Download - Consulting Now
-
1How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
An Introduction Guide
in MANAGEMENTCONSULTING
How To Land a Job
consultingfactPrepare for a Consulting Career
.co
m
-
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
- An Introduction Guide
2nd edition
Photocopying is not allowed
2010 - Consultingfact.com
Consultingfact.com. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanically, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without either the prior written permission of the publisher. This guide may not be lent, resold,
hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it
is published, without the prior consent of the publisher.
-
3How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
contents
Recruiting Process
07
Preparation to interview rounds
13
Case example
21
Introduction
04
-
4How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
ject but it is a great place to start your prepa-
ration efforts.
The goal of management consulting is
to offer advisory services to corporations,
private equity houses, government agencies
and NGOs. These organizations often face
Consultingfact.com aspires to be
the number one online resource for
management consulting application and
interview preparation. We develop tools
and products that will help you land your
dream job in management consulting.
Consultingfact.com was founded in
Copenhagen, Denmark by a former
management consultant from McKinsey
IntroductionGetting into management consulting is
extremely competitive. You need to have
excellent qualifications. But this is far from
enough. These great credentials need to
be presented in a professional cover letter
and resume in order for you to make it to
the interview rounds. The interview rounds
include as much as six separate interviews,
where it is expected that you can provide
recommendations and solutions to real life
business situations with only limited informa-
tion. No wonder that most applicants find the
application process intimidating. Preparation
is essential to make it through the eye of this
needle. The purpose of this guide is to provide
newcomers to management consulting with
a simple overview of the application process
and guidelines to practicing case interviews.
The paper is far from exhaustive on the sub-
Introduction
-
5How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
questions that they are unable to answer due
to lack of resources, lack of competence, or
simply because they need an external per-
spective. The top tier management consulting
firms like McKinsey & Company, Boston Con-
sulting Group and Bain & Company typically
work within several practice areas including:
As a new consultant, you can expect to
work within all of these practice areas and
across numerous industries. Your learning
curve will be steep. Not everybody will make
it to the partner level, but a few years with
a consulting firm is an excellent investment
regardless of where you end up. We can defi-
nitely recommend it.
Practice Areas:
Change management
Corporate renewal
Corporate strategy
Cost & supply chain management
Customer strategy and marketing
Growth strategy
Information technology
Mergers and acquisitions
Organization
Performance improvement
Private equity
What Do Management Con-sulting Firms Look For?
Knowing what management consulting
firms look for is a prerequisite for writing a
great application and acing the interviews. A
great place to start is always at the consulting
firms website. For example, McKinsey looks
for skills in problem solving, achievement,
personal impact and leadership whereas Bain
judge their candidates on criteria such as the
ability to add value along with client skills and
team skills.
We believe that there are key skills and
personal characteristics that all management
consulting firms look for regardless of how
they communicate their requirements.
Introduction
-
6How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
The Six Success Factors in Management Consulting
Structured thinking
The ability to think in a clear and organized way. This is useful for problem solving
and analysis. Math skills also fall in this category and are often used to exemplify
structured thinking skills.
Communication:
Both written and oral communication skills are important in management consult-
ing. In this pre-interview phase you should focus on your written communication
skills. Be clear and to the point in your written and oral messages.
Business judgment
Have a good judgment of business and strategic issues. This is important for case
solving a key management consulting discipline. A good way of practicing this is
by reading business media and trying to understand the underlying issues behind
different news stories and their respective strategic choices.
Personal impact:
Personal impact is hard to define, but think about it sometimes you are around
people who are good at influencing others. As management consulting firms look
for future leaders, they will look for that leadership talent in you.
Team skills:
Cooperation with other people is essential as a management consultant, you work
in project teams and are surrounded by both clients and coworkers. These must
be demonstrated while you are presenting during an interview, whether they are
explained or shown through actions.
Drive and motivation:
Know what you like and go for it. People should have a feel that you are moti-
vated for a career filled with challenging assignments and long hours, and that you
can maintain drive even when the things get tough.
-
Recruiting Process
-
8How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
Recruiting
ProcessThe application process at each of the
major management consulting firms is very
similar. There are three main components:
the application itself, possibly a written test,
and case interviews. A candidate needs to
master all three components to receive the
offer.
Pre-Interview Less than 5% of applicants make it through
to the interview rounds. Some applicants are
simply discarded based on their qualifica-
tions, while others are sorted out due to sub
standard cover letters and resumes. The key
purpose of the cover letter and resume is to
present your value proposition in a profes-
sional manner. A few things to keep in mind
when writing your resume and cover letter
are:
Pre-interview
Cover letter
Resume
Case interviews
Market estimations
Business cases
Brain teasers
Written test
Combined verbal and written test
-
9How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
The top consulting firms receive more
than 200,000 applications every year. Typi-
cally, the first screening of an application does
not take more than 45 seconds to complete. It
is therefore important that your application is
focused and structured, so that the recruiter
immediately gets a positive impression and
quickly finds the required information.
Written TestMost management consulting firms
also test their applicants via a written test.
The written test usually consists of various
numerical and verbal multiple-choice ques-
tions. These are often very similar to what
you would see in a GMAT. Be aware that most
firms do not allow you to use any electronic
devices (e.g. calculators or computers) when
performing calculations.
Case interviewsThe case interview is a classic in manage-
ment consulting. The purpose is to test the
candidates ability to perform problem-solv-
ing and effectively communicate and present
findings. Problem solving skills include busi-
ness judgment, quantitative skills, creativity,
logical reasoning, and the ability to structure
an analysis. These are all skills that are highly
useful as a management consultant. In real
life consulting, the client often puts you on
the spot by asking a question that requires
problem-solving skills. The case interview
form is a great way to test how a person per-
Customize your cover letter to the specific firm. Each firm is different from the others. Research the firm you are applying to via the internet or by attend-ing one of their company presentations.
The management consulting industry is very conservative, hence keep your cover letter and resume design simple and professional. Colors and fancy fonts etc. are no goes!
Proofread and proofread once more. Make sure your grammar and spelling are correct and please check that you have not committed the common mistake of writing a wrong firm name. Reading an application to McKinsey with a Bain name in it will immediately get you discarded no matter of qualifications
Send your files in the PDF format to ensure that your format is received exactly as you intended. A PDF printer can be found free on the internet.
Cover Letter and Resume Tips
-
10
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
forms under pressure, i.e. if he/she easily
gets frustrated when challenged. Manage-
ment consulting firms are very diligent in
their recruiting, so expect two to three inter-
view rounds equivalent to five or six separate
interviews.
Types of cases
During a case interview, the interviewer
may use any or all three of the available case
interview types. The business case is by far
the most common of the three, since the case
is as close as you can get to real life manage-
ment consulting.
In a business case interview, you will be
presented to a business situation on either
industry level or at firm level. A business case
can cover all practice areas within a manage-
ment consulting firm.
Business case
Real life business problem
Brain-teaser
Various puzzles
Estimation case
Market sizing
Volume and weight estimation
Company A produces refrigerators. The company is a private equity owned company and wants to double its revenue within 3 years. What do you recom-mend the company to do?
Company B produces wind turbines. The company is the global market leader, but has recently experienced declining market shares. What do you recommend Company Bs management to do?
Company C produces pumps. Due to increasing global competition the company needs to expand its manufacturing capacity. The company is in doubt how to do this should they expand their existing facilities or should they build a new plant. What do you recommend?
Business Case Examples
-
11
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
Why are manholes round?
Imagine a 6x6x6 rubiks cube. How many cubes can be touched?
A business case is sometimes combined
with an estimation case. An estimation case
sometimes also known as market sizing case
allows an interviewer to test your logical
and quantitative skills. The aim of an estima-
tion case is to estimate a quantity of some
sort. This could be a market size measured in
USD or a volume unit. Other examples could
be to estimate the numbers of hairdressers
in the US or the number of dogs in the UK.
Common for all of estimation questions is
that the interviewee needs structure to get
to a reasonable answer.
A third case interview type is the
brainteaser. Brainteasers are very seldom
the sole case type in an interview. A manage-
ment consulting brainteaser is hard to define,
since the category includes a wide range of
different questions. Examples of brainteaser
could be:
Brainteaser Examples
-
12
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
Take a look at our guide to Management Consulting Cover Letters and Resumes. We will
show you exactly what to include in your cover letter and resume, how to structure it, how
to write it, and how to format it. Proper structure makes it more likely that the recruiter will
easily find the information required. The design is also very important. This is challenging for a
conservative industry, so you really need to hit the balance here. We will show you examples of
good-looking applications that demonstrate your knowledge of proper consulting presentation.
Management Consulting Cover Letters and Resumes 6 Steps to a Successful Application:
www.consultingfact.com/guides/cover_letter
Still haven't applied to a consulting firm?
The competition is tough. Top Tier Consulting Firms receive more than 200,000 applications every year.
-
Preparation to interview rounds
-
14
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
We will go through these different areas in
the following sections. The best way to prac-
tice these is to ally yourself with a friend or
a management consultant who can practice
case interview tests with you.
Case frameworksFrameworks are helpful for the case inter-
view solving process, as they allow you to
quickly have an idea of how to approach a
case problem. Be aware that you will often
not be able to find a framework that fits the
case problem exactly, so always try to use
your common sense in combination with one
or more frameworks. If you have studied busi-
ness or economics, then you are probably
already familiar with some of the necessary
frameworks.
Preparation to
interview roundsThe consultancy interview rounds can
be rather demanding. It is likely that you will
need to work on several different develop-
ment areas to reach your potential for the
interviews. Depending on your current level,
we recommend 2-6 weeks of daily practice to
learn to apply all necessary concepts in real
interview situations.
It is crucial that you prepare these four
areas for your interview rounds:
Case frameworks
Mental math
Case cracking practice
Communication skills
-
15
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
Below are some of the key analysis areas
where you need a framework:
Company analysis
Market analysis
Strategic options
Venture
Mergers and Acquisitions
Pricing
Revenue growth
Cost reduction
During the interview process, you need
to be aware that you should not commu-
nicate that you are using a framework. The
interviewer would like you to use your own
problem solving skills, so it wont help you
to say something like I will use Porters Five
Forces to analyze this market
Once you have found information about a
specific framework required, you should draw
it and try to remember the visual details. Visu-
als are usually far easier to remember than
trying to remember specific word contents
of a framework. Below is an example for the
pricing framework.
The framework above is really simple
and this is important! For the price deter-
mination, we could have made a framework
taking up a few pages. However, you have
limited time in a case interview both to solve
the case, and to communicate the answer.
Therefore, it is important that you ask your-
self: what are the key questions that I need
to answer using this framework? And for pric-
ing, the different points above are the most
important ones to mention.
Once you have found and illustrated the
key frameworks, you will need to memorize
these. A good way to do this is to draw them
all once every few days. By doing this, you are
forced to think about the specific content of
the framework. This method will quickly give
you results, and you should feel more confi-
dent in the case solving situation when you
can see the framework in your mind and
can focus on filling in the different answers.
Price determination framework
Cost-based pricing Competitor pricing Value-based pricing
Added profit margin
Price of substitutes
Willingness to pay
Current costsCompetitors
prices vs. featuresPerceived value
-
16
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
Mental mathDuring the case interview, you will need
to do a good amount of mental math for
market size estimation, case calculations,
brain teasers or outright math calculation
questions. For this, you will need to practice
the following areas:
Of course, the interviewer will not expect
that you can solve complex math problems
mentally, but you should be able to do more
simple calculations like 17x22, 229 + 128 and
450 / 25 without using paper. In addition to
this, practice your paper math skills for more
complex math questions.
Percentages and fractions are important,
and you will almost certainly need these
during the interview. There might be ques-
tions requiring you to estimate a growth in
percentage or to divide some numbers. In
the latter case, knowing the decimal result
of most common fractions is important. You
should memorize the results of the fractions
from 1/5 to 1/20.
It is very likely that you will be presented
to some charts during the interview either
as part of a case solving, or as a very specific
question about what you can read in a chart.
On the next page you can see the examples
of some of the different types of chart that
you should quickly be able to read.
Addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division on paper and mentally
Percentage arithmetic
Fraction arithmetic
Currency conversion
Chart reading
-
17
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
Bar / Line Chart
Stacked Bar Chart
100% Stacked Bar Chart
Pie Chart
Cascade/waterfall chart
Marimekko Chart
-
18
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
There are many situations in your every-
day life where you can practice math skills.
The key is to get into a mindset, where it feels
more natural for you to work with numbers
mentally. Below are some examples of real life
situations where you can practice:
When shopping add the numbers
in the shopping cart in your head,
and see if you can match the correct
result
When filling gas look at your gas
meter and calculate what the price
would have been, if you had chosen
another type of gas
When travelling practice currency
conversion
Case cracking practice
It is actually quite easy to structure the
case solving process. During our career, we
have met many bright candidates with a good
business sense and excellent mental math
skills but who did not make it through the
interview process due to a lack of basic struc-
ture.
Follow the following the below 10 steps
when solving the case:
1. Take notes while the interviewer preents the case
4. Ask the interviewer for a little time to structure your thoughts
5. Draw the case framework and think about what information you need to make a recommendation
6. Present the framework
7. Discuss the topics and ask for further clarifying questions for any relevant parts of the framework
8. Present the solution and answer the case question based on the discussion
9. Ask for the interviewers solution
10. Ask for feedback
2. Repeat the key case question to the interviewer to ensure that you under-stood the objective
3. Ask any clarifying questions
-
19
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
When the interviewer presents the case,
listen carefully and take any necessary notes.
The interviewer will expect that you remem-
ber any information or numbers that he
gives you. Of course you can forget single
pieces of information, but it is a very negative
impression to give if you repeatedly ask for
information that the interviewer has already
provided.
Try to involve the interviewer as much as
possible in the solving of the case. Often, you
will receive hints that will help you and you
can present that you are able to receive input
and being able to present clear recommen-
dation based on the discussions. It is easy to
get out of track if you insist on running the
show entirely.
Do not be afraid to ask for time to think
through the solution. We have many times
seen candidates who start
with case solutions imme-
diately after the inter-
viewer is finished with stat-
ing the question. This is a
clear no-go! It is hard for
you to confidently present
a framework and solution,
unless you take some time
to think it through. You
should not be afraid to take two minutes
time to do this.
Once you have discussed the solution,
remember to wrap up the discussion with a
clear recommendation. The discussion might
make you change your recommendation, so
this step is important so that the interviewer
can see that you are able to process and sum-
marize your analysis.
Communication skillsCommunication skills are one of the most
important success factors for a management
consultant. It is crucial that you show the
interviewer that you are a true communica-
tor. Make sure that you remember to smile
no matter how the interview goes and who
the interviewer is. This sets the mood and it is
usually contagious. Also, remember to display
confidence by using slow gestures while you
speak, sitting straight, and keeping a good eye
contact. The confidence part is really impor-
tant during the case interviews.
Another thing is to dress correct for an
interview. Recruiters say all the time that
candidates should stand
out based on their quali-
fications and not their
wardrobe, but it is doubly
important in the manage-
ment consulting sector.
As a management con-
sultant you will be deal-
ing with executives from
high-ranking companies,
hence the interviewer will want to make sure
that you can put forth the company image in
how you act and dress. Forgetting this for the
interview may mean you could forget it in a
client meeting.
-
20
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
How to dress for an interview
Skirts, Dresses and Suits
Pastels, print patterns and other
designs are great for the weekend when
you are with friends. Keep them out of
your wardrobe choices for your first man-
agement consulting interview. In fact,
the standard black or charcoal
suit from a mid to upper level
designer for men may seem like
an uninspired choice, but you want
to create a canvas that the firm sees
as able to meet their goals. Pair it
with a sedate white or light blue
shirt and a blue, yellow or red tie.
Women will likely benefit from pant
or dress suits that are conservative in cut
and allow them to work without adjust-
ment. Shoes should not look like they
came from Sex and the City, either.
More so than the clothes them-
selves is the attention to detail in preparing
them. Have your clothes professionally
cleaned and pressed prior to the interview.
Make sure that all shoe wear is polished
and free from dirt. Above all, make sure
that there are no rips or stains on any items
you plan on wearing
Hygiene and Haircuts
Nail biting, long haircuts and poor skin
quality are not necessarily the signs of
traits that management consultants aspire
to hold. Make sure that your hair does not
cover your ear if you are male and does not
come close to touching your collar.
For grooming, focus on the things that
interviewers will notice first, nails that
are free from excessive nail polish
for women and not bitten down to
nubs for men. Males who need to
shave infrequently should time it so
there is neither stubble nor razor burn.
Jewelry
Family heirlooms and gifts from
friends and relatives may have a per-
sonal meaning to you. This is also the case
for class rings and other signs of member-
ship. If they seem gaudy or ostentatious,
though, you set off warning signals. Keep
the jewelry to watches for men and per-
haps a ring, and simple earrings for
women in addition. Large gemstones
can also be a bit overpowering in setting a
first impression.
With all those aspects marked off
your checklist, you can be sure that your
responses to questions will be what the
recruiter remembers most, not the striped
shirt that belongs in a club or disco.
-
Case example
-
22
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
Case exampleThe case below focuses on pricing, and is
a real life example. You should be able to see
the structure used here and get hints on how
to structure your own case solution.
Our client is a global airline which has
proven successful with their efficient opera-
tions, even during the recent financial crisis.
They are now considering starting a flight
service between Paris and London. There
is a larger effort ongoing in making a busi-
ness case for this flight service and you have
been giving the assignment of pricing. How
should the client price its tickets?
Candidate: So, our client is a global airline
considering launching a flight route between
London and Paris, and they want to know how
to price the tickets?
Interviewer: Yes
Candidate: Can you give me more infor-
mation about the flight and service, and how
deep pricing considerations you need? Flight
tickets can have very different classes and
prices, also depending on the time of pur-
chase.
Interviewer: Thats a very good point.
This flight is a discount-only flight, so there
is one discount class on the whole flight. We
will operate with fixed prices when custom-
ers order the tickets at latest 1 week prior to
departure. Then the price will increase but
lets forget that and find a baseline price.
Candidate: Alright. Can I have a minute
to structure my thoughts?
Interviewer: Sure
Candidate: There are three ways to decide
a price: value based price, cost-based pricing
and competitor-based pricing. As these are
discount tickets in a competitive market, it
would not make much sense to use value
-
23
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
based price as the price levels would be given
to us from the current market. So there are
two ways in which we can price discount tick-
ets. I assume that there is a significant com-
petition already with other airlines, and there
are also substituting products. So we need to
look at the alternatives and use competitor
pricing as input. Also we need to make sure
that we cover our costs.
Interviewer: Sounds like a good approach.
Our costs would be EUR 45 per passenger.
This will include all variable costs, as well as
staff, flight lease and airport fees.
Candidate: Alright, so we will need to
look at the competitors offerings. There are
three types of alternatives: Other airlines, the
Eurostar train service or driving by car. Do you
have any information about the prices?
Interviewer: Yes, the other airlines charge
between EUR 40 and 60 for discount airlines,
and the traditional flag carriers charge EUR
50 70 for discount tickets. The Eurostar
train service has varying prices between GBP
70 and 100. The price to get a car through
the tunnel is EUR 50. How will you do the
analysis?
Candidate: First task is to compare the dif-
ferent competitors prices vs. features so that
we are comparing the right things. I would
not include the car product as this is simply
a different product in terms of costs, time
and convenience. I will assume that almost
all competition comes from other flights and
the Eurostar train service. It is important to
compare with the relevant alternatives when
pricing. I would not include the car alterna-
tive, as the product.
Interviewer: Ok, fair enough
Candidate: First we need to calculate the
price of the Eurostar in to EUR in order to
make it comparable. I know the exchange rate
for EUR/GBP is approximately 1.10. Does that
seem reasonable?
Interviewer: It is reasonable estimate,
but I can give you the actual exchange rate.
Currently it is 1.13
Candidate: So we say 1.13 times GBP 70.
That equals EUR 79.10. GBP 100 times 1.13
equals 113.00
Interviewer: Right on
Candidate: Now we need to adjust the
price of the alternatives with the product con-
tent. I am assuming that the alternative flights
use the same airports, hence the product is
directly comparable in regards to convenience
and time. The Eurostar train travels slower
than the planes, but since the train departs
and arrives at the city centers of London and
Paris, it is actually faster and more conve-
nient. This means that all other things being
equal, the consumer should be willing to pay a
premium for the train ticket. This means that
train price of EUR 79-113 serves as an upper
-
24
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
bound in this pricing exercise.
Interviewer: Ok
Candidate: Next we need to look at com-
plementary products that can be sold with
the tickets
Interviewer: Why are you interested in
that?
Candidate: Well, I noticed that our com-
petitors can sell tickets below our cost base
and that made me think that there might be
some additional revenue per customers. For
example revenue from baggage handling, car
rent, hotels and similar
Interviewer: True
Candidate: I would estimate this addi-
tional revenue to be EUR 5 per passenger on
average
Interviewer: That is a rough estimate,
but okay
Candidate: This means that from a cost
perspective, the lower bound is not EUR 45
but EUR 40. Based on the analysis we can now
make a comparison:
Alternative discount flights: EUR 40 -60
Traditional flag carriers: EUR 50-70
Eurostar train: EUR 79.10 - 113.00
Based on my analysis, I would recom-
mend the client to price its ticket between
EUR 40-60 i.e. similar pricing as the direct
competition.
Interviewer: I came to a similar conclu-
sion, but I still have one question: Why do
think the price is given as a range and not as
single data point
Candidate: Well, there can be multiple
explanations for that. The price range can
represent differences in service levels, timing
of the flight, brand equity and the carriers
choice of distribution channel.
Interviewer: Okay, I think we covered
most elements of the case, so let us stop here.
Thank you very much for time. We will get
back to you with some feedback.
-
25
How To Land a Job in Management Consulting
consultingfactPrepare for a Consulting Career
.co
m