Interested in financial services-related projects when interviewing as a lateral hire generalist. How to convey why and how to actually get staffed on one without any relevant exp?

Question

As suggested in the title.

I'm interested to explore those topics mainly because (1) it's one of the most stable and relatively important drivers of business activities (in consulting or in general) due to local context (I recently relocated) and (2) might be easier to land on an exit ops.

As an experienced hire with a general BBA degree and zero prior project exposure relevant to this sector, how can I land on one?

Definitely willing to put in effort to prep and I understood that it's also about convincing leaders of that practice that I'm a good fit.

Thank you in advance!!

Answer 1

Hi,

During interviews there is honestly not much you can do, since you are being hired as a generalist. The one exception is if you end up interviewing with someone from the FS practice, where you can bring up your interest directly. Just keep the reason about the sector and the work rather than about easier exits.

Once you are in, I'd recommend you to combine a "push and pull" approach. Push means making your FS preference clear and repeating it to the staffing team. Pull is getting to know the partners, principals and managers in that practice so they have you in mind when something comes up. Not having done FS before is not that relevant once you are in and are still relatively junior, so real interest plus the right relationships is usually what can unlock opportunities on those projects.

Hope it helps and feel free to DM me if you want to discuss this further!

Federico