How to prepare for consulting firms

How to prepare for consulting firms

How to prepare in school at early time
A friend ask how to prepare a consulting career when first enters
university. Here is some of my understanding.
If you are an undergraduate, I have to say your English is great! You have
overcame the first hurdle.
Try to get 4 things in your school year:
1. Good grade - no need to explain
2. Leadership position in social activities. This can either be in school
or outside school, but must be out of academic arena. This will broaden
your view and stretch your own limitation
3. Get some internship experience in multinational companies.
4. Better English capability, both read/write and listening and speaking.
Jiang
作者
钱江
曾在麦肯锡北京分公司担任资深咨询顾问，领导团队为电信、金融、工业、原材料行业
内的国内大、中、小型 企业和跨国公司就广泛的企业管理问题提供咨询。涉及的领域包
括：市场营销战略、企业发展战略、业务组合管理、 并购、生产和研发、组织架构和激
励机制设计，以及业务流程重组的实施。在此之前，钱江曾任美国NetConvertions 公司
担任企业拓展部经理。钱江在沃顿商学院获得MBA学位，并获得Palmer奖（前5％毕业生
）。钱江同时在清华大学 计算机系获得学士和硕士学位，并在清华大学经济管理学院获
得经济管理双学位。
The Case Interview
The objective of the interviewer is to take the candidate through a series of steps and see how (s)he can tackle the various levels.  The steps can range from identifying a critical issue, to breaking a problem into component parts, to finally identifying one or more solutions.
STEP 1:  BIG PICTURE THINKING
The interviewer lays out the facts and asks the candidate to articulate the critical issues facing the business.  “Big Picture Thinking” requires a focus on the key issues and not a ‘laundry list’ of every problem facing the business.  The interviewer then asks why the candidate chose the answer (s)he did.
Question:
You have just been promoted to be the President of the University you are currently attending.  What do you think the biggest challenge facing you might be?
A good answer:
The University has several powerful constituencies – undergraduates, graduate students, professors, alumni, government and community.  However, the University doesn’t have unlimited resources and therefore it must prioritize where it spends its dollars.  Long term success for the University is driven by figuring out what the most important areas are, and at the same time ensuring that all constituents feel they are being treated fairly.
STEP 2:  PROBLEM SOLVING LOGIC
The interviewer asks the candidate to lay out all the elements of the problem:  What factors should be considered?
Question:
How should you prioritize your limited resources?
A good answer:
Think about what drives the University’s success – reputation, economics, quality of students, quality of research.  Understand what “focusing resources” really gets you.  Each factor has a different set of implications/impact.
STEP 3:  FOCUS ON VALUE
The interviewer lets the candidate then choose which avenues to pursue, leaving the discussion open-ended:  without suggesting focus, the interviewer determines if the candidate is instinctive about which path to choose and then asks why the candidate selected this path.
Question:
Which opportunity do you think will have the biggest impact?
A good answer:
Reputation.  If you have a good reputation it can influence other areas.  Reputation can be a long-term asset.  Also, it is probably the hardest to fix once it is broken.
STEP 4:  DEPTH AND BREADTH – BUSINESS INTUITION
After getting the recruit to focus on a key area, the interviewer asks the candidate some probing questions about how (s)he would analyze that area.
Question:
Okay, so how would you improve the University’s reputation?
A good answer:
I would focus on improvement in two areas:
·         promote activities that build reputation
·         eliminate factors that negatively impact reputation (discussion then continues down both of these paths with specific improvement ideas)
STEP 5:  RESULTS ORIENTATION
The interviewer returns to a key area of discussion, asking the candidate how (s)he would implement his/her solution.  The interviewer could pose a tricky or hostile client situation and ask how the candidate would get results in a difficult environment.
Question:
Well, those seem like pretty sound strategies.  How exactly would you implement those ideas?
A good answer:
We will need to start with a PR blitz, so I would encourage several articles to be written about “The New University” in popular press.  Also, I would heighten the pressure on professors to publish articles…(the answer continues with other implementation ideas).