5 Management Consulting Interview Questions | Interview Format | 3 Resources To Aid In Consulting Interview

Interview format of a Management Consulting position

The speaker in the video Jessica Gourdet has given a clear picture of the Interview format of a management consultant in Accenture. She has faced rounds of interviews.

• The 1st interview is an extensive interview in the beginning. The recruiters ask you about yourself like who you are your career goal, etc. The interview call comes just after you put your resume in the company and the recruiters give a call to know your career expectations and all that. This interview is typically 30 minutes interview.
• After the 1st round of interview, the recruiters call for the 2nd round, and this interview is observational one. The recruiters invited the speaker for dinner with few executives like managing directors, a senior manager from both the client and the organization side. Here they typically observe how you are approaching the client, manipulating them. What types of conversation you are bringing and how you are interacting in public.
• After that, the speaker invited for the 3rd round of interview called Case Interview. It is also some behavioral interview. It gives you an idea about what the firm will provide you and your career expectations. They give you a case and will watch how you analyze the description, the details what has given to you. How you priories the points and brings the solution from that. This interview is very important, and many people are getting prepared for the interview. They make themselves using books and draw an issue tree; some pencil works to reach their solution. It is kind of your real mindset up an interview.
• And lastly, the 4th one is the final round of interview. Here the recruiters mainly talk about how life will be in Accenture, your benefits, your expectations, are you willing to travel. Your salary expectation and this is the interview where you ask the question to the organization. This interview is confirmation interview, and you can think you will be offered the position very soon.

The recruiters also watch how you are handling the situation in pressures, how your behaves in some unusual cases and what solution you are coming.

5 most common and challenging interview questions for a Management Consulting Position

The speaker in the video briefly explains the kind of questions she faces in those above mentioned 4 round of interviews. As per her different person can have a different set of problems.

• The 1st question she faces is what is the previous work experience as she has done marketing and is doing consulting for social media. How her experience is tangible for this role, and one has to be quantifying his/her impact. You have to give both positive and negative implications. They put you in a critical situation like in a particular position the client, and the organization is not matching with their way of the solution than as a consultant how you will manage the case to reach the decision. It is a challenging question.
• The 2nd question is what your future career goals are. The speaker in the video faces a situation where is questioned by an executive who is not only 10-20 years of experience; he is from a different era as he was working by the time she was born. It is a critical question of checking your mindset; thinking can differ. She makes her position clear by answering that she wants to manage 3-4 projects parallel as a project consultant.
• The 3rd typical interview question she faces in the case interview. And there is no right or wrong in the answer. At times the organization sees your approach to the problem of how you are moving. In her case, she has a question like a company has many call centers and they want to cut down the revenue – what will be the solution? You have two options – add more call centers or cut down a few of them. Also, you have to be clear with your picture of thinking. You have to figure out what is the best answer is. And this is how this question is hardest as you have to prove your answer is the best and final solution for the situation.
• Another question is how your life would be in Accenture.
• The speaker finds it is a difficult question when they ask for your expectation. This question is different for everyone as we have a distinct personality. Depending on your family, years of experience you can get a high salary. At the same time you concern is of the company benefits, but you can't ask them right on their face.

3 resources to aid in Management Consulting interview

The speaker guides about the resources in terms of books, websites, and blogs to prepare for management consulting interview. The speaker has mentioned the book name "Crack in the case," but as per her Google is the best place to prepare you. She searches for a different firm and what is the research they have done and published. You will get the idea, product strategy and the solution the company using, etc. Also, you can go by EY blog. Google is the platform you will find the statistics, your profile details, the companies' research, and their industry, product, etc. So in this manner, you are using their evidence in the interview. As an example you have questioned about the ride-sharing of train, and you already know their research on that with the results published in an article. So you know the answer, and it makes you a step ahead.

With the advent of the industrialization in the world the arena of business has increased by leaps and bounds. This has led to the emergence of various essential positions within the arena of the business that are required to effectively and efficiently contribute towards the success and prosperity of a business. The position of a management consultant is one such crucial position in the arena of business enterprise. Management consultants help the organizations to solve problems, maximize profit and growth, create value and improve the performance of the business. The management consultants are concerned primarily with the structure, strategy, management and the various operations of a business enterprise. Their role is to identify various options for the organizations and suggest recommendations for change, as well as to advice on the available resources to implement solutions.

The management consultants are often called as management analysts. They are given the role and responsibility of helping a company or any organization to plan and execute their projects with the desired outcome of becoming more profitable or competitive.

The speaker in the video is a management consultant who provides a brief overview to the viewers regarding this professional field. He gives the viewers with a brief insight into the various management consultant interview questions that are essential to crack the interview phase.

Tips to crack the interview phase

• The speaker gives a very useful piece of advice to all the aspirants seeking any type of job. He states that in order to achieve ones aim in a certain field of progression it is very much essential to build a strong network which acts as a great help in providing relevant information that would enable an aspirant to crack a job effectively. Apart from creating a strong network it is also crucial to align one properly with the backgrounds and experiences which play a significant role in the job interview phases.
• The speaker in the video who himself is a  management consultant states that apart from all other things, the job resume is something that needs to be focused more upon and should be made in a very impressive and elaborative manner. In order to make ones resume more stronger, the speaker suggests that the aspirants should volunteer in certain charities or get themselves enrolled in any alumni club. All these factors tend to play a very circular role in the consulting space and make ones resume more impressive and comprehensive as well.
• The speaker further states the networks that one builds is if great help in providing experience in the field of management which is very much required to crack a job of management  consultant. There are a number of applicants who desire to achieve the position of management consultant, and hence it, therefore, becomes very much essential to build a strong network and reach out to people.
• To effectively get into the position of management consultant it is essential to hold a brief knowledge about the company one is applying into. It is essential that the applicants should be aware of the areas that the company functions in, their way of operation, the process in which they are stratified and the various units that they have.

In order to effectively crack the job of management consultant it is very much essential to get a clear understanding of the various consulting behavioural interview questions that the aspirants have to face in the interviews.

Various resources to prepare oneself for the interview of management consultant

The speaker in the video briefly states about specific best resources that would be of great help to the aspirants to prepare themselves for the interview of management consultant.

• The speaker in the video mentions about a person by the name of Victor Chang who have a series of videos as well as a published book by his name which consists of a number of case histories of various management consultant interviews which are complied in a very comprehensive manner. The kinds of stuff compiled by Victor Chang provide the aspirants with an in-depth understanding of the interview process.
• The company websites are another sort of resource that one can use. The company websites offer an overview to their clients regarding their various fields of operations and the specific sector that they work in. This information is very much required for the aspirants to crack the interview phase as knowledge about the company plays a crucial role in ascertaining one's selection in the job of a management consultant.
• Other essential resources are the various business journals and the numerous articles related to the field of business which contains relevant information regarding the area of management consultants and the role that they are required to play.

Furthermore, the speaker in the video advises the aspirants to go for certain professional assistance if they feel they are lacking in certain aspects as a professional guidance will be of great help in devising out the appropriate strategy to deal with the interview process effectively.

The speaker also talks about certain case interviews that are of great help in breaking down the stress level and the nervousness that the aspirants tend to face. Having a brief knowledge of the various management consulting interview questions and getting hold of the right resource will enable one to get the job of a management consultant easily.