How should I ask at the end of the interview where the interviewer asks you do you have any questions?
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Do you have any questions?
Overview of answers
Hi Macha,
relevant questions at the end are a great way to show your interest in the company and get additional points. Ideally, your questions should respect the following criteria:
- Should not be related to something you could easily find online.
- 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?). Ideally, you want the interviewer to feel important and/or share a positive experience. This is the easiest way to leave a final positive impression.
- Should help you to understand the core values of the company; this will help to understand if that company is a good fit for you and evaluate your options in case you have multiple offers (if you don't have fit with the company, your growth there will be a lot more difficult).
In the first reply in the following thread, you can find some more information and some examples of questions:
https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/open-house-at-bcg-311
Best,
Francesco
Hello!
For me, success in this part of the interview is being able to personally connect with the interviewer. Precisely for this, I don´t think there is a good fixed/static list of questions you should ask.
Try to connect with them asking about their background, history in consulting, challenges and what they love most... and avoid any operational questions that you can ask HR.
Hope it helps!
Cheers,
Clara
Some helpful tips on what to ask interviewers
1. Questions related to the role - examples here include asking how staffing decisions are made, how much ownership you can expect to have on your workstreams, what it takes to succeed etc.
2. Questions related to their profssional journey - what excited them about the firm, what got them there, what are some interesting problems they are working on
3. Questions on culture - for example, how does the firm promote diversity, is there a formal mentorship program to help newcomers succeed, how does the firm ensure its values are upheld
4. Questions on projects that interest you and is relevant to the interviewer - for example if you read something interesting where the interviewer had a critical role to play, express your interest and ask meaningful questions
Questions to avoid
1. Anything personal
2. The usual no-nos (salary, benefits, hours worked etc.)
3. Anything you can answer yourself via google search
4. Questions that are overtly negative - such as negative press
Hey Macha,
Many candidates tend to forget about the importance of their own questions at the end of the interview and this is absolutely wrong!
Bear in mind the fact that the whole interview will be afterwards assessed by your interviewer.
Your questions at the end are equally important as the personal Fit and Case parts – so use this chance to differentiate yourself through precise and customized questions from other interviewees!
Things I always recommend my mentees to do in these situations:
- Study the company website and information about the company in the internet by heart, connect to the current employees and try to find some insider knowledge. Then use this insider information for your advantage and ask very specific questions about the company – in this way your are able to additionally convince the interviewer with your intelligence, which is always a great fit to the company
- Build a strong personal tie with the interviewer through your personal questions and deep interest in his personality. Ask him something authentic like: “Mr. XYZ, I know your have a vast project experience, but maybe looking back are you able to give one or more example of projects which makes you feel proud of accomplishing something meaningful even until now?”
- Mirror / copy the interviewer’s behavior (voice, sitting position, gestures, emotions) during the whole interview and both of you will get a good feeling of becoming similar and connected to each other
I hope it helps.
I wish you best of luck for the upcoming interviews and drop a line if you need more tips and help ?
Best,
André
Hello Macha,
This is a key part of the interview that you don't have to overlook. Prepare some creative questions that can not be answered through an online research and try to leverage on the seniority and expertise of the person in front of you. Avoid questions that you can make to HR (e.g. when will I receive a feedback?).
You can ask questions about:
- Consulting trends (how have clients need evolve? / How OW/BCG/McK will become in 10 years?)
- The company (what distinguishes BCG from other firms?)
- The interviewer (which step of the consulting career did you like best?)
My favourite one was: "What don't you like about your job"?
Hope it helps,
Luca
HI,
In most of the cases, you'll have no chance to research in profile. From what I've seen only Bain shares interviewers names.
The main objective is to have a good conversation and highlight your intellectual capacity and curiosity. Thus:
It is ok to ask:
- Questions that cause positive emotions and highlight consulting pros (e.g. Mck people)
- Questions on the topics you are excited about (e.g. data science)
- Non-business questions (e.g. team retreats)
It's not ok to ask:
- Questions that can cause negative emotions (e.g. work hours)
- Information you should learn before the interview (e.g. typical career path)
- Questions that may show that you are unfamiliar with consulting work (Like are you specialized in strategy or operations?)
Be prepared and good luck!
Hi Macha, It's always good to ask something about interviewer's personal experience at the company – it gives you an opportunity to better connect to the person in my opinion
Hi Macha,
Questions about interviewer experience are always great, showing your curiosity in her motivation and expertise. If you have the chance to know before the name of the interviewer (you can ask it to HR the day before or discovering it in the waiting room), look at her LinkedIn profile to develope some tailored questions (e.g. about the MBA, the industry or practice specialization, etc.)
I also recommend you not to make questions about the firm that you can easily find online or through friends/other candidates (e.g. clients of the office, projects, typical workday, international opportunities, client exposure, your role, numbers of the office, ...).
Best,
Antonello
(edited)