Anisha Vachani ’12 is an associate that has been with Boston Consulting Group in New York since July 2012. She graduated from Wellesley with honors in economics and graciously offered to share some tips for consulting interviews. Please note that the following tips are only the personal advice of Anisha and her contacts, not BCG.
PREPARATION
- While you want to make sure that you have practiced enough, don’t over prepare. People who have a framework straight out of Case In Point for every question actually limit themselves, because they don’t get a chance to demonstrate their creativity. It also makes you seem like a robot.
- Pay attention to your speech habits – for example, saying “okay” or “sure” before you answer every single question may make it hard for the conversation to be natural.
- Have answers to certain questions (why consulting, why Company X, leadership examples, times you failed/learned, weaknesses/strengths, project you did outside of school, etc.) down cold – prepared but not robotic.
- Practice doing math out loud, step by step – frame the math process, check that you know what all the numbers mean, talk through each step and sense check, double-check final answer, and then draw insight.
- Practice summarizing what you have done so far at different points in the case in a concise manner.
- Make mock interviews as real as possible – find someone you are not 100% comfortable with, sit up straight, take detailed notes, follow through the entire case.
ACING THE CASE
Confidence:
- Always smile. Even when you think you’re messing up.
- Be confident. Interviewers are looking for someone they feel comfortable putting in front of a client on Day 1. Expect to get push-back on your responses and be prepared to defend what you say – content always matters but confidence will get you far.
- Be confident about your conclusions/recommendations; interviewers like to see you are able to own your answers.
Framework:
- Establish framework at the beginning of the case; it’ll not only help you organize the data but also show the interviewer you can think in a structured way.
- Be structured from beginning to end. Make sure the main body of the case interview follows the structure that you laid out in the beginning of interview. Of course, exercise good judgment and add flexibility as needed, but be sure to follow through on the items that you mentioned you will touch on (or explain why you won’t be discussing those if mid way through interview those sections become less relevant).
Engagement:
- Use third pronoun (e.g. “we/us”) as much as possible so that the interviewer gets the sense that he/she is in it together with the interviewee.
- Don’t be afraid to engage with your interviewer; bring her/him into the problem as much as possible.
- Make the interview a conversation, not a Q&A; interviewer is interested in what you would be like to work with on a team.
Asking questions:
- Use the questions time to get them to sell you the company.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification if you don’t understand the question.
- Understand the level of detail your interviewer expects from you – check with them step-by-step if it’s not clear.
- It is okay (and necessary. . .) to ask questions.
Miscellaneous:
- Do your best to back-up any crazy estimates you make with your own life experiences. For example, let’s say in order to solve a case you need to estimate the approximate percentage of people who pay for things using cash (instead of a credit card). Instead of throwing out 20% (say), it is much better to tell a story saying that when you eat out with your five best friends, only one of them ever pays with cash.
- Don’t jump to conclusions.
- Circle important points as you move from one section to another so that you can remember the key points that need to be called out when summarizing at the end.