i'm really worred about consulting interviews
Hi I am a junior at a target school. My main interest is in finance, investment banking. I applied to a lot of banking positions but due to the market I also applied to consulting ones. I happen to have received several investment banking superdays in the next week. I would rather not interview for consulting at all had I already had an ib offer, but unfortunately that means I'm goign to be interviewing for a bunch of consulting firms in the next several days. I was also very lucky in receiving the interviews, for I got every interview I applied to (monitor oliver wyman bain mckinsey...etc)
My consulting interviews begin in a couple of days, so I had planned to just read the guides. I know what consulting is, what people do, but my understanding is extremely shallow. I know that Bain told me my first round woud consist of several 30 minute cases, and I assume that my other interviews would be the same.
After flipping through the vault guide to case interviews this morning, I'm practically sick ot the stomach. There's no way I'm going to be able to understand everything in the next several days. For undergradate sumemr associate positions, am I expected to know about Porter's 5 forces, PIE, Swot analysis, seven Ss, 4Ps, 4Cs, 5Cs, value chain analysis, core competencies, the 2x2 matrix...etc. The list just goes on and on.
Given my short time period before consulting interviews (lets just say 24 hours), what's the best way to prepare for them? I have a solid background in accounting & finance and also am from a very quantitative background. Should I just practice brainteasers and guesstimates, or should I spend my time focuses on advanced concepts such as SWOT?
Thanks
Consulting interviews are
Consulting interviews are very difficult (for me, more difficult than banking interviews). You should also know that, while most consulting firms follow a standard case interview process, this rule varies across institutions. Of the firms you mentioned, I've interviewed with Monitor and Bain in the past. The Monitor interview was the most difficult interview I've ever had in my life. I actually interviewed with them 2 years in a row, and it really didn't get any easier the 2nd time around. Monitor follows a non-traditional consulting interview method, where they will give you a written case for about 30 minutes. Pending a decent job on the written case, you'll get 15 minutes of fit. The 2nd round is even more atrocious, but we can cross that bridge when we get there. Bain does two 30-min oral cases for both 1st and 2nd round. Not as bad, and definitely predictable.
To be completely honest, it will be impossibly difficult to be up to snuff on case interviewing within 24 hours. The best way to succeed in case interviews is through practicing mock case interviews w/ someone knowledgable. When I went through the process, I found a case partner who was also interviewing for Bain and practiced w/ her over the phone. The framework is far too complex to memorize in 1 day, but I would suggest looking at practice cases on Bain's website as well as picking up a copy of Case in Point.
Your background in finance/accounting likely won't be very beneficial, and it is actually important to memorize the various factors that could impact business strategy/operations (as you mentioned, 5 forces, 5Cs 4Ps, etc.)
Don't look at the vault
Don't look at the vault guide, as it's too framework heavy, which you cannot master in 24 hrs. Get case in point, skim its smaller framework section, and find someone to do 2-3 practice cases with. The main key is structure. Structure everything you say; they don't care if you take a moment to gather/write down your thoughts.
Bain's 1st rd is quite easy, if you know the frameworks and are clear in your communication. The key for them is for you to tell them the basis for your assumptions (i.e. where are your price estimates coming from?). Use your real-life experiences to justify your thoughts (i.e. because i typically pay about $100 for a pair of shoes). Mck's 1st rd cases are slightly more difficult than bain's and they put a massive emphasis on structure. Beware that, with your finance and acct background, they may pair you with an interviewer in the corp fin practice, who will give you a highly quantitative case that you likely will not be able to solve. None of the interviewees at my school got the one I was handed.
Thanks for the responses
Thanks for the responses guys, though b you didn't exactly help calm my nerves. I started looking over the vault just a while ago and the 4ps and whatever don't seem that confusing (more like common sense). Luckily in my corp fin class I did some M&A cases so I'm somewhat prepared to talk about industry changes, barriers to entry, fixed vs variable costs...etc. i guess i'll focus on the framework aspect of it and only skim the rest of the vault material if i have time
I'm hoping to get a finance case as I would be extremely comfortable talking about financial statements. 1 quick question about the vault guides; i think in the first sample case they give a company inquiring why their waffle sales increased. it just seems like the person is blindly guessing? is that how the caseis going to be structured? i'm supposed to ask a bunch of questions. it seems more like a game of 20 questions than an actual case.
e.g
has the overall markets for waffles grown recently?
no
have sales of other breakfast foods or our own products increased?
no
has our client lowered prices recently?
no
have other waffle manufacturers raised their prices?
no
did the price of syrup go down?
no
has the production process changed?
yes
are the ingredients the same?
those have changed too, we're using a new supplier...etc
that seems retarded. obviously if the client has changed the way they make waffles and are seeking out to wonder why sales increased, they wouldn't need a consultant to help them figure that out. is that how a typical case works? wouldn't the interviewer be annoyed at all those questions?
thanks!
Consulting is about asking
Consulting is about asking the right questions to get to the root of the issue, in this particular case, why waffle sales increased. Obviously this example is simplified for a practice interview, but be prepared to have to ask some questions in the beginning to "dig" out relevant information.
Case in point is a good reference point, but the key to consulting interviews is still experience or practice. The more you do a case interview, the more you know what your interviewer is looking for. Still, as you said, much of it can be boiled down to common (business) sense.
My advice is to approach the interview into 4 parts:
1) understand the situation - (listen to the interviewer's question, figure out exactly what question you are being asked to answer, ask any necessary questions to clarify)
2) choose method of analysis - (tell your interview how you will proceed, so for example, in the waffle case, you are going to examine the 2 components of revenue, price x volume, and then more specifically on drivers of volume growth)
3) analyze the case out loud - (tell your interview exactly what you are thinking, ask for more info if needed, and generally end up with a viable answer to the question)
4) succinct summary and recommendation - (summarize what the problem was, how you looked at it, what your analysis pointed to, and how you would go about fixing/changing/improving it)
Gl.
I would focus on doing well
I would focus on doing well at your IB interviews. If you've got superdays, you're really close to locking something up.
It's not exactly "blindly
It's not exactly "blindly guessing", which is why I recommended case in point. Businesses face very specific types of problems (declining revenue, shrinking market share, shrinking profit margins, etc.) and there are usually 2-3 very specific causes associated with each of the problems (expired patent, competitor entry, rising costs, etc.) The key is to identify the type of problem, recall the specific framework related to that problem, then ask the questions relevant to that framework. That is why I find consulting cases a bit difficult... case in point has 12 different "situations" and a decision tree of about 10 steps per situation. A lot of it overlaps, but it's still a lot to memorize. Best to try to memorize through repeated practice IMO.
Questions are good
Thanks for the responses guys, though b you didn't exactly help calm my nerves. I started looking over the vault just a while ago and the 4ps and whatever don't seem that confusing (more like common sense). Luckily in my corp fin class I did some M&A cases so I'm somewhat prepared to talk about industry changes, barriers to entry, fixed vs variable costs...etc. i guess i'll focus on the framework aspect of it and only skim the rest of the vault material if i have time
I'm hoping to get a finance case as I would be extremely comfortable talking about financial statements. 1 quick question about the vault guides; i think in the first sample case they give a company inquiring why their waffle sales increased. it just seems like the person is blindly guessing? is that how the caseis going to be structured? i'm supposed to ask a bunch of questions. it seems more like a game of 20 questions than an actual case.
e.g
has the overall markets for waffles grown recently?
no
have sales of other breakfast foods or our own products increased?
no
has our client lowered prices recently?
no
have other waffle manufacturers raised their prices?
no
did the price of syrup go down?
no
has the production process changed?
yes
are the ingredients the same?
those have changed too, we're using a new supplier...etc
that seems retarded. obviously if the client has changed the way they make waffles and are seeking out to wonder why sales increased, they wouldn't need a consultant to help them figure that out. is that how a typical case works? wouldn't the interviewer be annoyed at all those questions?
thanks!
I can understand the confusion regarding the process, but it's an exercise you have to master. The more questions you ask, the better. Look for the interviewer to guide you along if you start to ask to many. Asking too few is worse than asking too many. Knowing how to listen to the interviewer is important.
Guys I've got loads of help
Guys I've got loads of help on my ibd interviews from this forum.
Thought I might ask for a bit more for cracking a MBB interview.
Could someone tell whether it is necessary to remember the Case System given in Case in Point ... or would you recommend the simple smaller frameworks to work with?
No finance on consulting
No finance on consulting cases. The most it will go to is profit = revenue - cost.
There are at least a handful of threads on doing case interviews, not going to rehash the whole thing.
Financial Modeling Training
Guide to Finance Interviews
Banking Resume
I have a question regarding
I have a question regarding Case In Pt which was mentioned above.
Wouldn't an interviewer be annoyed that you're essentially rehashing from that book? I know its pretty stupid to say, "Okay I'm going to use Porter's 5 forces" and stuff like that. If you start off with, X is the objective. Are there any other objectives I should be aware of? And then you say,increasing sales... I know of four ways- increasing volume, price, amount per purchase, and seasonal balance.
What are the chances the consultant says, "okay this guy just memorized case in point and its not natural intuition."
if you know anything, know this
don't worry about frameworks, you aren't expected to know them. further, trying to apply a certain framework will get you stuck more often than not. case in point is a great read though.
what you need to remember, and is really helpful in structuring your approach and asking the right questions is the following: company, customer, competition, channel and cost (the 5c's). if you consider these, you'll have a structured approach and cover most of the problem areas.
consider questions such as: what is the company's position / competitive advantage, who is the competition, what is the market share of the leading companies, what is the competitive advantage of the comptition, what are the customer segments, how are they growing, what do they value, what the the sales channels, what level are they growing at, what is our sales split among them, what is the cost structure. these questions can really help put you on the right track.
remember to also think in groups (and many times, groups of 3 help). try to put the information into buckets.
the last piece of advice is that practice really does make perfect.
good luck!
one added piece of advice
one added piece of advice for consulting interviews is: keep your nerve. There oftentimes is no one set formula to solve a case or one specific framework to use everytime (vs. in banking there is only one way to calc WACC per se). They look more for processes, how you think vs memorizing an answer. Particularly when they ask the last few questions in the case. Some times they just want to see how good you actually are at generating ideas under pressure... I found that constantly reminding myself to keep calm was one of the key factors I have done well in consulting interviews.
Just my 2 cents ...