Management Consulting Discussion

[MSchapiro]

As a federal consultant you'll get to see first hand how incompetently your tax money gets spent!

You can be a volunteer firefighter and do the same. Maybe even get a few beers thrown into the mix.

 

[Joffrey]

I feel a little daft asking this, but I'm expecting a phone call from a recruiter at a leading consulting company (my resume was forwarded to a junior recruiter who emailed me to say to expect to be contacted by the senior recruiter). What can I expect in this call? I've been in government for a good while so I'm a little rusty with my private sector (not to mention consulting) recruiting/interview process. I intend to do some research on my own but wanted to see what ideas would come up here.

 

[Joffrey]

Looks like I'm set for an interview next week. How much time should be spent preparing for the case interview? My contact indicated I should look into their interview tips/tutorials on their site and youtube. Will buying a book like "Crack the Case" or "Case in Point" be overkill since I'm not doing multiple rounds with multiple companies? Apparently, I'm just having one round with 2-3 people.

 

[flyindarkness]

most people who are serious about the job usually spends 20 hours plus minimum.
Some people will "get it" with 20 live cases, some people will need 100 to be fully comfortable.
What firm if you don't mind me asking? If it's the top three, definitely take some time and practice, there are a lot of good resources on the net, no need to buy a book.

 

[aravenel]



most people who are serious about the job usually spends 20 hours plus minimum.
Some people will "get it" with 20 live cases, some people will need 100 to be fully comfortable.
What firm if you don't mind me asking? If it's the top three, definitely take some time and practice, there are a lot of good resources on the net, no need to buy a book.

+1. If it's MBB, the case will make or break it, and the people against which you are competing will have spent quite a bit of time preparing for it.

If it's not MBB, it will depend on the firm, and on with which division within the firm you are interviewing. The classic strategy divisions of the big four will also heavily rely upon the case, but other divisions less so. Even there though, you'd do well to spend a bit of time prepping for a case study.

 

[Joffrey]

Thanks for the reply. I actually bought "Case in Point" before I saw your reply. That sounds like an immense time commitment. What kind of preparation is involved? Just studying and analyzing each case and its solution/structure? I hope to do a few live ones with my friend in the industry (different firm) at some point before the big day. Fortunately I have until next friday.The interview is with the public sector practice of a company outside the top 3. Happy to chat in more detail by PM.

 

[netseeker09]



Thanks for the reply. I actually bought "Case in Point" before I saw your reply. That sounds like an immense time commitment. What kind of preparation is involved? Just studying and analyzing each case and its solution/structure? I hope to do a few live ones with my friend in the industry (different firm) at some point before the big day. Fortunately I have until next friday.The interview is with the public sector practice of a company outside the top 3. Happy to chat in more detail by PM.

Public Sector ? so like the Federal Practice at Deloitte?

I actually have fun fit to be more important than case studies however case studies are good too.

I suggest doing at least 20-30 cases. More than enough prep for anyone that isnt MBB.

 

[OmniscientCause]

Anyone have any experience with a blitz day that they would care to share? I have one coming up and its scheduled for 7 hours.

 

[Rocco Finisher]

"No point" like the culture and or pay are not worth even considering for someone coming out of an MBA.

I have my first orientation kick off in a few days and had to put a list of 10 target companies.

I had the big players on there and Booz/pwc is actually my number 1.

Booz and Co or Booz Allen & Hamilton? Both big named firms (I'm sure you know about the split)

Deloitte - even in their Fed practice they pretty much operate on a commercial consulting model, which is problematic for a few main reasons. Anyone who is interested I will elaborate.

 

[netseeker09]



Booz and Co or Booz Allen & Hamilton? Both big named firms (I'm sure you know about the split)

Deloitte - even in their Fed practice they pretty much operate on a commercial consulting model, which is problematic for a few main reasons. Anyone who is interested I will elaborate.

I'll bite on this...whats problematic

 

[OmniscientCause]

It's Deloitte. I had an interview with cognizant last week. I'll take them as they come. Case isn't my strong point but I seem to be over compensating for that with the behaviorals. Just worried about the group case.

 

[horndog]

All I've heard from my Deloitte Fed compatriots is that the work/life balance is total **** and they drive you like a dog and expect you to drink the cultural kool aid. Haven't heard that about BAH at all. They have a good reputation though. Maybe not as strong as it used to be (the split, I'd heard, was due to lots of staff bloat and dilution).

 

[Rocco Finisher]



I'll bite on this...whats problematic

Well as someone mentioned above, the work life balance sucks..but what most people don't realize is that ****** balance e is at least in some part due to Deloitte Fed operating under its commercial consulting model. IMO this is not sustainable long term and they will have to adjust fire, seeing as the turnover is high and I've seen talent come and go far too fast.

What do I mean by this? Well for the sake of not boring you..in commercial consulting models,you ship out your rock stars to do an engagement. After long weeks and hard work, let's say an engagement is done in 1-2 months, you return, maybe have a week in between engagements. During that week, you can visit home base, write up lessons learned, do white papers and so forth. This counts as "firm contribution" depending on the person you may log several weeks of this over a year...and a couple hundred hours toward bonus work.

In Federal work, it's normally a much longer engagement, so let's say 6m-1 year and instead of a sprint, it's a medium jog and avg40-45 hours a week. The catch is using the commercial model the employee is expected to still ring in those firm contributions but there isn't any lag time...so you are stuck fulfilling these hours on nights and weekends. When I left I was expected (avg of all the folks at your level) to pull around 200-250 hours of firm contributions...do the math on that.

Also worth noting Deloitte would offer 5-6 weeks of vacation,but leaves little chance for you to take it...and though it's not written down, it's the culture there to really frown on taking anywhere near the allotted vacation hours.

I gave 2.5 years there...good place to cut your teeth but unless you are a work a holic, then you'll eventually burn out.

 

[Rocco Finisher]

I gave nearly 7 years to BAH, great company. They took some hit around the beltway with Snowden jokes...but that was mostly by uninformed sheriffs.

 

[netseeker09]



Well as someone mentioned above, the work life balance sucks..but what most people don't realize is that ****** balance e is at least in some part due to Deloitte Fed operating under its commercial consulting model. IMO this is not sustainable long term and they will have to adjust fire, seeing as the turnover is high and I've seen talent come and go far too fast.

What do I mean by this? Well for the sake of not boring you..in commercial consulting models,you ship out your rock stars to do an engagement. After long weeks and hard work, let's say an engagement is done in 1-2 months, you return, maybe have a week in between engagements. During that week, you can visit home base, write up lessons learned, do white papers and so forth. This counts as "firm contribution" depending on the person you may log several weeks of this over a year...and a couple hundred hours toward bonus work.

In Federal work, it's normally a much longer engagement, so let's say 6m-1 year and instead of a sprint, it's a medium jog and avg40-45 hours a week. The catch is using the commercial model the employee is expected to still ring in those firm contributions but there isn't any lag time...so you are stuck fulfilling these hours on nights and weekends. When I left I was expected (avg of all the folks at your level) to pull around 200-250 hours of firm contributions...do the math on that.

Also worth noting Deloitte would offer 5-6 weeks of vacation,but leaves little chance for you to take it...and though it's not written down, it's the culture there to really frown on taking anywhere near the allotted vacation hours.

I gave 2.5 years there...good place to cut your teeth but unless you are a work a holic, then you'll eventually burn out.

Ups for this,

Sounds terrible, definitely "contrary" to what I initially have heard second hand about the Federal Practice being much more 9-5 (despite taking the compensation hit)

I'm not too familiar what exit ops there are for Deloitte's Fed practice, but hopefully they're decent because it seems that the work is not that great.

7 years at BAH? sounds pretty stellar. I have a few friends that went there before leaving for industry (one now in start up out west)

Its amazing to me that firms are unable to see their unsustainable practices in the long term, or perhaps they do but the red tape gets in the way. The irony for consulting across the board, from strat to IT to econ consulting to HC and PI is that the companies trying to consult often could use some 3rd party help in terms of changing practices.