Hi all, Just a quick post that won't involve too much brainpower from my end, but might help if some of you can add some of your experience. A reader recently wrote to let me know they have been selected for a 3rd round interview at McK (congratulations to you by the way) and they are looking for some insight from any of you who may have had 3rd round interviews with McK in the past. This also might be a good time for any of you with any general 1st or 2nd round experiences to chime in as well to build a body of knowledge before interviewing for the "Big 3" begins in earnest in the next several months.
Thanks for the help!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Deloitte Consulting
Just went through an interesting experience with some of the folks at Deloitte Consulting. I actually hadn't considered looking at Deloitte before because of the strong association as a Big 4 accounting firm; however, a friend encouraged me to reach out to one of the recruiters there and see what they had to offer. As it turns out, they have a pretty good system in place for those of us with a strong background in the life sciences and healthcare.
Deloitte is a huge firm and self-admittedly this can make it a hard place to navigate and network. What they have done to combat this kind of feeling is to segregate their consulting teams into very specific groups. For example the life sciences group can be farther broken down into a life science strategy and operations group. Then within that group can be broken down into R&D teams, or operations teams, clinical teams, etc... By the end of the day you are working with a highly focused and much more manageable group of individuals, which by definition should make the networking process much more manageable. While this might not provide you the breadth of experience you are looking for, it makes it a great place for those of us who know exactly what we want to do.
I talked with a few managers at Deloitte only to find out that they really love my background, but are only hiring at the manager level and up (equivalent to an engagement manager or project leader level)and that kind of position requires some previous experience as a consultant. I have a feeling that once the economy turns around that hiring at the lower levels will have to pick up to support business, but that will probably be the same industry wide.
Just thought I'd throw another nugget of information out there for those of you who are interested and weighing the pros and cons of the different firms...just another taste of what kind of things you can consider...
Deloitte is a huge firm and self-admittedly this can make it a hard place to navigate and network. What they have done to combat this kind of feeling is to segregate their consulting teams into very specific groups. For example the life sciences group can be farther broken down into a life science strategy and operations group. Then within that group can be broken down into R&D teams, or operations teams, clinical teams, etc... By the end of the day you are working with a highly focused and much more manageable group of individuals, which by definition should make the networking process much more manageable. While this might not provide you the breadth of experience you are looking for, it makes it a great place for those of us who know exactly what we want to do.
I talked with a few managers at Deloitte only to find out that they really love my background, but are only hiring at the manager level and up (equivalent to an engagement manager or project leader level)and that kind of position requires some previous experience as a consultant. I have a feeling that once the economy turns around that hiring at the lower levels will have to pick up to support business, but that will probably be the same industry wide.
Just thought I'd throw another nugget of information out there for those of you who are interested and weighing the pros and cons of the different firms...just another taste of what kind of things you can consider...
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Bridge to BCG follow-up
I just wanted to share a response from a reader who had e-mailed me with a more detailed description of their experience at the Bridge to BCG program in SF. They had encouraged me to share their e-mail with my readers so I will paste a portion of her account below. I hope this helps some of you get a better idea about these summer programs!
"Just want to share something i found through the BCG bridge program: everyone admitted to the program actually has to reapply to BCG for a full time position and i assume will be interviewing with the general applicants (non bcg bridge) if they got selected. So the reason you didn't get selected is likely because you had prior contacts with BCG - I don't think people who got selected are any better than people who didn't.
You might have gotten the same information from people who have attended the BCG Bridge sessions at boston or new york. The format is probably very similar. I attend the SF session. We are working on a real BCG case that was from the new york office a few years ago. It is very different from the case interviews i have been to (McKinsey for summer associate positions). During the team meetings, we are asked to come up with a hypothesis about what went wrong and how we could solve the problem - even before structuring our responses which i find really odd and difficult. After coming up with a hypothesis, each team of 6 people are split into 2 groups where 1 group look at more financial analysis data and 1 group interviewing some "clients". I am definitely going to ask them tomorrow if coming up with a single hypothesis b4 or after structuring our response is something they expect us to do in actual interviews. I guess with Mckinsey, it is more like laying out the structures/ the frame works first, then going down each branch for possible explanations."
"Just want to share something i found through the BCG bridge program: everyone admitted to the program actually has to reapply to BCG for a full time position and i assume will be interviewing with the general applicants (non bcg bridge) if they got selected. So the reason you didn't get selected is likely because you had prior contacts with BCG - I don't think people who got selected are any better than people who didn't.
You might have gotten the same information from people who have attended the BCG Bridge sessions at boston or new york. The format is probably very similar. I attend the SF session. We are working on a real BCG case that was from the new york office a few years ago. It is very different from the case interviews i have been to (McKinsey for summer associate positions). During the team meetings, we are asked to come up with a hypothesis about what went wrong and how we could solve the problem - even before structuring our responses which i find really odd and difficult. After coming up with a hypothesis, each team of 6 people are split into 2 groups where 1 group look at more financial analysis data and 1 group interviewing some "clients". I am definitely going to ask them tomorrow if coming up with a single hypothesis b4 or after structuring our response is something they expect us to do in actual interviews. I guess with Mckinsey, it is more like laying out the structures/ the frame works first, then going down each branch for possible explanations."
New Consulting Forum
One of the more prolific bloggers when it comes to consulting and a blog I often read for my own personal edification is Tom Spencer's blog.
Tom is starting a new consulting forum for discussion that might be very beneficial to some of you down the line. Here is the link: http://www.tomspencer.com.au/forums/
I think that Tom and I have very similar goals, to help folks interested in consulting navigate the waters and land the job of their dreams...because of this I am more than glad to help a friend get the word out. Tom would like me to share his description of the forum with all of my readers...so here it is:
"New Consulting Forum
The discussion forum will be a place where students and other people with an interest in the consulting industry can discuss:
1. how to get into the industry, and how to succeed
2. which firms are the best and why
3. other general discussion
I think this will be a valuable tool for students and others who are preparing for interviews to pool their knowledge and collective experience, and the more people who get involved the more valuable the discussion forum will become."
The forum just launched today so there hasn't been a whole lot added to it yet, but I think we both hope it will be a valuable resource for you all moving forward.
Tom is starting a new consulting forum for discussion that might be very beneficial to some of you down the line. Here is the link: http://www.tomspencer.com.au/forums/
I think that Tom and I have very similar goals, to help folks interested in consulting navigate the waters and land the job of their dreams...because of this I am more than glad to help a friend get the word out. Tom would like me to share his description of the forum with all of my readers...so here it is:
"New Consulting Forum
The discussion forum will be a place where students and other people with an interest in the consulting industry can discuss:
1. how to get into the industry, and how to succeed
2. which firms are the best and why
3. other general discussion
I think this will be a valuable tool for students and others who are preparing for interviews to pool their knowledge and collective experience, and the more people who get involved the more valuable the discussion forum will become."
The forum just launched today so there hasn't been a whole lot added to it yet, but I think we both hope it will be a valuable resource for you all moving forward.
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