1. +
Fit Interview Workshops
J-P Martins
Associate Director Consulting Careers
November 2010
MBA Consulting
Curriculum 2010-11:
Continued Feedback

2. +
Contents
 Summary
 New Consulting Careers event – the Fit Interview Workshop
 1 hour interactive presentation (group of 20) on personal brand and fit
interviews
 90 minute 5 person breakouts with CS/consulting facilitators practising
answers to fit questions
 30 minute wrap up presentation on lessons, cover letters, and next steps
 Quantitative survey results
 Collected and processed within one working day of the event
 Using Survey Monkey and Career Central’s email facility
 Comments attached to quantitative survey questions, plus two
qualitative questions
 What should we do differently?
 What should we keep the same?

3. +
Summary
 The event was excellently received
 100% of respondents would recommend the Consulting Careers Fit Interview Workshop
 Many excellent comments were made, highlighting (to me) that resourcing, DPO
scheduling and communication are our challenges
 As we knew, the main value comes from the practice in breakout groups, and students
wanted much more of this.We could not accommodate more due to resource constraints
 Clashes with other events kept many away (my inference) and forced others to make
unreasonable choices
 Some students remain unaware of the Consulting Curriculum and how the events fit
together, and of the role of Consulting Careers team vs their own work in preparing for
interviews
 As with case interviews/problem solving, some students still want lots more examples
and detail – I believe they are missing the point

4. +
Quantitative survey data

5. +
Fit Interview Workshop: all would
recommend it strongly
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
The format and content of the workshop
were excellent
The presenters and facilitators were
engaging and informative
The event was well organised - logistics
and venue were appropriate
I would strongly recommend this event to
next year's first year MBA students
1
0
1
0
25
18
16
17
9
17
18
18
Disagree Strongly Disagree Agree Agree Strongly
Response rate: 35/67 (52%)

6. +
Comments

7. +
Comments: Fit Interview Workshop
 Should be stronger emphasis on practice
 Examples of different good answers would be really useful
 Somehow the many 1-on-1 5 minute sessions did not go really
well. I also missed clarity whether the response to the Tell Me
About Yourself question should be more like a super-polished
‘bomb’ or more conversational, engaging, and humble
presentation of oneself
 The individual break outs had too many people. 1:3 ratio of
facilitator and interviewer would have been better
 Overall excellent, but last 30 minute session was unnecessary
 General presentation and especially the break in sessions were
priceless
 Pretty redundant information, stuff we should know already
 Short, informative and
precise presentation. Really
enjoyed the hands-on
interview workshop!
 Kim provided feedback in a
very helping way
 All presenters were
excellent - insightful and
extremely constructive
 Gavin was an excellent
presenter who combined
relevant theory with useful
practical insights
Format and Content Presenter and Panellists

8. +
Comments: Fit Interview Workshop
(contd.)
 It was very uncomfortable that many
events happened the same day -
Energy Conference, Asset Management
Conference, and both Consulting and
Industry fit interview sessions.Would
be good to avoid such clashes in the
future
 It provided us valuable opportunities to
practice, and to meet other students
who are interested in getting into
consulting
 The experiences of real consultants
were very helpful
 The session was fantastic - definitely
the best Career Services session I've
attended so far (of the consulting and
industry ones)
Organisation – venue and logistics General

9. +
Fit Interview Workshop:What
should we do differently?
 More time for group work will be better
 Preserve some more time for fit interview exercise
 It would be great if more time could be allocated
to the event, especially to the practice session.
Probably an extra 30 minutes for this session
would be enough
 More time to practise
 Slightly shorter start session and move to the
break-out, which was very effective
 …or alternatively spent more time practising the
questions (as opposed to the presentation)
 Consider extending the duration of the session.
The content was extremely useful but it would
have been good to offer additional time to address
more than one fit question per person in the
break-out interview groups
 I realise resources are tight but always better if
groups are smaller. Most value came from
personal feedback from facilitator, so groups of 2
or 3 rather than 6 would give more opportunity for
individuals to practise their answers to questions
 …or alternatively spent more time practicing the
questions (as opposed to the presentation)
 Consider extending the duration of the session.
The content was extremely useful but it would
have been good to offer additional time to address
more than one fit question per person in the
break-out interview groups
 More practice
 More real examples
 If possible, reduce the candidate, facilitator ratio
 Smaller groups in breakout room to allow more
questions per person
 Smaller groups in the breakout sessions
 If possible, reduce the candidate, facilitator ratio
 The break-out sessions were exceptionally useful,
but a little short.You could shorten the
introductory lecture -- that would give you time to
have longer break-outs
 I would spend more time in the break-out rooms
and less time in the lecture theatre.This would
allow more time to practise interview questions
Overwhelming view: More practice in smaller breakouts

10. +
Fit Interview Workshop:What
should we do differently? (contd.)
 You should either distribute more elaborated
instructions for what we need to prepare -
instructions were very general and
preparation time limited - the result was that
many people came underprepared. I think
there was also a missing part in the workshop
- we were taught all about personal branding,
and then went to practice the answers we
prepared prior to that. giving an hour to refine
your answers according to what we heard,
before practicing, would have been helpful
 Also, to ensure preparation of students I would
require to submit filled in forms with
strengths, brand etc
 It would be better if good examples for "Tell
me about yourself" and competency questions
could be provided before the workshop
 Question bank to be shared before the session
More/improved prework More example answers, demonstrations
 Examples of different good answers
 Demonstration of a good fit interview
 Some good examples (both in written
form and delivered by presenters) of Tell
Me About Yourself would be very useful
 A 15 minute mock interview can be shown
 Maybe give more examples and more
specific tips
 In addition to providing feedback on our
answers to mock interview questions, it
would be helpful to provide sample
answers that illustrate how best to
approach and answer typical fit interview
questions
 Maybe adding some quick real examples
for the points being discussed in the first
session would help clarify the concepts
and the thinking process required

11. +
Fit Interview Workshop:What
should we do differently? (contd.)
 …Secondly, it would be great to include more guidance re a
framework for the C.A.R. / R.A.C. model - eg. the extent to which
each of these points should be addressed in a concise, well-
phrased answer and a suggested format for each.Thirdly, cover
letters could be addressed in more detail. I understand that this is
intended to be covered by Career Services without a sector focus
in the new year, but it would be great to get a consulting-specific
view point on this as the bar is often set higher for consulting cover
letters than for say industry ones. Also, the timing of recruiting in
January means that it would make more sense for cover letters to
be addressed in more detail prior to the Christmas break
 It would be really useful to identify (if there are any) different
important aspects for each of the top tier firms
 More concrete general information about each consulting firm
 I would incorporate more specific advices on how to differentiate
ourselves
 More information about the different consulting firms other than
Bain, BCG and McK
 More concrete, tangible cover letter tips and more samples
More detail Less detail
 The content of the
initial session was
good but could have
been condensed
 The final 30 minute
segment could have
been cut entirely
 Presentations have
limited value given
the general nature of
the information
provided

12. +
Fit Interview Workshop:What
should we do differently? (contd.)
 Overall very good
 n/a
 It´s ok
 .
 n/a
 n/a
 n/a
 We should start concentrating more on
cases
 Fit preperation is good, but again, case
interview could definitely be
prioritized a little more
- Same respondent!
Seven respondents wouldn’t change
anything…
…and one wanted a different workshop
altogether

13. +
Fit Interview Workshop:What
should we keep the same?
 The 5:1 session was time very well spent
 Practice part was great, and so the opening
lecture
 …and the practice session were very useful
 Practice
 Practice sessions were extremely helpful
 Split groups into rooms
 Keep the small group session on ‘tell me about
yourself’ and competency-based interview
questions
 The break out to practice helps tremendously
 Strongly recommend increasing the 'practice'
parts interview questions
 Breakout groups
 Interactive/Group sessions
 Interview practice!
 The break-out sessions
 Smaller groups were awesome
 Small group break-out sessions with
facilitators
 Break-outs were good
 Breakout sessions but fewer in each breakout
 5:1 session
 The breakout sessions were excellent
 Break in sessions, Q&A
 The practice questions (more of it)
 Continue to invite MBA alumni at
consultancies
Breakout practice sessions definitely the most popular

14. +
Fit Interview Workshop:What
should we keep the same?
 Pre-work
 Content was good, and will be very useful
come interview time
 The pre-work sent out was concise and very
relevant to the workshop itself.
 It´s a good format
 Everything else - great work guys
 Overall it's good
 Overall structure with practice in the middle
was good
 Structure, content
 Pretty much all of it
Prework is working well Overall, many like it
Initial presentation also worked
 The presentation with the exercises
 Group lesson & quick exercises
 Introduction