Does HR have any influence on selection process after moving to interviews?

Hi Daniel,

Simply put, no. Your GPA is not going to affect whether you get an offer now. This all on you now and based on your interview performance.

The GPA is a part of your resume/application for getting in the door (invited to interview). After this point they evaluate your performance.

Also, in regards to this comment:

“In many companies, the way it works is HR may put iffy candidates through interviews, and use interviews as an extra data-point, only to still finally reject them at the end with CV/GPA as the main drawback.”

^I have never heard this before and it doesn't make any sense. A company is not going to “just see” with candidates. A Partner's time costs over $1,000 an hour…they are not going to waste that time/money just to see. If they say CV/GPA after a final round interview, it's actually because you didn't perform well slash didn't fit (but it's just easier to say if was a CV/GPA issue)

Speaking from my experience with Kearney's Dubai office, and applying as a Singaporean with no referral. 

No, they are only responsible for communication and acting as the liaison between you and the recruitment team. Once you pass the CV screening process and invited to interviews, only your interview performance will determine your acceptance 

Hi Daniel,

I think it will help to understand HR's role in the process and what they are incentivized by. HR is primarily a facilitator of the process and success for them is when a candidate is placed that the business (i.e. partners etc.) is happy with.

The main reason HR would not want to put a borderline candidate through is that they may get negative feedback from the partners who interview them that it was a waste of time and that they should screen harder.

The partner referral will help a lot here and doing a good job on the interview will help as well.

Hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Kurt

Your CV gets you to the interview stage (in addition to referral). As of that moment, all that matters is your interview performance (which HR is not part of aside from administering the process) and your CV does not play into the decision making process. 

Best of luck with your application!

No, once you are in the interviewing process they are not a decision maker. This is unlike most corporate roles, where it works as you mentioned.

Unfortunately you are asking the wrong question. HR may not be there to highlight your poor GPA… but everyone else will. 

Consultants will take into account everything, including your GPA. Of course, it is just a data point. If your analytical performance, and our experience based interview have good outcomes, it will be taken as an outlier. GPA only comes again into play if one of the interviewers has doubts on your analytical capability or work ethic.

I can only speak about McKinsey where they influence the process where they often will facilitate the decision meetings (E.g., challenging the interviewer) but they are not a decision maker.

Hi Daniel, 

HR in consulting firms is only in charge of the application process until the interview rounds. Then the consultants take over. HR picks it up again once there's been a decision on the offer and they need to handle the paperwork and onboarding of the new recruit. So, no, they don't have any influence on the selection process at this point. 

Best of luck with the interviews!
Cristian

Short answer is no. Once you are interviewing, at that point the decisions are in the hands of the interviewers. 
 

Hey,

Once your progress through the stages and HR has vetted/progressed your application in early stages, there is no turning back. Your interview performance is what makes or breaks the deal.

Hello!

Not at all. 

Once you have already progressed to interview round, this is not going to come back to bite you in the ass. Now, all it matters is your performance in the interview round, both FIT and case. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara