UK 2013 Consulting Bootcamp Tour Recap

As if staying Stateside wasn’t enough, we decided to chase the Autumn weather to its last ends in the U.K. If you’re just joining us, we’ve spent the last few months galavanting around to top college campuses across the planet – check out our posts on HarvardYaleColumbiaGeorgetownDuke and Georgia Tech.

Sorry, it’s taken us so long to get this out – you know, we’ve been keeping up with our day jobs (serving clients)!

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To check out our London video with in-person testimonies (with awesome accents), make sure to read on to the end of the article…

The trip started off on the right note – Michelle got her first-ever upgrade to First Class. It’s good to travel with an ex-consultant! Thank you, Delta Platinum status! You’ve treated us right for many years.

Michelle with a ticket

After a great flight to London with plenty of room to stretch out, we arrived to the warm welcome of friends – thankfully, with
Dairy Milk Cadbury’s in hand.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Candybar

After a 4-hour recovery time, we were off to our first presentation – courtesy of the National Rail chauffeur service.

Chauffeur service

We had an awesome presentation to a full room of ~80 students at King’s College London – and sadly, we forgot to take any pictures of the event (just caught the train ride in). We’ll blame it on jet lag.

King's College

We did, however, enjoy a fabulous homemade pear tart when we arrived back at our host home that evening.

Homemade Pear Tart

The next evening was amazing – a stop by UCL, which was the birthplace of the Consulting Bootcamp program last year.

UCL

We had a small group of ~25 students at all levels (undergrad through Ph.D.), and we covered the 4 Bootcamp Lite sessions with tons of great interaction, a few Hot Seats, and lots of laughter and learning.

Jenny teaching

After what was tragically our only fish & chips on the whole trip (at Harry Marsden’s, the McDonald’s of fish & chips) at Euston station, we boarded the train for Manchester and the Manchester Business School.

Manchester Business School

We had a fabulous day with 30 of Manchester’s best and brightest – including one of the winners of our spring Facebook contest. (He had emailed the whole group to encourage them to come to the Bootcamp, saying it would be a “game changer”. Nice, right?!)

Bootcamp Training by Jenny

The group was wild – when they got shy and didn’t want to volunteer themselves for the Hot Seat anymore, they started volunteering their partners. We had an absolute blast!

Jenny with bootcamp students

Here is some specific feedback we got from the Manchester Business School attendees/organizers:

“Management Consulted’s Bootcamp was a fantastic opportunity to gain an intimate insight into the consultancy world. The focus is on developing and refining your approach to the recruitment cycle to be able to make a powerful impression throughout. The team draw on their vast experience to deliver a unique take on how to excel at the interviews, with an emphasis on tackling a variety of case study scenarios. It’s a very practical session that is sure to make an impact on your journey towards consultancy.”

Saif Alnaser Shubana | Full Time MBA Class of 2015

The speaker, Jenny Rae, was very energetic and generous with her answers throughout the day. The case cracking session was most insightful. I have read a number of cases before but never actually practiced out loud. The breakout sessions gave us a chance to practise with a partner and were a real eye-opener: it is one thing to practise alone but it is another to be able to think, write and speak at the same time with someone staring right at you across the table. Jenny Rae provided us with a framework for tackling the case interview, from opening the case, identifying the problem, structuring our approach, and leading the discussions. All in all it was a very insightful day which I would highly recommend to anybody serious about a career in consultancy.”

David Leong-Lone | Full Time MBA Class of 2015

“I was very pleased to welcome Jenny Rae to Manchester Business School to conduct a full day Bootcamp on case cracking.  The day was well structured giving plenty of time for the MBAs to listen, ask questions and most importantly practice both with a partner and in front of the group whilst gaining constructive feedback.  The agenda covers the key aspects of the all-important consulting interview from the elevator pitch, to fit interviews and the opportunity to understand multiple case scenarios. The Bootcamp gave the MBAs a great grounding as well as how to continue to develop successfully, a must for all those wanting to get into Consulting!”

Ruth Mountain, Careers Adviser (Consulting sector) Manchester Business School

The view from our penthouse presentation room was awesome and finished with an impressive sunset – the day with Manchester was the last day of summertime before the clocks turned back.

Penthouse view

While back in London, we had the pleasure of meeting with a current client for a case interview at St. Pancras and other current and former clients for drinks. It was amazing to hear about where they are – the current concertmaster of the Cambridge orchestra, a BD manager at Google, and folks at McKinsey and Bain were just a few of the impressive clan.

Jenny

Then…we were off to our first annual London Consulting Bootcamp!

London Consulting bootcamp

For those of you who don’t know about our Bootcamps but would like to host one in the future, here is the agenda (you’ll notice that “Lunch” is a working break so it’s actually a 9-hour day):

8:30-9AM – Registration (we can start as late as 2PM)

9AM – 10AM – The ultimate networking tool – your elevator pitch

10AM – 11AM – Structuring the fit interview

11AM – 12PM – Break-out sessions -networking and fit interviews

12PM – 1PM – Case Frameworks – becoming a case-opening expert

1PM – 2PM – Networking lunch (with homework!)

2PM – 3PM – Break-out sessions – case openings

3PM – 4PM – Case math and case closings

4PM – 5PM – Break-out sessions – mid/late cases

5PM – 6PM – The ultimate case practice plan, Q&A, and closing

Here is an awesome video of some of our attendees – we had a really fun day!

Thankfully, our final day was a day off – and we enjoyed a Sunday roast in the pub.

Jenny at the Pub

The roast wasn’t the highlight, however – the dessert was! What the heck is it about Sticky Toffee Pudding?

dessert

It was a whirlwind tour, but thanks to all who came out to a Bootcamp in the U.K. – you made the trip wonderful for us. We’re excited to be back again soon (in April and October 2014) – if we didn’t see you this time, invite us for a visit!

View from plane

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Thank you for catching up with us on our U.K. tour recap – and thank you so much for making Management Consulted what it is. We are so honored to serve all of you pre-consultants, and can’t wait to meet more of you in the near future.

Speaking of the near future, we’re not done with the year yet…

We’re off to Canada and the Bay Area for a series of 8-hour bootcamps in November and December (2013) and back on the East Coast in January (2014) and in Europe in April (2014). You’ll know if we’re coming to your school (these events are private) – but if you haven’t heard about one that’s happening, make sure you invite us!

Next year’s spring Consulting Bootcamp schedule is up on Eventbrite as well – come meet us!

Finally, we’d love to present a private 8-hour Consulting Bootcamp on your campus (for 1-4 days). Please email us – we would be happy to come to you. Just one thing – our small group dynamic is critical, so we need a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 30 attendees on each Bootcamp day. We’ve been to 45 countries and counting, so don’t hesitate to invite us to come to you!

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