Mastering Consulting Interviews 2011 J-P Martins, Consulting Careers Team

18 November 2011

First year MBA consulting careers skills programme

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Great consulting CVs

Intro to consulting careers – undecided

Creative problem solving for case interviews

Advanced problem solving for case interviews

Mastering consulting interviews

Summer Consulting Team 2012

On Campus Recruiting

6 September …for the undecided

13 September

…for the committed

31 October

1:1s commence

12-15 September Presentations by stream

3-7 October

Detailed reviews

17-21 October

Recalls

14 October ½ day intro

19 October

Tools & techniques

5, 26 November

Crack a Case Super Saturdays

14 Jan 2012

Crack a Case Super Saturday

14 November Presentation

16 Nov on

Workshops

31 January

Deadline to submit case

18 November ½ day workshop*

21 Nov on

Mock interviews

* Incorporating Winning consulting cover letters and Personal brand

3 January Commences…

21 February Launch

Who’s done the prework?

1.  Read key sections of the Case Book

2.  Create a list of your relevant, differentiating strengths

3.  Outline your answer to the request “tell me about yourself”

4.  Create an evidence table to prepare yourself for competency based fit interview questions

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What’s today about?

Previously

What is consulting and is it for me?

Who are the consultants and to which would I be best suited?

How do I tailor my CV for [strategy] consulting?

•  Detailed CV reviews and feedback

Creative problem solving

•  ½ day workshop

•  2 presentations

•  Mock case interviews

•  Consulting Club crack a case programme

Today

What is my personal brand?

How can I reflect that…

•  At interview

–  Tell me about yourself

–  Competency answers

Opportunity to practise answering interview questions & receive feedback, ahead of your mock interview

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Brands

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Valuable brands

Convey rich meaning clearly and simply Are relevant to target segment Are distinctive

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What’s your brand?

In pairs – tell your partner what is your personal brand

In one short sentence, phrase, or even word!

Clear and simple?

Relevant to a consulting recruiter?

Distinctive from others in this room?

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Exercise 1

5 mins

[Good] brands are backed by distinctive characteristics

8 1  Eg product, service, image 2  Eg cars, trucks and vans, A-class vs S-class

What are three key characteristics1 of the brand? Are they consistent2?

What are your relevant, differentiating strengths

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Relevant, differentiating

strengths

Differentiating but not relevant

Relevant weaknesses

Irrelevant weaknesses

How strong are you relative to your peers?

Very strong

Very weak

Average

Very Not at all

Average

How important is this strength to your specific

recruiter?

What are your strengths?

In pairs – tell your partner what are your top 3 personal strengths for consulting Are they:

Distinctive from others in this room? Motivated strengths? (ie you are interested in them as well as

strong)

Relevant to a consulting recruiter? Consistent with the high level view of your brand?

Backed by evidence? 10

Exercise 2

5 mins

Interviewing

Chapter 7 – “Karaoke Skills” Play until end of scene

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Succeeding at interview

In pairs – tell your partner what ensured your success at previous interviews

•  What 3 things helped you perform well during an interview?

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Exercise 3

5 mins

Recruiter feedback

Up to 80% of an impression comes from things other than what you say: Image

•  Body Language

•  Tone of Voice

•  Eye Contact

Builds rapport from the beginning

Listens to questions and reads signals

Speaks no more than 50%

Engages in a dialogue and asks questions 13

Speaks articulately and succinctly

Stays calm under pressure

Presents negative information clearly, concisely, with a positive approach

Communicates they’re motivated to do the job

Great grooming

Good eye contact

Firm handshake

Your ‘fit’ is also based on the impression you make

How are you being assessed?

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What? How?

Can you do the job?

Do you have the appropriate problem-solving and communication skills?

Case interview will be the primary assessment mechanism*

Will you do the job?

Are you really motivated to do the job?

Are you driven to excel in the job?

Will you fit in? Will you fit into our culture?

Will we enjoy working with you?

Will you inspire the team?

* For many consulting interviews, this will comprise 80-90% of the interview time

Will you do the job? Questions to expect:

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Type of question Description Examples

General/open Gives you a platform to introduce & sell yourself, for example

Tell me about yourself

Motivational Checks why this specific role and company for you, now in your career

Tests understanding of role, company, sector

Why are you doing the MBA?

Why do you want to be a consultant?

Why apply to Bain?

What do you want to be doing in 5 years’ time?

Competency Collects evidence of your achievements, that demonstrates your skills and behaviours

What is the greatest challenge you have overcome?

Would you fit in? Questions to expect:

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Type of question Description Examples

Personal Your abilities and development needs, interests and values

What excites you?

Competency How you handle certain situations What’s the toughest problem you’ve had to solve?

What would your classmates say about your communication skills?

Give an example of where you’ve demonstrated great leadership

What does it take to make you give up?

Company Your understanding of the business, its culture and values

How will you fit into Booz?

Can you prepare for all competency questions? The Amazing Competency Question Generator© can help you!

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Give me a number

from 1 to 6

Give me a number

from 1 to 18

Consulting competencies - recap

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Problem Solving

Intellectual capacity

Comfort with ambiguity

Business judgement

Creativity

Ability to listen and learn

Analytics/quants.

Personal Impact

Presence

•  Confidence vs. ego

Team player

Sense of humour

Credibility

People skills

Leadership

Integrity

Inspirational

Willing to take personal risks

Track record (sporting, clubs)

Maturity

Drive/ Aspiration

Enthusiasm

Driven by results – action oriented

Desire to excel

Other interests

•  Demonstrating success outside of work

Could I put you in front of a client on Day 1? Could I spend 24 hours flying from London to Sydney with you?

6 types of competency question

1.  Knowledge/attitudes

2.  General experience

3.  Specific examples

4.  Self-evaluation

5.  Comparison with others

6.  Other’s appraisal

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How the Amazing Competency Question Generator© works…

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Comfort with

ambiguity

Business judgemen

t

Creativity Ability to listen

Analytics/ quant. ability

Team player

Sense of humour

Credibility Ability to listen

People skills

Integrity Inspiration

Willing to take

personal risks

Track record

Enthusiasm Driven by results

Desire to excel

Success outside

work

1 Knowledge & attitudes

2 General experience

3 Specific examples

4 Self-evaluation

5 Compare with others

6 Others’ appraisal

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Number from 1 to 6

Number from 1 to 18

How to prepare for a competency interview

1.  Identify competencies for the specific job 2.  Identify your evidence & achievements for each competency – see pre-

work exercise 4 3.  Structure your answer:

•  Challenge – key business drivers •  Action •  Results – quantify where possible, include outcome & impact

Note: Emphasise your role, and be specific about what action you took

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Example: Leadership

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Describe a situation when you had to lead a team to a achieve a challenging goal

Challenge Needed to transform an inefficient and ineffective global finance function in an FMCG business

Action I led the process team of 10 company representatives from across the globe that designed 20 future blue-print global finance processes and implemented them within a 12 month timeframe

I initially built relationships with each team member face-to-face, then lead the team via weekly conference calls

Results I realised budgeted cost savings (30% reduction in OPEX) and delivered the client’s expected project value (IRR of 15%)

So tell me about yourself…

60-90 second answer that covers…

1.  Your key competencies or strengths, that reflects you & your brand

2.  1 or 2 summary key achievements, that you are most proud of

3.  Your interests & motivations, that differentiate you

4.  Close by creating a bridge between your strengths, motivations and the role / Company you are applying for

…that reflects you, your brand and engages the interviewer!

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Breakouts

Questions:

•  Tell me about yourself

•  Motivation

•  Competency

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Breakouts: Session 1 9:00-12:00

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P106 P107 P108 P113 P115 P116

J-P Gavin Jackson Denise Miriam Claire

Ana Fang Filipe Adrian Amisha Ankeet

Ben Joaquin Harpreet Divya Katy Devyani

Gerardo Joe Nina Eliron Marco Fang

James Karim Owen Matthias Mayura Hrishikesh

Pancham Miguel Pedro Nicholas Nicolas Poush

Rahul Monica Rod Sandy Pranav Prasoon

Yuan (Jenny)

Preetam Ryan Sherene Serena Vinay

Zara

Breakouts: Session 2 11:30-2:30

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P106 P107 P108 P113 P115 P116

J-P Iain Jackson Denise Claire Stuart

Jean-Nicolas Christine Eho Jisoo Dere Alicia

Justin Daniel Gil Juliana Herbert Boris

Rizk Gareth Iva Kamal Ivan George

Sajan Oxana Melissa Karen Katrin Hugo

Sophie Varun Spence Preethi Orel Lydia

Tomer Yoonsuk Thais Vladi Stefan Patricia

Breakouts: Session 3 2:00-5:00

P106 P107 P108 P113 P115 P116

Iain Gavin Jackson Laura Miriam Stuart

Amritha Avik Daniel Adriana Ana Carolina Denitsa

Dhruv John Ira Ana Cecilia Oliver Garriock

Mikio Leonardo Morgan Oliver Francisco James

Nina Martin Na Saranjit Lucila Kevin

Sam Sadaf Riti Yonatan Palvi Miyoung

Saurabh Tabish

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Appendix 1 - homework

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As soon as you can – Reflect on your individual performance

How did you perform during your interview?

If you performed well, why was that?

If you performed less well, how can you improve?

What’s missing from your performance?

What will the recruiter remember about you?

Take a few minutes to reflect, and write down 3 or 4 specific actions you will take to improve after today’s session

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What questions are you going to ask them?

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Will they appear random, or reinforce your brand?

Cover letters

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I haven’t got one of these

Next steps

Keep practising cases •  Individually •  Informal groups •  Club Crack-a-Case •  Super Saturdays

Refine your brand •  Slide presentation? •  Mock up some cover letters •  Cover letter screencast •  3 cover letter workshops happening

through November/December •  Group and 1:1 cover letter sessions

in January

Practise ‘fit’ •  Screencast (‘Mastering Interviews’) •  Informal groups •  PLP •  Mock interviews and followup from

21 November •  Group practice sessions from

January onwards

Attend OCR events •  Coffee chats/recruiter in residence

November/December •  Presentations begin CP Week, 3 Jan

Apply •  CP deadlines start 8 January [?] •  Other recruiter presentations start 9

Janaury •  Interviews from 23 January

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This will happen sooner than you think!

Appendix 2 - prework

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Prework: 1. Read these key sections of the LBS Case Book

pp. 3-8 ‘The Interview Process’

•  The consulting interview process

•  What are they looking for?

•  Demonstrating problem solving skills

•  Demonstrating personal impact

•  Demonstrating leadership

•  Demonstrating drive and motivation

pp. 21-24 ‘Fit interviewing’

•  Overview

•  The importance of fit

•  Criterion based questioning

•  Two key “why do you want to” questions

•  Do you have any questions for me?

•  A two-way process 34

Prework: 2. Create a list of your relevant, differentiating strengths (1 of 3)

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Inputs Approach

What are recruiters looking for?

Understand what are the competencies, experiences and other attributes sought by recruiters

Be specific – the 4 competency model in the Case Book generalises, but each recruiter will differ

This means at the office level, not the firm level – understand language and experience requirements, including sector experience where appropriate

What are your strengths?

Don’t just tick every box. Think – what are your strengths relative to your competitors? (these are your classmates)

•  Yes you have a high GMAT, but is it high relative to your class?

•  Yes you have led teams of 3 on desk-based research exercises, but do you have classmates with deeper/more challenging leadership experience?

•  Include: competencies, interests, experiences, connections/ networks

Prework: 2. Create a list of your relevant, differentiating strengths (3 of 3)

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Area of strength Strength relative to MBA peers

Importance to my recruiting targets

Ranking (identify your personal top 4, and order of strength)

Problem Solving

Personal impact

Leadership

Drive and motivation

Fill this in!

I’ve listed the mandatory ones - add other strengths here

Very strong, strong, average, weak or

very weak

Very high, high, average, low or

very low

1=strongest, 4=weakest

Prework: 3. Outline your answer to ‘tell me about yourself’ (1 of 2)

Consider the following

•  What are your key competencies or strengths?

•  Which 2 or 3 achievements are you most proud of?

•  Which interests & motivations differentiate you?

•  Can you create a bridge between your strengths, motivations and the role/ company you are applying for?

•  Your answer should last for no longer than 90 seconds

There is no single right way to structure this

•  Chronological – boring but safe

•  By ‘strength’ – interesting but potentially complex

•  Order of pride (eg the thing of which I am proudest is…then the second proudest is…etc)

•  Consider a sandwich:

•  Open with a summary of what you will say…

•  Say it…

•  Summarise what you said! 37

Prework: 3. Outline your answer to “tell me about yourself” (2 of 2)

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Summary Tell me about yourself Recap

Fill this in!

What are you going to say

Say it, and substantiate it (evidence – examples)

Recap – to sum up, what were you

trying to say!

Prework: 4. Create an evidence table (1 of 2)

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Competency Challenge Action Result

Problem Solving

Personal impact

Leadership

Drive and motivation

Prepare yourself for competency based fit questions using the challenge-action-result framework Fill this in!

What was the situation? Why was it difficult? What did YOU do?

What did YOU achieve/learn?

Prework: 4. Create an evidence table (2 of 2)

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Competency Challenge Action Result

Problem Solving

Personal impact

Leadership

Drive and motivation

Prepare yourself for competency based fit questions using the challenge-action-result framework Use this for

more examples!