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 to improve "to the point communication"

Hello,

Unfortunately, I did not make it to the next rounds in my previous interviews and thus I am looking for ways to improve my performance.

The usual feedback mainly targeted two areas.

  • Communication: Too wordy and not “to the point communication”; interviewer sometimes get lost where I am in the case
  • Business judgement: Especially the use of sanitary checks could be improved, e.g. is that number I just calculated too high or too low? Here I sometimes miss a good reference point.

Thanks for your tips in advance

4
1.4k
8
Be the first to answer!
Nobody has responded to this question yet.
Top answer
Ian
Coach
on Aug 23, 2020
Top US BCG / MBB Coach - 5,000 sessions |Tech, Platinion, Big 4 | 9/9 personal interviews passed | 95% candidate success

Great points and common areas of improvement!

Communication

It's easy to make something complicated, hard to make something simple. How to fix this?

Take a few seconds - gather your thoughts. Perhaps right them down. Take a quick breather to better formulate and then articulate your thoughts

Use signposting - Always preface what you will be saying. For example, when brainstorming you can say "I'm thinking about this in three main ways: A, B, and C. Within A we can look at..."

Practice with a coach - Other PrepLounger are fantastic practice but they are generally too nice! you need a coach who will really hit back and work with you to improve your answers.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Business judgement

Daily Business News/Thinking: Financial Times

Larger Thinking/Trends: The Economist

Crash course: BCG Insights, McKinsey Featured Insights

For the past decade I have read The Economist and the Financial Times daily. This built-up knowledge was instrumental in ensuring I had the right thinking+base knowledge for casing.

Also to improve your business judgement:

  • Reading through (and fully understanding cases)
  • Working on a mindset shift (happy to teach you a session in this)
Clara
Coach
on Aug 24, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

Honestly I disagree, since these are the classical feedback points that they tell most people and are not super insightful. 

In any case, totally agree with the advises Ian gave - altought as I said, the feedback is too generic to be useful to action-. 

Hope it helps! 

Cheers, 

Clara

on Aug 31, 2020
McKinsey | NASA | top 10 FT MBA professor for consulting interviews | 6+ years of coaching

Hi, communication is one of the most important skills assessed during interviews in consulting and unfortunately, it is possible to seriously improve it in a short time only by simulating cases with senior people, former consultants or coaches, in order to have an experienced feedback and continuously work on it

Best,
Antonello

Deleted user
on Aug 26, 2020

Dear A,

I agree that feedback is too generic. So you can either skill up yourselsf in the interviews with a coach and apply to aother companies or start working on improving you CV in order to apply again after some time. 

Best,

André

3
Similar Questions
Consulting
Which one is recommended: Economist vs. Bloomberg?
on Feb 28, 2025
Global
5
2.1k
Top answer by
Hagen
Coach
#1 recommended coach | >95% success rate | 8+ years consulting, 8+ years coaching and 7+ years interviewing experience
60
5 Answers
2.1k Views
+2
Consulting
Showing spontaneous quality vs. pause time and thorough answers
on Apr 06, 2025
Global
10
300+
Top answer by
Pedro
Coach
Bain | EY-Parthenon | Former Principal | 1.5h session | 30% discount 1st session
15
10 Answers
300+ Views
+7
Consulting
Restating the question/problem statement
on Sep 06, 2024
Global
5
1.2k
Top answer by
Ariadna
Coach
BCG | Project Leader and Experienced Interviewer | MBA at London Business School
37
5 Answers
1.2k Views
+2
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or fellow student?
0 = Not likely
10 = Very likely
Thanks for your feedback! Your opinion helps us make PrepLounge even better.