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

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. In every intake of 7 clients / coach, we take in 1 candidate who does not have as strong credentials on paper and usually lives in a developing economy. They may have graduated from domestic schools, have poor access to MBB, weaker grades in a few cases and even weaker GMAT scores. If we believe candidates have outstanding potential but are limited by their circumstances, we will admit them to the program to help place them. This group of candidates has a ~75% placement rate and is among our best performing group. We do however adjust the program to cater to their unique skills gaps and their development takes place over a much longer preparation period. Some of the most outstanding Firmsconsulting alums belong in this group.

14 Maj 201415min

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. ~10% of all clients have non-quantitative degrees such as literature, history, the arts etc. This is one of the most successful clients groups because we have the ability to teach all the skills required from a zero-base. That said, clients in this group typically take longer than normal and usually work with us for a minimum of 3 months before the interview.

8 Maj 20148min

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Consultants: ~15% of all clients are consultants typically looking to move from Deloitte, Accenture etc. ~30% of this group are ex-MBB consultants who are trying to rejoin the firm in other parts of the world, or a consultant within MBB trying to move within this group to another firm. We treat both groups differently since their development areas tend to be very different.

2 Maj 201412min

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Lawyers: ~10% of our client base are associate lawyers or graduates of law programs. This is a successful group yet our focus is heavy on teaching basic business principles and techniques. We use our own strategy libraries and finance courses to prepare law students with the foundation skills to tackle cases.

26 Apr 201410min

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Undergraduate clients constitute ~14% of our clients at any one time. Our youngest client in this group was 18 when she joined. A key feature of our training for this client group is helping them understand the real-world implications of consulting cases, by explaining our own engagement experience. Undergraduate students tend to be weaker at brainstorming and hypotheses development which becomes a focus for this group.

20 Apr 20145min

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Approximately 15% of our clients at any one time are PhD candidates. The training program is designed to teach PhD's skills for the team-based cases, handling estimation questions, brainstorming and full cases. Networking is another area we spend much time grooming PhD clients to handle.

14 Apr 201410min

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Experienced hires will have the longest training program, due to the longer networking cycles. Approximately 15% of our clients are experienced hires and they work with us for between 3 to 8 months. This is a broad group including entrepreneurs, graduates with a few months experience to senior executives in Fortune 500 corporations. Our oldest client is in this group was 45 with 15 years of experience in banking. Cases tend to be heavily focused around office choices and sector specialization like BTO. Though this does not apply to younger experienced hires whom we will position as generalists.

8 Apr 201411min

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Female candidates: We admit no less than 50% of female candidates per month's intake. This is a Firmsconsulting decision to improve the placement rate of female candidates. We apply the same screening standards as that applied for all applicants while having a broader screening pool. Our training for female clients is tailored to cater for the obstacles/challenges females consultants will encounter.

2 Apr 201411min