‘I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.’ — Elon Musk, founder of PayPal, Tesla, […]
Category: Consulting
So maybe you’ve gotten to the second round, maybe you’re still waiting to hear back, or maybe you’re hoping to interview again in the next recruitment cycle. Regardless of whichever bucket you fall into, it always helps to see things from the interviewers’ perspective. Here are the top three things they’re looking for: 1. Intellectual […]
As a business major in college, I became familiar with the world of consulting early on. But for those who come from non-business majors (science, engineering, arts, law, etc.), the path to consulting may seem daunting. Here are 4 tips that I’ve picked up over the years which will help you pursue the consulting track. […]
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Interview Season for New Grads
It is easy to put a lot of pressure on yourself during interview season, especially when your classmates are receiving interviews for firms you’re interested in. Have patience though, your time will come and the wait will be worth it. This blog post is mostly about what to do when you receive an interview at […]
We have updated our lists of consulting firms in key markets: North America, UK, India, and Australia/New Zealand. If you are an aspiring consultant, these lists can help you narrow your focus and target a few consulting firms that are right for you. Below are links to the relevant documents. Happy job hunting! Consulting Firms […]
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The Smart Intern – Seeking feedback
In the previous article on ‘The Smart Intern’, we broadly talked about seeking feedback and working on it fast as the time available during your internship is limited. We also discussed the fine balance that one needs to strike between improving fast and not nagging for feedback. In this article, we will explore how to […]
When you’re interested in working at a consulting firm, there are clear things you can do to prepare: meet associates, prepare for case interviews, and do your homework on what sets the firm apart from its peers. These steps are relatively straightforward, but what happens when you finally get your foot in the door? The […]
The fundamentals of doing well in a case interview are pretty well known and accessible. It is essentially everything that is in the case interview bibles of Case In Point or Hacking the Case Interview. As an aside, as someone who did not have prior consulting experience, I personally found the lesser known, Crack the […]
Box Car Social on the Harbour front in Toronto, Canada I recently sat down with my friend, Jesse, over a cup of coffee to learn more about his experience as a Deloitte consultant over the past 5 years. Jesse completed his HBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business and upon graduating accepted a job […]
Graduates flock to the consulting industry for the opportunity to work on interesting cases, get experience across a variety of industries, and build a valuable professional skill-set. But there’s an emerging threat to this value proposition, and it’s coming from within. If you happen to know a young consultant at a top tier firm, you’ve […]
“There was a doctor from Boston and a lawyer from Chicago, a philosopher from Australia and an engineer from France. There were people who had Ph.D.’s in mathematics, sociology and astronautics. In fact, in the tiered classroom filled with 50 clean-cut, casually dressed people in their 20’s and 30’s, there seemed to be just about […]
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Picking Among Consulting Offers
When fortunate enough to have more than one consulting offer, a common sentiment is to go for the firm that is more prestigious or pays the most (oftentimes those go hand and hand). However, I always recommend that anyone who gets more than one consulting offer should think beyond prestige and pay. It is wise […]
One of the most vivid memories I have from my early consulting career was the time a Chief Operations Officer (COO) nearly torpedoed my first engagement. It was a corporate reorganisation that involved taking 8 major divisions and around a dozen support units and rebuilding them into a simpler organisational structure. By the time the […]
The clients won’t be household names. Compensation for your volunteer consulting work is at an exciting zero. Worst of all, it will be just another project that competes with school work, networking, and sleep for a piece of your time. Yet for graduate students seriously considering a consulting career without prior professional consulting experience, I […]
As an undergrad embarking on my first management consulting internship, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. On campus, I was involved in a consulting organisation where we did project work for clients, but I questioned if the skills I gained would be transferrable and applicable. It didn’t feel “real” enough. Upperclassmen who had done […]
In the previous article on ‘The Smart Intern’, we explored the reasons for networking during the internship including to pursue the goals of understanding the full-time hiring process, achieving visibility, and creating advocacy within the organisation for your full-time hire. In this article, we will take a deep-dive into this goal-based networking process, explore other […]
This article focuses on how to conclude well in your case interview. It is part 2 of a 3 part series. If you haven’t read part 1 yet, what I would do is pause reading and look at the following link, which covers four great tips on how to improve your conclusion. What I’m going […]
This article looks at concluding your case interview well. It is the last part of the three part series. I truly hope these articles help you succeed in case interviews and win the job you truly hope for. Before you read this article, you might want to read Part 1 and Part 2. Compare and […]
In the last instalment, I wrote about a fundamental resource within high performing companies, people, and the ways in which internal and external motivation can direct the knowledge sharing process. You can read the full article here. I also claimed that managers have the power to motivate people working within an organisation to increase their […]
Today I’m going to talk about a very important aspect of the case interview, which is your conclusion to the case problem. The conclusion is often the aspect that doesn’t get the attention it really deserves, just like the introduction. There’s a Nobel prize-winning economist named Daniel Kahneman who has done a ton of research […]
If you think that you can relax after getting that fabulous MBA internship offer from your dream company, then you are partly right. While it’s important to relax after your internship hunt marathon, the smartness doesn’t lie in dealing with things as they come. It lies in planning in advance and dealing with deviations from […]
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So you want to be a consultant …
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 […]
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7 Networking Mistakes to Avoid
When it comes to recruiting the three big criteria are: networking, application package (cover letter, resume, and transcript), and interview. Even after you get a job, networking is still one of the most essential life skills to have. Either we shy away from it and allow ourselves to be outshined by others, or we grab […]
All organisations engage in marketing activities: you have to show your customers you have something they want, after all. For top-tier consulting firms, there are two primary marketing efforts – the first, marketing to attract entry-level recruits, is quite visible. Firms regularly visit target school campuses, and buy online advertising on LinkedIn and Facebook to […]
As I start my consulting career, some of the questions that I keep coming back to are: How can I stand out amongst all of these high achieving and well educated individuals, especially in the beginning? What skills do I need to develop? What are the keys to longevity at my firm and the greater […]
Most consulting firms are wrapping up their recruitment process for this year and offers have been sent out. The hard skills help you do the analysis, but once you’ve got an answer, you need client buy in. To get client buy in, you almost always need exceptional soft skills. As a result, the consulting firms […]
This post is a continuation of my look at what you need to know to succeed in the consulting application process. From asking several of my friends for advice, who have all had internships and job offers from the Big Three and Big Four consulting firms, it’s clear that there is a common denominator to […]
As Alexander Graham Bell once uttered: before anything else, preparation is the key to success. The saying may sound clichéd, but there is still much truth in it almost a century later. In a competitive field like consulting, it’s important to stay ahead of the game if you want to have an advantage over the […]
Mark Twain, the fiction writer, first popularised the phrase “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”. Twain erroneously attributed the line to a British Prime Minister, who in fact, was never recorded saying any such thing. It’s fitting, given what I’m about to describe, that one of the best-known claims about […]
As a former advanced degree candidate who applied to consulting while finishing medical school, I would like to share my experience with those of you who are in the middle of making a similar jump out of academia. As I stated in part 1 of this series, many of my M.D. and Ph.D. colleagues had […]
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Roadmap Into Consulting
Are you an aspiring management consultant? If you are reading this, then there is a good chance you are. Management consulting is an industry that offers its professionals a range of attractive benefits such as the opportunity to solve challenging business problems, network with senior executives, receive a high salary, and gain access to attractive […]
Introduction With the 2018 application cycle in full swing for a number of top-tier consulting firms, many of my MD and PhD colleagues have been inquiring about how they can leave academia, if only for a few years, and pursue a career change in management consulting. Because many of my piers have very similar questions […]
Student consulting would seem to most students as an obvious first step towards a career in consulting. It offers experience in dealing with clients, solving real-life problems and demonstrates your interest, all of which can add a lot to your CV. However, Sam Smith has recently argued in the post ‘Student consulting – Does it […]
The technology industry is booming: in 2008, Microsoft was the only tech firm ranked in the world’s top 10 public companies by market capitalisation. In 2018, tech firms take seven of the top ten spots (Financial Times Global 500). Top graduates are more interested in joining Google than Goldman Sachs. Start-up ecosystems are exploding as […]
Welcome back to the data driven recruiting series! Please refer to the first article in this series for the first five findings and more details on the data sources and methodology behind the analysis. As I mentioned in my first post, the following findings show correlations only and should not be interpreted causally. Now, time […]
The consulting industry is a very competitive field with an abundance of highly educated professionals with proven track records of success. In order to succeed and stay relevant in such a competitive field, consultants have to keep their knowledge up to date and continuously hone their skills. The question is, what is the best way […]
During one of my internships I worked on a due diligence project, which involved conducting market research to help a PE firm decide whether to acquire a major stake in a joint venture owned by one of the largest telecom companies in Asia. It was a very interesting experience, so in this post I will […]
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The Paths of Consultancy
Daryl Morey slinks away to a secluded weight-room with two muted TVs broadcasting the tipoff of his beloved Houston Rockets, the team he created. As general manager, he had the power to build the team to exactly his desires. But how did he attain this power in a league where two thirds of GMs are […]
We’re flooded with information on a daily basis. As consultants (or those recruiting to be consultants), we’re asked to handle and analyze vast amounts of information. However, while recruiting, how many of us actually pursue a data-driven approach to getting an interview? I know I didn’t. Despite all of the rumors, pieces of advice, and […]
Student consultants certainly mean well: for their CVs if not the organisations they consult to. But whether student consulting organisations deliver for clients or the students who take part is questionable. In this piece, I look at the reasons professional consulting firms are hired, and explain how student consultants are ill-placed to offer the same […]
It’s almost summer, and you have probably accepted an offer from your favorite B-School that you pursued for months. Based on conversations with your B-school seniors, you know how intense the first few months of the program is, with coursework, networking, and internship hunting all happening at the same time. Perhaps the thought of such […]
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Getting the Rest Right for Interviews
After mastering both fit and case interviews, the remaining parts of your consulting interview are the Intro and Q&A. They are not as critical as the fit or case interview parts, but still can make a big difference regarding leaving a good impression on the interviewers or even giving you the little push you need […]
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Cold Emailing 101
This is part 2 of my posts on cold emailing. If you have not read part 1, check out “How I used cold emailing to land an internship in Mongolia”. By the end of this post you should understand three things: How to find professionals to contact How to write a strong cold email How […]
Sometimes interviewees find it hard to differentiate themselves by simply using common frameworks. The problem with common frameworks is that they are too board to allow you to give an insightful synthesis. And as more and more candidates start to use them frequently, it is harder to impress the interviewers. Hence, I would like to […]
Candidates often use the Value Chain Framework without being aware of it. It may form part of your thinking when breaking down a problem using a MECE tree diagram or used when drilling into upstream suppliers and downstream distributors. However, the Value Chain Framework is indeed very useful when it comes to breaking down a […]
Another framework you should know is the Mergers & Acquisitions framework (M&A framework). The reason that this framework is worth introducing is due to the increasing frequency of M&A cases confronting candidates in the case interview. Needless to say, M&A deals are notoriously complicated financial activities, which makes candidates panic when they are prompted with […]
As I have been asked by quite a lot of people to share some frameworks, I will use the next 3 posts to walk you through the most frequently used frameworks in the case interview. While you are reading those frameworks and related examples, keep in mind that no framework is the skeleton key to […]
If you are in your final year at university or you have recently finished your degree, there is a chance you are looking at jobs in management consulting. It is an incredibly interesting and challenging profession, which offers a great starting salary and many job opportunities going forward. Moreover, it is a convenient way to […]
This post will mainly focus on introducing the case interview format, and an overview of several key formats that are typically used. You may wonder, shouldn’t the format always be the same? No, there are different formats for the case interview, in other words different setups. Standard Format The standard format is a one-on-one case […]
In this day and age of hospitals working to provide better care and outcomes for a cheaper price, one of the ways to gauge the impact that the implemented changes are having is through measuring patient satisfaction. Hospitals, health systems, and some private practice groups are working actively and diligently to improve patient satisfaction scores. […]