What does the recruitment process look like for Corporate Strategy roles?

Hi,

Sharing some perspectives based on helping my coachees navigate them as well as my own experience sitting for a few of them 

1) Is my background a good fit for corporate strategy?

• Yes, deals focus is not a problem. I was in BCG's PIPE practice and did not face any hurdles applying for most corporate strategy roles

• Most of the time, corp strat roles are hiring for your toolkit, rather than really deep industry knowledge. This is why you will notice that on many JDs they will say "Experience in [industry] preferred" rather than a "must"

2) Are candidates for CS roles typically filled through headhunters (similar to PE), or through applications to job postings?

• It is a mixture of both and depends on the how the firms choose to conduct their hiring and the context - i.e. if something is more urgent to fill they may use HHs

• If i were you, i'd go through both channels AND also leverage your firm network

3) What might the interview process look like, and what's the best way to prepare? 

• Because they are hiring you for your consulting toolkit, you can expect to be tested on those skills

• There will be a behavioural portion - this is pretty standard

• More often than not there will be a problem solving / case portion to test the consulting toolkit. But in my experience, the case interview in corp strat is often not as structured as it is in the MBB interviews

• The best way to prepare is to brush up on your casing skills... if you are ready for the MBB style interview, you will be ready for the corp strat interview

• Also I would suggest just doing some research about the company you are applying to and not go in there blindly :)

To help your case prep, here are some tips about using AI to help you (Using AI for Case Preparation)

All the best!