Schedule mock interviews on the Meeting Board, join the latest community discussions in our Consulting Q&A and find like-minded Interview Partners to connect and practice with!
Back to overview

How much time do consultants spend working with data on spreadsheets/powerpoints?

5
3.6k
28
Be the first to answer!
Nobody has responded to this question yet.
Top answer
Clara
Coach
on Jan 11, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Most of it!

And the time you are not working with the data crunching numbers, you are: 

  • Working with the clients trying to get the cited data or validate it
  • Presenting data-driven conclusions to clients or leadership

Hence, client management skills are equally important. 

However, key thing is to be pretty confortable at least with Excel by the time you start, in order to survive -deadlines are super tight-. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Deleted
Coach
on Jan 20, 2020
McKinsey | BCG | CERN| University of Cambridge

Hello there,

Consulting's bread and butter is data-drifven problem solving, meaningt that as much as possible, each core issues identified and recommendations formulated need to be based on a certain logic supported by data.

As such, 70-80% of the time is spend on requesting, consolidating, analyzing, and pulling insights from data. Now, there are various kinds of data, numerical data in form of spreadsheets, observational data points, or anecdotes (non-numerical data which involves statements from various sources).

The rest are typically spent to interact and help your client couinterpart in their top-mind issues. 

For some projects, more client handling is required, but still we spent the other times mostly to build a sound structure supported by tangible logics and data.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan

Vlad
Coach
on Jan 11, 2020
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

It really depends on the project. I would say that depending on the day / type of project you will spend 1-5 hours with the client. Rest is internal team brainstorming and coordination and excel / ppt. FYI the day can be 12-18 hours:) 

Best

on Jan 12, 2020
McKinsey | NASA | top 10 FT MBA professor for consulting interviews | 6+ years of coaching

Hi,
it strongly depends on the project, but they will be your basic tools. You are going to work with these at least 2 hours a day.

Best,
Antonello

Luca
Coach
on Jan 12, 2020
BCG |NASA | SDA Bocconi & Cattolica partner | GMAT expert 780/800 score | 200+ students coached

Hello,

As other experts said, it depends on the project and on the team. Usually in a team there is a responsible for the excel model and a responsible for the presentation. You will anyway spend on average 70% of the time with excel and powerpoint, half of that handling data.

Best,
Luca

Similar Questions
Consulting
Steve Jobs Critics about Consulting
on Jul 09, 2024
Global
3
2.4k
Top answer by
Florian
Coach
1400 5-star reviews across platforms | 600+ offers | Highest-rated case book on Amazon | Uni lecturer in US, Asia, EU
56
3 Answers
2.4k Views
+1
Consulting
Which Bain App Deadline?
on Jul 06, 2024
Global
4
2.2k
Top answer by
Dennis
Coach
Roland Berger|Project Manager and Recruiter|7+ years of consulting experience in USA and Europe
40
4 Answers
2.2k Views
+1
Consulting
Best job-readiness course for consulting? (Think MBB new joiner training)
on Jul 01, 2025
Global
8
< 100
Top answer by
#1 Rated McKinsey Coach | Top MBB Coach | Verifiable success rates
5
8 Answers
< 100 Views
+5