CV Screening Homepage + Corona Impact on Consulting Recruiting

Hi Joseph,

based on what my coachees shared, in some geographies hiring is already on-hold for MBB for some roles.

I would recommend you proceed as follows:

• Find connections for a referral for your application - they are even more important now!
• Investigate if in your target office they are hiring
• Apply for that office only if hiring is active, otherwise target a different office (if possible)

If you apply blindly at this stage without insider information, there is a chance you will be rejected or delayed to a further date, while you may have a chance to be interviewed for another office - don't make that mistake.

You can find more information on how to find referrals to verify that at the following link:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hey-everyonehope-all-is-well-3176

Hope this helps,
Francesco

Hi!

The recruiting has been already slowing down across all consulting companies – so, definitely there will be even less recruiting activities going forward. If you want to apply, it's a good idea to apply ASAP while there is still some recruiting going on.

Best,
Daniel

It's right now a 'wait an watch' approach. Since coronavirus is not related to an underlying economic issue like 2008 crisis was, if the pandemic dies down, recovery is expected to be pretty swift (e.g., look at China's rebound it is quite impressive). If it lingers for a while then there can be longer term impact on number of hires for 2020 and 2021 batch.

Regardless of the outcome the best thing you can do is prepare, do your best and satisfy yourself that no matter what the situation you tried your hardest.

Best,

Udayan

Hi Joseph,

COVID has a massive impact. Smaller companies have stopped recruiting while MBB and tier1 have digitzed the hiring but in the way slower fashion.

Try to get into the pipeline through referral asap!

If you need help, drop me a line.

Best,

André

Hi,
unfortunately, nobody now is able to predict the precise effects on each business. The 2 true facts today are that interviews are taking place regularly but online instead than face to face, and that many new consulting projects are being paused. Therefore if this lockdown continues for long it can cause a shrinking in new hires.

Best,
​Antonello

Hello Joseph!

It´s very difficult to predict... What seems clear by now is that this is truly harming economy, and in the next weeks we will see whether we are heading to a global economic recession.

If this is the case, and we indeed face a global recession -even if not as hard as the previous one-, this will have an impact in consulting. Why? Simply because there would be less clients, less engagements with the usual clients, and an overall freeze in spending.

This, for sure, will impact recruiting, reducing the classes of BAs and Associates for a couple of years. We have already seen a slowdonw in interviews, etc. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hello,

So far consulting most of the companies are trying to move forward with the hiring process that were already started using the videocalls.
Anyway, even if a global crysis doesn't mean that you don't have projects (think about cost cutting or restructuring process and about all business plans that have to be reviewd) it's likely that they will slow down (but not freeze) the recruitments until they won't understand what is the real impact of the corona virus.
Before applying I would suggest to contact a person from the office (an HR or a consultant) to ask if they have stopped the recruiting process. If you don't have this possibility I would suggest to apply anyway, the only risk is to be added to the pipeline. Waiting will not increase your chances to get an interview, since the effects of the COVID will last for at least some months and the pipeline of candidates will be huge after these months qithout interviews.

Best,
Luca

Hi Joseph,

What I see currently going on (specifically talking about McKinsey) is that many projects are slowing down and travel is reduced to the absolute bare minimum possible (also clients don't necessarily want personal meetings with consultants at the moment..).

At the same time, some (few) projects even increase working remotely, but the total trend in this phase of high uncertainty is definitely pointing downwards.

Since recruiting activities are driven by project, for sure there will be an impact but for now we are all driving with very limited visibility.

Will they stop recruiting at all? For now I don't think so, but it depends on some facts that nobody can yet foresee!

Will the bar raise (because of potentially lower client demand and high supply on HR market)? Yes, I think so.

Hope that helps - if so, please give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

Hi Joseph,

No one knows. But many consulting companies stopped hiring new employees. Some of the companies still hire, but not at the same amount as before.  

The best way is to take a referral and have a strong application, it will help you to get into consulting in this pandemic period.

Do you need any further help? 

All the best, 

GB