Consulting Q&A - Ask questions around your career in our consulting forum

They will call you for sure when there's an opening.

MBB don't play around when it comes to their reputation. Take the time to fully prepare for the final stages when they contact you. Doesn't hurt to try getting in somewhere else in the meantime.

Best,

Hi there,

Given you are an experienced hire, the best strategy would be:

1. Find someone that can refer you in your target office
2. Verify with them the situation in terms of recruiting
3. Apply now via referral if they mention that they are looking for new hires; wait if they say it is not a good moment to apply

You can find more on referrals here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hey-everyonehope-all-is-well-3176

Best,

Francesco

Essentially, failure experience is regarded very positively by MBB: if you failed, you took risks, i.e. you have proven your entrepreneurial nature. So, do not be afraid to talk honestly about the times you failed.

However, an important thing to focus on in your answer to this question is what you have learnt from your failure. And I would try to turn these “lessons learnt” into something valuable for consulting. For example, you tried doing everything by yourself and after this failure you really started understanding the importance of team work and really improved on this front. Or, you tried doing everything perfectly and after that failure you understood that it’s important to have trade-offs and to compromise to achieve the results you want (80/20 or “better done than perfect“).

So, be honest, talk about your failures, but remember to highlight some lessons learnt to give your story an overall positive twist.

Hi!

The first thing to recognise is why interviewers ask this question. Ultimately, they want to know how aware you are of your development areas, how you feel about you "weaknesses", and whether those "weaknesses" are red flags :)

I advise my clients to:

1. Answer honestly & directly... but not too honestly (this is not a confessional :)). Interviewers can tell if you're being ingenuine and know when you're trying to cover up your weaknesses. For example, "I work too hard" is not a weakness so don't say that. And don't say something that will obviously be a complete deal-breaker.
2. Pick a "weakness" that is important for consultants to have. i.e. it should be relevant to the role. Saying you want to be a better investor is not relevant to the role. However, saying you could be better at managing your time is something that is relevant to being a consultant
3. Show that you have already worked on this "weakness" and have a plan to improve it even more. Interviewers want just want to see that you have "weaknesses" (they already know you do because we ALL have weaknesses). They want to see that you're the sort of person who is doing something about it to improve yourself because as a consultant, you have to be open to feedback and take steps to address that feedback.

Here's an example of what this might sound like (remember, this is just an example that demonstrates an example that is direct, honest, relevant, and improvement-focused. You will need to cater this to yourself:

• "A weakness of mine is my ability to present confidently in situations where I'm less familiar with the topic. This stems from a complete fear of presenting just a few years ago, which I worked on through the support of my colleagues and by putting myself in situations where I had no choice but to present, get feedback, and then refine and try again. So I feel like I've already come a long way. The work I'd done preparing myself for these interviews have helped me gain additional communication skills to improve how I feel presenting less familiar topics, but it is still an ongoing effort, which I continue to work on."

Hope this helps! Get in touch directly to get some specific practice in.

Best!

Hi there,

I have a feeling that you're asking because you'd like to learn how to create good decks. As such, I've provided an explanation further down. However, if you're looking for actual decks, take a look here:

https://www.consultantsmind.com/2017/04/23/30-mckinsey-presentations/

https://www.superside.com/blog/25-powerpoint-presentation-examples-from-consulting-firms-and-what-you-can-learn-from-them/

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I recommend that you start to approach pitch decks in this way: boil down good vs bad design into principles, determine the key things to check in a slide, identify what small tweak changes a slide from looking average to awesome. Do this by 1) Getting people to review your slides and note the specific changes thy make and 2) Seeing good slides and asking the person how they did that.

For example:

1. Always align items on your slide
2. Look to keep even spacing and sizing between multiple items (i.e. if I have 4 icons down the left column, I make them the exact same size, and set them all to be equidistant from each other)
3. Use colors to highlight focus areas and draw the eye - but don't overuse colors! (Maybe my first column will be dark blue with white text, if it's asking the key questions we have. Or maybe if I have a "summary" or 3 takeaways on a slide I'll bold + add color to the specific words/phreases that each takeaway is really addressing)
4. Identify what you are trying to achieve from the slide and then pick your template - there are probably 5 template I cycle through based on what I need. Coloring + content make them look different from each other, but boiled down, they're all quite simple (i.e. a table slide, a sequence slide, a 3 key takeaways slide, etc. etc.)

The list goes on, but I hope this starts to give you an idea of actionable steps you can take to make your slides better.

Hi there,

1. The the exhibit will be shared through the screen. If you need to remember anything, you should write it down! You can always ask them to go back, but start practicing how to write down important information
2. It will be local currency or USD. Just pay attention to whichever it is to not get mixed up!

Some other tips for virtual interviews

• Make sure you have a strong internet connection
• Make sure your sound+video work
• Get multiple monitors so you can look at 3 things at once (1 screen makes thought linear which is tough),
• Have a good desk space and keep using paper for solving the case,
• Make sure you'll be in a quiet space with no distractions
• Still dress for the occasion

Hi Yosha,

Please don't mix up these 2 concepts - they really should never be used together.

Think about fixed costs with variable costs. Think about initial costs with annual costs.

 Fixed costs occur every year (i.e. equipment maintenace/repair, equipment depreciation, factory maintenace/repair, rent, etc.). Upfront investment costs occur in the first year and are what it costs to setup things (i.e. factory construction, bonds, legal fees, etc.)

If you're thinking about an investment decision/ROI, here's how the logic goes:

Your recuring annual revenues need to be greater than your recurring annual costs...and the difference between these two needs to aggregate to be larger than your upfront investment cost (to a high enough ROI). Finally, your recurring annual costs are broken down into fixed costs AND variable costs.

Hi there,

Remember there is gross profit margin and a product's profit margin.

Gross profit margin takes into account all costs. A product's profit margin takes into account its attributable costs, aka COGS.