Oliver Wyman - operations

Hi Romain,

First of all, congratulations on the invitation from Oliver Wyman!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your situation:

• First of all, it's quite normal to feel a bit in the dark about the application process, especially when most consulting firms do not employ this completely standardized way of personal fit assessment McKinsey does.
• However, it is quite normal that you will not be informed about the specific personal fit questions and case studies you will be assessed upon. And this is for a good reason: Consulting is about critical thinking about complex and ambiguous topics, not about learning by heart about clearly defined matters.
• Therefore, I would highly advise you to prepare for any (probable) personal fit question and case study you might be assessed upon. Given that you applied to the operations practice, you have the benefit - compared to most candidates - of knowing the case studies will most likely be focusing on operations topics.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming Oliver Wyman interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Hi Romain,

McKinsey is pretty much the only firm that explicitly states what their behavioral questions will be (and even then, they can change them in interview).

I recommend you train yourself for all questions.

Does this mean memorizing every single question/answer and learning all 10,000 possibilities?

Nope! It means training yourself in hearing a new question and being able to adjust and think on the fly to respond. This is the best way to ensure success.

Some reading to help:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case
 

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/pitfalls-case-interview-preparation
 

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/dos-and-donts-in-a-case-interview
 

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/candidate-led-cases-what-to-expect-and-example-cases
 

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question

=======OPERATIONS CASES======================

1) PrepLounge has that category in their case Library here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases?language=en&topic[]=13&topic[]=8&sort=real-case-desc&page=1&perPage=20

2) Google and casebooks are your friend. As are the McKinsey Operations and BCG Operations sites!

3) Send me a message and I can provide you with a few good ones and/or case you in them! Some examples include:

• X retailer currently is seeing delivery delays due to lack or storage containers and skyrocketing container costs - how would you go about resolving this situation?
• Vaccine maker x is seeing shortages in supplies for manufacturing - how can we resolve these shortages?
• X distrubiton center would like to purchase an inventory management system - how would you evauate this decision?

Here are some additional helpful Q&As:

• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/public-sectory-operations-4249
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/deloitte-business-operations-interview-process-in-switzerland-8374
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hi-guys-7463
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/preparation-case-studies-for-case-interview-as-sales-operations-planning-consultant-8641
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/preparing-for-mckinsey-operations-interview-9122
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-approach-an-operational-case-10016

Hi there,

if you already know the questions that McK asks candidates in their fit interviews, then you are aware of what generally matters to consulting firms. While the specific questions may differ a bit, you should be able to deduce the general gist with the examples you already have. So you can prepare for that and think about the kinds of compelling stories you want to tell about your personal experiences.

For your cases, you can assume that at least one of them will be operations related because you will likely be interviewed by someone from that practice and it is pretty common that interviewers use examples from their own project experience as inspiration for cases they give to candidates. If you prepare for a candidate-led format, the potential pivot to an interviewer-led format will not be difficult for you.

As a general remark: Do not expect to be given a play-by-play rundown of which questions and cases you will get during the interview. Consultants have to be able to think critically on the spot - and that's part of what candidates get tested on.

Best of luck

Hi Romain!

I've worked with several candidates for OW so I'm happy to help where needed. 

If you're looking for other options aside from a coach, you can network with recent OW employees and get a perspective from them on how their interview went, what sort of questions they got and how to best prepare for it. 

Here's how to identify these profiles and then connect with them:

• Expert Guide: How To Handle Networking Calls and Get Referrals

All in all, however, there are lots of commonalities in terms of the how the interview is structured between OW and other Tier 2 firms. So that should give you an indication of what to expect. 

Good luck!
Cristian

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Hi Romain,

Q: For the fit and the kind of case I'll get I'm quite confused about OW. Did anyone already experience interview with them? Could you provide feedback? 

Some common fit questions you can expect are:

1. Tell me about yourself
2. Why consulting
3. Why OW
4. Give me an example of when you led a team
5. Tell me about a time when you had to convince someone
6. What has been your major achievement so far
7. Tell me about a time when you failed
8. Why should we hire you

For the case part, when you interview with a specific division (eg Operations) you usually have a mix of cases specific for that (in your case, operations and supply chain) and standard cases.

If you need more help please feel free to reach out, I have a DB with 90+ real OW questions asked in 16 offices.

Best,

Francesco