Management Consulting

1. Career conversation on Management Consulting
An IIMB NSRCEL & Goldman Sachs Supported Firm

2. Agenda
• About Me
• Why look at management consulting ?
• Roles at Big 3 – What they expect?
• Challenges Faced in Consulting
• How companies shortlist resumes and Interview
• Key Success Factors during placement
• Leveraging 1-Year for a Career
• My Biggest takeaways from MBA
• Q&A

3. About me
• What I do ?
• My Journey – Before and after MBA
• My MBA experience

4. Some common terms and consulting recruiters
• Consulting Big 3 – MBB (Mckinsey, BCG and Bain)
• Accounting Big 4 – EY, KPMG, PwC, Deloitte
• Big 4 (Strategy Consulting firms) - Strategy& (PwC), Monitor (Deloitte),
Parthenon(EY)
• Operations - A T Kearney, Accenture
• Technology – IBM, Accenture, Cognizant
• HR – Gallup, Aon Hewitt, Mercer
• Specialized - Olivery Wymann, Alvarez and Marsal, LEK, ZS

5. Why look at management consulting ?
• Brand name and credibility
• Work on important problems that impact the enterprise
• Learn to solve problems in a creative way
• Make connections at CXO levels
• Work on a new problems every few months
• Fast growth; Can become a partner in 7-8 years (Consultant -> Manager ->
Principal -> Partner)
• Excellent exit options; Alumni network ; can fit into any industry; high demand
from start-ups

6. Roles at Big 3 – What they expect?
• Start as a consultant (previous experience is discounted)
• Start with Project Scoping, Data Gathering, Excel model creation, taking notes and
making a PPT
• How to Analyze and break down a problem in smaller parts; Structured thinking ;
(Interview Skill)
• Focus on 80/20 and Answer first (Interview Skill)
• Communication and people skill (Interview Skill)
• Good team player – The Fit question (Airport test)
• Ideal consultants are Smart, Aware and Eager

7. Challenges Faced in Consulting
• Extensive travel
• Work life balance and Stress ; 50% will leave in 3 years
• Breath but not depth for a subject; taking things to conclusion?
• Hard Work may not always be recognized
• Extreme meritocracy; Up and Out; Review every 15 days; Reporting to your junior

8. How companies shortlist resumes and Interview
• Spikes
• Academic (IQ)
• Professional (transferable skills learned, such as data analysis, presentation
skills, team work etc.)
• Personal (Aptitude for cracking tough problems, developing strong
relationships and being a part of high performing teams)
• Part of committees/ organizing important events (Speaks to leadership)
• Relevant competencies
• Relevant industry/ functional expertise (Commercial Awareness)
• Digital / Emerging tech (Hot topics across a variety of industries)
• Diversity
• Case Interview – My experience

9. Key Success Factors during placement
• Communication Skills is key (Clear, concise, enthusiasm)
• Ability to demonstrate growth, flexibility to learn from mistakes and an all round
personality
• Confidence and presentation
• Be open to options, don't restrict on industry, role , salary or location
• Use the process to your advantage; companies need to close quickly ; trying to
hire rather then eliminate
• Past experience counts for a lot ; have a lot of confidence
• Use your network, connections on Linkedin are best if you come from specialized
field

10. Leveraging 1-Year for a Career
• Last chance to change your function, domain
• Will only be the first job, most people have changed in first 3 years
• Difficult for people who are coming from traditional industries to change ; easier
for Tech, Analytics, Consulting and BD background
• Electives, Clubs and CGPA don't play a role in hiring unlike PGP

11. My Biggest takeaways from MBA
• Brand recognition, resume to be looked seriously by recruiters
• Network for friends and mentors
• Learning from International immersion and other international courses
• Option to change industry and change career trajectory
• Open mind to other industries and subjects

13. Why consulting as a career
 Opportunity to work across multiple industries in short time
 Opportunity to work across multiple functions in short time
 Opportunity to work across multiple geographies
 Great Exit options
 Good industry connects
 Overall personality development

14. Why do companies need consultants
 Data driven analysis to prove clients’ intuition right
 Big decision support / validation; For example
• Cost cutting decisions
• A PE firm asks consultants to do Due Diligence

15. Example of work
 Examples

16. Other activities
 Thought Leadership – Business Wired, Books, Trends,
Articles, Interviews, Points of Views (POV)
 Knowledge Enhancements – Certifications, Events /
Summits
 Support in Pre-Sales / Business Development Effort
 Practice Support – Mentoring, Hiring

17. Growth path
• Most consulting firm are partner driven
• Partners and Directors are ultimate sales people
• Designation and positions may vary but the usual path is finally towards
Partner or Director. Typical growth path could be:
• Associate/ Consultant
• Sr. Associate/ Consultant
• Principal Consultant / Engagement Manager/ Project Leader
• Executive Director
• Director
• Partner

18. Key challenges
• No ownership of final outcomes (well that is changing now)
• Travelling
• You are always under microscope of clients/ seniors/ partners
• Long hours and stress

19. How to shift to MC career
• From a Tech role
• From a Non-tech role
• My views
• Your story
• Any other story

20. How do they shortlist resumes
• Spikes
• Academic
• Professional
• Personal
• Part of committees/ organizing important events
• Relevant competencies
• Relevant industry/ functional expertise
• Digital / Emerging tech
• Diversity

21. Key skills to be evaluated during interviews
• Problem solving
• Leadership & personal impact
• Communication skills
• Fit to the role

22. Examples of interview cases/ questions
• A telecom company losing market share, how do you suggest to improve the
market share
• How do you price this pharmaceuticals
• A printer company is losing its ink business against fake ink providers, how
do you arrest this situation
• Estimate the number of autos in Bangalore
• An EPC company wants to digitize, suggest?
• A cement company wants to open a new manufacturing facility in South,
please create the business case for it?

23. How to prepare for interviews
• Case in Point
• Sample Case Questions in the Company’s Website
• Prepare based on Role offered (Job Descriptions)
• Consulting (Advisory) Roles are usually small sized teams, less of people
management and more of client stakeholder relationship

24. How MBA helped
• Spreadsheet Model – highly recommended for aspiring consultants
• Strategy – understand and define it in your own words
• Finance and Accounting – annual statements, NPV, ROI, Cash Flow
Analysis, etc.
• Operations – achieving efficiency and effectiveness
• OB and HRM – understand organizational inertia, value system, people
resistance to change
• Marketing – understand the needs of clients
• Connect all these courses together to solve a specific problem for a customer

25. What kind of electives should be taken
• Strategy
• Emerging careers
• Some amount of finance
• In case you are targeting functional consulting such operations/ analytics
etc. then function specific courses
• Excel modeling
• Design thinking