Law student with a first-round interview at RB

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm a law student who initially planned to carry out a year of internships in big law firms before passing the bar exam, but for the past 6 months, I've developed a significant interest in strategy consulting for various reasons. I've applied to several strategy consulting firms over the past weeks for Junior Associate/Consultant positions.

I've just managed to land an interview for a Junior Associate position at Roland Berger, after passing the CV screening and the online test. However, I am not familiar at all with the world of strategy consulting as a whole and have no theoretical knowledge of economics or management.

Are there any specific methods to prepare for these interviews, especially considering my law background, and the fact that I'm likely to be pitted against business school/MBA students who'll most likely be better prepared than me ?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi there,

Q: Are there any specific methods to prepare for these interviews, especially considering my law background, and the fact that I'm likely to be pitted against business school/MBA students who'll most likely be better prepared than me?

Your main weak point is probably related to a lack of business knowledge. This can be fixed with proper case practice. There may also be some resources to speed up the preparation (I created a 62-page Industry Cheat Sheet to help my candidates with exactly that).

I helped a few candidates with a law background and they mostly did very well in interviews – I believe one reason is the diligence and perseverance you develop as a lawyer.

In terms of general preparation, I would recommend the following:

Define a calendar for your preparation. Identify how many hours you have before your interview and allocate a time slot for preparation in your calendar for each day, working on the points below. Many candidates need 100+ hours to be ready before the interview starting from zero so you can keep that as a benchmark.
Start reading good MBA Consulting Casebooks – you can find several for free online (INSEAD is a good one to start). Read the cases and try to apply your structure to solve them. Whenever you see there is something missing, upgrade your structure with the new insights. Try to read a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the information with constant learning.
After the first 5-10 cases in books/casebooks and basic theory, start to practice live. PrepLounge can be helpful to connect with other candidates for that. There is a relevant part of the interview score that is based on your communication, which you cannot practice at all if you read cases only.
Keep track of your mistakes and see which ones you are repeating. This is super-important, as otherwise you may do a ton of cases without fixing the real issues. If you find common mistakes, try to identify the reason for them (feedback from experienced partners would be particularly useful for this). Be sure to focus on both the behavioral part and the case part during the mocks. The case part should also cover market sizing, math and graph analysis.
Before the interviews, be sure to prepare your questions for the interviewer – a great way to show you prepared in advance and to connect with the interviewer for a good final impression. Ideally, try to get information on who they are and study their profile to have good questions to ask.

If you want to spend a few hours only instead of 100+ and cover everything mentioned above, I developed a program precisely for that.

I can also share with you real questions for your target office (I have a db with 1.500+ questions asked in 60+ offices you won't find anywhere else - you can check on my profile if I cover your particular office).

You can check the program at the following link to learn more:

▶ GYM Program

If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.

Best,

Francesco

Answer 2

Congratulations on getting an interview! That's great news. Lots of people go from law into consulting - it's a well trodden path.

In terms of how to prepare:

1. Fit / personal impact

You should be ready to answer questions on why you want to transition into consulting, how you've demonstrated leadership, navigated difficult inter personal situations and taken the initiative.
You want to develop at least 2 stories for each area and be prepared to talk about them in depth

2. Cases

You'll want to have a few high level frameworks in mind so that you can easily structure your answers - Case in Point is a good book to give you a few high level ones. That being said it's a bit convoluted - I can share some simpler ones that I've used if that'd be helpful.
However, don't get stuck on frameworks! You need to be able to answer the questions without giving a generic answer. The McKinsey website is a good place to go for a few high level practice questions.
You need to be able to do basic mental maths - 12 times tables, be comfortable multiplying and dividing big numbers (e.g., lots of 00s), know how to calculate percentages
You then want to practice a few cases. You can link up with other candidates here to do that; or for more targeted and experienced feedback hiring a coach can be really helpful (obviously I'd say that, I'm biased, but I think it is!)

There are many other tips and tricks but I won't make this answer any longer - let me know if I can help at all. And good luck!

Answer 3

Hi,

In addition to the answer on prep shared by other experts, I have worked 4 years at RB and am happy to have a brief discussion on the company and interviewing process.

Let me know!

Jorn

Answer 4

Hi there,

First of all, please give yourself the longest runway possible and get as much time dedicated to this as possible. There's a lot of prep to do!

Read this article to get you started: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

Answer 5

During my years at RB, I had several colleagues who entered consulting with a law background. So this is not uncommon. The specific recruiting process differs by geography but general case interview preparation is a must have of course.

Feel free to reach out if you have questions about the company, the process and ways on how to best prepare.

All the best