Partner interview style - to pause or not to pause?

Hi there,

final partner interviews vary depending on company, region, office and the individual partner of course. However, it is not uncommon that partners won't go through a case exercise with the candidate again but rather test their suitability in terms of business competence, team fit and perceived presentability to clients. I think the general rule is that the more you can make it feel like a discussion, the better the flow and the perception. Depending on the setup, you might also just be asked to conceptually brainstorm without having to come up with a written approach. Here it is important to read the room and not tackle every question in an automated fashion like a machine. However, if it ends up being a “typical” case format, then it is fine to take a few moments of silence to structure your thoughts before you give an answer.

At the partner stage, candidates will have gone through a series of successful case interviews already though. Partners still need to “validate” this pre-selection. While some might like to do brain teasers or small cases as stated above, they also tend to favor talking about the industry/functional area they are active in. They try to see how the candidate is able to engage with those topics and often even try to sell the candidate on the firm during the final round.

When preparing for such interviews, it makes sense to research the interview partners up front (if their names are provided) and check what recent publications and/or conference contributions they might have. It is also good to know about the main trends and drivers in their respective industry/functional areas.

Hope that provides additional perspective.

OK, I might be in a minority here, but I would find it very weird to actually pause, say nothing and then come up with some ultra-structured approach. 

If I were the interviewer, I would want to see whether the candidate can think on his / her feet and doesn't fall into "analysis paralysis" if a client throws you a curveball and asks an unexpected question. 

So I would try to keep the conversation going, play for time a little bit and all the while trying to structure my thoughts. So applied to the specific question: "so what do you think is the impact of driverless cars?" my answer would be something like: 

"Oh wow, that's a BIG question.  Lots of places to start from." (Playing for time here but keeping the conversation going)

"I mean, there are the obvious 'first order effects' on the automotive value chain, the OEMs, the tier-1 and 2 suppliers, on urban transport, how people travel and commute. And then, of course, there will be completely new business models emerging, around transportation as a service for example." (showing that you have done your homework AND laying a trail of breadcrumbs for the interviewer to follow - you obviously only mention things you feel comfortable talking about)

"Beyond these first order effects there are a ton of less visible, but often very large, 'second order effects'. Take insurance, for example. Driver-less cars will have a lot fewer accidents, which in turn leads to much lower insurance premiums. So the car insurance industry will most likely contract" (show that you can structure and lay more bread crumbs) 

"And then, if we look beyond the purely economic effects, we have a whole lot of ethical and societal questions to solve. I mean we've all heard these examples of the driver-less car needing to make choices between killing the driver or killing the pedestrian. And while these seem made-up and theoretical, it's just the law of large numbers that these things will happen at some point". (show that your horizon is broader than what business school taught you)  

[PAUSE and wait for a queue on where to dive in. Pausing here will give the interviewer the chance to consider your answer and lead the conversation further. It will give you time to structure your thoughts, no matter what happens next. 

RESIST the urge to keep talking to fill any silence that might occur. Really wait a few seconds, maybe 3-5. Many people, including partners in consulting firms, have a very hard time tolerating silence in a conversation for more than 1-2 seconds. Chances are, they are better at this game than you. if this happens and they wait it out, you can continue after a few seconds. In this case, you proceed from the top down.

But maybe, just maybe, your silence forces their hand and they give you a signal like "you mentioned insurance / urban transport / tier-1 suppliers. What do you see happening there?"

--> This is the breadcrumb trail at work. Go for that!

If they don't fall for that or just ask you to continue, you proceed from the top down, as mentioned.]

"As I mentioned, the automotive value will be impacted strongly by the move to driverless cars. For the OEMs, this means building entirely new capabilities, especially around software development and Machine-learning based technologies. They are obviously facing very different customer demands. Once we move to driver-less, transportation-as-a-service will really take off, like UBER on steroids. Once that happens, the demands of fleet operators operating fleets of driverless cars around maintenance, modularity etc. will be very relevant for OEMs, maybe even more relevant than end-user demands. And these changes will, of course, trickle down through the supplier value chain to the tier-1 and tier-2 suppliers,"

[And so on, and so on...]  

I found that with this approach you can have a spirited, very convincing conversation with even only the most superficial grasp of what you're actually talking about. You can apply this approach to any industry where can do a bit more than spell its name. Try questions like

"What effect will AI have on the mining industry?"

"What do you think about over-the-top services like Netflix or youtube. How do they impact the entertainment value chain?"

And many more...

Hi,

Always take a minute to structure your thoughts and come up with a structure.

• It's not OK to take 30 seconds and then come up with just 1 or 2 ideas. And then if the ideas are not correct to keep the science again. This is called "Guessing"
• It's OK to take 30 seconds, draw a new structure (or continuation of your previous structure) and come up with a structured way to approach the problem further.

Best,

Vlad

Remember, we do not really ask you to crack the case (or find THE answer). What we ask you is to showcase a structured & MECE approach that will allow you to crack the case today and tomorrow and the day after. Actually cracking the case is just a byproduct. 

As a result, you should always ask for some time to think through the question and come back with a plan, a framework.

I would always recommend to gather your thoughts. The partner interview is an opportunity for the partner to gauge your maturity and potential to be sent to a client. So ask yourself: what would I do if there was a client sitting there?

Surely you would hardly blurt out the first thing that comes to your mind. At the same time, you would not draw a structure for a minute for every question that the client would ask. 

If the question is touching on something complicated you could start sketching like a "three points here" graph. But in any case, I'd always take my time, since anything else tends to come out really unstructured.

Always ask if it is ok to take a moment to structure your thoughts. The worst case scenario is that they tell you "no, just talk me through your thoughts", in which case you are in the same situation you would have been if you hadn't paused.

In cases where you can't take a formal break, you should still be structuring - just out loud. To do this, think of categories/buckets, before diving into ideas. As Guennael said, consulting firms are looking for structured candidates, so it's important to be structured in all your answers - including brain storms and behavourial questions.

Hello!

Congrats for moving to final round!

As it has been outlined, its very similar, but :

• Cases you can expect are more "free riding" - less organized than the ones your found in the 1st round or most prep pages
• Stronger emphasis in the FIT part, as outlined before by other coaches.

If you are interested in deepening your knowledge and preparation on the FIT part, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB" has been recently published in PrepLounge´s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34)

It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Furthermore, you can find 3 free cases in the PrepL case regarding FIT preparation: 

- Intro and CV questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/introduction-and-cv-questions-fit-interview-preparation-200

- Motivational questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/motivational-questions-fit-interview-preparation-201

- Behavioural questions (ENTREPRENEURIAL DRIVE) >https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/behavioral-questions-entrepreneurial-drive-fit-interview-preparation-211

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the Integrated FIT Guide, since we still have some left from the launch!