Examples of a good interviewer question/topic asked to a Manager vs Principal vs Partner grade at an MBB interview?

With senior people, one question that I like to ask is what keeps them staying in the firm or the consulting industry for so long, given that they would have received many external offers along the road. I think I learn a lot about the company culture from those answers. And some of them were just surprisingly candid. 

Best,

Emily

Some helpful tips on what to ask interviewers - even the senior ones are as follows

1. Questions related to the role - examples here include asking how staffing decisions are made, how much ownership you can expect to have on your workstreams, what it takes to succeed etc.

2. Questions related to their profssional journey - what excited them about the firm, what got them there, what are some interesting problems they are working on

3. Questions on culture - for example, how does the firm promote diversity, is there a formal mentorship program to help newcomers succeed, how does the firm ensure its values are upheld

4. Questions on projects that interest you and is relevant to the interviewer - for example if you read something interesting where the interviewer had a critical role to play, express your interest and ask meaningful questions

Questions to avoid

1. Anything personal

2. The usual no-nos (salary, benefits, hours worked etc.)

3. Anything you can answer yourself via google search

4. Questions that are overtly negative - such as negative press

Hi A,

try this one "what is the project which is still makes you filling proud of"?

Best,

André

HI,

In most of the cases, you'll have no chance to research in profile. From what I've seen only Bain shares interviewers' names.

The main objective is to have a good conversation and highlight your intellectual capacity and curiosity. Thus:

It is ok to ask:

• Questions that cause positive emotions and highlight consulting pros (e.g. Mck people)
• Questions on the topics you are excited about (e.g. data science)
• Non-business questions (e.g. team retreats)

It's not ok to ask:

• Questions that can cause negative emotions (e.g. work hours)
• Information you should learn before the interview (e.g. typical career path)
• Questions that may show that you are unfamiliar with consulting work (Like are you specialized in strategy or operations?)

Be prepared and good luck!

Best

Hello!

I don´t agree, I think same "good" questions work for all kind of tenures. 

Try to use this time to empathise with them and learn about their carreers! Best thing is to get them to talk about what passionates them about their work, the industry they are specialized in, etc. 

Cheers,

Clara

Hi,
 

Questions about interviewer experience are always great, showing your curiosity in her motivation and expertise. If you have the chance to know before the name of the interviewer (you can ask it to HR the day before or discovering it in the waiting room), look at her LinkedIn profile to develope some tailored questions (e.g. about the MBA, the industry or practice specialization, etc.) 

I also recommend you not to make questions about the firm that you can easily find online or through friends/other candidates (e.g. clients of the office, projects, typical workday, international opportunities, client exposure, your role, numbers of the office, ...).


​Best,
Antonello

Hi Anonymous,

relevant questions at the end are a great way to show your interest in the company and get additional points, independently on the round. Ideally, your questions should respect the following criteria:

• Should not be related to something you could easily find online.
• Should not be related to the firm per se (eg how is XYZ in Bain), but to the experience of the consultant (How did you find XYZ in your experience as a consultant?). Ideally, you want the interviewer to feel important and/or share a positive experience. This is the easiest way to leave a final positive impression.
• Should help you to understand the core values of the company; this will help to understand if that company is a good fit for you and evaluate your options in case you have multiple offers (if you don't have fit with the company, your growth there will be a lot more difficult).

In the first reply in the following thread, you can find some more information and some examples of questions:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/open-house-at-bcg-311

Best,

Francesco

Honestly, this is an excellent opportunity to showcase yourself as a candidate.

It's much less about the answer you'll get and more about what you demonstrate about yourself in asking the question.

I always encourage people to ask a question that pairs 2 or more concepts together in a unique way, and then asks for the partners views. So, for example, if you know the Partner has experience in IT transformations and culture change, you can say "I've seen a lot in the past that companies either want to bring in a new IT system or they want to change their culture. I feel like a lot of these fail because they don't realise the two are interwrined and need to be considered in lockstep. Have you seen this in x industry as well? Do you have any views on how to fix this?"

Hello there,

Some insightful and critical questions to ask:

• Their professional journeys - what are the ups and downs? what made them stays? what is their original career aspiration and how it changes overtime?
• What do they personally like of the firm? - culture, ways of workings, the colleagues, job desk, client exposure, etc.
• What is their aspiration for the firm?
• What is their vision for future successors of firm's leaderships?
• How are they able to balance work with their lives? - whats's their hobbies? etc.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan