Tips as you prepare for interviews- 2013 Consultantsvideo.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/bizcommcenter/BCC...

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Tips as you prepare for interviews- 2013 Consultants Abby Asem November 2013

Transcript of Tips as you prepare for interviews- 2013 Consultantsvideo.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/bizcommcenter/BCC...

Tips as you prepare for interviews-

2013 Consultants

Abby Asem

November 2013

Interview insights

Recruiter feedback

Behavioral interviewing tips

Upcoming dates & deadlines

Overview

Interview insights

Recruiter feedback

Behavioral interviewing tips

Upcoming dates & deadlines

Overview

Interview insights can be a useful guide, but

use your own judgment in interpreting data

• Almost 50 students have generously provided feedback on their interviews

• Their perspective will be influenced by their backgrounds, interview skill,

advance prep, etc (e.g. someone who has direct applicable experience, has

had 20 interviews before this, and talked to multiple employees to

understand a company may feel they had an easy, conversational interview-

no guarantee you will have the same experience

• Companies are likely to bring different interviewers when you interview. Your

experience could be totally different

• Basically, use this as one prep tool not THE prep tool

Interview insights

Note: If a company is not represented, interviewees have not submitted a response to the survey

Boston Consulting Group

• A retailer who sells clothing and accessories in

SE US has had a tremendous growth over last

10 years, but in past 12 months revenues and

profits have decreased. In particular they feel

there are some concerns over their promotion

strategy of directed coupons. They wanted to

evaluate if their coupons are effective and also

what other couponing options do they can use.

• Commissioners office for a South-East College

conference has hired BCG to help increase long

term revenue & profits. They want you to

examine if adding additional universities will help,

and which universities to consider adding. Case

provides revenue streams for commissioners

office, which forms the basis for progressing with

the case

• What is one thing that you did as a leader that has

had the most significant impact, financially or

personally

• Tell me about a time when you had to influence

someone using data as we do everyday in a

consulting environment

• What is the most difficult or challenging analytical

problem that you have solved

• Why BCG?

• Tell me how you work in a team; tell about a team

situation where you had to go against popular

opinion

• Explain why you want to get into consulting - this

was oriented towards explaining how all the

career/educational choices I had made were leading

me to consulting

• Talk about a team work situation that you were really

proud of. What was your role in a non-leadership

position?

• Of the various achievements mentioned in resume

which one was the most important/had greatest

impact, why - oriented leadership role I had played in

the projects

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

Boston Consulting Group (continued)

• Yeah, each case had a lot of exhibits and charts. I

wish we could have some workshops on how to

quickly read charts and charts that are in the format

given by consulting firms

• The cases for BCG turned out to be totally qualitative -

non numbers based. They were also very

conversational, and not like a formal - "OK, now Im

going to give you the case prompt". It is easy to loose

track of time in such conversational casing situations,

as well as to ignore structure. The case starts

suddenly as a part of the conversation, and it is

important to have a proper structured approach. The

interviewer will dig deep into everything you mention

so make sure you dont get carried away by the

conversational nature of the case and by mistake

provide unsubstantiated suggestions or arguments.

• Practicing cases with BCG mentors and classmates,

having mock interviews

• Do all cases on the website and just be more familiar with

that type of casing. Use the book crack the case!

• Apart from regular practice, practice speed casing as well.

We had to solve one of the cases in 20 mins.

• 1. Very important to have a free and normal conversation

with the interviewer - do not be formal and rigid with case

when the interviewer actually wants to have a free flowing

discussion or conversation about the case at hand. 2. The

more behavioral interviews you do the more polished your

stories will sound, and you might in fact get some new

ideas that you hadn't considered before. Important to do

MANY practice behavioral with DIFFERENT people before

interviews. 3. Go beyond the usual why consulting, why

BCG, why XYZ questions. - in practice interviews

encourage interviewers to ask completely unexpected

questions - be prepared to improvise on the spot. 4. Think

deeply about the questions you ask at the end on the

interview. Avoid asking questions, the answers to which

you could have found out before. I think it works best if the

questions relate to something you have just discussed

with the interviewer, in order to show that you are not just

pulling something off a list that you had in mind from

before - Improvise! Also show that you are evaluating the

firm in the same way the firm is evaluating you. Think

about what you would want to know from your interviewer

if you had offers from all the big 3 firms, and were trying

to pick one.

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Interview insights

Campbell Alliance

• None

• No case interview questions in 1st round with

HR. Before 2nd round I was expected to

write a short essay about pharma generic

competitor entry.

• What practice areas are you interested in?

• Why Campbell Alliance?

• I was expected to talk about my experience

and make connection to company practice

areas.

• Very easy interview. Most of the interviewer's

time was spent talking about what Campbell

Alliance does and one interviewer

commented "it was like a company

presentation in the interview".

• I had an informational interview with a recent

alumni before the actual interview. I had a

good understanding of company culture and

practice areas. Knowing more about

company practice areas helped me to better

shape my stories. One can easily check

practice areas from company web site. If you

have enough time for prep. check company

white papers.

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

Cognizant

• None

• If a company wants to give away an in-house

developed product, how should it go about in doing

so?

• Not really a case, had me explain in detail a

business case that I had built

• If you are preparing a strategy recommendation

presentation to a client, what process would you

follow?

• Resume walk

• Time when you had to lead a diverse team

• Tell me about a time when you had to make a sale

(convince others - boss/client about your idea)

• What are your key learnings from your school and

work experience

• Tell me about a time when you worked in a team/

led a team

• Time when you had to work on a tough project and

how did you do?

• What do you expect to be in Cognizant 3 years

from now

• what do you like doing?

• N/A • Be prepared to go in depth on what looks

interesting on your resume and be prepared to

explain the difficult concepts of your previous

positions to this interviewer

• Mock case and behavioral interviews

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

CSC

• No cases • Reverse resume walk. Start with business

school and talk me backward through the

resume.

• Why Consulting?

• Why CSC? (there were 2 or 3 versions of

this)

• How do you deal with people not pulling their

weight?

• Tell me about a time where you dealt with

ambiguity

• Wish I had known how important the why

CSC was to them

• Do BCC behavioral mocks

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

Deloitte S&O (I)

• Client has come up with a wireless "TAP" - tap to pay ticketing system

for subways & buses. They want you to examine data presented to pick

one among 3 cities where to launch the product. More financial -

revenue & cost data provided. Calculate if it will be profitable, if target

payback period will be achieved etc. Deloitte mini case - numbers

dominated case. Basically testing analytical skills - they will not push you

further once you demonstrate that you are good with numbers.

• Market Entry, conduct assessment of potential revenue in three markets

and identify the best market to enter and whether or not to enter it

• Case was just a detailed math calculation. Given lots of segment data

and asked to identify most attractive segment. Then given segment

development costs and revenues and asked to calculate ROI (payback

period).

• Evaluating whether or not a technology to automate the subway system

payment process will break even in 5 years (charts used)

• Group Case - Auto Parts Supplier considering entering China, India, or

Brazil

• Revenue & profits falling for a paper product distribution subsidiary of a

larger firm. Examine why etc. At the end the case also provides 3 other

options of increasing revenue, and asks you to examine them and

recommend which one(s) you would pick

• What made you decide to take your first job out of undergrad?

• Tell me about your internship

• 30 second overview of your career, resume walk

• What academic experience are you the most proud of?

• Why Deloitte? Why Kenan-Flagler? Why consulting? Why office choices

• What do you think you will find most challenging if you join

Deloitte/Consulting? Be ready to explain in detail

• Talk about a leadership/teamwork situation that is very recent - e.g. in

School. Interviewer dug in very deep to ask what you did at specific

times, what you were thinking, how the other players in the situation

reacted, how you dealt with them etc

• You are in a presentation with a lead partner or client when he starts

talking about something that you know to be wrong... what do you do?

• What are you most proud (academically) during the MBA program

• Talk to me about your industry experience, what project did you have for

your internship last summer?

• What would you do if your flight got canceled but then still had to make

the client meeting the next morning.

• You and a partner are scheduled to give a presentation at an important

client. The partner can't make it and you are going alone anyway to

give the pitch. You get to the airport and your flight gets canceled so

you don't think you can make it.... what do you do?

• Which other firms are you interviewing with? Any Non-consulting firms?

- be ready to explain rationale for other firms & industries if any

• What would you do if you and another colleague(same designation)

were working on a consulting project, and while you were finishing your

work ahead of schedule, he was passing on some of his work to you.

How would you react? Be ready for 3 to 4 level follow up questions

based on your answer

• If our positions were reversed, what qualities would you look for in a

potential candidate for Deloitte. - In one case I mentioned finding out

about their reason for wanting Deloitte, in which case the follow up

questions was - What would you say is an acceptable reason?

• Interviewer said he didn't really believe in behavioral interviews and that

we would instead just have a conversation. He wrote on a notepad, not

on a form with pre-determined interview questions.

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

Deloitte S&O (continued)

• Case interviews, do two per day if possible. Start

early. And review the cases that you do, don't just do

cases to get to a high number, understand what you

did right and wrong. Engage the interviewer. If you

have a hard time during the case maintain composure

and get to a strong close.

• Case, case, case...

• Case prep w/ BCC, classmates, CMC

• practice cases - 5-8 a week leading up to it with a

good partner and feedback

• Make sure to make them feel that you really want

Deloitte...moreso than many other firms

Tips for future interviewees

Interview insights

• Be comfortable doing math in your head and on paper.

No charts, but lots of tables with data.

• Be ready to look at a crowded data sheet - all of it -

and pull out what you need.

• Lots of data sheets on cases

• The first round case was more straightforward and

basic than I expected

• Deloitte has this specific guided style of interviews,

which you don't see in case books. Especially for the

larger 2nd round case, they will first give a really long

prompt (1 full sheet read out quite fast) - of which only

a small part will be relevant to the problem.

Candidates must get used to filtering through this

information and not get overwhelmed. Then the first

question if usually looking for high level options are

areas to look at. They do NOT want you to dig deeper

at this point and ask for details. They may not even let

you come up with a structure etc. After that you will

usually be given a data dump - 1 sheet with 4 exhibits

- usually a bit confusing and ask to hear your thoughts

about them. In most cases very useful insights can be

found by relating the data across multiple exhibits. The

interview proceeds in this fashion - exhibit - thoughts -

specific questions related to exhibit - next part/exhibit.

What you wish you’d known

Deloitte Tech

• ERP Implementation in dairy company with

silo-ed product lines - Stakeholder

management, ways to reduce ERP

implementation expenses, increasing

visibility across the organization

• Collaboration in teams

• Question about teamwork

• Ambiguity

• Brainstorming

• Unfriendly team members

• Prior technical experience

• Flexibility

• Small business technology situation

• Discuss a current tech trend

• A little more knowledge of ERP

implementation

• Regular case prep does not really help with

this case interview, the question is less

ambiguous

• Be prepared to discuss tech trends in detail

• Spend a lot of time on the Deloitte website

reviewing their sample tech cases

• Relax and be yourself

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

Ernst & Young FSO

• None (1st round) • Tell me about a situation in which team members do not agree

with your proposal and how do you acted?

• Why E+Y? Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years at E+Y?

• How do you structure a presentation?

• How would you deal with a Junior Associate who has been at

E+Y longer than you, is an SME on a subject and wants the

team to follow his direction?

• Tel me about a complex situation that you resolved quickly and

with restricted information

• Walk me through your resume

• Give me an example of your most challenging assignment

• Talk about a time you were given a business plan with a flawed

process and what did you do to fix it?

• What are your weaknesses?

• Practice a lot of behaviorals, be sure of your personal story

• Mock Behaviorals are a must, do them until you have thought

out every scenario and can do it even with some form of

interruption.

• Practice a lot of examples of difficult situations that you have had

either in your previous jobs or at Business School.

• Really be aware of all areas of E+Y and how they fit in to yours.

This will be beneficial for both networking and when talking

about cross functional behavioral questions/scenarios.

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

Ernst & Young PI

• Gov is looking to save money by switching toll

booth operators with cameras. What would you

think about. Will an automated camera system

for toll booths break even in 5 years. This case

had a little data (less than a Deloitte case) and

led to a final "correct" go-no go decision.

• Lots of individualized resume walk questions

• Tell me about leadership

• You have to learn something in a short time but teach it to client

• Tell me about your leadership style

• What do you want to know about the specific practice area? (know their differences)

• Tell me what makes a team work well together

• Why consulting

• Collaboration

• How you deal with stress and hard situations

• There were lots of numbers in the case, lots of

calculations, however in the beginning he said he

wants to see how I think and structure.

• The case had several charts but that was what I

expected

• We should have a book of made up ROI

calculations. Ask everyone in the consulting club

to contribute one case and we'll compile them for

a case book.

• Mock interviews would be helpful (including

working on numbers) the case was not very

difficult but the numbers…

• I think preparing for typical consulting interviews

(i.e. casing and mock behavioral) was sufficient

prep for this

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

Grant Thornton

• No case in first round, second round is a group

case w/ 4 hours to complete then present • How does my career prepare me for

Restructuring Group?

• Walk me through your resume

• Lot's of Why, Why undergrad college, Why

UNC, Why Work one place, Why Grant

Thornton

• Why do you want to work in restructuring

• What other firms are you interviewing with

• Tell me about your leadership style

• Nice to know what offices they are looking to

hire for so that I can be prepared to give my

preferences

• Very behavioral

• 3 on one interview

• No technicals, no case. Make sure you tell a

story with your resume walk. Can answer

questions before they are asked.

• Knowing resume inside and out

• Did not do any mocks. Went to the company

event beforehand and took the time to really

get to know the interviewers. Once we got

along it was an easy interview.

• Typical behavioral prep

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

McKinsey

• Easy ERP has a license per client model and is considering

entering the internet monthly payment model, what would be

your advice?

• US blue Jean manufacturer wants to know what its potential

market share would be in China and how it can achieve said

goal

• Client provides Enterprise ERP. Wants to enter into

Software as a service (Saas) ERP solutions? Should they?

• Large manufacturer that specializes in Perfumes, Dental

Care and Hair products, has shown stagnant growth, what

would be the key factor to increase growth?

• The public schools in your county are underperforming?

How do you improve their performance?

• Be detailed in sharing an example of a situation where you had to go against your superior and influence them in changing their mind and following your recommendation (Be specific on what you did, how you did it and the outcome including the metrics)

• Time you were particularly creative

• Tell me about a time when you had to go against popular opinion to gather resources to get something done.

• Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a person at workplace.

• Resume walk

• Tell me about a time where you had to lead a team on a difficult situation

• Tell about a time when you have demonstrated your leadership skills overcoming difficult challenges.

• Tell me about a time where you failed

• McKinsey style is very directed and chart heavy. Wish I had

more practice with that

• I wish I knew how public schools operate in the US

• When given calculations, make sure you draw and explain

your framework before you tackle the problem

• Practice readingconfusing tables.

• Take McKinsey style mock behaviorals - as many as

possible

• Bcc case prep

• I had a case practice partner with whom I started casing

since August twice a week, then I went up until I was casing

2 to 3 times a day. Giving cases was as useful as taking

them

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

MorganFranklin

• Large bank has just acquired a small, regional bank and is looking to cut costs. How can you cut costs and improve customer service? How would you structure your approach, and what recommendations would you provide to the CFO?

• Candy company is profitable with 30% market share and has excess cash and capital. What are opportunities it could pursue to increase revenues and/or profits? What options would you explore?

• Experiences as a team member/ in teams

• Consulting experience

• Dealing with ambiguity

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

PWC Consumer Finance

• None • Walk me through your resume

• Very conversational, walk me through your

resume etc

• Knowing what the group did and about the

industry (mortgages) was definitely in my

favor

• Just a conversation

• Preparing for this interview would be very

similar to any behavioral interview

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

ScottMadden

• None • Example of conflict resolution

• Resume walk

• Decision making in an ambiguous situation

• Why Consulting

• Example of leadership

• Why Scott Madden

• Lessons learned from the internship experience

• Tell me about a time you had to analyze a large

amount of data

• Describe your problem solving approach

• Understand the culture and determine the

potential "fit" within the organization.

• Understand what you like about the

business/organization and the value that you

bring to the table.

What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees

Case Questions Behavioral Questions

Interview insights

Interview insights

Recruiter feedback

Behavioral interviewing tips

Upcoming dates & deadlines

Overview

Overall, recruiters satisfied with student

performance & common themes emerged

about students who excelled

• Knowledgeable about trends

• Had personal examples showing that they were driven to personal

growth

• Had obviously researched our firm and practice areas

• Stories had great depth

• Answers were structured

• We could have an easy communication/they were very interpersonal

Recruiter Feedback

As expected areas for improvement exist

Behavioral

• Clearly outline leadership roles in your stories

• We would like to see evidence of influencing skills; weave those in

• Technical skills are great, but when a student struggles to

communicate, I am not convinced he/she can sell ideas to a client

• I asked a question about Kenan-Flagler and I got a resume walk.

Seemed scripted

• Student didn’t seem interested in us. I would have liked more

engagement/passion

• Correlate your experience to our need

Recruiter Feedback

Cases

• Students spent so much time discussing the process they would use

to solve the case vs. actually solving the case; they run out of time.

Get to the key variables/drivers

• Get out of the math weeds and see the full picture

• Stay engaged even during the case

• Outline the problem and show thought process as you work through

the case

• Summarize your key points concisely

Recruiter Feedback

As expected areas for improvement exist

Interview insights

Recruiter feedback

Behavioral interviewing tips

Upcoming dates & deadlines

Overview

S= Situation

What happened and why did it prompt you to take action?

T= Task

What was the specific challenge, job or project?

A= Action

What was your role in the job or project?/ What action did you take?

R= Result

What happened as a result of your action? Be specific.

What did you learn from the results?

Remember to use the S-T-A-R Framework

Behavioral Interviewing

• Tell me about a time when you dealt with ambiguity.

• Give me an example of a time when your supervisor was wrong and how you handled it.

• Tell me about a time when you worked with a team lacking a clear leader and the team was

having a hard time meeting its goals and objectives? What did you do? What was the outcome?

What did you learn?

• Describe a situation in which you had to influence a peer to cooperative with you. What was

your approach?

• Walk me through a situation in which you had to do research and analyze the results of a

project.

• Describe a time when you decided you should change your actions or approach in order to

respond to the needs of a situation.

• Tell me about a time when you had to re-write the rules.

• Tell me about a time when you made a bad decision.

Behavioral Questions vary widely

Behavioral Interviewing

10. Insufficient research on employer and the position

9. Overly-rehearsed or impersonal

8. Not making the case for: Why me? Why this job?

7. Low eye contact and/or smiling

6. Insufficient prep for Walk Me Through Your Resume

(intro statement)

5. Negatively-framed ques. – not getting out of the trough

4. No structure – STAR

3. Never had a mock interview / No practice

2. No customization for employer

1. Weak endings. The FADE…….

Top 10 Mistakes in Behavioral Interviewing

Behavioral Interviewing

• Think of job/employer

• Define the skills the role requires and how you will

highlight these skills

• What qualities are important to them?

• Where are your gaps? (preempt them!)

Position yourself & story effectively

Behavioral Interviewing

• Approximately 2-3 minutes

• Undergrad graduation to present

• Significant contributions

• Purposeful transitions

• “Why MBA?

• “Why Kenan-Flagler?”

• “The reason I’m here is…”

• “I plan to add value to your company by…”

• Strong summary

• Don’t just read your resume bullets. Bring it to life!

“Walk me through your resume”

Behavioral Interviewing

Answer negatively-framed questions fully

STORY

What went

wrong & why

Accept

responsibility

Corrective actions

Learning,

What is different NOW

Going forward Weakness?

Tell me about a bad boss?

Tell me about a mistake?

Trough

Set up and

Your specific role

Behavioral Interviewing

• Behavioral grid

• Sample behavioral questions

• Interview Stream

• BCC

• Peer Counselors

• Club education events

• Associate Directors

Many CMC resources to support your prep

Behavioral Interviewing

Practice, practice, practice!

Interview insights

Recruiter Feedback

Behavioral Interviewing

Upcoming dates & deadlines

Overview

•Resume (and cover letter) drops Now!

•iClass – Behavioral interviewing hands on practice for international students 11/15

•Consulting Club “Case in Point” workshop 11/16

•Deloitte Case Competition 11/18

•Interview Signups start 11/28

•iClass – Functional interviewing prep for international students 12/6

•Final exams 12/10 – 12/15

•On-campus interviews start 1/18

Upcoming Dates / Deadlines

Some

applications

require

transcripts,

etc so plan

ahead!

Upcoming dates & deadlines