539: A strategy to navigate a paradox (with Wendy Smith)

This podcast provides some behind the scenes numbers about MBA program in the Great White North, as well as some tough questions candidates should ask themselves before applying. The headline is that the traditional power-house schools like Ivey and McGill have essentially fallen dramatically behind and largely rely on their alumni success versus any real weight in the current placement numbers.

12 Nov 201118min

This podcast looks at the profile of an older MBA candidate who has extensive oil and gas expertise. We offer some counter-intuitive advice to this candidate for their career and planning. While we use an oil and gas profile, this advice is relevant to any experienced hire and we caution candidates to think very carefully about the quality of their backgrounds when applying this advice to their own needs. The quality is what matters - not the time spent in a sector.

6 Nov 201110min

This podcast presents some proven strategies candidates can apply this summer. We will discuss actual internship examples from our own experiences in consulting firms, and the characteristics of the successful candidates. In particular, I will discuss of the very earliest interns I had the opportunity to hire as a principal and discuss their widely diverging careers, largely built of their internship performance.

31 Okt 201124min

Too many aspiring consultants stick too closely to the feedback provided by consulting firms after an interview. The problem with this strategy is that it assumes the feedback is truthful, useful and even designed to help you. This podcast explains how you need to go about critically evaluating the feedback you use, what to use and what to discard. This is an important podcast lest you end up chasing fictitious development areas.

25 Okt 201115min

In this podcast we extract the most important mistakes, best-practices and lessons learned from our clients who interviewed and are still interviewing through the January 2012 US MBA internships.

19 Okt 201128min

Far too many candidates think public sector work is boring. In fact, just the opposite is true. Public sector work typically falls into 4 categories: national government, regional government, state-owned-enterprises and state initiatives. This podcast focuses on national government and state-owned-enterprises, and we want to show you that these engagements are among the most eminent, significant, challenging and career enhancing. We will discuss specific engagements (scrubbed for detail) and why they are in many ways more exciting than private sector projects.

13 Okt 201123min

We have responded to the bolded out part of the question below: "As a person from a big emerging market interested in the long term career in my region, I am thinking about which strategy makes more sense for a person like me: 1) start at BBM in his own country 2) start at BBM in the US, transferring after some time back to his country (to BBM or directly to industry). I can think of the following pros of the first option: a) better chances for success at BBM due to the absence of cultural barriers, higher growth of BBM in that country b) better exit opportunities c) the earlier opportunity to start building professional network in that country d) better experience at BBM due to higher chance of being staffed on "crown-jewel" clients. Pros of the second option: a) the prestige of the US experience b) better training c) better experience due to exposure to the American companies which on average are higher quality organizations than emerging market companies. I think many people would be interested in your opinion on this topic, Michael. A related dilemma that some of my friends have is making a choice between BBM in their home country and Deloitte/PWC in the US. What is better for them assuming they would like to be in their home country in 5-7 years?"

7 Okt 20119min

We have responded to the bolded out part of the question below: "As a person from a big emerging market interested in the long term career in my region, I am thinking about which strategy makes more sense for a person like me: 1) start at BBM in his own country 2) start at BBM in the US, transferring after some time back to his country (to BBM or directly to industry). I can think of the following pros of the first option: a) better chances for success at BBM due to the absence of cultural barriers, higher growth of BBM in that country b) better exit opportunities c) the earlier opportunity to start building professional network in that country d) better experience at BBM due to higher chance of being staffed on "crown-jewel" clients. Pros of the second option: a) the prestige of the US experience b) better training c) better experience due to exposure to the American companies which on average are higher quality organizations than emerging market companies. I think many people would be interested in your opinion on this topic, Michael. A related dilemma that some of my friends have is making a choice between BBM in their home country and Deloitte/PWC in the US. What is better for them assuming they would like to be in their home country in 5-7 years?" McKinsey USA or McKinsey EM

1 Okt 201116min