the path to partnership, and discuss the challenges you may encounter in managing cultural differences, finding mentors, leading your first engagement analyses and building client relationships. For female consultants this may include balancing the personal wish to raise a family, with your career ambitions. The event focuses on the first 2 years of your career. To ensure discussions of substance, we are limiting participation to 6 exceptional students from any school in the US, in any field of study, who will be commencing their consulting careers anywhere in the world after 1 May 2014. Format Given the intimate size of the group, participants will be expected to engage in a free-flowing dialogue as we discuss the issues above, or any others raised…

Aspirational Versus Deficit Case Interview Training

Preparation before the case training session: 1. Building general knowledge. I read news and business articles (mostly NewYorkTimes, Economist and Washington Post) every day to build my general knowledge (4-5 articles per day, mostly from the business section). One interesting article I found was “Consulting on the cusp of disruption” from October 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review. The authors argue that the familiar pattern of industry disruption, with new players arriving with new business models which incumbents choose to ignore and ultimately becoming strong enough to compete with incumbents, can be observed in management consulting industry. Companies such as Eden McCallum and Business Talent Group (BTG) offer services at a fraction of the price of prestigious management consulting firms, and while they currently lack the reputation and brand of the top firms, new players slowly gaining ground. 2. I worked through the second chapter of “The mind of the strategist” by Kenichi Ohmae, recommended by Firmsconsulting. Some key learnings include: Business strategy is all about competitive advantage. The purpose of strategic planning is to allow company to gain sustainable competitive advantage over its competitors. Strategy is about making company stronger relative to its competitors. I would add to this…

Up or Out Policy in Consulting – 6 Insights to Help You Get Promoted

Do you want to discover how to navigate the up or out policy in management consulting? When I started my journey in consulting, my answer to this question would have been, “Yes, a million times yes!”. Michael asked me to write about my experiences at consulting firms, how I navigated the up or out policy and managed to get promoted so quickly, well ahead of the normal schedule in both consulting and banking. Up or out policy in management consulting As I was embarking on my management consulting journey, I was quite concerned hearing so many stories of my acquaintances getting managed out after less than 2 years in consulting. I was determined to go up, not out. After all, I did my second undegraduate degree just so I could get into consulting. I studied like crazy to get all As, while working multiple jobs, and there were rivers of blood and sweat leading to that very desired consulting offer. So there was no chance in hell I was going to be one of those people to be labeled a “hiring mistake”. Not on my watch!   If you are not very familiar with consulting jargon you may be wondering, “what is exactly…

Consulting Application Process

Consulting vs banking: 4 key differences

Consulting vs Banking: 4 Key Differences Many FC members, especially those currently completing an MBA, are considering consulting vs banking. I had a privilege to work in both fields so I can compare the pros and cons of both based on my own experience. Below are some key differences I noticed in being exposed to both environments. Four key differences when comparing consulting vs banking Asset vs resource: The number one difference for me when comparing consulting vs banking is what I call asset vs resource. In consulting a lot is invested in your development and you are treated as a valuable asset to the company. People are the most important asset for consulting firms and while there is the up or out policy pressure, you do have to compete with only top performers on a daily basis, you do feel very clearly that YOU are important and your development as a professional is important for the firm. In banking, you are a resource. Your development is, to a large degree, not important. If you deliver results they will promote you. If you don't they will push you out, or to the side. I have seen VPs being demoted, senior…