Interview insights
Recruiter feedback
Behavioral interviewing tips
Upcoming dates & deadlines
Overview
Interview insights
Recruiter feedback
Behavioral interviewing tips
Upcoming dates & deadlines
Overview
Interview insights can be a useful guide, but
use your own judgment in interpreting data
• Almost 50 students have generously provided feedback on their interviews
• Their perspective will be influenced by their backgrounds, interview skill,
advance prep, etc (e.g. someone who has direct applicable experience, has
had 20 interviews before this, and talked to multiple employees to
understand a company may feel they had an easy, conversational interview-
no guarantee you will have the same experience
• Companies are likely to bring different interviewers when you interview. Your
experience could be totally different
• Basically, use this as one prep tool not THE prep tool
Interview insights
Note: If a company is not represented, interviewees have not submitted a response to the survey
Boston Consulting Group
• A retailer who sells clothing and accessories in
SE US has had a tremendous growth over last
10 years, but in past 12 months revenues and
profits have decreased. In particular they feel
there are some concerns over their promotion
strategy of directed coupons. They wanted to
evaluate if their coupons are effective and also
what other couponing options do they can use.
• Commissioners office for a South-East College
conference has hired BCG to help increase long
term revenue & profits. They want you to
examine if adding additional universities will help,
and which universities to consider adding. Case
provides revenue streams for commissioners
office, which forms the basis for progressing with
the case
• What is one thing that you did as a leader that has
had the most significant impact, financially or
personally
• Tell me about a time when you had to influence
someone using data as we do everyday in a
consulting environment
• What is the most difficult or challenging analytical
problem that you have solved
• Why BCG?
• Tell me how you work in a team; tell about a team
situation where you had to go against popular
opinion
• Explain why you want to get into consulting - this
was oriented towards explaining how all the
career/educational choices I had made were leading
me to consulting
• Talk about a team work situation that you were really
proud of. What was your role in a non-leadership
position?
• Of the various achievements mentioned in resume
which one was the most important/had greatest
impact, why - oriented leadership role I had played in
the projects
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
Boston Consulting Group (continued)
• Yeah, each case had a lot of exhibits and charts. I
wish we could have some workshops on how to
quickly read charts and charts that are in the format
given by consulting firms
• The cases for BCG turned out to be totally qualitative -
non numbers based. They were also very
conversational, and not like a formal - "OK, now Im
going to give you the case prompt". It is easy to loose
track of time in such conversational casing situations,
as well as to ignore structure. The case starts
suddenly as a part of the conversation, and it is
important to have a proper structured approach. The
interviewer will dig deep into everything you mention
so make sure you dont get carried away by the
conversational nature of the case and by mistake
provide unsubstantiated suggestions or arguments.
• Practicing cases with BCG mentors and classmates,
having mock interviews
• Do all cases on the website and just be more familiar with
that type of casing. Use the book crack the case!
• Apart from regular practice, practice speed casing as well.
We had to solve one of the cases in 20 mins.
• 1. Very important to have a free and normal conversation
with the interviewer - do not be formal and rigid with case
when the interviewer actually wants to have a free flowing
discussion or conversation about the case at hand. 2. The
more behavioral interviews you do the more polished your
stories will sound, and you might in fact get some new
ideas that you hadn't considered before. Important to do
MANY practice behavioral with DIFFERENT people before
interviews. 3. Go beyond the usual why consulting, why
BCG, why XYZ questions. - in practice interviews
encourage interviewers to ask completely unexpected
questions - be prepared to improvise on the spot. 4. Think
deeply about the questions you ask at the end on the
interview. Avoid asking questions, the answers to which
you could have found out before. I think it works best if the
questions relate to something you have just discussed
with the interviewer, in order to show that you are not just
pulling something off a list that you had in mind from
before - Improvise! Also show that you are evaluating the
firm in the same way the firm is evaluating you. Think
about what you would want to know from your interviewer
if you had offers from all the big 3 firms, and were trying
to pick one.
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Interview insights
Campbell Alliance
• None
• No case interview questions in 1st round with
HR. Before 2nd round I was expected to
write a short essay about pharma generic
competitor entry.
• What practice areas are you interested in?
• Why Campbell Alliance?
• I was expected to talk about my experience
and make connection to company practice
areas.
• Very easy interview. Most of the interviewer's
time was spent talking about what Campbell
Alliance does and one interviewer
commented "it was like a company
presentation in the interview".
• I had an informational interview with a recent
alumni before the actual interview. I had a
good understanding of company culture and
practice areas. Knowing more about
company practice areas helped me to better
shape my stories. One can easily check
practice areas from company web site. If you
have enough time for prep. check company
white papers.
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
Cognizant
• None
• If a company wants to give away an in-house
developed product, how should it go about in doing
so?
• Not really a case, had me explain in detail a
business case that I had built
• If you are preparing a strategy recommendation
presentation to a client, what process would you
follow?
• Resume walk
• Time when you had to lead a diverse team
• Tell me about a time when you had to make a sale
(convince others - boss/client about your idea)
• What are your key learnings from your school and
work experience
• Tell me about a time when you worked in a team/
led a team
• Time when you had to work on a tough project and
how did you do?
• What do you expect to be in Cognizant 3 years
from now
• what do you like doing?
• N/A • Be prepared to go in depth on what looks
interesting on your resume and be prepared to
explain the difficult concepts of your previous
positions to this interviewer
• Mock case and behavioral interviews
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
CSC
• No cases • Reverse resume walk. Start with business
school and talk me backward through the
resume.
• Why Consulting?
• Why CSC? (there were 2 or 3 versions of
this)
• How do you deal with people not pulling their
weight?
• Tell me about a time where you dealt with
ambiguity
• Wish I had known how important the why
CSC was to them
• Do BCC behavioral mocks
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
Deloitte S&O (I)
• Client has come up with a wireless "TAP" - tap to pay ticketing system
for subways & buses. They want you to examine data presented to pick
one among 3 cities where to launch the product. More financial -
revenue & cost data provided. Calculate if it will be profitable, if target
payback period will be achieved etc. Deloitte mini case - numbers
dominated case. Basically testing analytical skills - they will not push you
further once you demonstrate that you are good with numbers.
• Market Entry, conduct assessment of potential revenue in three markets
and identify the best market to enter and whether or not to enter it
• Case was just a detailed math calculation. Given lots of segment data
and asked to identify most attractive segment. Then given segment
development costs and revenues and asked to calculate ROI (payback
period).
• Evaluating whether or not a technology to automate the subway system
payment process will break even in 5 years (charts used)
• Group Case - Auto Parts Supplier considering entering China, India, or
Brazil
• Revenue & profits falling for a paper product distribution subsidiary of a
larger firm. Examine why etc. At the end the case also provides 3 other
options of increasing revenue, and asks you to examine them and
recommend which one(s) you would pick
• What made you decide to take your first job out of undergrad?
• Tell me about your internship
• 30 second overview of your career, resume walk
• What academic experience are you the most proud of?
• Why Deloitte? Why Kenan-Flagler? Why consulting? Why office choices
• What do you think you will find most challenging if you join
Deloitte/Consulting? Be ready to explain in detail
• Talk about a leadership/teamwork situation that is very recent - e.g. in
School. Interviewer dug in very deep to ask what you did at specific
times, what you were thinking, how the other players in the situation
reacted, how you dealt with them etc
• You are in a presentation with a lead partner or client when he starts
talking about something that you know to be wrong... what do you do?
• What are you most proud (academically) during the MBA program
• Talk to me about your industry experience, what project did you have for
your internship last summer?
• What would you do if your flight got canceled but then still had to make
the client meeting the next morning.
• You and a partner are scheduled to give a presentation at an important
client. The partner can't make it and you are going alone anyway to
give the pitch. You get to the airport and your flight gets canceled so
you don't think you can make it.... what do you do?
• Which other firms are you interviewing with? Any Non-consulting firms?
- be ready to explain rationale for other firms & industries if any
• What would you do if you and another colleague(same designation)
were working on a consulting project, and while you were finishing your
work ahead of schedule, he was passing on some of his work to you.
How would you react? Be ready for 3 to 4 level follow up questions
based on your answer
• If our positions were reversed, what qualities would you look for in a
potential candidate for Deloitte. - In one case I mentioned finding out
about their reason for wanting Deloitte, in which case the follow up
questions was - What would you say is an acceptable reason?
• Interviewer said he didn't really believe in behavioral interviews and that
we would instead just have a conversation. He wrote on a notepad, not
on a form with pre-determined interview questions.
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
Deloitte S&O (continued)
• Case interviews, do two per day if possible. Start
early. And review the cases that you do, don't just do
cases to get to a high number, understand what you
did right and wrong. Engage the interviewer. If you
have a hard time during the case maintain composure
and get to a strong close.
• Case, case, case...
• Case prep w/ BCC, classmates, CMC
• practice cases - 5-8 a week leading up to it with a
good partner and feedback
• Make sure to make them feel that you really want
Deloitte...moreso than many other firms
Tips for future interviewees
Interview insights
• Be comfortable doing math in your head and on paper.
No charts, but lots of tables with data.
• Be ready to look at a crowded data sheet - all of it -
and pull out what you need.
• Lots of data sheets on cases
• The first round case was more straightforward and
basic than I expected
• Deloitte has this specific guided style of interviews,
which you don't see in case books. Especially for the
larger 2nd round case, they will first give a really long
prompt (1 full sheet read out quite fast) - of which only
a small part will be relevant to the problem.
Candidates must get used to filtering through this
information and not get overwhelmed. Then the first
question if usually looking for high level options are
areas to look at. They do NOT want you to dig deeper
at this point and ask for details. They may not even let
you come up with a structure etc. After that you will
usually be given a data dump - 1 sheet with 4 exhibits
- usually a bit confusing and ask to hear your thoughts
about them. In most cases very useful insights can be
found by relating the data across multiple exhibits. The
interview proceeds in this fashion - exhibit - thoughts -
specific questions related to exhibit - next part/exhibit.
What you wish you’d known
Deloitte Tech
• ERP Implementation in dairy company with
silo-ed product lines - Stakeholder
management, ways to reduce ERP
implementation expenses, increasing
visibility across the organization
• Collaboration in teams
• Question about teamwork
• Ambiguity
• Brainstorming
• Unfriendly team members
• Prior technical experience
• Flexibility
• Small business technology situation
• Discuss a current tech trend
• A little more knowledge of ERP
implementation
• Regular case prep does not really help with
this case interview, the question is less
ambiguous
• Be prepared to discuss tech trends in detail
• Spend a lot of time on the Deloitte website
reviewing their sample tech cases
• Relax and be yourself
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
Ernst & Young FSO
• None (1st round) • Tell me about a situation in which team members do not agree
with your proposal and how do you acted?
• Why E+Y? Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years at E+Y?
• How do you structure a presentation?
• How would you deal with a Junior Associate who has been at
E+Y longer than you, is an SME on a subject and wants the
team to follow his direction?
• Tel me about a complex situation that you resolved quickly and
with restricted information
• Walk me through your resume
• Give me an example of your most challenging assignment
• Talk about a time you were given a business plan with a flawed
process and what did you do to fix it?
• What are your weaknesses?
• Practice a lot of behaviorals, be sure of your personal story
• Mock Behaviorals are a must, do them until you have thought
out every scenario and can do it even with some form of
interruption.
• Practice a lot of examples of difficult situations that you have had
either in your previous jobs or at Business School.
• Really be aware of all areas of E+Y and how they fit in to yours.
This will be beneficial for both networking and when talking
about cross functional behavioral questions/scenarios.
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
Ernst & Young PI
• Gov is looking to save money by switching toll
booth operators with cameras. What would you
think about. Will an automated camera system
for toll booths break even in 5 years. This case
had a little data (less than a Deloitte case) and
led to a final "correct" go-no go decision.
• Lots of individualized resume walk questions
• Tell me about leadership
• You have to learn something in a short time but teach it to client
• Tell me about your leadership style
• What do you want to know about the specific practice area? (know their differences)
• Tell me what makes a team work well together
• Why consulting
• Collaboration
• How you deal with stress and hard situations
• There were lots of numbers in the case, lots of
calculations, however in the beginning he said he
wants to see how I think and structure.
• The case had several charts but that was what I
expected
• We should have a book of made up ROI
calculations. Ask everyone in the consulting club
to contribute one case and we'll compile them for
a case book.
• Mock interviews would be helpful (including
working on numbers) the case was not very
difficult but the numbers…
• I think preparing for typical consulting interviews
(i.e. casing and mock behavioral) was sufficient
prep for this
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
Grant Thornton
• No case in first round, second round is a group
case w/ 4 hours to complete then present • How does my career prepare me for
Restructuring Group?
• Walk me through your resume
• Lot's of Why, Why undergrad college, Why
UNC, Why Work one place, Why Grant
Thornton
• Why do you want to work in restructuring
• What other firms are you interviewing with
• Tell me about your leadership style
• Nice to know what offices they are looking to
hire for so that I can be prepared to give my
preferences
• Very behavioral
• 3 on one interview
• No technicals, no case. Make sure you tell a
story with your resume walk. Can answer
questions before they are asked.
• Knowing resume inside and out
• Did not do any mocks. Went to the company
event beforehand and took the time to really
get to know the interviewers. Once we got
along it was an easy interview.
• Typical behavioral prep
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
McKinsey
• Easy ERP has a license per client model and is considering
entering the internet monthly payment model, what would be
your advice?
• US blue Jean manufacturer wants to know what its potential
market share would be in China and how it can achieve said
goal
• Client provides Enterprise ERP. Wants to enter into
Software as a service (Saas) ERP solutions? Should they?
• Large manufacturer that specializes in Perfumes, Dental
Care and Hair products, has shown stagnant growth, what
would be the key factor to increase growth?
• The public schools in your county are underperforming?
How do you improve their performance?
• Be detailed in sharing an example of a situation where you had to go against your superior and influence them in changing their mind and following your recommendation (Be specific on what you did, how you did it and the outcome including the metrics)
• Time you were particularly creative
• Tell me about a time when you had to go against popular opinion to gather resources to get something done.
• Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a person at workplace.
• Resume walk
• Tell me about a time where you had to lead a team on a difficult situation
• Tell about a time when you have demonstrated your leadership skills overcoming difficult challenges.
• Tell me about a time where you failed
• McKinsey style is very directed and chart heavy. Wish I had
more practice with that
• I wish I knew how public schools operate in the US
• When given calculations, make sure you draw and explain
your framework before you tackle the problem
• Practice readingconfusing tables.
• Take McKinsey style mock behaviorals - as many as
possible
• Bcc case prep
• I had a case practice partner with whom I started casing
since August twice a week, then I went up until I was casing
2 to 3 times a day. Giving cases was as useful as taking
them
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
MorganFranklin
• Large bank has just acquired a small, regional bank and is looking to cut costs. How can you cut costs and improve customer service? How would you structure your approach, and what recommendations would you provide to the CFO?
• Candy company is profitable with 30% market share and has excess cash and capital. What are opportunities it could pursue to increase revenues and/or profits? What options would you explore?
•
• Experiences as a team member/ in teams
• Consulting experience
• Dealing with ambiguity
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
PWC Consumer Finance
• None • Walk me through your resume
• Very conversational, walk me through your
resume etc
• Knowing what the group did and about the
industry (mortgages) was definitely in my
favor
• Just a conversation
• Preparing for this interview would be very
similar to any behavioral interview
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
ScottMadden
• None • Example of conflict resolution
• Resume walk
• Decision making in an ambiguous situation
• Why Consulting
• Example of leadership
• Why Scott Madden
• Lessons learned from the internship experience
• Tell me about a time you had to analyze a large
amount of data
• Describe your problem solving approach
• Understand the culture and determine the
potential "fit" within the organization.
• Understand what you like about the
business/organization and the value that you
bring to the table.
What you wish you’d known Tips for future interviewees
Case Questions Behavioral Questions
Interview insights
Interview insights
Recruiter feedback
Behavioral interviewing tips
Upcoming dates & deadlines
Overview
Overall, recruiters satisfied with student
performance & common themes emerged
about students who excelled
• Knowledgeable about trends
• Had personal examples showing that they were driven to personal
growth
• Had obviously researched our firm and practice areas
• Stories had great depth
• Answers were structured
• We could have an easy communication/they were very interpersonal
Recruiter Feedback
As expected areas for improvement exist
Behavioral
• Clearly outline leadership roles in your stories
• We would like to see evidence of influencing skills; weave those in
• Technical skills are great, but when a student struggles to
communicate, I am not convinced he/she can sell ideas to a client
• I asked a question about Kenan-Flagler and I got a resume walk.
Seemed scripted
• Student didn’t seem interested in us. I would have liked more
engagement/passion
• Correlate your experience to our need
Recruiter Feedback
Cases
• Students spent so much time discussing the process they would use
to solve the case vs. actually solving the case; they run out of time.
Get to the key variables/drivers
• Get out of the math weeds and see the full picture
• Stay engaged even during the case
• Outline the problem and show thought process as you work through
the case
• Summarize your key points concisely
Recruiter Feedback
As expected areas for improvement exist
Interview insights
Recruiter feedback
Behavioral interviewing tips
Upcoming dates & deadlines
Overview
S= Situation
What happened and why did it prompt you to take action?
T= Task
What was the specific challenge, job or project?
A= Action
What was your role in the job or project?/ What action did you take?
R= Result
What happened as a result of your action? Be specific.
What did you learn from the results?
Remember to use the S-T-A-R Framework
Behavioral Interviewing
• Tell me about a time when you dealt with ambiguity.
• Give me an example of a time when your supervisor was wrong and how you handled it.
• Tell me about a time when you worked with a team lacking a clear leader and the team was
having a hard time meeting its goals and objectives? What did you do? What was the outcome?
What did you learn?
• Describe a situation in which you had to influence a peer to cooperative with you. What was
your approach?
• Walk me through a situation in which you had to do research and analyze the results of a
project.
• Describe a time when you decided you should change your actions or approach in order to
respond to the needs of a situation.
• Tell me about a time when you had to re-write the rules.
• Tell me about a time when you made a bad decision.
Behavioral Questions vary widely
Behavioral Interviewing
10. Insufficient research on employer and the position
9. Overly-rehearsed or impersonal
8. Not making the case for: Why me? Why this job?
7. Low eye contact and/or smiling
6. Insufficient prep for Walk Me Through Your Resume
(intro statement)
5. Negatively-framed ques. – not getting out of the trough
4. No structure – STAR
3. Never had a mock interview / No practice
2. No customization for employer
1. Weak endings. The FADE…….
Top 10 Mistakes in Behavioral Interviewing
Behavioral Interviewing
• Think of job/employer
• Define the skills the role requires and how you will
highlight these skills
• What qualities are important to them?
• Where are your gaps? (preempt them!)
Position yourself & story effectively
Behavioral Interviewing
• Approximately 2-3 minutes
• Undergrad graduation to present
• Significant contributions
• Purposeful transitions
• “Why MBA?
• “Why Kenan-Flagler?”
• “The reason I’m here is…”
• “I plan to add value to your company by…”
• Strong summary
• Don’t just read your resume bullets. Bring it to life!
“Walk me through your resume”
Behavioral Interviewing
Answer negatively-framed questions fully
STORY
What went
wrong & why
Accept
responsibility
Corrective actions
Learning,
What is different NOW
Going forward Weakness?
Tell me about a bad boss?
Tell me about a mistake?
Trough
Set up and
Your specific role
Behavioral Interviewing
• Behavioral grid
• Sample behavioral questions
• Interview Stream
• BCC
• Peer Counselors
• Club education events
• Associate Directors
Many CMC resources to support your prep
Behavioral Interviewing
Practice, practice, practice!
•Resume (and cover letter) drops Now!
•iClass – Behavioral interviewing hands on practice for international students 11/15
•Consulting Club “Case in Point” workshop 11/16
•Deloitte Case Competition 11/18
•Interview Signups start 11/28
•iClass – Functional interviewing prep for international students 12/6
•Final exams 12/10 – 12/15
•On-campus interviews start 1/18
Upcoming Dates / Deadlines
Some
applications
require
transcripts,
etc so plan
ahead!
Upcoming dates & deadlines