Management Consulting and Case Solving

for Dummies

6. How to deal with the actual interviews?

Issac Jojy
PGP 2014-16

How do you deal with the actual interviews?

This is a relatively subjective area. Again, I will explain how I went about it. Take whatever you feel is
apt for you. I dont think this is applicable only for consults, but is apt for other fields as well. Broadly,
I knew there would be 2 parameters on which theyll evaluate me during the interviews

Problem Solving Skills

People Skills

This is just a very broad way to categorize the parameters. These 2 can be broken down further into
different parameters as well and different companies might say that they have n number of parameters,
but I feel all of the parameters evaluated during an interview can be combined under these 2 verticals.
1. Problem Solving Skills
From the interviewers perspective, this refers to the core skill that theyre mapping their
candidate to and seeing whether he/she is good at. For consulting, this refers to the candidates
abilities to solve the cases that are given during the interviews. For marketing, this refers to
the candidates abilities to know marketing stuff (Stuff like 5Cs, 4Ps etc. and questions around
that). Same is the case with other fields like Finance, Ops, GenMan etc. As far as consulting
goes, Ill be sharing in the further documents (Document 7 onwards) my learnings from my
case preparation the various frameworks I used and how I went about it. Most of these
learnings can be easily applied to the other fields like marketing, genman, fin etc. The problem
solving skills can be honed using resources already mentioned in Doc. 3 and Doc. 4. So,
basically this is the core skill that theyll test you on and the work that youll do in whichever
firm you interview for will be similar to this skill that theyll test you. Everything else that is
tested during an interview I categorize under people skills.

2. People Skills
Everything that theyll test you on apart from the above mentioned core skills/problem
solving skills, I categorize under people skills. I believe the basic question theyre trying to
answer is Will this chap will be a good fit into our firm? I feel that these skills are equally
important to the problem solving skills. As mentioned in one of my earlier documents, you
might have the best problem solving skills, but unless they feel youre fit as a person for that
profile, you cannot blame them for not taking you. They wouldve possibly tested part of this
during the consult dinners, may be during the buddy evaluations (if they might have stated it
upfront), but Im sure therell be a part during the actual interviews as well where they test the
candidate on the same parameter. Again, the question here is not to see whether the candidate
can a**lick and put random CP If I were sitting on the other side, Ill be able to see through
this very easily. If I were the interviewer, I would want to know whether this candidate is a
fun person to include on my team. Primarily, the questions under People skills can be broken

down into 2, and both are targeted at evaluating whether the candidate is a good fit for the
firm.
Resume based questions: Your resume has been finalized and there is nothing you can do at
this stage to change your points. Just ensure that you know A-Z of your resume. They can
ask you anything from your CV. The onus is completely on the candidate to know his CV in
and out. The resume based questions and the HR questions might overlap with each other as
well. But ensure that youre thorough with your CV.

HR questions: There are a lot of standard HR questions. Please DO NOT just write down
and mug the answers for these questions. The interviewers will be able to see through. May
be you can write down a few bullet points for these standard questions and remember the
bullets and during the interview, if and when that question is asked, just use the bullet points
as the base and answer the questions like a normal human being and not a like a machine just
speaking out the answers. The important point to be noted here, which I feel a lot of people
miss out, is it should seem like a conversation. Remember that it is a 2 way evaluation,
which makes it easier for candidates to turn it into a conversation with some senior, giving
him/her extra respect for the experience in the industry. Thats it. Dont make it complicated.
A question like Tell me about yourself does not have a standardized answer by the way.
Last time I remember, while I was preparing a friend for his interview, and I asked him what
his response to Tell me about yourself was and he started just speaking out the answer he
mugged up and it was so boring. What I told him is what Im telling you guys here. Imagine
yourself in the position of the interviewer. If someone starts talking like a machine, can you
really expect the interviewer to think Yes. This person is definitely fit for the firm and Id
love to work with him/her. NO. Definitely not. Now, the question is what exactly should
you say for a question such as Tell me about yourself?
o First acknowledge that your answer will be unique to yourself and you cannot expect
someone elses answer to work out for you.
o Second, just think back to your past life and write down unique things that youve done.
Ill give you a personal example. I had plenty of stuff to write. When I was working as a
manager at ITC, I was single handedly in charge of setting up a plant where I had to
handle 100 odd people daily, learn and understand multiple engineering fields like civil,
electrical, mechanical, fire systems and a lot more. I had nobody under me from ITCs
side to assist me in the process and I was able to complete my project. From my past, this
was by far my most unique point. And I was very clear that if Im asked this tell me about
yourself question, there is no way Im not talking about this. However I start my answer,
I wanted to bring it to this point so that my key managerial and technical skills could be
conveyed. Now, your question might be But I dont have anything unique that has
happened to me. My answer to that That is just bullsh*t. Everyone will have atleast
one unique story (if not more) that they can use as a leverage. Its just about putting in
some effort to find that story, which is just about scanning through your memory. Say
for instance I were a fresher and did not have such a strong story as my ITC story. I still
had several stories to talk about like the internships I did or events I conducted etc. For
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me, one story that I wouldve said in case I were a fresher is the story of how I came
down from the bottom of my class when I started my undergrad to the top of the class.
The same story is what I used in my ITC intern interview. I was a civil engineer and ITC
was looking for mech/elec folks. My story seemed unique to the interviewer, I got
selected and converted the intern into a PPO. Thats beside the point. The message is
that youll all have atleast one story. Be positive, put in some effort, and think back and
youll find something or the other unique about yourself. Worst case, even if you dont
find something, just talk about your interests and character a little bit and end with how
youll fit into the company youre interviewing with. Thatll be a boring way to answer the
question. So do put in that effort to find out something unique about your life story.
o The Start : Dont worry too much about the start. People are usually too bothered about
how do I even start answering this question. The question sounds so open ended
Remember that the start really doesnt matter so long as you have something unique to
talk about as part of the content. The start can be as boring as Im ABC from (location).
Post completing my undergrad from XYZ college, I worked at XXX company as an
engineer/manager/CA. Ill tell you something very unique that I did at this place and
give your pitch. Even if the start is boring, if you can convey the story with passion and
confidence, the fact that the start was boring will be shadowed in the strength of your
story. If you can think of a good start, obviously itll be better. But you need to create
hook for yourself and control the interview as per what you want and dont voluntarily
give away power to the interviewer.
o The timing: Dont make it too long. The interviewer just wants to break the ice and is just
randomly asking a starter question. Dont go on for 5 mins on this. 2 mins max. will do.
Atleast this is what I did. Dont ramble on and on and get your chances killed.
o Additional Unique points: So, I was very clear that Im going to make my pitch solid. So
in the file that I had carried with me, which had all my certificates, CV copies etc, I also
carried a document which had pictures of the factory that I set up. I asked the interviewer
whether hed be interested to see the pictures. He was more than interested. I showed
him a few pictures, told him that See. This was how the plot of land was before I started
my project as a manager. After I completed my project, that bare plot of land got
converted into this full-fledged factory with machinery, lighting, fire systems, equipments
etc And the moment I showed him the photos, I was sure I nailed it and I could see that
in the interviewers eyes. So I thought I should mention this to you guys so that you can
get ideas for yourself on how to pitch yourself uniquely. Dont stick to conventions. Take
a few risks. Itll pay off and even if it doesnt pay off, youll be glad you tried and wont
have regrets. I understand that all of you have come all the way to IIMB and some of you
might be thinking This is all basic stuff. Agreed. But during the interview time, the
amount of tension people seem to take is too much for a lot of unnecessary stuff. When
you acknowledge that summers arent the biggest thing on the planet, itll give you peace
of mind and help you think about answers to your questions better, articulate them better
and give a solid pitch
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o There are a lot of such HR questions. Dont take tension. Just go through the questions.
Have some broad bullet points ready for each questions. Dont memorize any answers
by the word. Just be yourself, be genuine and youll all do fine.
Overall, I would suggest to look at the interview as a 2 way evaluation so that there is power balance
between both the parties. I know Ive been repeating this point again and again. Im doing it
intentionally so that the point is drilled into your brain. I would really suggest that you folks read the
below link. Last year, after I got placed in summers, I was really disturbed that there were a lot of my
friends who were finding it hard to crack the interviews and getting supremely stressed for summers.
I had written the below blog post and a lot of my friends mentioned it really helped them gain the
confidence that was missing in them. It is quite a long post. Dont read it now. But definitely read it
before the actual summer placement day. It will really help you Guaranteed !!!
http://zindaginamilegidobaraa.blogspot.in/2014/11/taking-control.html
Thats about it from the perspective of handling the interviews. I believe Ive kind of covered all points
as part of the process of getting into a consulting firm. And finally, whether you convert or not is
out of your control. Only thing you can do is put in effort. Sometimes, the interviewer that youre
allotted to might just be an a** and you have absolutely no control over that. Even if youre awesome
at case solving and even if youre people skills are good, there are chances that you might not convert.
Look at it positively that if you were to work with such people in that company, youd go crazy yourself
and someday you might turn out to be an a** like that interviewer. So even if you put in effort and
not convert, just take it with a light mindset. This attitude will help you have peace of mind and nail
your interviews.
Do your preparations collaboratively and not competitively. Collaborative learning is any day more
win-win for you and your friends preparing. A competitive mindset will only create a negative I need
to be better than him/her thought. And finally, whoever wins, just take it in the right spirit and think
of it as Yes, the best person won. The company got the right person. The person got the right
company Im not trying to globe. These are simple things, but people completely forget that were
all here as a family.
Anyway, thats about it. From the next document onwards, Ill be giving you my case solving tips. Like
always, the same old disclaimer Do not think that my way is the only way. These are just my learnings
from my summer placement prep last year. There will definitely be things in addition to this, which
youll have to be open to. Consider yourself like a continuous learning machine Use whatever
positive takeaways from my learnings as the base and power through forward collaboratively with each
other so that your learning is maximized.

The documents that follow will give you an idea about my learnings from last years case preparation.
These learnings can be applied for all fields marketing, genman, finance, ops. etc