Dear peers,
I am preparing the question "Why consulting?' for my upcoming interview. I want to know whether I can use a story (~2 min) to explain why I want to become a consultant? I found many answers online, such as "consulting helps me learning; consulting expands my horizon; consulting helps know the industry", are a little bit too general. But I am not very sure about my judgment.
Please share your opinion on this. Thank you very much.
Yan
Hi Yan,
Actually, you should use your personal story, and you MUST avoid those general answers you found online.
In order to be distinctive and remembered, you really have to find a story that unique, genuine, and relevant to consulting. The interviewers have spent a lot of interviews and heard similar reasons over and over again, so if there is a different/distinctive answer (in a positive way) - we would make sure we take care of him/her.
Hope this helps!
Hi Yan,
For sure you can use your own story as long as it makes the logical connection to consulting. It would likely sound a lot more convincing.
My own "why consulting" answer relates to a past experience I had when I was in my pre-MBA job. It had some similarities to consulting. I enjoyed the project a lot and realised that's what I want to do. It works.
Cheers,
Emily
Hi Yan,
"Why consulting" is the applicant's chance to differentiate himself/herself from the rest and leave a mark on the interviewer who is probably interviewing 3-4 other applicants on the same day - interviewers hate getting the vanilla answers without a personal flavor.
Go for a personal story! Make it engaging, make the interviewer see the drive/passion you have for this line of business, because "vanilla applicants" don't last long as consultants...
Feel free to reach out if you want to fine-tune the answer or test it out.
I hope this helps,
Khaled
Hi,
It's really hard to say without hearing your story. Unfortunately, I keep hearing a lot of myths about consulting from the applicants, and pls be aware that the story may reveal the lack of knowledge about consulting. Let me give a couple of examples:
So make sure that the story you want to tell is also in line with what consulting really is and not just the ideal picture.
Best
Hi Yan,
Using personal story is absolutely fine.
Be sure to run it through someone else to make sure it is:
Hi Yan,
Absolutely you can! However, you have to make sure that this story isn't a "sob" story or a story about how you got inspired. You have to make sure that "Why Consulting" also answers why they want YOU.
So, in your personal story, make sure you highlight things you're good at, skills you have, some big accomplishments. You can pepper them in to make sure they're noted.
Not only you should, but you totally must!
Some advises:
Here you have an example:
There are two main reasons why consulting is the way that I want to start my career. I studied Architecture since I loved the multi-multidisciplinary approach: from Math to History, from Construction to Aesthetics. However, I realized that, when it comes to working as an architect, the scope narrows down a lot. Hence, the 1st reason why I want to transition to consulting is to keep the multi-discipline and multi-industry focus. Furthermore, I love being constantly challenged and learning at high speed, and I know that consulting has one of the steepest learning curves. In a nutshell, the 2 reasons why I would like to join consulting are the multi-disciplinary focus and the constant challenge that drives exponential growth
Hope it helps!
Cheers,
Clara
Hi Yan,
if by a personal story you mean connecting the answer to your previous experiences, that can definitely be a good idea (of course, it also depends on the story).
As Emily mentioned, so far that you show you had a “taste” of what some areas you will find in consulting are about, this will help the interviewer to feel you have an authentic interest. You should still be structured in the answer though – I coached several candidates that thought you don’t need to be structured answering fit questions, while that’s critical to leave a good impression.
Best,
Francesco
Dear Yan ,
Absolutely! It's the best way to be very authentic and share your story within an interview. It will also help you to be very convincing. So, go for it. But, please, structure it properly during your communication.
Good luck,
André
Thank you very much, Anrian.