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

Hi Anonymous,

a coffee chat in consulting is an informal interview, usually to understand if you have the motivation and background for consulting. Rarely, it could evolve in a small case to also test your case skills. If you receive a case it will be normally a short market sizing.

The preparation for a coffee chat should be similar to the one for the fit part of the interview. I would actually recommend to prepare in advance for the questions you are going to get – this from all points of view is the first step in your assessment and you should be prepared accordingly. Some of the key questions to prepare will be:

• Tell me about yourself
• Why do you want to work for in our industry/company
• What are your three top strengths and weaknesses
• Tell me about a time when you failed
• Tell me about a time when you lead your team in a difficult situation
• Which role do you play in a team
• Why should we hire you

To prepare, I would suggest the following steps:

1. Write down your answers. Use bullets to structure them.
2. Repeat loud the answers. Put a timer with 2 minutes (complex answers as “What are your three top strengths and weaknesses” may require more time). If feasible, do so with a partner or record yourself.
3. Reiterate till when you are able to deliver the answer with such time constraint. After few attempts you will notice that your answers will automatically be more to the point.

One thing many candidates neglect to do is to prepare their own questions. Relevant questions at the end are a great way to show your interest in the company and get additional points. In the first reply at the following post you can find some more information on the ideal type of questions to ask at the end of your call:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/open-house-at-bcg-311

The key for a good question is that they should not be related to the firm per se (eg how is XYZ in Bain), but to the experience of the consultant (how did you find XYZ in your experience as a consultant? Which challenges did it bring to you?). This will make your questions far more interesting.

Best,

Francesco

Hi Anonymous A,

Going to a target business school would be the ‘traditional’ way to get an interview for an Associate position at MBB (called Associate at McKinsey and AT Kearney vs. Consultant at BCG/Bain). Nevertheless, I know some experienced hires that successfully transitioned to MBB without MBA.

The hardest part for your will likely be to get an interview. There is not a written rule and significant differences exist depending on the office and geography but in general:

• McK/ATK are probably the most open, assuming you have a specific expertise set that they need
• Bain pretty much does not take anyone out of school and value some experience
• BCG does hire some experienced hires but that's rare

If you had worked alongside consultants on a project at your company, I would suggest that you ask them to recommend you for an interview. If that is not your case, I recommend to use any other contact or to get in touch with a headhunter rather than sendig a 'cold' application. Once you got an interview... expectations will be mainly the same. Yes, you probably have a slightly better business sense than average candidate due to longer work experience, and yes you might feel more comfortable talking to senior execs, but that will not make a significant difference in how you will be judged.

Let me also precise that experienced hires will be generally penalized on their career paths. Especially if they do not come from a strategy consulting background, in the first period they will struggle a lot more than an internal consultant of the same level who has develop a very specific mindset.

Considering your work experience, at this stage you would probably get in at a senior analyst position and then could get promoted to an associate level after 0.5/1 year.

I hope this helps,

Good luck,

Jacopo

Dear A,

I have couple of mentees in the same position as you are, and stuck in the middle of the process. The reason for this is that ATK has decided to pause all the recruiting activities in the region until the situation clarifies.

Let's keep in touch and I can update you on how the situation develops. Feel free to reach out, if you need any help to push our profile through on top of the pile for ATK or any other company.

Best,


André

Hi,

I would be more carefull with interpretentation of ATK performance, since it can differ significantly from office to office. Indeed Italy is a small office compared to the rest of Europe. But for the other countries in Europe (France, Germany, Uk, Switzerland, Spain, etc.), situation is quite good, and individual performance is well rewarded throught regular promotion. Having worked in Paris office, I can't say anything but good things about the office performance, the atmosphere at work, and carreer possibilities.

Best

Hi,

Below criteria selection for fit and case interviews and ATKearney's Paris office

1. Fit interview

• Humility while showing presence
• Story telling: what brings you here, and explain clearly the rational behind your past choices
• sincery, don't hesitate to open up yourslef during interviews this will be appreciated
• Typycal questions can vary from: What brings you here / Tell me about a difficult situation and how you dealt with it / What motivates you in life

2. Case interview

• Cases are build by each interviewer and typically derived from their personnal experience as consultant
• For Analyst position interviewer will expect good structure when entering the case, and drive during case resolution

hope it helps. Don't hesitate to reach me directly I worked in Paris office.

Hello!

I don´t think anyone will be able to give you the specifics -1st of all since it´s difficult to know, and if you do, you would be sharing very sensitive information, something that is never going to happen in a forum-.

The way it´s calculated is per headcount, and the different tenures have a different price. Then, it´s a simple P X Q in terms of people and days.

Cheers,

Clara

Hi,

I had my phone screen last week and it's pretty much just having an informal chat about yourself and Kearney. They asked me to go through my CV briefly and then explained what they are currently doing in terms of projects and where the need is for the hiring.

Towards the end the Partner mentioned he would be happy to put me through to the interview process.

Besides the work permit consideration mentioned by Vlad, I think you also need to make a case for why you are applying to the international office(s). Do you have past experience there? Have you ever lived there? Or any other legit personal reasons (e.g. family, partner)?

The office you apply to wants to know that if they get you in, you have some commitment to the firm/office. If you get in a total foreign office and realised it is not something for you and wants to leave in a short time, it is neither good for you nor for the company.

Hi,

It really depends on what's your objective.

1) If your objective is to to get a referral - the best way is to tell your background, ask if you fit and ask for their advice in prep.

2) If you are working on your fit interview prep - ask things like "why consulting"and "Why Company". It will be very useful to get the insider information about the particular office

3) If you are warping up with your prep - just do a mock case or test your fit with them

Best

Hi,
the application screening takes on average 1 month in this period of the year. If in a hurry, I recommend to follow up HR via email or call: they are there to help you.

Best,
Antonello

Hi Anonymous,

I believe this would be a risky strategy. A better approach would be to apply to other consulting companies (either in the Middle East or in your home country), try to get an offer and followup with ATK asking if it is possible to accelerate the process. I did so when I applied to BCG, following up after I got another offer, and managed to clear the recruiting process in four days.

I would also recommend to have the interview face-to-face if you are not comfortable with phone interviews – even if you have to pay for the flights and accommodation I believe it would be a good investment to increase your chances if ATK is your target firm.

Best,

Francesco

Hi Anonymous,

I helped several people from ATK Dubai, cases tend to be focused on:

• Government related cases (eg new product/technology launch)
• Market sizing
• Profitability cases

You can prepare in the same you would prepare for an MBB interview (which will remain more competitive, since they attract more candidates).

ATK is usually considered a “second-tier” company. The main differences between MBB and second tier companies are:

• MBB can charge more for projects, thus usually also pay more after a certain degree of seniority and have better benefits
• MBB offer better exit opportunities
• Support staff is usually more complete in MBB

Some second-tier companies are also more focused on a vertical – ATK for example is strong in operations. This implies you will find more projects on that topic, which for some people is a minus since they want to keep options open.

In case you need more info on ATK Dubai please feel free to PM me.

Best,

Francesco

Hi Abhinav,

I have previously worked at ATK's Istanbul office, and while I was at BCG's Dubai office, I had the chance to network with my ATK colleagues in Dubai. Happy to give you a quick background about the office and practices, you can PM me.

Best,

Deniz

Hey A,

I know your feeling since i applied to them 2018. Their recruiting process is crap that's why people wait for so long. I still have a couple of friends working there, so it's possible to expedite it.

Feel free to contact me directly for further information.

Cheers,

André

There are two important concerns other than the profitability analysis as suggested:

1) Does the service have a material cost attached?

For the communication tool development, if the tool needs to be customized for each sales of consulting service, a pay-per-sale pricing model is justified. If the tool is a general model and needs minimum tweaking after the initial R&D and implementation, it may be more sensible to have a bulk one-time initial charge or a subscription model in order to minimize the impact of potential sales fluctuations.

Similarly, for the maintenance service, if the cost of service is primarily attached to the sale of communication tool (i.e. maintenance service is only provided as part of the consulting service project), a pay-per-sale pricing model is more suitable. If the maintenance service is spread out such that it is carried out regularly during the year (e.g. once a month), a monthly/annual fee is more justified.

2) Shifting to subscription model in the long run

In the short term, pay-per-sale model is a flexible option that provides feedback on the client's business performance.

If the client consistently has a low sales number, it may not be profitable for the company to continue providing the communication tool service. Potentially, the company may consider ending this engagement, making a few adjustments to the communication tool and selling it to other interested third-party clients.

If the client has a steady sales number that generates reasonable profit for the company, the company can switch to a subscription model in the long run to secure consistent revenue streams and better capture customer lifetime value by maintaining customer relationships.

The pay-per-sale model is a 'testing ground' to probe into whether the engagement is potentially a profitable one. The conversion to subscription model can maximize the future revenue potential based on the testing results.

Hope this gives you another perspective of the case.

I would say there's a chance of 90% you'll get an offer if you perform well during the internship. But obviously it depends on the location and probably on the recruiting needs of that particular office by that time. Good luck!

Hi,

Just relax and wait for some time. Call / e-mail them if they don't get back in a week

Best