All questions tagged MBA - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

If you are still keen on consulting, I see no harm you still do the networking call, just to understand more about consulting, the firm, and how it is like to be working in consulting for the long term. You can also ask about what you should do to get more ready.

It might not change anything now, but it is up to you to make the most out of the call.

Hi Anonymous,

I am afraid that specific examples won't help you that much, since you need to base your own examples on your own background obviously.

Therefore I will rather focus on key elements to cover in a leadership story (leadership is the one focusing on interpersonal conficts in a team..):

• Proactively taking on a leadership role in a given situation
• Building an effective team with a common goal/vision
• Focusing on interpersonal conflicts, not subject-matter related challenges

Examples of conflicting team situations:

• Conflicts affecting the whole team (e.g. after a setback within a project how you find again a common way to proceed and motivate the team, leading a voluntary team and effectively distributing tasks which can potentially lead to conflicts in the team, ...)
• Bilateral conflicts between 2 specific persons within the team (e.g. between you and a team member, or between two other team members which you needed to resolve)

Specifically for the McKinsey PEI, PrepLounge recently published a guide which is basically an excerpt of my "Ultimate McKinsey PEI Prep" ebook: https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/guides-8/the-secret-mckinsey-pei-cheat-sheet-42. If required we can also try to find a slot for a coaching session to discuss your specific examples and how to set up your examples in such a way that they are perfectly fitting to McKinsey's PEI requirements.

Hope this helps - if so, please be so kind to give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

Hey there,

Whatever the situation in life is, you have a choice. We all have a choice :). So you chose to do the MBA and work for the current company- so please fully own those choices. Not everything in life might make sense now, but in future when you look back the dots will connect. Make a plan and get back into MBB in the next 12-24 months. Its a marathon and not a sprint. You may feel lacking now but I can assure you, if you apply yourself correctly you will perform at par or outperform your peers who you think are ahead now. Thats just how life is these days...many people sprint now and run out of steam in the long run.

MBA education is well established and respected world over. But its not an absolute pre-requisite for success in the business world. You must demonstrate your value by doing high quality work and doing your best. You work should speak not your degree or qualifications. These qualifications get you through the door and after that you have to prove your worth.

Good luck!

Adi

I think it depends on the rest of the application. While your GPA is not great, I think that you can make it work if you show clear growth since then. For example, having an outstanding GMAT score would help you a lot, especially in contrast with the GPA. Keep in mind, though, that a really high GMAT score can take months and hundreds of hours to come by, so you will want to plan for that. Further, you can demonstrate growth in your essay. I've heard that giving compelling arguments for why you want to do the MBA, and of what it'll let you achieve, can make a huge difference. I'd recommend heading to GMATClub.com and reading testimonials for further inspiration and advice.

Hi there,

I agree that OW, A&M and L.E.K. are not considered to be boutique firms!

Salaries differ from a region to another one, and thus I would recommend you to check them on Glassdoor.

Best,

Mehdi

Hi Anonymous,

Being in a target school alone does by far not guarantee you passing the CV screening and securing your interview slot.

Putting together a consulting resume is not a simple task - summarizing your lifetime of experience and achievements typically on a one-page document is actually much harder than it looks like. Especially since you need to write it in a way what the firm needs to see to give you a pass, and not what you want to say. So putting together a strong resume is definitely a difficult task and might be one component why you did not pass resume screening this time (and yes, resume reading from interviewer's side is more like an art than science - different interviewer's might come to different results..).

Nevertheless, application level seems to be at least the same as of previous years, but due to very limited visibility concerning the next year's consulting budgets and projects intake is definitely lower than previously.

Hope that helps - if so, please be so kind to give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

Agree with Vlad - you already have a lot more work experience than most MBAs. Now, some schools may be more open to your profile than others, but that's part of the homework you need to do now: which schools are a fit? It goes both ways by the way, some schools you may not like at all.

PS: Don't necessarily limit yourself to Europe, the Undergrad+MBA might be more common in other areas

PPS: Why do you want an MBA? Make sure you have a good answer to this question also, MBAs are costly and time consuming

Hi Laura!

Actually, it's impossible to combine. For that you have to take off for 1-2 years.

Best,
André

Do not apply for an MBA only because you want to join MBB => in the best of case, your odds are still pretty bad.

An MBA is an investment in time and especially money. At least in the business world, it will often open doors ("job opening or promotions basically requiring an MBA), and your comp will usually be much greater after the degree than before. It is not a guarantee however, and depending on what you do before and where you want to go, it may not be what you should do.

Can you give us more details on your background, what you do today and what your objective is? Is it strictly to join MBB?

PS: Honestly, if you get in MBB, paying for your MBA won't be an issue - regardless of how you financed it

Hi there,

In terms of roles, very similar to the large strategy/management consulting firms. In terms of opportunities, obviously fewer than MBB and Tier 2s. Furthermore, given their expertise, you'll likely be looking at more voles in PE/VC.

Hi,

They are hiring, however they decided to provide offers to absolutely all interns this year. Thus the demand for Associates is very low and the chances of being invited for an interview are much lower than usual.

Best

You would be viewed as an experienced hire nonetheless. Given that you went to a target school, the best way forward for you would be to reach out to alums that are senior (ideally partners) at the firms you are targeting and try and obtain a referral that way.

You will join as an Associate (same level as post MBA) but you can be considered for quicker promotions if you are a strong performer.

All the best,

Udayan

Hi,

Consulting in general are start to hire again but they are more selective and the bar is higher.

As for your case, I would contact the Junior Consultant, build relationship with him/her and leverage his insights about the particulare office.

Finally, make sure you are ready for case and have polished cover letter and resume

Hi there,

The #1 thing you can do to secure interviews is to find a referral. Besides that, you need a well-structured CV (and usually a Cover).

To find a referral, you should follow three steps:

1. Identify the people that can help you
2. Write them a customized email
3. Have a call and indirectly ask for a referral

As general tips:

• Don’t use LinkedIn for your communication – emails work better. You should target 30% conversion for your messages; if you are not achieving that, there is space for improvement.
• When sending emails, your goal should be to organize a call, not to ask questions – you can then use the call for the questions.
• You need to close the call with an indirect request for a referral – don’t leave that to chances. There are specific ways to phrase it.

Before the call, you should have your CV and Cover ready – in this way you can send them right away it if the person wants to refer you.

If you are interested to know the exact email to write, questions to ask and indirect closing to land the referral, please feel free to PM me.

I provide a 30 min session at 50% discount to understand the right steps to get MBB referrals, directly from home – no events participation required.

This includes all the scripts needed for the email to send and the call to have with the consultant.

Following the same process, I managed to get 6 invitations out of 6 applications – including all MBB. I regularly see my mentees getting referrals for MBB with that.

Best,

Francesco

Hello!

I guess tha rational behind is to attrack talent, but tech indeed pais way above market.

Furthermore, work-life balance is much better.

I went from McKinsey to Amazon so let me know if you want some more insights about my personal experience.

Cheers,

Clara

It's definitely hard! And it's hard in so many ways

I know someon who got interviews to everywhere they applied (every major consultancy...around 12 interviews) BUT failed their first 11 interviews!

I also know someone who sat by and watched as everyone received interview invitations, only to receive a single interview invite with one of the final notifiers (a top-ranked tier 2). They nailed the only interview they got!

Keep pushing, keep hustling, learn from your mistakes and take everything in stride. The greatest accomplishments come from temporary defeat :)

Hi Saba,

I would recommend the following steps to organize your preparation:

1. Identify the companies interesting for you. Many people are interested mainly in MBB, you can start defining the exact list of companies interesting for you
2. Define a calendar for your preparation. Check if there is any deadline for the applications. Then identify how many hours you have before that and allocate a time slot for preparation in your calendar for each day, working on the points below. Many people need 100+ hours to be ready before the interview so you can keep that as a benchmark
3. Read Case In Point or Case Interview Secrets for a general understanding of what a consulting interview is. Don’t focus on the structures proposed in the books though, as they are not good enough nowadays.
4. Start reading good MBA Consulting Handbooks – you can find several for free online (Insead is a good one to start). Read the cases and try to apply your structure to solve them. Whenever you see there is something missing, upgrade your structure with the new insides. PrepLounge also has a Case Library that you can use. Handbooks usually don’t have a good initial structure, but are useful to develop creativity. Try to read at least a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the information with constant learning.
5. After the first 5-10 cases in books/handbooks and basic theory, start to practice live. PrepLounge can be helpful to connect with other candidates for that. There is a relevant part of the interview score that is based on your communication, which you cannot practice at all if you read cases only. Keep track of your mistakes and see if you repeat them. If so, try to identify the source of the mistake (feedback of experienced partners would be particularly useful for this). Be sure to focus on both the behavioural part and the case part. The case part should also cover market sizing, mental math and graph analysis.
6. Before your application, be sure to review your CV and Cover, so that they are in the required format for a consulting application
7. At least three weeks before the application deadline, start networking to find referrals for your target companies. You can find some tips on how to do that here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hey-everyonehope-all-is-well-3176
8. Once you feel you are not improving anymore, if you have a tight time constraint or if you want a realistic assessment of your level, consider using support from experts to strengthen your performance
9. Before the interview, be sure to prepare your questions for the interviewer –great way to show you prepared in advance and to connect with the interviewer for a good final impression.

In terms of the application: given what you mentioned you will probably have to apply for a post-MBA position (Associate at McK/ Consultant at BCG), unless you have experience that you can leverage for a specific practice.

Best,

Francesco

I would be absolutely shocked if they do not. I also know that they are hiring in some reasons.

However, their intake might be somewhat reduced.

You may not be seeing positions posted for a few reasons:

1. They have decided not to recruit specifically in your region
2. They have decided not to recruit specifically at your school
3. They just have not posted yet

Hello!

Don´t worry, since it´s not a big deal. Just don´t include it in the CV in the education section, mention only the MBA. BTW, is it from a target school? In this case, really none would care.

In undergrads is different since there are so very little data points, but your case is different.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hello!

I don´t see them contrarictory honestly :)

First, regarding your experience, 5 years + Ivy MBA is perfect for the associate position in MBB (called like this in Mck, changes for the rest, but is the post-MBA recruitment program-. For sure you will have plenty of chances to interview.

I would also leverage your in-campus recruitment mechanisms -particularly now that you have mentioned Ivy, since these mechanisms have among the highest ROIs when recruiting.

Furthermore, don´t forget to leverage the partner whith whom you have been already talking for a referral, to bost your possibilities.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara