Questions to ask towards the end of the interview

Hi Anonymous,

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 better the core values of the company; this will help you 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

My suggestions:

• Ask questions you genuinely want to know the answer to - this part of the interview is ultimately for you, so use it as a chance to clarify anything you want to know about the firm or office. First make sure that the information is not easily available online, though, as this will make you seem like you haven't done your proper research
• I always suggest to ask questions about the interviewer / their experience at the firm. People much prefer to talk about themselves than where they work. Try draw on what you know about them - for example, if in their bio you see that they worked in advertising before, ask them about the difference and how they've adjusted.

Good luck!

Hi,

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, making friends, building the network, relationships with clients)
• Questions on the topics you are excited about (e.g. transformation of consulting in the age of data science and AI, questions about specific industries / functions (check McKinsey website for related articles), recent state of the economy in your country and implications on the projects and industries, Firm expansion and growth)
• Non-business questions (e.g. team retreats, firm traditions and celebrations, etc)
• Asking for advice (skills / behaviors / tools that help to develop as a consultant / work with clients, etc)

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 (Are you specialized in strategy or operations?)

Be prepared and good luck!

Hi,

Feel free to ask :

- question to interviewer about his carreer and experience at the firm > take good notes at the begining of the case when he's introducing himself

- question specific to the office current business
- question regarding your future integration process

Avoid asking:

- bullsh** general questions on the firm that could be answered from reading the website

- question that could communicate a negative mindset : asking about the working hours (you should know what to expect at this stage), asking about the salary (this will be revealed once you get the offer, if you want to know it in advance try to reach consultant offline not during interview), ..

Best
Benjamin