Here’s a checklist that you should run through before any consulting interview. 80% of the advice applies across industries and job functions as well. Happy reading!

Long before the interview…

1) Start case prep NOW. Not tomorrow, not in a week, start it NOW. Remember, the case can be more than 50% of the final “score” that will determine your candidacy. Here’s a general outline of how to prepare:

• Get your hands on as many different cases as you can – both books like Case In Point, websites like www.caseinterview.com, as well as online materials and resources (you’d be amazed at how valuable the websites of university consulting clubs can be).
• Run through them ideally with a consulting-interested friend, but if one isn’t available, practice by yourself. The key to good independent practice is to answer the question first, and THEN look at the real answer. Try to recognize patterns – is your answer always missing an analysis of the company’s internal situation? Do you always forget to discuss strategy in the context of competitors? Then make a mental note NOT to forget that.
• Simulate actual case interviews as much as you can. The timing is critical – both how long your answers are, and how much time you should spend asking questions versus providing responses. Ideally, you’d practice then with a consultant who has experience in this area – but if not, a sharp friend will do. I’d even suggest getting a stopwatch, and looking at the length of your responses. If you’re over a minute, for 99% of answers – you’re too long.

I will be uploading some very valuable, and free, case prep resources that I’ve managed to discover across the internet, and that kind readers have shared with me. Stay tuned!

While some people think that the case can be 100% of the decision – and while this percentage will vary by firm and by office – generally the behavioral component is equally important. Especially because, at the end of the day, the vast majority of people will miss at least SOME part of the case – and when it comes to deciding between all of these people, what do you think the interviewers will base their decision on? Resume. Personality.

2) Setup informational meetings and phone calls with as many current and former consultants as you can. This is invaluable for many reasons:

• It helps with networking. If they’re impressed with you, they will be self-motivated to send a strong recommendation to HR. They may put you in touch with other consultants for more practice and advice. Etc.
• It helps with industry and job familiarization. The more you know about the job, the lingo, the challenges, the pros and cons – the better you will do in the behavioral interview. And the more that you hear about REAL cases and REAL problems, the more you’ll understand about the case interview – and what consultants are truly looking for in responses (hint, it’s all about things that will really move the needle).
• It helps you personally. Many people get into consulting for the wrong reasons, which is a post in and of itself, but meeting consultants will give you a great feel for the types of people you’ll work with, their personalities, and help you make a decision about whether its the right path for you.

Immediately before the interview…

3) Practice in front of a mirror and with friends. Each has its own benefits. The mirror allows you to fix awkward facial expressions, poor body language, etc. The friend gives you live feedback and is closer to the actual interview dynamic. Volume and pace are important – don’t talk too fast (it’s natural when you’re nervous) and don’t compensate by speaking too loudly.

4) DRESS NICELY. Wrinkled shirts = do not think ahead = unable to plan workstreams = poor team member. Misshapen tie-knot = lack of friends able to do you a favor = poor social skills = poor team member. Dress nicely for men typically means a suit with tie and clean dress shoes. Same expectations for women. No cologne for men, very, very light perfume for women.

EXTRA CREDIT if you wear brands that are most closely in line with the firm’s popular dress labels. Some of you may think I’m taking this too far, but ignore the jobless naysayers. For consulting, Brooks Brothers is a great bet. Half the consultants wear it. At the very least, you’ll show up looking professional. It can’t hurt.

5) Do not OVERDRESS. Had a colleague who went to investment banking interviews in an extra-long European-style suit, with a vest and loud tie. It screamed fashion guru, not banking analyst. Wear standard, muted colors – gray, white, and light shades of blue are your friend. Some may think that standing out is a good thing – but don’t push the envelope too far. Ask me if it’s appropriate.

6) Scan the news in the morning. Business consultants (read: your target audience) are very well read on the latest business news, and have a more than cursory understanding of politics and international affairs as well. At the very least, know the key issues of the moment. For example, you’ll look idiotic if you go into an interview today without being able to talk about the subprime and financial crisis for a minute or two.

EXTRA CREDIT if you bring up something interesting you read that morning to kickstart the interview or work it into the conversation:

“I’ve lightly traded a personal portfolio for the last couple years, but recently most of my tech stocks haven’t done well…and I just read today that Apple released the iGod 3000, which has helped me recover some losses I suffered in these last few months’ chaos.“

7) KNOW YOUR RESUME BACK AND FORTH, UP AND DOWN – it is one of the few things that you completely control so know what the heck it says! I remember attending post-interview review sessions where interviewers would recall applicants mixing up the dates for their previous jobs, extracurriculars, and so forth. At best, you look forgetful. At worst, you’re suspected of fabricating your record. So know it well, know what you wrote in it, and be ready to give 30-, 60-, and 2-minute run-throughs of it. Which brings me to my next point…

EXTRA CREDIT if you refer interviewer directly to a line in your resume:

“If you look at my resume under the Company X internship, I increased their billing data accuracy 25% by redesigning their online forms.“

Further reading: 10 key consulting interview preparation tips

During the interview…

8) …have your resume handy, and ask if the interviewer would LIKE A COPY. An interview is not the time to be shy – most people bring their resumes but just keep them hidden in their padfolios. Bring it out and offer them one – it shows you’re proactive, and if they say no, you’ll have it in front of you if you need to refer to it

9) Project great energy. This one is HUGE. I. Cannot. Underestimate. Its. Importance. Most interviewees are nervous, shy, and stone-faced. Would you want to spend upwards of 12 hours a day in a tiny room with someone like that? I think not. You’d want to spend those 12 hours with a person who is upbeat, enthusiastic, cheerful, and has great energy. It’s important not to overdo this, of course – but from my experience that’s not the problem most candidates encounter. How do you do this? Simple – smile a lot. Project when you communicate. Use hand gestures and display great presentation skills. Maintain eye contact, and lean forward just slightly. Laugh a little – at yourself, at a joke – to help you (and the interviewer) relax. Even the most experienced interviewers can be a little tense when asking questions, and realize that they’re in the same boat. Help calm the situation for both of you, and you’ll be way ahead in the game.

10) Prepare and ask smart follow-up questions. 99% of the time, you’ll be allowed 5-10 minutes to ask questions of the interviewers. Have 2-3 good questions ready, and no, “Why did you choose management consulting?” does not count as one. Here are a bunch of great followup questions you can ask:

• What’s been the most difficult client issue you’ve faced?
• Do you consider post-[insert current job here] options and if so, what are they?
• If I got this job, what advice could you give me to help me get off to a fast start?
• If I were interested in (insert industry, geography, function here), how could I really get experience in that area?
• What would you say are the most common mistakes that new hires make?
• Which project has been the most (challenging/exciting/engaging) for you?

There is a lot more DURING THE INTERVIEW content that I will write about in later posts. All business consulting firms have a FIT INTERVIEW (e.g., do you have the right personality traits to be successful at our company) and in consulting, there is also the CASE INTERVIEW (e.g., can you solve problems that are CliffsNotes versions of our actual job).

After the interview…

11) Ask for a business card, ask if you can email them with followup questions, and then ACTUALLY FOLLOW-UP. I’ve found that especially in consulting and corporate (less so in finance), people are eager to talk to you and typically accessible. Ask them for FEEDBACK. Thank them for their TIME. Ask them to point you to others who have more expertise in a particular topic of interest to you (for example, if you’re really interested in non-profit consulting, ask them to point you to someone who could speak to that firm’s non-profit consulting opportunities). This keeps the interviewer engaged with you, and leaves an impression of someone who’s both interested and proactive. Two qualities that definitely HELP in landing a job.

12) Ask your interviewer to give you DETAILED FEEDBACK. Why? Because this feedback – both the pros/cons, strengths/weaknesses – will influence the style and content of your future interviews. If your first interviewer mentions that you had no problems with the fit/personality questions but really struggled with the market sizing calculations, you can bet that the second interviewer will focus on your quantitative chops.

Readers often ask whether you can ask for feedback if you don’t pass the first round. This is typically rare, unless you established a good connection with your first round interviewer. Why? The simple answer is time. There are too many first round interviews, and needing to provide feedback for each would require an enormous undertaking. This is why I highly recommend that you ask for some feedback right after the interview, while you’re still in the same room and the experience is fresh. 9 times out of 10, your interviewer will be happy to help.

13) Remember a few INTERESTING FACTS from your interview. Facts like the interviewer’s name, office, background. Facts like the conclusion of your particular case study, or the setup for a tricky brainteaser. Why? Because when you get your second round interview, it’s GREAT to bring up those facts with your interviewer. Not only is there a chance that they’ll know the first round interviewer, but discussing these things make you look sharper and more familiar with the firm. Establishing a connection with your interviewer OUTSIDE OF THE INTERVIEW ITSELF is a KEY DIFFERENTIATOR in helping you land the offer.

Thirsty for more? Get The Consulting Bible – our 92-page interview guide that helped consulting applicants land offers at BCG, Accenture, and McKinsey in a recession economy.

Click here to buy it now and start landing consulting jobs!

I’ve been offering a resume editing service since site launch. In this time, I’ve had the fortune to work with hundreds of clients.

Below is a list of the Top 11 consulting resume mistakes I’ve noticed in my clients. Some are corollaries of my Top 10 resume tips, but the majority are unique.

1. Inadequate spacing throughout the resume

You don’t want someone to say your resume is “too texty.” Readers will pay less attention – not good when you’re one of 200 in their review stack.

One effective remedy is effective line spacing. Shrink and expand lines as needed (by manipulating font size).

Some areas where spacing is critical:

• Between the category title (eg, “Work experience”) and the first experience (eg, “Citibank internship”)
• Between each experience within the category
• At the end of an experience and the beginning of a new category (this space should be larger than the first two)
• At the margins – as I’ve said before, nothing less than 0.5″ (vertical and horizontal)

Ignore it and your resume will be an eye-sore.

2. Lack of numbers

Numbers are the most eye-catching parts of your resume – SAT, GPA, quantitative impact at work and in extracurriculars.

Numbers help you do the following:

• Highlight resume “takeaways” – and trust me, you need at least 2-3 of these to get an interview
• Prevent your resume from suffering the “too texty” syndrome
• Help your resume become more results-oriented

Digital numbers are the right way to go. Instead of “five”, 5. Instead of “two hundred”, 200.

3. Lack of a personal interests and hobbies section

Self-explanatory – one line, make it specific, don’t put more than 3-5 interests.

4. Insignificant awards/scholarships/fellowships

Point 4 and Point 5 below fall into the umbrella of “too much content in the education section.”

Unless it’s a nationally recognized award/scholarship/fellowship, refrain from including it. If you do include, explain how selective it is. No one cares about the Sarah Day Jones Community Service Award that you received sophomore year. Unless there were 5,000 applicants and only one recipient.

5. Coursework lists

It’s great that you took “Systems Management.” Only:

1. No one knows what you learned
2. No one cares what you learned
3. No one will see how that applies to consulting

It’s OK to list challenging courses taken on your resume for consulting interviews (e.g., Advanced Econometrics 101, Differential Equations 202). But do so only if:

1. It’s clear what the course covers
2. What the course covers is very challenging/technical/quantitative
3. You don’t list more than 3-5 courses

Some of you include diverse course descriptions to showcase academic breadth. It’s not something I recommend, but it’s not a clear faux pas.

6. Describing what you did, not what you accomplished

I’ll repeat this over and over and over and over. Keep process explanations at a minimum.

Sometimes it’s necessary. Sometimes it’s helpful. But the balance for each work or extracurricular “clunk” should be at least 50% results.

To be clear, results can also mean innovative/challenging methods utilized. A process description would be:

Used Excel to collect data from 100 websites.

An innovative methods description would be:

Wrote VBasic macros in Excel to autocollect data from 100 financial websites.

7. Useless computer skills

Windows, Microsoft Office, Adobe, Mac OS, and a million other software programs and operating systems are not skills. Repeat, not skills.

The only time you should include a line on computer skills is:

1. You knew multiple programming languages
2. You knew graphics/design/technical software that less than 5% of the general population knows how to use well

8. Sentences and paragraphs

Never use sentences or paragraphs. This is a direct symptom of the “too texty” syndrome. Write in short, grammatically-correct fragments.

Rare is the description that requires a full sentence. Non-existent is the description that requires a full paragraph.

9. Using “Justify” alignment

Left alignment for content always. “Justify” alignment leads to irregular spacing, uncomfortable reading, and annoyed resume reviewers.

10. Using 2 words when 1 will do

Another symptom of the “too texty” syndrome.

“Planned and coordinated” a conference? “Led and managed” a team? “Completed and processed” 5,000 documents?

Bonus. Incorrect usage of tense

If you’re describing a past work experience, you “created” models and “wrote business plans.” You aren’t still “managing 5 employees” from that software firm you left 2 years ago.

Same rule applies for your extracurricular activities and educational background.

Want more dos and don’ts to help you avoid mistakes on your consulting resume? Check out our Consulting Resume and Cover Letter Bible – 98 power-packed pages including 24 templates to get you that interview slot with your target firm.

Click here to buy it now and start landing consulting jobs!

Most GMCs (global management consultancies) such as Booz Allen, BCG, and Accenture recruit at only the top 25-50 U.S. undergraduate and MBA programs. Internationally, the process is even more selective. So what can you do if you’re a strong candidate, but the firms you want to work for simply don’t recruit at your school?

Exceptions include large public universities, given the sheer size of their student body and alumni base, and schools with undergraduate business programs that have strong firm relationships

What can you do if you want to work for [INSERT FIRM HERE] and they don’t recruit at your MBA or undergraduate institution?

This is a disadvantage in the recruiting process. Given consulting firms’ lack of recruiting resources, alternative application methods (such as submitting your resume online) receive less attention and carry less weight.

Here are a few options that you can pursue:

• Online application submission – companies ranging from McKinsey to Deloitte & Touche provide this option
• Direct application submission through “Contact Us” links and public email addresses – this may be the only online option available at smaller boutique firms
• Headhunters and job placement firms – GloCap is a great example
• Application submission through firm contacts – friends, school alumni contacts, etc

Your goal if you can’t do “standard recruiting” is to build contacts within the firms and get internal referrals

Here’s what you should do:

Network, network, network. Reach out to school alumni contacts that work in the industry and at that firm. Reach out to current or former work colleagues that work in the industry themselves or are well-connected. Ask your family and your friends. Tell people about your goal, because the more people that know, the better chance you’ll have of being referred to HR contacts and current consultants

Think beyond your circle. If you’re an undergraduate, consider attending the MBA job fairs to establish contacts, get a few business cards, and even submit your resume. If you’re an MBA student, look into the law school job fair and/or job fairs for nearby MBA programs. While you’re not guaranteed success, you need to take risks given the limited options in front of you

Contact headhunters. Particularly if you have a few years of work experience. Headhunters have industry contacts and a broad view of available options. Be specific about your career goals, but not close-minded

Build relationships by being direct and specific. Now you know a recruiter in Bain’s Boston office. And you know a school alumni who’s a consultant in BCG’s Dallas office. Email them first – remind them of who you are, what your goals are, and the one or two areas where they can help. Keep the email short (no more than 5-10 lines of body text). Provide multiple contact channels. If you receive no response within one week, it’s OK to call and leave a brief voicemail.

What are areas where they can help you out?

• Provide you with the right internal recruiting contacts to submit your resume/CV
• Introduce you to firm contacts with shared interests, backgrounds, etc
• Answer your questions about the industry, the firm, etc

Never explicitly ask for an “internal referral” (a good word about you sent to HR/recruiters) unless you know them well. Work on establishing a relationship first. Keep them updated on the process (eg, “I just submitted my resume to Casey in recruiting and am looking forward to what’s next”). It’s OK to drop your contact’s name in your application materials/cover letter (if it’s done properly)

If all else fails, adjust your expectations and bide your time.

If you’ve tried the above and are getting nowhere, then option 1 is to find either the most prestigious alternative available (eg, finance, Fortune 500) or a position with another strategy/management consulting firm. Continue networking in the industry and attempt the parallel hiring process. Option 2 is to attend a school where the big firms recruit – if you’re an undergraduate, attend a top-tier MBA program. A master’s degree (or other advanced study program) is another option.

Happy 2009, readers! Thanks for being patient during the previous few days. I’m back and ready to continue helping people get a job in management consulting.

This is the first of my series on entering consulting from “non-business” backgrounds – future posts include entering from liberal arts/humanities degrees and non-MBA grad schools

It’s very common for engineers to be interested in consulting – a professionally demanding, well-compensated job which opens many doors in business and beyond.

Another popular field is finance. Read more on the differences between consulting and finance here

As an engineer – whether thats electrical engineering, computer science, civil engineering, or any of the other quantitative and analytical fields – you may have the following concerns:

• You don’t have enough business experience on your resume
• You don’t understand the consulting industry sufficiently
• Recruiters won’t give you a fair shot since they assume you have no people-skills – preferring numbers and analytics
• You don’t have any recruiting preparation – in particular, how to tackle consulting interviews and case studies

In this post, I’ll address each of the above concerns, discuss what strengths you should market and develop, and share tips that will serve you well during the management consulting recruiting process.

What options are available as an engineer?

• Global management consulting firms – increasingly quantitative, increasingly analytical, and some of them (eg, McKinsey) have a reputation for hiring engineers, particularly in regions that serve high-tech clients
• Boutique consulting firms – especially those with technology-focused industry specializations (eg, semiconductors, telecom)
• Technology consulting firms – firms such as Accenture and IBM Business Consulting provide technology-heavy support and solutions to clients

What are your strengths as an engineer?

• Quantitative/analytical skills – applicants that have strong analytical capabilities are at an advantage. These skills are helpful with modeling (financial, operational), statistical analysis, and just basic analytical reasoning
• Success in a “tough” undergraduate major – generally speaking, engineering majors are tougher to complete – there’s more work involved and the academic content is more complex. Having a strong GPA in an engineering major shows recruiters that you work hard to accomplish your goals

How do you mitigate perceived weaknesses as an engineer?

In the order listed above:

• Business experience – if you’re still in college, find business-related summer internships and part-time jobs during the school year (provided you can manage the workload). If you’re not, tailor your resume to focus on skills and experiences that consultants look for, such as people-leadership, quantitative impact, and entrepreneurial initiative
• Insufficient understanding of management consulting – its your responsibility to learn as much as you can. Check out Management Consulted; email me with questions; read the Vault Guide to Management Consulting; network with contacts in the industry
• Recruiting biases against engineers – you can counter this by focusing on the following: presentation skills (practice interviews as much as you can); have a strong story about why you want to enter the industry; show a clear understanding of business news and current events; highlight your people-skills and teamwork/leadership experiences in resume and interviews
• Insufficient recruiting preparation – like the second point, it’s dependent on the time and effort you invest; I offer a coaching service that you can look into; read this article and follow its advice

This is post #1 of my series on recruiting. Below, I’ll touch upon the main components of the consulting job search and what I believe are the key do’s and key don’ts. Feel free to post comments below or email me with any questions and followups. I want to thank my readers for making these first 2 weeks of blogging a very interesting time – blogging is a 2-way street where the writer learns as much as the readers.

I’ve also lined up my first “personalized consultations” (for one college student preparing for summer internships and one recent grad interested in switching industries) and will be posting updates on how these sessions go in the coming weeks

Now, on to RECRUITING. The key components are:

Note that each of these sections is worth a long post alone (similar to my first post, Management Consulting and the Consulting Industry 101). This is a Cliff Notes version for now

#1 Company presentations/mixers/information sessions

Far more common if you’re currently in school (undergraduate, MBA) where consulting firms ranging from Boston Consulting Group to Mercer HR to Kurt Salmon will swarm campuses, giving presentations, holding social mixers, etc in an effort to publicize their firm and identify “high-potential” candidates. Handling a company presentation is like, as a quick sports analogy, being the heavy favorite as a nationally ranked, Division 1 team in a game against an unranked, Division 2 team. In other words – there are 10,000 ways you can mess up, but very few ways to truly beat expectations.

Key Dos:
-dress sharp (refer to my Interview Tips page, tip #2)
-meet at least 3-4 consultants/recruiters present, ask for their business card, and FOLLOW-UP to ask for advice/interview tips

Key Don’ts:
-spend the entire time talking to your friends
-spend the entire time by the snack bar
-hand your resume to recruiters or consultants unless SPECIFICALLY ASKED
-ask 50 questions – people remember the ANNOYING APPLICANTS

#2 Application – resume + cover letter

This is where the wheat begins to be separated from the chaff. At this point, you’ve decided management consulting is a potential career path for you. You may not be 100% sold over other options (eg banking, accounting, corporate, etc) but are interested enough to invest significant time. There are many variations of how this process works: if you’re currently enrolled in school, there are typically resume submission periods followed by a selection process to determine who receives interviews. If you’re not in school (or your target firms do not recruit at your school), it typically means submitting your resume through internal friends, HR and recruiting contacts, or even in-person at job/career fairs and waiting indefinitely to hear back. Either way, a top notch resume will ALWAYS STAND OUT. Cover letters, on the other hand, present significantly more room for error and have limited upside.

Key Dos:
-build a consulting-ready resume (refer to my Resume Tips page)
-make sure you have the RIGHT FIRM, ADDRESS, ETC on your cover letter
-follow-up with recruiters if you haven’t received confirmation upon submission
-let contacts within firms know that you have applied – they can send a positive recommendation to recruiters if they are inclined to do so

Key Don’ts:
-send more than 1 email asking about the status of your application
-have more than 1 page for either your cover letter or your resume
-send additional materials (eg, portfolio work, letters of reference) unless SPECIFICALLY ASKED

At some point you may need to narrow your scope – I recommend submitting resumes/cover letters to as many firms as possible, but if you’re lucky enough to receive tens of interviews you should really consider which firms are best for you so you can focus on the ones that matter. This post on global management consulting firms versus boutique firms may help

#3 Interview (phone)

Self-explanatory. Phone interviews are usually fit-oriented, and if done are either because #1, the firm doesn’t have enough resources to immediately hold in-person interviews or #2, you’re a “borderline case” and they need additional information about you and your background to decide. The approach with phone interviews should be to focus on answer quality, and less on building interviewer rapport given the difficulties of doing that over the phone. Cover the bases below and you’ll do fine.

Note that not all consulting firms will have phone interviews. Some may skip directly to in-person interviews. Some may have several phone interviews before any in-person meetings

Key Dos:
-place the call in a QUIET AREA WITH GOOD RECEPTION, preferably a land-line
-ask for time if you need to collect your thoughts – but don’t take longer than 30 seconds
-have a notepad handy for technical questions
-ask for their email address to send a THANK YOU NOTE/FOLLOW-UP EMAIL

Key Don’ts:
-conduct the phone interview while on a train from Lumsford, New Mexico to El Paso, Texas
-be too casual – its easier to make this mistake on the phone – remember that it is a JOB INTERVIEW. No excessive laughing. Keep discussion of personal matters to a bare minimum unless directly asked

#4 Interview (in-person)

Also self-explanatory. If you’ve made it here, congratulations! They clearly think highly of what you’ve accomplished and now want to know you as a person – your communication skills, your on-the-spot thinking and analytical abilities, your presence and personality. This is truly the most difficult part, as I can guarantee that at this point you’re up against some very qualified candidates. To stand out, the keys in management consulting interviews are to really ACE THE CASE, have well-rehearsed but NATURAL RESPONSES to non-case questions, and be well-informed about current business news. Sounds simple, but takes many many many hours of solid preparation to make this happen.

There are two components to interviews (both phone and in-person) – the case study, and the fit/behavioral questions. I will dedicate separate posts to each, but the important thing to know is that the case study accounts for at least 50% (and usually more) of your final “score” in determining whether you get an offer

Key Dos:
-everything I wrote on my Interview Tips page

Key Don’ts:
-forgetting everything I wrote on my Interview Tips page

#5 The Waiting Period

Like #1 Company Presentations, there’s not much upside but you can do a lot to ruin your prospects. Be patient and focus on other priorities – and NEVER STOP LOOKING FOR OTHER JOBS.

Key Dos:
-wait patiently and if you have upcoming interviews, prepare for those
-if you have no response after 1 week of the “final interview”, send an email to the recruiter asking if they need anything more from you regarding your application; CC one or two consultants you interviewed with or talked to extensively in the process

Key Don’ts:
-assume you have an offer and stop the job search process
-send an email a day to recruiters/consultants at the firm inquiring about your status

#6 The Offer!

CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve done it. It’s extremely difficult to receive offers from management consulting firms – their scale is simply an order of magnitude smaller than financial service firms (as an example, McKinsey’s New York office, one of their largest, occupies about 10-15 floors of one skyscraper. Goldman Sachs in New York has 3 skyscrapers all to itself). Now is time for thorough due diligence and diplomatic negotiation if necessary regarding final terms, start date, etc. Again, congratulations on a job well-done and welcome to the challenging and wonderful world of strategy and management consulting.

Key Dos:
-thank them nicely for the offer
-send an email to firm contacts that you’ve met through the application process and thank them/notify them as well. Setup time to discuss the offer and ask questions of them
-gather as much information as you can from current and former employees, friends, books, etc
-ask your primary HR contact with any “administrative questions” eg salary, benefits, etc

Key Don’ts:
-accept the offer immediately unless you are 100% sure that’s the job for you
-ask non-HR contacts any “administrative questions” unless you know them well
-immediately negotiate details of your offer without fully informing yourself first. And as a general rule of thumb, don’t negotiate anything that won’t SIGNIFICANTLY change your decision or satisfaction in the job