Consultant Interview Questions
Although there is no set list, businesses are quite clear about qualities they like to see demonstrated by their employees and applicants. Generally, a consultant interviewer is looking for evidence of confidence, communication skills, your ability to gain a client's trust, overall leadership skills and knowledge of your subject matter, to name a few. There are generally two types of consulting interview questions: fit, which is designed to find out about your personal experience, motivation and soft skills; and case, which is designed to assess your analytical consulting skills.
Top Consultant Interview Questions & How To Answer
Here are the three top consultant interview questions and tips on how to answer them:
Question No. 1: Why do you want to work for this firm?
How to answer: This question is asked to reveal your motivation for choosing a specific organisation and to test your knowledge of the industry. Research the firm you are interviewing with and make sure you highlight some of your key points of interest. Additionally, mention any ways in which the company's values align with your own.
Question No. 2: Give an example of a time when you lead a team.
How to answer: To answer this question, choose an experience in which you made a meaningful impact while managing or working with others. Provide context regarding the situation and objective, describe your leadership role, what actions you took, the outcome of those actions and what you learned about yourself during the process.
Question No. 3: How would you help a local cafe recover from a sharp profitability decline?
How to answer: Breaking down complex business problems is one of the hallmarks of consulting. For questions like this, there is no universal framework, so you will have to create your own. Ask questions; define the problem clearly; create Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive (MECE) categories; show how you would analyse each category; and define your next steps.
If you were a brand, what would be your motto?
57 Answers↳
Be You. Everyone else is taken.
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Take the right path, not the easy path.
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"Do what's right"
You have a bouquet of flowers. All but two are roses, all but two are daisies, and all but two are tulips. How many flowers do you have?
44 Answers↳
3 flowers - 1 rose, 1 daisy and 1 tulip
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The solution is quite simple, if you start with the “All but 2” first: Roses = All but 2 = Two flowers are not a rose; one tulip, one daisy Daisies = All but 2 = Two flowers are not a daisy; one rose, one tulip Tulips = All but 2 = Two flowers are not a tulip; one rose, one daisy Answer: One rose, one daisy, one tulip. Less
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I would say, "Do you consider three flowers to be a bouquet?"
Estimate how many windows are in New York
35 Answers↳
Since Bain is a consulting firm, this question seems to be used as a way to probe applicant's approach to engagement problems. First ask questions to clarify the goal. Is New York the city, the state, or another municipality that happens to also be called New York, such as New York, Texas. Are we talking about windows on a building, or will it also include car windows, store shelf windows, or maybe even MS Windows licenses. After the information is clarified, it's time to analyze. Estimating the population and estimate an average number of windows per person is one approach, but it may seem too general. Another approach can be divide and conquer. Estimate the number of residential houses, estimate the number of offices, and number of vehicles, etc, and multiply by an average number for each type of structure. Round the number to the nearest million or tenth of million to make it easy to remember for the client. Less
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Should the answer include opportunities and operating systems?
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Define "New York".
How to handle clients, people etc
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even i am in same situation . I got mail for submitting docs on 2nd july and again i got a mail from HR on 5th July that there is some delay and they will contact me on 9th july but till now no mail no call. what to do?? Less
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I have joining date as 26th aug.. What is your joining location
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Same here. joining on 26 aug. gurgaon location
were do u see urself after 5 years
21 Answers↳
my aim is to work hard and honestly at any pt. of time...and i see myself working in ur company as a hardworking and honest person Less
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within 5 yrs i want to be as stable as holdiing myself to such a level where i can take care of my expenses Less
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i can tell u somthing that is mysterious,what i want to dedicate to you is smart work is better than hard work,effectiveness is better than efficiancy,then we can reach 100% purity in every activity. Less
How many passengers leave JFK airport on a given day.
19 Answers↳
This question tests how you think critically. In this example, you could start with estimating that JFK has about 100 gates, and that a plane leaves from a gate every 3 hours, totaling 800 flights per day. Guessing that the average plane holds 200 passengers, you arrive at 160,000 per day departing. The interviewer is not as interested that you get the right, or even close, answer, but rather the thought process you go through to figure it out. For those that are interested, the real number is about 131,000 per day based on statistics from 2007. Less
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The answer is the thought process, as above. Personally, I'd have started with the number of flights: flight frequency per runway * runways * open hours. Assume half are leaving, then guess the number of passengers per plane. I might also point out that the number of assumptions multiplied together in that calc is such that you're unlikely to be within an order of magnitude of the right answer... Less
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all of them
It’s Thursday, we’re staffing you on a telecommunications project in Calgary, Canada on Monday. Your flight and hotel are booked; your visa is ready. What are the top five things you do before you leave?
20 Answers↳
1. Update my resume 2. Contact friends and family about finding a new job 3. Pretend to be violently ill on Monday 4. Use up all of my sick days and vacation days. 5. Wait to get fired, which should have happened long ago because I'm not qualified to work in telecommunications. Less
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1. Make sure the rest of the work to be completed on site by Friday is done or delegated. 2. Confirm key contacts know where I'll be, in case disaster strikes. 3. Follow up e-mail with group I'll be visiting, to confirm location/times/activities, ask about local weather - any warning/alerts, in case of delays. 4. Meeting prep - materials review, agenda review, ship any items which I cannot carry on airplane by myself. 5. Travel prep - weather conditions, personal/medical needs, electronics, luggage, drop off/pickup at airport and any other connections to get to/from Calgary meet points. Less
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1. Determine scope of my assignment and major stakeholders 2. Find out if there are specific issues I need to address/personalities to mitigate 3. Determine our expected outcomes beyond getting the job done (growth oppertunties etc. ) 4. Pack my luggage 5. Get to the airport (print passes etc. ) Less
What is the exact angle formed by the hands on a clock when the time reads 9:30?
14 Answers↳
105 degrees
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105 degrees: if the hour hand is right at 9, and the minute had was right at 30 then it would be 90 degrees. but since we're 30 minutes into the hr, the hour hand will be (theoretically) half waybetween 9 and 10pm. so you need to calculate that additional variation. If have the arms 3 hrs apart makes a perfect 90 degrees, then each hr would equal 30 degrees -> thus a half hr would result in a 15 degrees. 90+15= 105 degrees Less
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Right
IQ test was online where 50 questions need to be solved it in 12 Mins, where 20 min question should be correct.. Are your serious??? With more then 6 year of exp who invested time for IQ which is actually an apti test.. Guyz you are looking for tech not for IS entrance exam. if a guy has been short-listed by you that is based on his exp not on IQ.
12 Answers↳
As 8+ years of exp candidates asking the reasoning and english questions not at all pair. Interviewer and consultancy team has to say before the interview there will IQ test. We forgot these type of reasoning question after 8 years working in industry. How can team is judging based on these questions. Only 12mins for 50 questions. This is not at all good. If team intimate prior at least our mindset will prepare for that. Not at all good process of conducting interviews. Less
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Nagarro is thinking they are hiring for some IAS, IPS exams... Worst behavior people do lot of practice for clearing the aptitude wthin the stipulated time... Less
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A lot of negative responses here in the comment sections, it seems like people can't understand basic arithmetic and logical operations... Just read an online article about aptitude tests on Indiabix and practice some questions. I am an experienced individual with niche skills, yet I am okay with this procedure, so I am sure you can do it too. Less