Alle Fragen zum Tag and Bain - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Hi A,

both options are good because AUB is a target school in the Middle East. If you were to go London, I would rather think of LBS or LSE since they are even more prestigious than UCL.

Roughly 50% of my mentees are either coming from ME or want to move their. I have been working in Dubai for 2 years on my own and well connected there / have friends in all major consultancies.

If you need any help or advice, reach out.

Best,

André

Hello!

Totally depends on (1) how interesting you find the position and (2) which exit opportunities you have.

In you shoes, I would start exploring the market:

• Looking for opportunities
• Talking to some head hunters
• etc.

Then, whever you have some tangible offers on the table, you can decide with real facts, comparing real offers.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi Anonymous,

Specifically for McKinsey you can not apply for multiple positions at the same time technically (I guess other tier-1 players are the same, but I don't know).

Since you feel you would fit into 2 different positions, the way to go is to discuss it openly with HR into which position you would better fit from McKinsey's perspective (which is obviously the main perspective to consider here).

Usually your interviews are aligned accordingly for the chosen position. However, I also saw candidates who actually started in a different position than originally hired - but that's a rare occurrence though.

Hope that helps - if so, please be so kind and give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

Hello!

Sorry to hear about this, I can imagine your frustration.

I had not heard about any of these cases happening in MBB, but we just had one of these in Amazon.

The candidate interviewed just fine but the position was filled, hence you have a candidate who should have an offer but no vacant job.

I would trust them, and I believe should be solved in a matter of weeks. For Amazon at least, when they say something like this, they mean it, it´s not one of these cases in which you will never hear back.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

1. Yes to strategy. Accounting, Finance, anything about business are all very helpful.

2-4: The most important thing here is narrowing down the noise. There is a lot of content flying around, and you need to work hard to focus on what's important (much like when solving a case).

I recommend the following:

1) An initial planning session with a coach: 1 hour with a coach now will have a productivity multiplier effect on all your efforts moving forward. They will figure out what materials are best for you, guide you towards the best ways to learn, and come up with a preparation plan with you.

2) Leverage free resources first: PrepLounge Q&A and case library, Poets and Quants, SpencerTom, Google, etc.). Leverage these options, read-up, and over time you'll get a feel for what you really need and where you really need to invest your hard-earned $

3) Case with other PrepLoungers: Casing with other PrepLoungers is free. Not only do you get to practice casing, but you get direct feedback. Additionally, you learn a lot just from casing others. Finally, from other PrepLoungers you'll learn which materials/coaches are helpful.

In summary, while free options don't beat paid options, you can use them for a while to get a feel for what works for you. Have an initial coaching session to get you on the right track, then go the paid route when it's clear either 1) You are stuck or 2) It's clear the paid route will improve your productivity/progress

Hi there,

First, ask HR! It's a great excuse to contact them in any case and get them familiar with your name.

1) No, but there may be delayed start dates

2) Yes

Hi Gaurav,

you can find more on referrals at the following link:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hey-everyonehope-all-is-well-3176

In terms of preparation, I would recommend the following:

1. Define a calendar for your preparation. Check if there is any deadline for the applications. Then identify how many hours you have before that and allocate a time slot for preparation in your calendar for each day, working on the points below. Many people need 100+ hours to be ready before the interview so you can keep that as a benchmark
2. Read Case In Point or Case Interview Secrets for a general understanding of what a consulting interview is. Don’t focus on the structures proposed in the books though, as they are not good enough nowadays.
3. Start reading good MBA Consulting Handbooks – 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 insides. Try to read at least a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the information with constant learning.
4. After the first 5-10 cases in books/handbooks 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 if you repeat them. If so, try to identify the source of the mistake (feedback of experienced partners would be particularly useful for this). Be sure to focus on both the behavioural part and the case part. The case part should also cover market sizing, mental math and graph analysis.
5. Before your application, be sure to review your CV and Cover, so that they are in the required format for a consulting application
6. At least three weeks before the application deadline, start networking to find referrals for your target companies.
7. Once you feel you are not improving anymore, if you have a tight time constraint or if you want a realistic assessment of your level, consider using support from experts to strengthen your performance
8. Before the interviews, be sure to prepare your questions for the interviewer –great way to show you prepared in advance and to connect with the interviewer for a good final impression.

Best,

Francesco

Hi,

I would recommend that you reach out to HR and explain your situation. Just be very careful with the language you use in your email and don't outright ask for compensation but rather ask if there is something that they can do to help given your situation.

-A

The recruitment is on hold in the countries with strict lockdowns or the ones badly affected by the virus. However, recruiting continues for other offices with some noticeable changes in the process such as

• Majority of recruiting activities being done online
• Postponement of joining dates to a time when the situation is expected to have improved
• The interview process taking longer than otherwise

Hello!

We need to distinguish here between:

1. Usual times: where yes, normally MBA intake was between July and September, which makes sense considering that most MBAs finish in June. However, there are also programs finishing in December (e.g., INSEAD), so it does not apply in 100% cases
2. COVID times: since many companies and offices are in a wait-and-see approach, none really knows how it will look like this year. It could be business as usual, or that their start dates get pushed back too.

Best would be to call HR from your trget office and find out.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hey,

As long as you get a top MBA, you should just go ahead in my opinion. No need to wait for 1 more year before doing your MBA.

I knew someone with a short working experience but a top MBA, who joined BCG as Senior Associate. Usually after MBA you join as consultant in BCG, but because her prior working experiene is shorter than usual, she starts as Senior Associate (1 year junior than consultant). In this case, instead of spending the 1 year waiting before MBA, she spend the 1 year post MBA in BCG. I'd say this is probably better since she managed to get her foot in earlier.

Best,

Emily

Hi there,

Congrats on the offers! This is a good question to solve at this period of time.

Either option can potentially lead you to a top consulting firm down the road. But you should try to find out and consider:

(1) For the engineer role in EAS, would there be opportunities for you to transfer to a business role or get enough business exposure? There are people who move from engineering background to consulting as experienced hire, but they usually have gained decent business knowledge and skill sets. Otherwise you likely would start from a junior role when you switch to consulting;

(2) For the local consulting firm, how is its reputation and credibility in the consulting industry? Are there prior successful examples of people moving from this firm to the other bigger consulting companies? If so then it sounds a legit path. Nonetheless if you choose this route, make sure you work hard and get most out of the work - make yourself a top performer that all firms would want to hire.

Anyway, congrats again!

Emily

Hi,

Is this a market sizing question? :)

While I could make an educated guess (i.e. find out how many employees in US, assume ~10% are ungrads OR assume 10-40 undergrads per office), I'm curious as to why this matters? Will this affect any actions you take? It shouldn't! More importantly, you should think about yourself as a candidate (irrespectie of # of hires) and evaluate your odds of getting in as an individual!

Hello!

Don´t agree with most of the answers.

For instance in McK, it´s pretty standarized by country.

Associates have a clear job description, carreer progression and salary. And this does not get negotiated. I am 100% sure of this.

Could be that in upper levels some negotiation goes on, sure. But no at the associate level.

Cheers,

Clara

Hi Tabitha,

I will give my input based on my experience giving final rounds at a tier 2 firm as well as my own experience moving to MBB.

First of all it's important to take official feedbacks with a grain of salt.

(1) For legal and marketing reasons firms are very careful regarding the feedback they provide. I've been part of final round discussions with partners were we discussed interviewee's attire, the fact they have spouses or not, age, ... for obvious reasons we won't say that we didnt hire someone because you wore the wrong sweater.

(2) Depending on the season/office/position you apply the demand for new hires will be different and that will impact the threshold for giving an offer. A common myth is to think MBB will always hire regardless of their needs. I've discuss with a MBB partner that putted very blunt "at this period in the year we have reach our target quota, anyone can still apply but they will only be hired if they are a superstart, otherwise waiting until January is better."

Now, this is not to say that you should disregard your feedback. You have mention a specific point that you could focus on.

If I was in your shoes I would do the following:

1) Status quo. What other firms are you currently in process, what firms could you potential still apply and what is the timeline to do so

2) Honest assessment. Get an unbiased opinion on where you currently stand today. This means, PEI, case, Q&A, ...you only know how much work do you need to do if you know where you stand

3) Develop a "work plan" for the remaining of your time taking into account the feedback you received

Happy to discuss this on a call if you would like

Hi There,

First of all, congratulations on the offer!

This happens all the time, and I would encourage you to tell McKinsey recruiter that you have been in touch with.

You should inform them politely that you have received an offer from BCG (and the due date), but you will be keen to continue with McKinsey if you get the offer. You should expect an answer within 1-2 days (if McKinsey also extends you the offer), as the recruiting team doesn't want to lose talent due to this kind of reason - lengthy process (it will also look bad on McKinsey).

Hope this helps!

Hello!

Congrats of that offer!

If there is one thing I wish I had done before joining McKinsey, that would have been Excel. It can really be a game changer, so I would really focus on that (more than pptx, industry knowledge, etc., that are nice-to-have, but not deal breakers).

Excel skills are part of the core skill-set of consultants, and it´s great that you want to practice them. PFB a list of the most popular commands:

• Basic operations: SUM, SUMPRODUCT
• Text transformations: CONCATENATE, LEFT, RIGHT, & operator,
• Connecting different datasets: VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX(MATCH(),MATCH())
• Conditional-based operations: SUMIF, COUNTIF, SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, COUNTA
• Learn how to analyze data using Pivot Tables

There are plenty of online materials:

• Microsoft Support: https://support.office.com/en-us/excel
• Kubicle: https://kubicle.com/personal (go for the 7 days free trial - Excel for Business Analytics)

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Dear A,


Generally speaking, companies are facing some troubles, including BCG with cutting costs for Vision-2030, Oliver Wymann, Strategy&, Roland Berger, Kearney etc. In fact, Kearney for this moment even frozen hiring for the entire region, until the situation clears up. I have a lot of insights, because I helped multiple people to join companies, you've mentioned in Dubai over the past 2 months.

If you need further details, feel free to reach out.

Best,

André

Hi A,

This gamplified tool is designed tests 5 cognitive skills:

1. Critical thinking: the ability to make thoughtful decisions based on data.
2. Decision making: the ability to make the best possible decision with limited time and imperfect information.
3. Metacognition: The ability to use strategies such as hypothesis-testing to problem solve effectively.
4. Situational awareness: the ability to perceive what’s going on in a complex environment, what it means, and to make projections.
5. Systems thinking: the ability to understand multi-factor cause-and-effect relationships.

Best,

André