Comments on: Management consulting interviews: the best follow-up question you can ask, plus 4 more

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:47:55 +0000

To briefly answer your questions here:

Question 1 – most questions can be asked regardless of their seniority (for example, “can you tell me more about your background and your time at this company?”)

Question 2 – I would keep these emails short, mention one or two moments from the interview to jog their memory, and ask a followup question if appropriate.

By: Alberto

Alberto — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:14:42 +0000

Thank you very much for the blog. It is very informative and useful for applicants intending to start a career in management consulting (like me). I am going to be interviewed for McKinsey (1st round) quite soon. I have some experience in IB interviews but it seems some points not valued in IB (such as follow-up questions and thank you messages) are important to Management Consulting interviewers, so I need to know more about these.

Question 1: I heard that in the 1st round one meets with analysts and only in the 2nd round one meets with partners/principals. Should I change my follow-up questions accordingly? I mean, considering the statement “Never ask your consultant interviewer a question that can be answered by a recruiter”, I would suppose that one should also avoid asking a partner/principal a question that could easily be answered by the analyst in first place, for example.

Question 2: What is the outline of a “model-thank-you-message” recruiters expect to receive in their inbox after the interview? In IB, they usually do not care about it but if you still want to send something, a standard minimal message directed to each of the recruiters will suit (in fact, a too long message may be regarding as particularly annoying). In short, I am concerned with the detail level I should put in my follow-up e-mail messages.

I will be waiting for your advice. Thank you once again for the useful website!

By: Consultant99

Consultant99 — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:58:52 +0000

Kevin: that sounds reasonable. During the interview I typically give feedback on the case, such as why I ask the case and an interesting aspect that the candidate may have wanted to explore but wasn’t likely to come up with. So a follow-up on the case content is great because it shows that the candidate can extend the conversation. But in probably 100 interviews of undergrads and MBAs, I’ve only once been asked by the candidate “how did I do,” which was by a candidate whose biggest weakness is that she had zero self-confidence. I strongly encourage people to follow-up with me after the interviews and I’ll take a lot of time to dissect the interview with them… and far too few people take me up on this.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:18:59 +0000

Consultant99, it seems to me that interview feedback is pretty standard, particularly in first round interviews. My suggestion here is that if feedback is provided (eg, “the way you structured answers was solid, but I would focus more on underlying business drivers”), it’s OK to follow-up interviewer feedback by asking for actionable recommendations to improve (”eg, “knowing that I need to be stronger at elucidating business drivers, are there any specific resources you’d recommend I read?”). If feedback isn’t provided, I would find it surprising that asking for suggestions on making yourself a stronger interviewer would be negatively received.

By: Consultant99

Consultant99 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:54:53 +0000

Kevin, I would be interested to know why you suggest asking “what would you suggest are the 2 or 3 things I can do to improve?” during an interview, or am I misinterpreting? Personally, if someone asked me that, I’d end the interview right then and send them home. If people want feedback, that’s great, but they have to wait until after a decision has been made. Otherwise I risk creating the impression that they will or will not get next round or an offer before that decision has been taken.

I find that the most impressive questions during the interview are those that clarify misconceptions the applicant has, like your question 3. Another example: “people on campus say your firm is (something good) but also that (something bad). To what extent is this impression accurate?”