Some Useful Tags:
Choosing Target Profile, Preparing Yourself, Consult Prep, Non Core Prep, Interview Experience, Strategy&, A.T Kearny

Profile at a Glance:

My target sectors were consulting and finance.

Choosing your Target Profile

This should be the most important aspect of your placement preparation. However, the efforts that are put in to deciding this have never been at par with what they should be. (This is my own personal opinion shaped by what I observed in people around me. Reality could be diametric to this 😛). This is nothing more than a match making step in a crude sense.

1. Decide what are the parameters your choice of profile would depend on (in my case it was short term goals and my skill set)
2. Write down the “values” for those parameters.(in my case, what are my short term goals & what is my skill set)
3. Now, make a list of those profiles you feel could be a match and then write down in detail what each of them have to offer.
   Each of the above steps will require you to put in a lot of efforts. Speak to people, seniors currently working in those industries, your friends and finally with some bit of introspection, you’ll be able to decide on what should be your target profile.
   With this match making, you’re done with the crucial initial step. (Well begun is half done,right ?)

Preparing Yourself

The preparation required varies from profile to profile, however the following major things are important for most of the non-core profiles.

1. Resume – Make sure you have the first draft of your resume ready at least two weeks prior to the deadline and you get it reviewed by multiple people preferably those who could make it to companies you target. It’s of utmost importance to be truthful in your resume and make sure before the interviews you are thorough with each and every point mentioned on your resume. You should be prepared to speak for 5-10 mins on any point on your resume. Do mock interviews with your friends to help you prepare better.
2. Tests – The non core companies usually ask only aptitude tests which only questions on basic arithmetic and logical reasoning. If you’re preparing for CAT as well, then the study material provided by T.I.M.E. should suffice.
3. Interviews – All companies have two types of interviews : profile specific and HR. (Some might have only HR). I prepared majorly for the consulting interviews.

Consult Interview Preparation:

Consulting companies majorly ask cases in their interviews to test the ability of the candidate to structure complicated problems and judge their business acumen as well. Preparation for case interviews can’t be done alone and it’s advised that you form a group of 3-4 friends with whom you can practice cases. You can form multiple groups as well which allows you multiple viewpoints and also you won’t have to read too many cases for your friends. September is the ideal time to start case prep. In the initial few weeks, stick to the standard resources and make sure you are comfortable with the basics.
Once the shortlists are out, companies allot you ‘buddies’ who are working with the firm and their job is to help you with the preparation. Make sure you take this buddy program seriously and utilize the feedback given by your buddies. For some firms, the buddy program might be evaluative as well.

Finance and other Non-Core :

Case prep does help for non core profiles other than consulting. It’s good to practice 4-5 guesstimates every week starting mid- August. Apart from cases, puzzles are also asked in most of the interviews. I followed a couple of standard puzzle books to prepare them. You can also search for the puzzles online and practice. Make sure you’re solving 2-3 puzzles everyday.
A lot of interviewers also love to ask questions on current affairs(specially the case with finance interviews) as these are a metric to judge the candidate’s enthusiasm for the relevant industry.
Make it a point to read the newspapers (Economic Times/Mint preferred) everyday. Also, do read up in detail about the major events that have had an impact on the industry you’ll applying for. For example, in finance events like global recession, economic crisis in Greece etc are important to know about in detail.

Interview Experience

I did not practice cases in the week before the interviews. However, this depends entirely on yourself and there’s no correct way to deal with this. The last week is only for yourself to calm down,relax and make sure you are able to deliver your 100% during the final interviews.
I was shortlisted in three firms in the first slot of day 1.

1. L.E.K.
2. A.T. Kearney, and
3. Strategy&

I managed to interview only with ATK (3 rounds) and Strategy& (3 rounds). Usually, with multiple shortlists, you’ll have interviews clashing and it will be your call to decide where you wish to interview. In most cases this depends on which company you want to work with and how your previous interviews have been with that particular firm.

Strategy&

My first round involved a short case on market growth and was majorly focused on HR. The interviewer dug really deep into my resume and grilled me a lot on a couple of points.

In the second round, we had a discussion on the consulting industry and the interviewer very enthusiastically talked about how the industry is expanding in India. I guess the purpose of this discussion was to test my enthusiasm for consulting. The final round was a short conversation after which I was given the offer.

A.T. Kearney

The first round centered around a case where I had to find out the reason for the declining profits of a canteen in IIT-B campus. The case went pretty smooth and the interviewer seemed happy with my approach of tackling the case.

The second round was also a case where in I had to find the reason behind declining sales of sweet shops in Bhopal.

The final round was a short conversation with the partner wherein he asked some questions on my resume, my interests and so on.

Broadly for all consulting firms, the interviews are very similar and they involve 20-25 mins of case solving and 10 mins of HR type questions. In many instances, interviewers also have made cases out of the candidate’s resume. Therefore, I would reiterate , you need to be thorough with each and every point on your resume.