How important is your attitude?

Hi! That's a very good question!

In my experience, attitude > competence (beyond a certain base level of competence that is required to be able to do the work).  

As a team leader, I chose attitude over competence. If they have great attitude, they will put in the effort to go from good to great. They will take feedback well and continuously learn, as well as positively contribute to the project and the team, making life easier for everyone.

The issue with someone competent who has bad attitude is that they might be very difficult to work with, might not take feedback well / continue to learn, so they might actually be detrimental to the team. 

Consulting is a relationship business, so your attitude plays a huge factor in your long-term success. However, hiring and performance decisions will be primarily based on your competency across dimensions of the consulting toolkit (e.g., problem-solving, communications, client management, etc.). 

Attitude rounds out your profile, helps you level up / spike in specific dimensions, and makes you a nicer human being to work with. It's an AND not OR for me.    

Hey there!

In consulting, attitude often weighs as heavily as competence, sometimes even more so. From my experience at McKinsey, BCG, and other firms, drive, curiosity, and willingness to learn are core values because consulting requires continuous adaptation, collaboration, and resilience under high pressure. While competence is crucial, firms often prefer someone with the right attitude (like Person B) who can grow into the role, as skills can be taught, but the mindset is harder to change. In many cases, a great attitude can be a differentiator that propels someone forward, even if they start out slightly less competent.

Best, Alessa 

it means everything. 

Hello there,

On paper, you can have a clear cut answer but in real life scenarios, it definitely isn’t as obvious if they both have the minimum level of competence and attitude required. 

The decision could depend on multiple factors such as seniority of those involved, complexity of the subject, importance of camaraderie over getting stuff done, etc.

Fathu

Hi there,

There are a lot of nuances to these types of questions as real life is never 0 or 1.

In general, attitude > competence up to a certain degree if the person also demonstrates that they are coachable + have potential to improve.

Hope that helps a bit!

Cheers,

Florian

Hi there,

if you are talking about a case interview scenario, person A is more likely to advance to the next round than person B.

If you are talking about on-the-job success, it really depends on the context and many other factors. You need to have a level of competence that allows you to meet expectations. If you stay below expectations, your won't last long - no matter how much you smile. 

The pace of career progression is often dependent on your relationship with senior decision makers in the firm. Do a lot of partners know your name? Are you very visible within the firm, driving extra-curricular activities? Do you have advocates within the management team who think highly of you? People to whom all this applies will likely be successful in the company environment, even if there might be "more competent" consultants in their cohort. It also really depends on how you define competence and how objectively this can be measured of course. So just take this as a directional statement.

Best

In coffee chats and interviews, you'll be graded across a number of criteria including the two you mentioned-- "attitude" (including teaming, curiosity, demonstrated ability/willingness to learn, etc.) and "competence" (which is broken down across a number of attributes, e.g. leadership, problem-solving abilities, etc.)

Hiring teams are certainly looking for people who spike in the "competence" categories. Firms need good people who will work well with case teams and with client teams, etc. You can demonstrate in your answers to behavioral questions and during the case interviews that you'll be a great team member, learner, etc.