It’s now January, and as the MBA internship recruitment season shifts into full gear, here are some tips from someone who went through the consulting recruitment process last year.
(Note: These tips are geared towards MBA1s, but are applicable to anyone interviewing with consulting firms.)
Rule #1: Have a solid pitch
By now, you already have one – or if you don’t, you should. But remember to keep refining and tailoring it to the firm you’re speaking with. Starting strong will give off a great first impression to your interviewers.
Rule #2: Practice your responses to the classic 3
By the classic 3, I mean you need to be able to answer these three questions:
- Why consulting?
- Why the firm?
- Why you?
The firms you interview with will want to know why you’re interested in the industry. The job, as prestigious and as rewarding as it is, will also be grueling. So they will want to understand your motivation for entering the industry, and make sure you’re really interested in becoming a consultant.
They will also want to know that you’ve done your homework on the firm, whether it be by attending their corporate presentations, talking to alums or attending coffee chats, and that you have a good sense of the particular firm you’re interviewing with and how it differs from the others recruiting on campus.
Finally, the firms will want to know why they should hire you, and if you have a convincing argument that you’re the right fit for the job and the firm. Remember, there’s a long line of people out the door who are also interested in the job, so make yourself stand out.
Rule #3: Have your STAR stories ready
Despite the case interview being the most important aspect of your consulting interview, the behavioral is arguably just as critical.
Make sure you’ve practiced your STAR (situation, task, action and result) stories. Have at least 6 stories practiced and ready to go. The stories should be able to answer some of the typical behavioral questions like “Tell me about a time you’ve failed,” “Tell me about a time you’ve successfully led a project”, “Tell me about a time you’ve used data to inform a decision,” etc.
Be concise – the stories should be no more than 2 minutes long. And make sure you’re able to discuss the impact you’ve made.
Practice with friends, practice on the subway, practice in the shower!
Rule #4: Practice, practice, practice for your case interview
We’re now in January, and interviews are currently underway. So if you’re an MBA1, you’ve probably started casing and practicing your fast math months ago, and have several dozen under your belt. And if you don’t, well… get crackin’.
Keep calm and practice medium-level cases. Don’t pressure yourself to do extremely difficult cases. There are 2 reasons for this:
- The first round case interview won’t be that difficult. It’ll test your foundation of strategy fundamentals, your ability to structure the problem, and your thought process as you drive towards a solution.
- Doing extremely hard cases may just confuse you when you least need it. I know you want to challenge yourself, but forcing harder cases on yourself at the last minute won’t have much payoff.
For those of you who are interviewing outside of an MBA program, the same advice should apply. But there may be other hoops you have to jump through even before you sit down face-to-face with an interviewer, like the PST. But again, if you have the fundamentals down and have been practicing your fast math, you should be in good shape.
Rule #5: Ask thoughtful questions
I saw time and again that in coffee chats and post-corporate presentation networking sessions, the students who stood out the most were those who asked thoughtful questions versus those who asked either really generic or really open-ended questions. Why? It showed that the students who asked the generic questions didn’t do their research. It showed that they had planned to ask the exact same rote questions of everyone they met with. It showed that they were just doing the bare minimum to get by. I could even sense some of my peers weren’t offered a first-round interview at all because they made little effort during this very critical networking phase. Now, the interview phase may not be all about making connections and gathering information, but considering that your questions are how most interviews will end, you want to end on a solid note with a lasting emphasis on your interest in the job. So don’t be that person who asks basic questions! Be thought-provoking, be inquisitive, be original.
Finally, don’t forget! Remember to send a thoughtful thank you note. Along the lines of Rule #5, don’t just copy and paste. Be authentic and personable.
Happy recruiting!
Min Kim is currently an MBA student at NYU Stern School of Business where she is specializing in Product Management, Business Analytics and Finance
Image: Unsplash