Breaking Into Consulting

Part 1 of a three-part series on Entering, Exiting & Leveraging Consulting. This is followed up with – Breaking out of Consulting (exiting) and How I Transitioned Into Climate After Consulting (leveraging).

I'll keep this concise because there are a million and one consulting resources out there. Hopefully, this can serve as a quick checklist to make sure you've covered your bases.

First, let's level-set on our starting point.

1. Understand what type of "consulting" you want to focus on: industry, type of work. This guide is focused on management consulting given my experience with MBB.
2. Identify your path to breaking in. MBB does make industry hires, but the majority of their Associate/Analyst (out of college) and Consultant (out of MBA) hires are directly from school. If you want to break in through industry, especially at a junior level (assuming you don't have a specialty to offer), you'll need a solid network (i.e., hope a Partner can vouch for you!), a compelling story and background, and solid case interviews.

Ok, we're now assuming you want to: secure an MBB role after graduating from college or a master's program.

Most of the tips below are to address points 2 (deliver a great case interview) and 3 (be a likable person) in the recipe list above. If your GPA is abysmal, well, best of luck networking or trying to find ways to boost it.

1. Join your local consulting club. If you don't have one, join communities online. The point here is – find a community to help you practice as many cases as you can and keep you accountable. Find yourself a "case buddy" and remember to give as many cases (act as the interviewer) as you receive (act as the interviewee).
2. Read "Case in Point". It provides a great overview of the industry and gives you tangible tools (frameworks, terminology) for case interviews. However, make sure you don't get caught up in only regurgitating these frameworks. That's why practicing with people is key.
3. Compete in case competitions. This is a great way to practice solving problems for companies and get noticed (especially if it's an MBB-sponsored competition). This is a great test for yourself as well; if you find yourself not enjoying this experience, I would ask yourself if MBB is for you. While working for a client is different than a competition, case competitions require you to exercise the same analytical / problem-solving skills as the job.
4. Practice mental math and arithmetic in general. You will get math problems in case interviews. They're standard arithmetic questions, but get comfortable with numbers so that you don't become flustered when they are brought up and make a silly mistake. This is often the biggest area that interviewees mess up, but I also think it's the most avoidable.
   1. I had a sick solution (as in messed up but highly effective). I used the Alarmy app – which required me to solve three math problems within a limited time or else the alarm clock would start ringing again. It was delightful. Note the sarcasm. Find solutions that work best for you.
5. Practice talking out loud and communicating your thoughts. In case interviews, it's just as important to get the question right as it is to walk the interviewer through your thoughts. There's nothing wrong with asking for some time to collect your thoughts (but don't overdo it, I would cap silence to be generally under 30 seconds), but you should be constantly engaging the interviewer so they can follow how you are analyzing the problem. The interviewer doesn't want you to fail, so if they see you going down the wrong path, they oftentimes will jump in to slightly redirect you. The interview should feel like a conversation.
6. Get familiar with different graphs. You'll likely be presented with one or two diagrams. Make sure you can extrapolate the information that the graph is presenting and tie the insights you are generating to the case overall. I used RocketBlocks to expose myself to as many different graphs as possible.
7. Use blank paper to help structure your thoughts. In the interview, you're typically provided with blank sheets of paper and a pen. I divide the interview structure into three chunks.
   (A) A general overview & the primary question, which then leads you to draw a tree diagram outlining possible solutions
   (B) Several follow-up prompts, which include both qualitative and quantitative questions, and occasionally graphs.
   (C) The interviewer notifies you the "CEO or some other executive is walking in" and you'll need to summarize your solution
   
   I think of these three sections as my presentation outline. In part a), this is akin to my table of contents (dedicate one piece of paper to this). Then part b) is the 'meat' of the presentation – each follow-up prompt the interview gives can have a 'slide' (or piece of paper) of its own. By part c), the summary, you should be able to trace your thoughts across what you wrote in all the previous papers.
8. Practice your behavioural answers. Feel comfortable introducing yourself, and have a few experiences ready where you can speak on a variety of different topics (leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, overcoming a challenge, etc.). This exercise can often feel the most uncomfortable, but remember, ideally you want to get to a point where you feel like you're conversing with the interviewer and enjoying it. Truthfully, if you don't enjoy talking to any of your interviewers, I think that's telling as well because you want to make sure you feel like there's a fit too.

Whether the interview structure is 'interviewee-led' (more common for Bain and BCG) or 'interviewer-led' (common for McKinsey), the above tips should apply to both.