CQConsulTalks:-Aditi Kambli:-EY-Parthenon

Yeah, Sure Pradipti.

I did not sit for the conventional placement season in December, rather I sat for all the Consult companies that have their procedures in the month of August. The process starts from July end and goes on until the first week of August. Three companies come to campus for Consult in July-Aug, Parthenon EY, McKinsey and BCG (Boston Consulting Group). L.E.K Consult also looks to come, but nowadays, it takes people for interns and provides them with PPOs, rather than coming for placements; it did not come for the placement season this year. However, in the month of Oct-Nov, you have Dalberg, which is a social consultancy firm coming to the campus.

I was placed in Parthenon EY, and the interview process of Parthenon was as follows- Initially, they do a CV shortlisting, where they have their portal, and we need to submit our CV there. On the basis of that, they shortlist around 20–23 people. They basically look for academic excellence in your CV, a good internship, a good PoR and extracurricular activities as well ( They can be in the form of different competitions, or you are very active on social ventures or involved with an NGO etc.). Also, something like research papers or conferences becomes a plus point. After the CV ShortListing round, we were assigned buddies, who carried out an improvement session and helped us in understanding how the further rounds would be. So after the buddy session, you have interview rounds, which are telephonic or skype interviews, after which 7–8 people out of the 20–23 people will be shortlisted, who are called to the company’s office and then there are interviews taken by the Senior Consultant, VPs (Vice-President) and Partners of the company. As in my case, there were four interview rounds, the first and the second ones were with a Senior Consultant, the third was with a VP and the fourth one was with a Partner. Following which, I got my placement offer.

For the first three interview rounds, they made me do a case, and after we were done with the case, they discussed my CV. Also, if a person has some expertise in a field that you’ve worked in too, he might ask questions about it as well, but then mostly there are general questions. However for the partner round, it was more of an interaction, they asked me questions about my CV, and also questions like Why I wanted to join the company? And what were my long-term goals? Where do I see myself in five years? are some common questions. Questions like What were your major databases? What was the scalability of the project? Can it be implemented on a larger scale or not? were some of the questions that were asked me, based on the projects that I’d done and they might vary from person to person, hence it is important for you to be prepared to answer them. Apart from questions from the CV, they also ask some basic questions like Why this company? Or why this particular profile? Why this role? Why do you want to get into consulting at all? What do you know about Consulting? so that is something you should be prepared with. Basically, they just want to know how good you are a fit in that particular company.

There were no separate HR or Technical rounds. But however, if you have worked on some project involving AI/ML or anything technical, the interviewer can also ask those kinds of questions, so you need to be ready to face such questions. However, you can also have Math intensive cases sometimes.

Very limited number of firms come for Consult placements to KGP. Out of the 1300 people, only 2–3 people are hired per company, so there is very intense competition. And because the first round is CV shortlisting, so, people who are highly inclined towards taking up such a profile should focus on making their CV/ Résumé really well. Generally, the CDC template we have and the Consulting Profile CV are a little different. And therefore, you need to make two different CVs for this. It is important for them to talk to a lot of seniors, and contact them, to get their CV verified and checked. Additionally, they can also contact seniors to ask them for their preparation. They should be able to present whatever they have done till now in an excellent way so that they get shortlisted. Also, they should do some preliminary research on the company because when they go for the further rounds of the interview, that will help them. Forming a good case group, and practising a lot of cases, and building good business acumen and focussing on your soft skills is really important. The way you solve a case, the way you keep other people informed, and how you go about solving the entire case-solving process is really important. Since Consulting is a client-based profile, you will have to be good at all of these.

The general material that most people follow is to watch Victor Cheng’s videos for case framework on YouTube and I would suggest they also watch Victor Cheng’s LOMS (look over my shoulder) which are basically recorded cases, where he is interviewing a candidate and he also gives some insights. CIC Case Interview Crack which is a Case Prep book of IIT Bombay and Day 1.0 which is the Case Prep book of IIT Madras are the two most essential and basic books required for preparation of cases. Apart from these, there are case books of IIM A and IIT K, which can also be used for preparation of cases. And you are also required to practice guesstimates. The best way to practice guesstimates is to catch hold of your friends and just engage them in a conversation that involves preparing guesstimates. In working out guesstimates, your approach is the one that is more important than the final answer.

Be confident about whatever you’ve done till now, and try to present that in a good way, these two things are really important. Also, practice a good number of cases, be thorough with the framework and develop your business acumen. One thing that people should avoid is to mug-up the cases or the framework, rather they should try to have their own way of solving a case. That is very important, and that comes only with practice, the more number of cases you solve, the better you get at it.