Networking with a screener

Hi there,

Q: I'm going to have a call with the person who screens applications for my school for the office of my top choice. Any tips for how to make that call go as well as it possibly can? 

From the title of your post, I assume you will have a networking call and not a screening call with a case interview, and that your goal is to be referred.

For the call I would prepare 3 main things:

• Your own intro pitch. 3-4 lines should be enough
• 3-4 questions on the personal experiences of the person. Avoid to ask questions only about the company
• A closing question for the referral. It should be an indirect request to avoid to be too pushy

Before the call, I would recommend to have your CV and Cover ready – in this way you can send them right away if the person wants to refer you.

Good luck!

Francesco

Hello,

My advice would be as follows:

• Be prepared to talk about anything on your CV and cover letter
• Have answers ready for common questions like “Why consulting?”, “Why X firm?”, “Tell me about yourself”, etc.
• Come up with a few questions for the person you are going to be talking to - these should be things you cannot easily google or find on the company website. If this person is a consultant (rather than an HR representative), this will be a great chance to ask them about their personal experiences and day-to-day work
• Try to build a personal rapport with them! Be friendly and personable. You want them to come away from the call thinking “this is a person I really see at our firm"

Best of luck!

Hi there,

Make sure you're ready to talk about yourself. Make sure you're familiar with your entire resume/background and are ready to speak about any of those points. Additionally, make sure you have a clear story as to why you are interested in that firm + office. Also make sure you're ready with some questions.

Essentially, you want to show them you are a “regular” human being, that they think you'll be a good team member/employee and that you know what you're getting into (you want the job).

Make sure to pratice with someone out loud. It really helps!

Hi there, 

Yes, I've written a guide on this that I'm sharing below. 

But if there's one thing that you need to focus on, is to connect with them. Try to have a good conversation, where you are interested in what they're saying and you ask genuine questions instead of trying to impress them. 

• Your Guide to Consulting Coffee Chats

Best,
Cristian

Be ready to have your pitch, but don't make this a “sales call”. What you want to do is to ask how you can be successful in your application and then highlight 2-3 good things you did, and ask how to present those / if these are the things they are looking for.

Basically ask for their help on how to make a successful application.