Where to start

Question

Hi, I am living in the province of Quebec. The education system is really weird here but I finally found the program I want to study in Cegep. I don't have any experience being a consultant but I did watch some videos on YouTube what consultant's job is and how unpredictable it is and I love it so far. For now, I need some guidance on what to do while I am in Cegep to prepare myself for this job and after I've finished my studies in Cegep, what are some of the best firms to get experience at so I could apply for bigger firms in the later stages of my life.

Thank you very much for sharing your time with me.

Answer 1

In my opinion, the best way to prepare for consulting is to practice a few case interviews or take a day to day problem/solution and approach it as it were a case. Second, there are some great reading materials on this platform as well as Victor Cheng's book.

Answer 2

Hi A,

I would recommend you the following steps:

1. Put all your energy into studying nicely in order to get high grades and become top5/top10% alumnis.

2. Identify your internships in different industries.

3. Also, you can identify the companies interesting for you. Many people are interested mainly in
MBB, you can start defining the exact list of companies interesting for you for the
internship.

4. 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.

4. Start reading good MBA Consulting Handbooks – you can find several for free
online (Instead 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. PrepLounge also has a Case Library that you can use. Try to
read at least a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the
information with constant learning.

5. 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.

Wish you good luck,

André