- Why do you want to join consulting? Why do you want to join this firm? Please guide me through your CV. So in consulting interviews, questions like this will be often asked. As, you know, consulting interviews have also other parts such
as case interview sections. But these more personal
fit related questions definitely are important. And often people underestimate
how relevant they are. So this video focuses exactly on that, so on questions that are more
related to the personal fit. So welcome to another Coffee Break here on my channel, Firm Learning. My name is Heinrich, I'm a
former McKinsey consultant, and I want to help you
to become successful in the first years of your career. So I structured the video in
the following way for you: First, I will share some
overarching considerations and tips on these personal fit type of questions. Clearly this will not only
be relevant for consulting, but also if you're interviewing
for a corporate job, or maybe even a banking job. And then I'm going to go into a couple of very specific questions that you will frequently hear in these types of interviews. I'm going to share a couple of tips of what you probably should say, also what you likely should not say. And I would also provide an answer of how I might answer these questions in a real interview situation. And also just to get this
straight in the beginning, I would never claim that I'm the biggest
interview master of all. I would never claim that the way that I would teach this
to you in this video is the one and only way
you can be successful. But I do think that there are
a couple of considerations that will make sense for you as well. So let's think for that
and let's dive into it. - Hi, pleasure. - Pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me. - Yeah, great. Let's sit down. - So let's start with some
overarching reflections on personal fit type of questions. And first of all, I want to talk about a
misconception that I often perceive when people talk about this topic, and this is the personal fit means that every single
consulting firm out there has their own type of consultant
that they want to hire, and they will look whether you
are this very specific type that fits the criteria of
this very individual firm. And frankly, I do not
think that this is correct. I do not think that the typical consultant that, for instance, McKinsey would hire, is very different from
the typical consultant that Boston Consulting
Group or Bain would hire. Right? I do think that personal
fit is rather homogeneous among these firms. I don't think these differences
are that pronounced. In my mind, personal fit questions
are about something else. And to better understand this, try to put yourself into
the shoes of an interviewer who will often be a
project lead or partner of that consulting firm. What do you think would be
important to that interviewer when the interviewer evaluates a candidate with whom he or she
conducts the interview? So in my opinion, the main question that these
people want to answer is, what would happen if I take
this potential consultant with me next week, on my next project, if I sit him or her in the team room, if this person is doing his or her job, if this person sits in front
of a client for the first time? Will this person be able to do the job? Will this person be able
to represent him or herself and the firm in a great
way in front of the client? Or will this not be the case? When you answer questions, are you perceived as
confident or rather insecure? And if you tick all these boxes, if you really portray yourself as someone who could really do this
job, well, then yes, you will have the personal
fit to be a consultant at one of these firms. And again, I don't think that these
criteria very different, comparing a firm like McKinsey, with Boston Consulting Group, Bain, or any other of these firms. Let's start with question number one. And this is why consulting? Why do you want to become a consultant? Why do you want to join this
career in the first place? So what most people likely will answer, is talking about the
learning opportunities, talking that you're intrigued
about getting to know so many different industries, so many different functions, in a rather short amount of time. Of course, I hope that also by watching
videos on this channel or so, you understand a bit better what a consulting career
would be all about, and what you might find
fascinating about that, and sharing exactly that shortly
would not be a better idea. And of course the more personal it is, and the less generic it is, the more sense it makes. What's always strong here, is to be able to draw on past experiences. So clearly, if you you already did an
internship at a consulting firm, it's great to talk about that, because this also shows that you do know what you're getting yourself into, that it's not just a crazy idea
for you to join consulting, but that you've really planned this out. But let's also talk
about a couple of things I would not recommend you to say, those things that you should rather avoid. And first thing is about
explaining your motivation due to the exit opportunities. So I do not think it would be a great idea to answer the question, why coinciding, by saying something like, oh, I heard that if I work a
couple of years in consulting, that I can exit, and then
I can have a great career. So while it's not a secret, everybody would understand that many people leave
after a couple of years, probably this should not
be your main motivation to start consulting, because then who knows
whether you would enjoy the actual job as well. A second thing to avoid
is to talk about things which you really enjoy, but which will likely not
be possible in consulting. And this for instance, is true for people maybe with a PhD, with many years of experience in academia, then in such an interview
say that you really enjoy working for a long time on a topic, really understanding it to
the smallest level of detail, and that this is your passion. I hope you understand, if you watched a couple of
videos on this channel that this just does not resonate with
your reality as a consultant. But now let's look into an example of how you could answer such a question. - So Heinrich, tell me, why do you want
to work in consulting? - So likely since the
beginning of my studies, this career in consulting
really always intrigued me. And what I likely had in mind first, is just this learning opportunity, of working in so many
different industries, so many different functions, in just such a short amount of time. And I only wanted to just find out whether this would be
something that I would enjoy, which is also why after
my second semester, when I did an internship in IT consulting. I worked on a big SAP
implementation project, and I did learn a lot of things there. And among these things that are learned, I found out really a second thing that I enjoyed so much about consulting. And this is really working
together with clients. From my reflection so far, I think there would be very,
very few other careers, where in such a short amount of time, you can talk to so many smart colleagues, but also smart clients, and really help them solve their problems. This is what I always found
extremely fascinating. Now hoping strategy consulting, that now I even have the
opportunity to also work more on more strategic, more
conceptually tasks, and projects, which I
would enjoy even more, which is why I'm sitting right here today. Let's move on to the next question. And this is one where
I know that many people struggle to answer this a lot. And this is why this firm? Why do you want to join this
specific consulting firm? And people struggle with that, because clearly the differences
among consulting firms are often not that great, especially the differences
among firms in the same niche. So for instance, MBB firms,
or maybe the Big Four, or other similar firms. So how do you approach this? And I think there are two ways to do that. The first, maybe most seem
to be for smaller firms, and the other most
suitable for larger firms. And probably then there's a third, which you can apply to all of these firms. So for smaller firms, these firms offer really
have very specific niche or focused topic that
they operate in here. I'm thinking especially about these boutique type of consulting firms. So if you're interested to
work for a pricing boutique, definitely makes sense to talk about how passionate
you are about pricing, and of course, ideally also underline this with past experiences, show them what you already
did in pricing in the past. Show them, prove them that
this is really your passion, and that this is really
what you want to do. With larger firms, what often works a bit better is to really stress the
opportunities that you have with this specific firm. So for instance, if you're joining a firm like McKinsey, or Boston Consulting Group, you will definitely have a much
larger selection of projects you can work on, on
topics that you can cover. Now, the third approach, which I do think can be relevant for firms of different sizes, is really to leverage a personal network, personal connections that
you have to other people working in the firm. So clearly it's very strong to say that you recently talked,
had a long conversation, with someone working at the firm. Or maybe you attended a career event, or maybe one of your
friends was at the firm. And I'll stress a couple of
things that this person told you about the firm, about
the very specific culture of this firm. What's something that
you really, really like, really enjoyed, because this not only shows
that you did your research, but clearly you're also already started building your network in the form. And this is always a
great way to do anyways. So what should you not say? What should you avoid? Here I have a candidate of
mine, whom I talked to once. And this person said in the interview that his main motivation
to join exactly this firm is that he believed that now for instance, McKinsey is the most
prestigious firm, right? And this person wanted to join
the most prestigious firm. And this was the main motivation. And clearly this is not the best answer, because it doesn't really
come out of the values, or really the benefits and upsides that this firm can really provide to you. And the fact alone that you say this, even though you could have said many, much more insightful things, also shows that maybe you're
not the smartest person, right, not understanding that this is likely not the best answer to
give in such an interview. So avoid answers like that, and then you should be fine. But to illustrate that, let's jump into an example this way. - Why do you want to work
in this specific firm? So surely every student
considering joining coinciding needs to at least think about your firm, given that you are the
market leader in the segment. What then really made
for my decision to apply, and to hopefully work here in the future, is that I talked to a
friend, and also colleague, who works at the Berlin
office at your firm. And he taught me a lot about the culture, what it's like to be a
consultant at your firm. And one thing that really stuck with me is this idea of always the best idea, the best concept wins. So what I learned is that apparently, you really have the strong culture that every single one in the team room, even the most junior colleagues, are expected and encouraged to contribute, to make their point, to think very hard about what the solution to
the client's project would be, are encouraged to speak up in meetings, to really already, from day one, contribute to the problem solving process. This is really what I find encouraging. This is what I would love to be in such an atmosphere of a business, closely to what it's really like to work at your firm. I would love to be part of that. Last but not least, let's
talk about questions, like, can you please
guide me through your CV? Or can you please introduce yourself? So these are open questions that ask you just to go over your CV, provide a summary of
what you did in the past, and how this relates to your current job. Questions like that are
often used in the beginning of an interview as an icebreaker, because the interview
will assume that likely, it's more easy for you just
to talk about yourself, about your past experiences, than directly jumping into a case. So what I would recommend
you to do are two things. First, prepare an answer to that ad home. Don't sit there, surprise
by a question like that, and then just like randomly
talking about a couple of things which you did in the past, because of this likely within
come across as rather random, not very structured,
not very professional. And second, also be open to then
transfer into a conversation with the interviewer. Maybe the interview
will ask you a question, be then open to answer that, and then evolve a
conversation based on that, this really also just shows and stresses your interpersonal skills, that you can have a good
conversation with someone, with a collide potentially in the future, which would also be likely something that interviewers will want to
see in situations like that. But once again, let's jump into an example here as well. - Heinrich, tell me a little
bit more about yourself, and guide me through your CV. So I was born in Berlin, but
raised in the West of Germany in a very rather rural area. Then I decided to study
business in Munich, probably the main reason being, because Munich is just a
city that are always loved, but of course the business
school is highly ranked here in Munich, as well. Let me just talked about
the passion for consulting, how I was very early on,
intrigued to doing that, which is why after my second semester, then I did an internship in IT consulting, but then shortly after
also did an internship at a Munich-based docs corporation, where I worked in their
business development function. And this is really also
just such a great area to learn about how you can evolve the strategy of the company, what our next big
strategic initiatives are. This is what I really enjoyed there which is also part of that
why I think consulting, strategy consulting, would be
an area where these two things can come together. Then in the end of my bachelor,
I wanted to do a master, so applied to some of the big
European business schools. I was always intrigued by finance. This was always a topic
that very interested me during my undergraduate degree. I never really was that much into work in actually investment banking, but just the topic of corporate
finance really intrigued me, which is then why I decided
to do a finance master. And then I started studying in the accounting and finance master at the London School of Economics. I had a great year there, and everything that I learned there just encouraged me further to really work in consulting, which is why I'm sitting here right now. But now let me hear from you. What do you think about these tips on consulting interview
questions on personal fit, style of interview questions? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you have any other tips that you would like to share with the Firm Learning community? I would very much appreciate that. Just leave a comment below
in the comment section. And as you know, every single comment also helps
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video description as well. Also want to say a big, big thanks to all the members of my channel. Thank you so much for your support. My name is Heinrich. I release new videos
every single Saturday. So see you again next week. Until then all the best to you. And bye-bye.
