What kind of questions should I ask at the end of an interview?

Hey,

Many candidates miss the opportunity here and ask bland/predictable questions. 

Think of the following questions:

• How has the company adapted in these COVID times? What specifically has changed/improved?
• Which clients or type of work you will be staffed on should you join them?
• Expectations from new hires?
• Where is the focus & what clients are expecting as COVID situation gradually improves
• How do they promote innovation/risk taking?
• Ask for their tips on typical mistakes to avoid for new hires
• Mention key insights you have picked up from your research- talking to their employees, attending any webinars/open events, reading a publication etc. Ask for their view

As much as they want to know about you, you want to know about them as well to ensure its a good fit for you. So, ask some difficult questions and see how they respond. Look for consistency in answers across interviewers.

Hi there,

I would avoid to ask questions about the firm. Instead, you should ask questions related to the experience of the person in the firm. People love to talk about themselves.

Generally speaking, good questions should:

1. Not be related to something you could easily find online or that shows you don’t know much about consulting
2. 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?)
3. Be related to a positive experience (eg avoid to “challenge” the consultant on his/her future. Instead, let him/her talk about successes in the past)

In the first reply at the following link you can find some examples:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/open-house-at-bcg-311

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

First, remember that the interviewer's mind has already been mostly made up about 5 minutes into your interview. So, relax!

Ask about them

People love to talk about themselves. Just ask them what they've worked on recently or what their journey at the company has been like. Importantly, do your research beforehand - find out what they've done and try and pick something from their past that looks interesting to you. Tailor your questions just like they tailor their FIT questions to your resume."So, how did you end up in the Industrial Goods sector?"

Ask insightful questions

Ask anything about them, about the case, or about the company. Try to be “insightful” in the sense that you're not just asking the same generic questions anyone can pre-prepare, but actually asking something relevant to what you've done with them/discussed that day!

Ideally, your questions should show them that you're insightful, inquisitive, bright, thinking about current topics, etc. For example:

"I saw you worked on a big digital transformation for a financial services company - I experienced one myself and it seemed so hard to move such a big organisation. What did you see as the major challenges and breakthrough moments?"

"I know that x big trend is happening. I also know that y types of companies exhibit z traits. How do you reconcile this difference when ensuring y companies adopt x trends?

Summary: Ask about THEM and ask insightful questions!

Good luck and here's some additional advice for the fit portion of your interview: https://www.preplounge.com/en/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question

Hello! I would agree in that the questions you ask at the end of the interview are not really evaluative, but rather are an opportunity for you to build a positive rapport with the interviewer and get some further details about the firm. I don't think you need to be asking different questions depending on the tenure level of the interviewer. Here are some of my key dos and don'ts:

• Build a positive rapport with the interviewer by tapping further into the case and/or shared interests. Quite often the interviewers will pick cases that are close to the fields they work in, or ones that are based on an actual project that they did. This could be a good opportunity to ask them more about their line of work in said field, particularly if it is one you are interested in. Even if it isn't directly tied to the case, you could ask about some of their favorite projects, what types of clients in the space they do work with, some interesting new challenges in the space, and so on - anything that feels like a natural and interesting extension of the conversation.
• Ask about their personal experience to get a more detailed picture of life at the company. You are going to be interviewed by people who have done some pretty interesting work at the company for years, so it could be a good chance to get their perspective on a particular aspect of company life as well as some great insights. Closely read their resume beforehand to get a sense of what might be some interesting experiences you could ask about. Did they change offices, so that you can ask about the difference in office culture? Do they serve multiple different industries, or serve some specialized area of interest like digital or startups?
• Avoid asking the following:
  • Generic questions. I would avoid anything that seems like a pre-prepared, cookie-cutter end of the interview question, such as “what does your typical work day consist of?”. There's nothing wrong with asking them per se, but they rarely lead to a deeper conversation or develop your rapport with the interviewer.
  • Questions that are more appropriate for HR. For instance, specifics of their staffing model or number of analysts per office are totally valid questions, but are more appropriate for HR than a consultant. Again, you definitely won't be penalized for asking something like that, but it won't get you much either.
  • Things that you could easily google. I would avoid asking anything that you can get the answer through a quick google search, because it can seem lazy. This is why I think asking about someone's personal experience can be quite powerful - there is nothing google-searchable about that.

Hey there,

This part is not evaluated and should rather be used to ask questions that you are actually interested in and you gain from knowing more about. Do not think about impressing the interviewer!

Ask about, for instance:

• Work / travel situation pre vs post COVID
• Growth trajectory of the firm
• Favorite project
• Journey within the firm
• Training opportunities once hired

Cheers,

Florian