Consulting vs engineering

Question

Hi, I graduated from an engineering school and I want to get into consulting. I am wondering how to answer the following questions when the interviewer has an engineering background :

"Why don't you start with an operational experience rather than consulting ?"

"Why do you prefer management/strategy consulting over engineering ?"

I don't know how to answer these questions without offending him.

Answer 1

Hi there,

Honestly, I would need to actually speak with you to create the optimal response here (it's highly dependent on you).

Both of these questions are essentially "Why Consulting". For this, you need to do the following:

You need to summarize what you did before along the theme of consulting aspects you liked and consulting aspects that were missing
You then combine those two - i.e. I know I like + am good at x, y, and z which is required for consulting, and I really am excited to get a, b, and c
You finish with a "mini" why x company

To your specific question, you need to highlight what you like about engineering AND these aspects should be things that are valuable to consulting (i.e. problem solving, critical/structured thinking, etc.).

Then, you have to talk about what aspects consulting has that appeal to you (larger scale, bigger impact, client facing, etc.). You need to emphasize that you enjoy this and are good at it (and flag past experiences, internships, etc.)