Good morning guys,
With my master's degree coming to an end in May, I have a couple of full-time interviews scheduled for the coming weeks, currently preparing my case-cracking as well as more general interview skills. One issue I am struggling with is my rather high amount of previous and, more importantly, diverse set of previous work experiences:
Due to a personal interest in the industry as well as strengths in school-level economics and math, back in 2016, I started a Finance bachelor's degree followed by a subsequent internship in banking. Whilst I enjoyed both the general topic of Finance, I noticed that working in the actual industry wasn't to my fullest enjoyment. Hence, I transitioned to what was most similar to a job in Banking yet different in core aspects: Consulting.
Here, during a gap-year prior to the start of my current postgraduate (non-experience) degree in Management, I managed to complete two internships which I both highly enjoyed, forming my core motivation to start in consulting after I finish my studies.
In need of a job to finance my studies + knowing that I'd most likely start in consulting after graduation anyway, in the last twelve months, I took the opportunity to explore “what else is out there” and completed another internship as well as a student assistant role in two big corporates in two very different industries. Recently, I started yet another part-time job in a small Fin-Tech that allows me to fund my studies until I will eventually graduate in summer.
In previous interviews, this vast range of experiences has mostly shown very beneficial with interviewers, most of them highly appreciating the diverse set of insights as well as strong motivation to continuously work part-time besides my studies. However, during my first full-time interviews end of last week, both interviewers seemed to have very different opinions, highly questioning my actual certainty / motivation in joining consulting. Crucially, given that I repeatedly switched industries and roles in the past, both seemed worried that I might switch roles again shortly after starting my first full-time job in consulting.
Despite carefully explaining the respective reasons for each decision as mentioned above, emphasizing on the fact that most jobs after the successful consulting roles were mostly money-motivated, neither of my interviewers seemed convinced of my actual desire to stay in consulting.
I have never faced any issues within this part of any interview, which is why I am a bit worried at the moment how to deal with this issue at future interviews. Again, all I can do is lay out the true reasoning behind every CV-bullet. Besides majoring in strategy / consulting within my current degree, I am also working as a pro bono consultant in my uni's student's consultancy which, combined with my general motivation to do consulting, I feel should be “enough” to convince interviewers that this is what I really want to do.
Would highly appreciate any guidance or ideas how to avoid future issues with my broad set of experiences.
Best