Here are some tips for filling this out: - Focus on strengths you can evidence with specific examples - Consider strengths that are differentiated vs. your peers - Rank order your top strengths based on importance to recruiters - Leave blanks for areas you need to develop further The goal is to identify the most compelling strengths to highlight that set you apart. This forms the basis of your personal brand.

1. Mastering Consulting
Interviews
2011
J-P Martins, Consulting Careers Team
18 November 2011

2. First year MBA consulting careers skills programme
Intro to Creative Advanced
Mastering
consulting Great problem problem
consulting
careers – consulting CVs solving for solving for
interviews
undecided case interviews case interviews
6 September 12-15 September 14 October 14 November 18 November
…for the Presentations by ½ day intro Presentation ½ day workshop*
undecided stream
19 October 16 Nov on 21 Nov on
13 September 3-7 October
Tools & techniques Workshops Mock interviews
…for the Detailed reviews
committed 5, 26 November 31 January
17-21 October
31 October Crack a Case Deadline to submit
Recalls Super Saturdays case
1:1s commence
Summer
On Campus
Consulting
Recruiting
Team 2012
14 Jan 2012
Crack a Case 3 January 21 February
* Incorporating Winning consulting cover letters and Super Saturday Commences… Launch 2
Personal brand

3. Who’s done the prework?
1. Read key sections of the Case Book
2. Create a list of your relevant, differentiating strengths
3. Outline your answer to the request “tell me about yourself”
4. Create an evidence table to prepare yourself for competency
based fit interview questions
3

4. What’s today about?
Previously Today
What is consulting and is it for me? What is my personal brand?
Who are the consultants and to which How can I reflect that…
would I be best suited?
• At interview
How do I tailor my CV for [strategy]
consulting? – Tell me about yourself
• Detailed CV reviews and feedback – Competency answers
Creative problem solving
• ½ day workshop
• 2 presentations Opportunity to practise answering interview
questions & receive feedback, ahead of
• Mock case interviews your mock interview
• Consulting Club crack a case
programme 4

5. Brands
5

6. Valuable brands
Convey rich meaning clearly and simply
Are relevant to target segment
Are distinctive
6

7. Exercise
What’s your brand? 1
5 mins
In pairs – tell your partner what is your personal brand
In one short sentence, phrase, or even word!
Clear and simple?
Relevant to a consulting recruiter?
Distinctive from others in this room?
7

8. [Good] brands are backed by distinctive
characteristics
What are three key characteristics1 of the brand?
Are they consistent2?
1 Eg product, service, image 8
2 Eg cars, trucks and vans, A-class vs S-class

9. What are your relevant, differentiating strengths
Very strong
Relevant,
Differentiating
differentiating
but not relevant
strengths
How strong are
you relative to Average
your peers?
Irrelevant Relevant
weaknesses weaknesses
Very weak
Not at Average Very
all
How important is this
strength to your specific
recruiter? 9

10. Exercise
What are your strengths? 2
5 mins
In pairs – tell your partner what are your top 3 personal
strengths for consulting
Are they:
Distinctive from others in this room?
Motivated strengths? (ie you are interested in them as well as
strong)
Relevant to a consulting recruiter?
Consistent with the high level view of your brand?
Backed by evidence?
10

11. Interviewing
Chapter 7 – “Karaoke Skills”
Play until end of scene
11

12. Exercise
3
Succeeding at interview 5 mins
In pairs – tell your partner what ensured your success at
previous interviews
• What 3 things helped you perform well during an interview?
12

13. Recruiter feedback
Your ‘fit’ is also based on the impression you make
Up to 80% of an impression Speaks articulately and succinctly
comes from things other than
what you say: Image Stays calm under pressure
• Body Language Presents negative information
clearly, concisely, with a positive
• Tone of Voice approach
• Eye Contact Communicates they’re motivated
to do the job
Builds rapport from the beginning
Great grooming
Listens to questions and reads
signals Good eye contact
Speaks no more than 50% Firm handshake
Engages in a dialogue and asks
questions 13

14. How are you being assessed?
What? How?
Can you do the Do you have the appropriate problem-solving and communication
job? skills?
Case interview will be the primary assessment mechanism*
Will you do the Are you really motivated to do the job?
job?
Are you driven to excel in the job?
Will you fit in? Will you fit into our culture?
Will we enjoy working with you?
Will you inspire the team?
14
* For many consulting interviews, this will comprise 80-90% of the interview time

15. Will you do the job? Questions to expect:
Type of question Description Examples
General/open Gives you a platform to introduce & sell Tell me about yourself
yourself, for example
Motivational Checks why this specific role and Why are you doing the MBA?
company for you, now in your career
Why do you want to be a
Tests understanding of role, company, consultant?
sector
Why apply to Bain?
What do you want to be
doing in 5 years’ time?
Competency Collects evidence of your What is the greatest
achievements, that demonstrates your challenge you have
skills and behaviours overcome?
15

16. Would you fit in? Questions to expect:
Type of question Description Examples
Personal Your abilities and development needs, What excites you?
interests and values
Competency How you handle certain situations What’s the toughest problem
you’ve had to solve?
What would your classmates
say about your
communication skills?
Give an example of where
you’ve demonstrated great
leadership
What does it take to make
you give up?
Company Your understanding of the business, its How will you fit into Booz?
culture and values
16

17. Can you prepare for all competency questions?
The Amazing Competency Question
Generator© can help you!
Give me a
number
from 1 to 18
Give me a
number
from 1 to 6
17

18. Consulting competencies - recap
Problem Personal Drive/
Leadership
Solving Impact Aspiration
Intellectual Presence Integrity Enthusiasm
capacity
• Confidence vs. Inspirational Driven by results
Comfort with ego – action oriented
Willing to take
ambiguity
Team player personal risks Desire to excel
Business
Sense of humour Track record Other interests
judgement
(sporting, clubs)
Creativity Credibility • Demonstrating
Maturity success outside
Ability to listen People skills
of work
and learn
Analytics/quants.
Could I put you in front of a client on Day 1?
Could I spend 24 hours flying from London to Sydney with you?
18

19. 6 types of competency question
1. Knowledge/attitudes
2. General experience
3. Specific examples
4. Self-evaluation
5. Comparison with others
6. Other’s appraisal
19

20. How the Amazing Competency Question
Generator© works…
Number
from 1 to 18
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Comfort Business Creativity Ability to Analytics/ Team Sense of Credibility Ability to People Integrity Inspiratio Willing to Track Enthusiasm Driven by Desire to Success
with judgemen listen quant. player humour listen skills n take record results excel outside
ambiguity t ability personal work
risks
Knowledg
1 e&
attitudes
General
2 experienc
e
3
Specific
examples Number
4
Self-
from 1 to 6
evaluation
Compare
5 with
others
Others’
6
appraisal
20

21. How to prepare for a competency interview
1. Identify competencies for the specific job
2. Identify your evidence & achievements for each competency – see pre-
work exercise 4
3. Structure your answer:
• Challenge – key business drivers
• Action
• Results – quantify where possible, include outcome & impact
Note: Emphasise your role, and be specific about what action you took
21

22. Example: Leadership
Describe a situation when you had to lead a team to a achieve a
challenging goal
Challenge Needed to transform an inefficient and ineffective global finance
function in an FMCG business
Action I led the process team of 10 company representatives from
across the globe that designed 20 future blue-print global finance
processes and implemented them within a 12 month timeframe
I initially built relationships with each team member face-to-face,
then lead the team via weekly conference calls
Results I realised budgeted cost savings (30% reduction in OPEX) and
delivered the client’s expected project value (IRR of 15%)
22

23. So tell me about yourself…
60-90 second answer that covers…
1. Your key competencies or strengths, that reflects you & your brand
2. 1 or 2 summary key achievements, that you are most proud of
3. Your interests & motivations, that differentiate you
4. Close by creating a bridge between your strengths, motivations and the
role / Company you are applying for
…that reflects you, your brand and engages the interviewer!
23

24. Breakouts
Questions:
• Tell me about yourself
• Motivation
• Competency
24

25. Breakouts: Session 1 9:00-12:00
P106 P107 P108 P113 P115 P116
J-P Gavin Jackson Denise Miriam Claire
Ana Fang Filipe Adrian Amisha Ankeet
Ben Joaquin Harpreet Divya Katy Devyani
Gerardo Joe Nina Eliron Marco Fang
James Karim Owen Matthias Mayura Hrishikesh
Pancham Miguel Pedro Nicholas Nicolas Poush
Rahul Monica Rod Sandy Pranav Prasoon
Yuan Preetam Ryan Sherene Serena Vinay
(Jenny)
Zara
25

26. Breakouts: Session 2 11:30-2:30
P106 P107 P108 P113 P115 P116
J-P Iain Jackson Denise Claire Stuart
Jean-Nicolas Christine Eho Jisoo Dere Alicia
Justin Daniel Gil Juliana Herbert Boris
Rizk Gareth Iva Kamal Ivan George
Sajan Oxana Melissa Karen Katrin Hugo
Sophie Varun Spence Preethi Orel Lydia
Tomer Yoonsuk Thais Vladi Stefan Patricia
26

27. Breakouts: Session 3 2:00-5:00
P106 P107 P108 P113 P115 P116
Iain Gavin Jackson Laura Miriam Stuart
Amritha Avik Daniel Adriana Ana Carolina Denitsa
Dhruv John Ira Ana Cecilia Oliver Garriock
Mikio Leonardo Morgan Oliver Francisco James
Nina Martin Na Saranjit Lucila Kevin
Sam Sadaf Riti Yonatan Palvi Miyoung
Saurabh Tabish
27

28. Appendix 1 - homework
28

29. As soon as you can – Reflect on your individual
performance
How did you perform during your interview?
If you performed well, why was that?
If you performed less well, how can you improve?
What’s missing from your performance?
What will the recruiter remember about you?
Take a few minutes to reflect, and write down 3 or 4 specific
actions you will take to improve after today’s session
29

30. What questions are you going to ask them?
Will they appear random, or reinforce your brand?
30

31. Cover letters
I haven’t got
one of these
31

32. Next steps
This will happen sooner than you think!
Keep practising cases Practise ‘fit’
• Individually • Screencast (‘Mastering Interviews’)
• Informal groups • Informal groups
• Club Crack-a-Case • PLP
• Super Saturdays • Mock interviews and followup from
21 November
Refine your brand
• Group practice sessions from
• Slide presentation?
January onwards
• Mock up some cover letters
• Cover letter screencast Attend OCR events
• 3 cover letter workshops happening • Coffee chats/recruiter in residence
through November/December November/December
• Group and 1:1 cover letter sessions • Presentations begin CP Week, 3 Jan
in January Apply
• CP deadlines start 8 January [?]
• Other recruiter presentations start 9
Janaury
• Interviews from 23 January 32

33. Appendix 2 - prework
33

34. Prework: 1. Read these key sections of the
LBS Case Book
pp. 3-8 ‘The Interview Process’ pp. 21-24 ‘Fit interviewing’
• The consulting interview process • Overview
• What are they looking for? • The importance of fit
• Demonstrating problem solving • Criterion based questioning
skills
• Two key “why do you want to”
• Demonstrating personal impact questions
• Demonstrating leadership • Do you have any questions for
me?
• Demonstrating drive and
motivation • A two-way process
34

35. Prework: 2. Create a list of your relevant,
differentiating strengths (1 of 3)
Inputs Approach
What are recruiters Understand what are the competencies, experiences and other
looking for? attributes sought by recruiters
Be specific – the 4 competency model in the Case Book
generalises, but each recruiter will differ
This means at the office level, not the firm level – understand
language and experience requirements, including sector
experience where appropriate
What are your Don’t just tick every box. Think – what are your strengths relative to
strengths? your competitors? (these are your classmates)
• Yes you have a high GMAT, but is it high relative to your
class?
• Yes you have led teams of 3 on desk-based research
exercises, but do you have classmates with deeper/more
challenging leadership experience?
• Include: competencies, interests, experiences, connections/
networks 35

36. Prework: 2. Create a list of your relevant,
differentiating strengths (3 of 3) Fill this in!
Ranking (identify your
Strength relative to Importance to my
Area of strength personal top 4, and
MBA peers recruiting targets
order of strength)
Problem Solving
Personal impact
Leadership
Drive and motivation
I’ve listed the Very strong, strong, Very high, high, 1=strongest,
mandatory ones - add average, weak or average, low or 4=weakest
very low 36
other strengths here very weak

37. Prework: 3. Outline your answer to ‘tell me
about yourself’ (1 of 2)
There is no single right way to
Consider the following
structure this
• What are your key competencies or • Chronological – boring but safe
strengths?
• By ‘strength’ – interesting but
• Which 2 or 3 achievements are you potentially complex
most proud of?
• Order of pride (eg the thing of which I
• Which interests & motivations am proudest is…then the second
differentiate you? proudest is…etc)
• Can you create a bridge between your • Consider a sandwich:
strengths, motivations and the role/
company you are applying for? • Open with a summary of what
you will say…
• Your answer should last for no longer
than 90 seconds • Say it…
• Summarise what you said!
37

38. Prework: 3. Outline your answer to “tell me
Fill this in!
about yourself” (2 of 2)
Summary Tell me about yourself Recap
Recap – to sum
What are you Say it, and substantiate it
up, what were you 38
going to say (evidence – examples)
trying to say!

39. Prework: 4. Create an evidence table (1 of 2)
Prepare yourself for competency based fit questions using the
challenge-action-result framework Fill this in!
Competency Challenge Action Result
Problem
Solving
Personal
impact
Leadership
Drive and
motivation
What was the situation? What did YOU 39
Why was it difficult? What did YOU do? achieve/learn?

40. Prework: 4. Create an evidence table (2 of 2)
Prepare yourself for competency based fit questions using the
Use this for
challenge-action-result framework more
Competency Challenge Action examples! Result
Problem
Solving
Personal
impact
Leadership
Drive and
motivation
40