What can I do to maximise my chances at MBB (London)?
Would appreciate what some people already in consulting think towards my profile:
University of Cambridge Mathematics - 2:1 Predicted
Tech start-up internship - doing software development/testing but taking part in and contributing to lots of internal meetings as well as preparing and presenting a demo for a potential client which then became a client.
And now have an internship at a small (10-15 employees) but established (5+ years continued success) strategy consultancy for 10 weeks this summer.
I hold a non-presidential/treasurer position in my college student union, and am on the faculty board.
What's holding me back from MBB and tier 2 strategy consultancies (Booz, Oliver Wyman, OC&C, LEK, Roland Berger etc.)? None of these even took me to interview (for an internship) this year (though Oliver Wyman was due to me foolishly messing up the numerical).
I'll be getting advice to improve my CV/cover letter further (but I hear most of these companies don't look at cover letters all that much) - but what could I be missing, what could I do more/better to increase my chances (for a full-time role next year)?
Thanks all.
Difficult to say without having a look at your CV, since the catch could be in many things, so I will just try to guess, but your style of expressing yourself seems to be a bit too vague and generic. sw development/testing, contributing to meetings, etc., these things are way too general and I cant understand if you really made a substantial contribution or you were just doing what they told you and that was it.
Stop thinking in terms of: "what they want", but rather start thinking in terms of: "what would I be looking for if I would be seeking a candidate who is structured, can think on his feet and doesnt crumble under pressure. How would these qualities manifestate?"
This is something which causes troubles to a lot of candidates and I think you might be struggling with it as well.
Thanks a lot, I'd attach my CV if not for privacy concerns. But I see where you're coming from with your advice, and I have identified that as a potential issue but I find it much more difficult to express well on my CV than in person, I can make myself sound great once I've gotten to interview. I'll get some advice from the careers service and from a couple of friends who've had more success.
Thanks again!
Your CV is good but not stand-out good so you will really need to sell your experience. For context MBB get hundreds of Oxbridge applications and only interview a small portion of that. So to be in the "must interview" pile you need to be really outstanding - first + highly relevant work experience (e.g. banking internship) + president of a large society/sporting blue (sounds ridiculous but there are a surprising number of these people).
If you are not that type of candidate you need to really sell your experience rather than just list it i.e you need to specifically prove leadership and initiative. So rather than describing positions you hold, talk about concrete achievements:
"preparing and presenting a demo for a potential client which then became a client" -> developed proposal and led the successful pitch to a new customer generating XXm of revenue.
"Hold a position in college student union" -> ran event with XX students and generated XX new sponsorship etc. Introduced new initiative to recruit more members increasing turnout at events by XX
This.
The key to wowing consulting firms and get that 1st round interview is to show how YOU created significant impact and contributed to something. No one cares if you "ran an event" or "held a position". What did you do? Did the event blow all previous events out of the water? Increase attendance by 400%? Did your term improve student satisfaction by 300%? Did you vastly improve how you handled the budget etc. that eliminated X amount of waste from previous years?
These kinds of statements and accomplishments demonstrate that you are a "doer", which is the kind of person and frankly, consultant that firms and clients want.
To the OP on firms not reading cover letters -- I will say that when I'm reviewing applications, I will definitely read the cover letter. Why? Because much of the work in consulting is communication. A consultant's ability to communicate the results of complex analysis and convey value and meaning to a client vastly determines how successful that employee will be. Anyone (really) can run numbers in Excel. But how you communicate your thoughts, insight and ideas will differentiate you from the pack and have clients clamoring for you. A decent CL will not hurt or help you, any mistakes will sink you, and a stellar one will win you some points. That's it.
I completely disagree with this. Across offices and recruiting teams I know of at my MBB (and even at other firms), 99% of them do not read cover letters. There are simply too many applicants. Any given individual on a recruiting team is reading 75-100 or more resumes on top of their day-to-day job. Most consultants are not going to spend extra 1-3 minutes per applicant to read through the cover letter. I know some people who read cover letters for borderline applicants, but that's about it.
Communicating the results of complex analysis and conveying value can be and should be done on the resume as well, and it's actually much more similar to the communication that you'll doing as a consultant (i.e. in bullet points on slides). I cannot remember a last time I wrote lengthy paragraphs about the work I've done unless it was for a team review. The resume form also tells me that you know how to differentiate what's important and what's not.
So the OP should spend a lot more time on the resume and networking. A stellar cover letter may not make one bit of difference.
How the bejeeezus did you fail the numerical when you study maths? It's like GCSE maths.
I wasn't expecting the type of test they gave, wasn't prepared for anything like that (was expecting more SHL type tests) and spent about 5 minutes fiddling about trying to figure out the calculator (was an in-person test and the calculator was a piece of shit) which you really can't do with that test. Pretty much it - I could easily pass it had I another go, I just screwed up - everyone can do that.
To everyone else: Thanks a lot for the advice, I'll be taking it all on board. I'm definitely going to be trying to utilise my position at Cambridge to network for applications this year, I understand that my profile as a whole could be a lot stronger.
Frankly, MBB isn't the end of the world to me, I'd be pretty much as happy with a second tier, and I believe I have what it takes, I just need to present myself better I think.
Any more advice would be greatly welcome, thanks everyone so far.
I should also mention that, from what I know of the London office, it's much more common there to get a master's degree or work somewhere else before joining MBB.
Do you know people from your school that work at these companies? (i.e. recent graduates). A lot of times these are the people who will end up screening resumes. Other than improving your stats it could help to figure out where all the people who got offers this year are (i.e. consulting club) and join, get to know them before they leave. That way you're more than a face in a crowd the next time around. Plus, you'll probably pick up many useful things / meet great people also.
I vaguely know one person who graduated last year from my college and is at McKinsey, and know one person very well (and am friends with) starting at a second tier this year. There are probably people I know who will be working at other second tiers or MBB that I'm unaware of so I'll be sure to keep a lookout. I'm planning on talking to all the people I know and cold emailing those to see if it gets me anywhere.
I'll be joining the consulting society but it seems to be pretty inactive, and will be especially so in easter term (the one term left this year).
Am a bit surprised you didn't get any interviews with this profile. It's strong and it should be enough to get you a first-round interview. It's at least equal to the CVs of most of the Business Analysts I worked with in London.
This suggests that the problem is with the CV itself (i.e., how things are phrased and presented). Get advice from as many people as possible on how to improve it, including Cambridge's Career Services. Don't spend much time on cover letters- these aren't important.
One other thing you can do- try to find someone at these firms who can give you an internal referral. These are useful for getting you through CV screening (although they have no influence on whether you pass interview stages). If you don't know anyone at MBB yourself, try reaching out to people from the same Cambridge college or same degree course as you through LinkedIn of the Cambridge Alumni network and ask them for a quick call.
Good luck!
Thanks again, seems a lot of people are agreeing there's probably something wrong with how I'm phrasing my previous experience and accomplishments on my CV. I've tried changing this now and will be going to see the Cambridge careers service ASAP. I'll be looking to look around for people I can get advice from and hopefully eventually a referral too.
P.S. Have visited your blog, quite enjoyed reading it - keep it up.
Thanks for the wishes of good luck and the advice!
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