What questions to ask at end of an interview?

Hi,

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, getting industry knowledge, becoming an expert in something, building a great network, etc)
• Questions on the topics you are excited about (e.g. data science, digital, etc)
• Topics related to the industry in which the interviewer specializes (hint: think of the most common industries in the particular office, go to the company's website and read the recent articles about these industries to come up with the good questions)
• Non-business questions (e.g. team retreats, office traditions and celebrations)

It's not ok to ask:

• Questions that can cause negative emotions (e.g. work hours, most difficult project, etc) - you don't want to finish on a negative note, right?
• The information you should learn before the interview (e.g. typical career path, etc)
• Questions that may show that you are unfamiliar with consulting work ("Will I be able to work specifically on strategic projects?")

Be prepared and good luck!

Ask about them

People love to talk about themselves. Just ask them what they've worked on recently or what their journey at BCG has been like. Importantly, do your research beforehand - find out what they've done and try and pick something from their past that looks interesting to you. Tailor your questions just like they tailor their FIT questions to your resume."So, how did you end up in the Industrial Goods sector?" 

 Ask insightful questions

Ideally, your questions should also show them that you're insightful, inquisitive, bright, thinking about current topics, etc. For example:

"I saw you worked on a big digital transformation for a financial services company - I experienced one myself and it seemed so hard to move such a big organisation. What did you see as the major challenges and breakthrough moments?"

"I know that x big trend is happening. I also know that y types of companies exhibit z traits. How do you reconcile this difference when ensuring y companies adopt x trends?

Summary: Ask about THEM and ask insightful questions!

Hi there,

good questions at the end should include the following:

1. Should not be related to something you could easily find online.
2. 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.
3. 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

Like Vai mentioned, there have been a lot of discussions on this in the past on this Q&A panel. Do take a look at those. 

In short, it would never go wrong if you ask about: company culture, interviewer's experience in the firm, development opportunities (but don't ask very obvious questions that you can just google). 

Best,

Emily

Dear A,

Ideally, there are questions hat could show your intrinsic interest in the company, person, or both ideally. So one of the greatest question could be for example the following:

"Now, look at your career XX long, what is the one project assignment, by looking back, makes you very proud of accomplishing smth great?"

Hope it helps,


Good luck,

André

Actually this question has already been discussed quite extensively in these forums. You can look for some suggestions here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/best-questions-to-ask-at-the-end-of-interview-2035

Cheers,

Hello!

Try to use this time to connect better with the interviewer. 

Hence, ask for their experience, the practice/industry they work for, etc. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara