Tell me about the three classes that have best prepared you for a successful career in consulting.

As is typical with interview questions, there is a wide range of good answers to this question, and your response will obviously be based on your academic focus. Just as you do with your work experiences, think about what your class work has taught you. An effective answer will not only demonstrate that you have paid attention in class, but also that you understand the key skills required for consulting.

Interviewee: Thanks for asking this question. On the surface, it may not be apparent why a history major would be interested in or equipped for consulting, but there are several classes that have helped prepare me for this job.

The interviewee does a nice job of deflecting a potential “gap” in his resume (his major). If you feel that your academic focus is not directly related to the job, you will need to do two things: 1) find a way to relate it; and 2) make sure that the interviewer hears your story, even if she does not ask you about this issue directly.

Interviewee: First, I took a course last year in basic accounting. The course taught me the essentials of accounting, but did not just focus on a strict definition of accounting such as T-accounts and debits and credits. Rather, it focused on all three financial statements and the interplay between them. I learned a lot about how to read and interpret income statements, cash flows, and balance sheets. And, because a lot of the class was taught using a “case” format, we were exposed to a lot of real life examples.

Interviewer: What do you think is the most important financial statement?

Yikes! If you mention a class, make sure that you can speak intelligently about it.

Interviewee: Well, that’s going to depend a lot on the question you’re trying to answer. If you’re interested in growth rates and share vs competition, then the income statement is probably going to be most relevant. However, if you want to know about a company’s ability to afford an acquisition, then the balance sheet is where you’re going to look.

This is a good (and correct) answer. The use of examples is clear and straightforward.

Interviewee: These skills are going to be useful in consulting. I will need to know my way around financial statements, as I mentioned, to do competitive analysis, understand company performance, and identify key areas of focus (for example, R&D).

Interviewer: OK. What about your second class?

Interviewee: This one may appear a little less relevant on the surface, but I think that the seminar I took last spring that focused on U.S. health care policy taught me lessons that I can bring into consulting. The goal of the class was to end the semester with one unified point of view on what our policy should be. There were 15 people in the class, and we brainstormed 15 different topics that we hoped would cover the health care landscape. Each person was asked to write a paper on one of the topics. I wrote about the programs in other developed nations and tried to identify the lessons that the U.S. could learn from these. Everyone presented his or her work to the group and then we spent several weeks discussing what our integrated recommendations should be. The process appears to me very similar to consulting—we had a problem that we needed to solve, we broke it down into manageable pieces, went off and did some work, came back and discussed the work, and then emerged with some suggestions. I liked this process a lot because of the teamwork involved and the ability to work together to identify solutions to a tough problem.

Fantastic—if you’re fortunate enough to have had a class like this. But if you haven’t, make sure that you discuss experiences where you’ve been part of a successful team. In consulting, your ability to work as part of a team is almost as important as your raw analytical skills.

Interviewer: Sounds like a great class. I’d love to hear about your recommendations at some point down the line. What about another class?

Interviewee: Well, there are two other classes that I think had some direct relevance to consulting. I took a class called “Introduction to Quantitative Analysis,” which focused on basic research and analytical methods—regressions, decision trees, some econometrics, etc. I did fairly well in the class, and feel that I can at least speak somewhat intelligently about these topics now.

The candidate does a nice job here of being modest. He knows that he did well, but allows the interviewer to check his transcript should she be so inclined.

Interviewee: The final class—which I loved—was on the history of the retail business in America. There are a lot of lessons that could probably be applied in other industries, but what I liked most about it were some of the anecdotes, such as what the shopping mall did to the social behavior of families, how jeans became so popular, etc. I’ve heard that consultants spend a lot of time at team dinners or waiting for flights, so maybe I could fill up some of the time with these stories.

This is a potentially risky answer it may be interpreted as too jocular. But it works in this context because the interviewee did such a nice job of relating his accounting, seminar, and quantitative analysis classes to consulting life. And, if it’s part of your personality to be a little lighthearted, you may want to see how the interviewer responds; remember, you are going to be spending a lot of time with these people, so you need to like them!

Source: WetFeet