NCC Job Package '11

8/3/2019 NCC Job Package '11

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Consulting IndustryHow to apply to the

2011 Edition

Job Package


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CONTENTS1. Jumping into Consulting

Introduction

2. How to get thereThe General Process

3. Where should you apply?

4. Sample interview casesPast Interviews

Website Examples

5. Dos and Donts

6. Testimonials

www.novaconsultingclub.co


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This is a guide that will most likely help you throughout your degree whenever you

decide to apply for a job or internship, or at least we at the Nova Consulting Club

have designed it with that purpose. It is neither a certified guide nor a professionally

approved manual. This is a collection of thoughts and experiences from those who

have endured recruitment processes in this business. Some of them succeeded and

some of them failed, but if this guide had been available a couple of years ago, more

of them would have certainly gone further. The tips will help you during the

interviews and solving the cases will become easier if you see them in the proper

perspective.

At Nova Consulting Club we believe there is no single best career path or firm foreveryone and one of the purposes of this collection of tips is to alert you to the fact

that there are as many types of Consulting as there are industries. Whether in

Strategic, Investment, HR, or Marketing Consulting, you will be applying for a job that

appeals a lot to not only other Business Schools graduates but also to graduates

from engineering to social sciences, among others. You should understand that the

only limit to your accomplishments is the one you impose on yourself, and that

preparation is the key to success.

You should complement this guide with the one provided by the CMO on CVs and

Motivation Letters. If you have any doubt or concern about the information provided

here, feel free to contact the club through any of its members.

We sincerely hope you have the best of luck in all your consulting endeavours, and

that we can be of as much help as possible. We would like to ask you to kindly enrich

this guide with your own experiences, as we will be revising it frequently, and fresh

experiences will always have a place here.

1.Introduction


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YOU HAVE A

MILLION DOUBTS

How to apply to theConsulting Industry


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THE GENERAL PROCESS :

Consulting recruiting processes are usually very well structured. Whether you are

applying for an internship on a permanent position in Portugal or abroad, the

process should consist of:

Sending your CV and motivation letter Taking a numerical reasoning aptitude test Attending a 1st round of interviews Attending a 2nd round of interviews / Assessment Centre

APPLICATION:

Scenario 1:

You are one of the best students of your class at NOVA, you are in your final year of

the Undergraduate or Masters degree and you are invited (by phone or e-mail) to

participate in a few recruitment processes of Consulting firms. You must send your

CV as soon as possible and the 1st stage tests will happen within a few days/weeks.

Scenario 2:

You have heard about consulting from colleagues, professors, friends, and family, you

have gone to some on-campus company presentations, and you are considering

applying to a consulting firm because it seems like an interesting career path.

Either way, the first step is to prepare your CV and your motivation letter (if you are

taking the first step) and applying. Despite what you might think or have heard about

CVs, they are really very important.

They are your only personal advertisement tool at this 1st stage, and may beread even before the motivation letter in case you send one. The purpose is to get

an initiation for an interview, not to convince anyone that you are the perfect

match.

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As you can imagine, Human Resources departments have piles of CVs of people very

much alike and if you want to get noticed (in a good way), you should spend a few

hours or even some days working on your CV. Furthermore, your CV is a constantly

changing professional biography that should be updated frequently and customized

as you apply to different areas.

Your CV can be used to transmit different ideas about yourself, depending on the

importance that you give to the information you put in there. You could put different

weights of focus on international and professional experience, depending on what

you feel the company will be looking for. That is why some people send customized

CVs to different companies. What is most important is that you put the appropriateemphasis on what you have done. You must be a pro at marketing yourself during

the whole recruitment process, and that starts with your very own CV.

Always keep in mind that the recruiters will hire you because they think that you can

either bring something new to the company or make their own work easier. And that

is exactly what you must show. Emphasize your best qualities and how you used

them in the past, so that whoever deals with you knows that you can actually bring

something to the table. Also, show that you are an interesting person to talk with, by

giving importance to your recent extra-curricular activities. You will likely be

interviewed by busy consultants who are only interested in talking with people who

have interesting things to say about themselves and the world. Consulting companies

like to meet with candidates who are multi-tasked and passionate and so any

references to team work or leadership are pluses enriching your CV and discourse:

sports played, being captain of a team, being president of a club, leader of an

organization, or some other position or activity where you are an acting member of

society.

The CV is the place where you say what you have done. The motivation letter is

where you say all the other interesting things you cannot put in the CV.

Motivation letters are not uncommon, although some companies might not ask for

one. The core purpose of a motivation letter is to draw attention to your strong fit

and show that you are motivated to work for that company (that's where the name

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comes from!) and that you possess and have previously used the skills that the

company is looking for.

It must be a well-structured and concise (1-page) document, answering these

questions:

Who are you? Why do you want to work for this company? What can you give to the company? Why are you a good match for the company?

When re-reading your letter, make sure that the last three questions are answered

there.

Showing your letter to someone close is always a good idea to avoid stupid

grammar mistakes and hear suggestions in time to change it.

The CMO has plenty of experience in these; therefore you should ask them for further

advice.

N U MERICAL ASSESSMEN T CEN TRES: If your CV gets picked up, you are usually called for an assessment centre of some

kind. Here, companies want to evaluate your numerical, analytical, language,

abstract, and reasoning skills. Usually what you do is go to the company's offices and

do some written tests that are usually multiple-choice. These may include simple

business cases or analytical questions. Some companies have their own battery of

tests, while others might use external testing instruments (GMAT-type questions, for

example).

Some companies offer examples of practice tests on their own websites, so you can

practice them at home before you take the real test.

P ERSON AL IN TERVIEW S / CASE STU DIES:

Sometimes right after the screening tests and other times after they have realized

that you have the right CV and strong analytical capacities, by passing through the

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tests, the company will invite you to come to a face-to-face interview. This type of

interview is very popular across industries and not only consulting. The interview

session (usually two different interviews with different people) is composed of two

parts:

First-stage competency-based assessment (15 to 30 minutes), where you areusually given the opportunity to start with a pitch (small introductory

presentation of yourself); then you are asked personal questions about previous

experiences, relevant life decisions, motivation to work in this company;

Second-stage business related case study (15 to 30 minutes), where you arepresented to a firm, its basic characteristics, and a problem the CEO has given theconsultants to solve.

During the first part, the interviewer will ask you a few questions about your CV. He

tries to read between the lines and get to know you better. It is important that you

show motivation and comfort during these questions. You also have to be

charming, as the interviewer will only hire you if he thinks he will enjoy spending

10 hours a day with you at the office. Also, even if the interview lasts half an hour,

your future may be decided in the first 5 minutes. Do not forget there is only one

chance to leave a good first impression: shake hands confidently, smile, look the

person in the eyes, introduce yourself, and be generally convivial about the occasion.

Sitting quietly and communicating poorly will not help you, and neither will

boisterous or arrogant behaviour. You should be polite but outgoing, assertive but

not aggressive, and aim to be every bit as professional as the interviewer who is

assessing you.

Frequently asked questions are about your academic and professional experience,

plans for life, and personal choices. If you have interesting extra-curricular activitiesthey will be discussed too.

The case study is a bit more complicated and, perhaps, the most difficult part for

some people, as it may take several different forms.

If the interviewer asks you to solve a real or fictitious problem for a certain company,

your objective should not be so much to guess the right answer, but to pose the right

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questions, so that the interviewer sees that you understand what the problem is and

how to tackle it. You should start making written notes the moment your interviewer

starts describing the problem. Asking to repeat a detail or asking questions about a

specific detail or concept you are not familiar with is totally fine.

What is being looked for in these cases is your ability to absorb and select relevant

information that is presented to you and to articulate it in a way that simplifies the

problem. Usually, it is a smart strategy to use common management frameworks:

Porter's five forces or the 4 P's BCG matrix Profits = Revenues Costs = (Price x Quantity) (Fixed Costs + Variable

Costs).

Attention: the purpose is not to use these tools just to say their name just because;

the idea is to help you structure the problem so that you do not forget important

variables that may affect your initial reasoning. When confronted with ratios,

remember that variations may come from at least two numbers. Also, remember that

if price increases by 1% and quantity decreases by 1%, the total revenue will actually

be less than before (1.01*0.99=0.9999)!

Another popular case is the how many golf balls are produced in Brazil yearly? type

of question. This may seem impossible to be answered correctly, and it actually is.

Luckily for you, the interviewers are not looking for right answers, but for clever

deconstructions of the question. In the golf balls case, you could start by saying that

2% of the Brazilians play golf. Then you multiply that by 190 million Brazilians and

assume that each one of the 2% plays once a week. If you also assume that, on

average, a player loses 5 balls each time he plays, you can start to construct an

estimation of the number of balls. Not that difficult, right? Once again, it is a questionof making the smart assumptions, and considering the important variables for the

problem, guessing them with some sensibility. So, if you come across a crazy

question such as this one, do not freak out and try to think what variables are

relevant to estimate the answer. Using round estimates like 1, 2, 5, 10, or 100 is also

very smart if you do not wish to struggle unnecessarily with your calculations.

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Then, usually the interviewer seems to finish off the conversation with a simple

what would you like to know about us? Be very careful. The right answer is not

nothing, I already know enough about your company. It is a very good idea to study

well the company before going to the interview, but you should use that acquired

information to ask intelligent questions about the different departments, the types of

work, a specific project, or something else related with the company's activity. Avoid

silence after this question at all costs! After all, the interviewer is assessing your

interest and your motivations to work with him and, therefore, you must look

curious and intelligent when posing those questions. Also, try not to ask boring and

clich questions about career paths or firm history. It makes a better impression if

you show that you can organize this remaining time that has been given to you. Ask

for comparisons with strategies from other firms or about special in-house

programmes that you know of, and be sure to leave a final good impression.

Although uncommon, it may be the case you are given a business card. If so, a thank

you e-mail later that same day never hurts anyone. You may ask for feedback on your

performance whatever the result is and you can actually reinforce your motivation in

regards to the opportunity available.

G ROU P DYN AMICS: This kind of interview usually implies that you are put in a room with other

applicants (from 3 to 7) that are as much or even more nervous than you are. The

group is confronted with a case and told to work on some questions, preparing a

presentation of the conclusions, and then a Q&A session. What is required in this

type of test is to show initiative and leadership, as well as ability to hear others

ideas. Try to be neither a dictator nor a quiet lamb that goes where he/she is told to.

You should contribute to the good environment of the team, and displays of humour

are welcome, if they are mixed with constructive ideas. This shows you are not only a

smart guy but also a sociable chap, not a boring know-it-all bookworm. Always listen

to what others say and build your ideas on top of the ones from the others, if they are

good. Remember that there is no individual score; therefore dont worry so much

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about being the best, but rather focus on your contribution to the group and to its

overall performance.

SU BSEQU EN T P H ASES In some companies, you may have several case interviews conducted by consultants

of higher and higher positions. Typically, you will end up meeting a partner of the

company, who will make a simple interview that is usually not technical. He just

wants to meet you, and see if you are coherent with the overall values of the

company. Basically, he will either accept you or not. But keep in mind that he is not

the only one deciding. At the end, everyone that interviewed you will give an opinion

regarding your performance, and the final decision will be collective and made upon

overall assessment just like compounded interest!

2.How to Get There


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WE WILLANSWER SOME!

How to apply to theConsulting Industry


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There are a lot of consulting companies. And we mean a lot, indeed. Where there is a

company with a problem, there is a consultant willing to give his/her opinion. And

since there are several business areas, there are consulting companies that have

specialized in specific sectors and industries. What we present now is a list of the

major companies, divided roughly by the type of services that they offer:

Strategy & Management

ACCENTURE ANTARES CONSULTING

Health Care Sector

ARTHUR D. LITTLE

AT KEARNEY

BAIN & COMPANY BCG - THE BOSTON

CONSULTING GROUP

BOOZ & COMPANY

BRIGHT PARTNERS

CAPGEMINI

COPIRISCO, LDA.

CORPORATE EXECUTIVEBOARD

DELOITTE

ERETEA

ERNST & YOUNG

EUROGROUP CONSULTING EUROPRAXIS CONSULTING

EVERIS

FROST & SULLIVAN

GLOBAL XXI

G-QUOD

GREENWICH CONSULTING Telecom and Media Sector

GTE CONSULTORES S.A.

HORVTH & PARTNERS MC

HPP - HARNISCHFEGER,PIETSCH & PARTNER

IMS HEALTH Health CareSector

NDICE - CONSULTORES LDA.

INOGATE SA

KEYPOINT Health CareSector

LEADERSHIP BUSINESSCONSULTING

L.E.K. CONSULTING

MARS & CO

MCKINSEY & CO.

MONITOR GROUP

MUNDISERVIOS

NEW/NEXTMOVES

NEXTSTAGE MANAGEMENTCONSULTANTS

NUCASE

OBLOG CONSULTING (GRUPOESPIRITO SANTO)

OC&C STRATEGYCONSULTANTS

OLIVER WYMAN

PA CONSULTING GROUP

PALLADIUM SOUTHMEDPORTUGAL

PEDRA BASE CONSULTORIA EFORMAO

PROVENTUS.COMsulting

PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS SCIENTIAGEST

ROLAND BERGER STRATEGYCONSULTANTS

STRATEGOS

IT Consulting

ACTIVE MANAGEMENTGROUP

AGAP2 CONSULTING SA

ALTRAN PORTUGAL

GARTNER,INC.

GMS CONSULTING

HITACHI CONSULTING

LONGO PRAZO CONSULTORESDE GESTO, SA

NEEA CONSULTING

NOVABASE

QUIDGEST - CONSULTORES DEGESTO, LDA.

REALTECH PORTUGAL,SYSTEM CONSULTING

REDITUS CONSULTING

TOINOVATE

WEDO TECHNOLOGIES

Financial Consulting

ALIXPARTNERS, LIP AMERICAN APPRAISAL

KPMG MOORE STEPHENS

AUDITORES -E CONSULTORESLDA

MERCER

Human Resources

Consulting

BAO & PARTNERS CON.PRO

DYNARGIE PORTUGAL

HAY GROUP

MERCER LLC

PRAGMA

SDO CONSULTORES

Marketing Consulting

DAEMON QUEST MILLWARD BROWN

PORTUGAL

SPARK - ARTS CONSULTING

Real Estate Consulting

AGUIRRE NEWMAN COLLIERS P&I GRUPO IPG

CPU CONSULTORES FUNDBOX

Public Sector Consulting

NERA ECONOMICCONSULTING

Engineering Consulting

BENEGE - SERVIOS DEENGENHARIA E AVALIAOLda.

DHV FBO CONSULTORES, S.A

3.Where should ou a l ?


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If you want to know more about these companies, just Google them! You will surely

find lots of information that will help you prepare for interviews.

When looking for a job, always diversify your search. Do not be pretentious and try

only your dream job, but send out applications to several companies that work in the

area you like. Remember that practice makes perfect, so you should not apply

immediately to your favourite company. Try for a few others that will give you good

practice first. You may even be surprised.

You can carry on the search for yourself. Some of these companies offer only full-

time positions, but a lot of them offer summer internships too. They do this in order

to capture talent before other firms (from many other industries) do.

Also, some of the consulting firms offer summer internships only to undergraduates

(such as BCG), and some of them target mainly Masters students (like Roland Berger

or AT Kearney). In Portugal, the application deadlines are usually not as early as

those for investment banking, so the best time to apply would be February/March.

Even so, be careful with companies that do not have Portuguese offices: their

deadlines can be earlier (Bain Madrid usually closes in January).

If you are doing your thesis and already have some hours of your day filled but you

would still like to have a consulting experience, some firms offer part-time

internships, so that you can work through your thesis. We know

PriceWaterhouseCoopers has been offering such opportunities, and AT Kearney,

despite not having an official programme, can also considers part-time jobs

depending on their needs.

3.Where should ou a l ?


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YOU WANT TO FLY HIGH


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These are some sample questions that have either been asked to someone from

NOVA in an interview or presented on the firms website as an example.

P AST IN TERVIEW S:

The following groups of questions were based in several interviews made in some

Consulting Companies, such as Mckinsey & Co., The Boston Consulting Group, Bain

and Europraxis.

Personal Questions:

Tell me about yourself. (Have the elevator pitch prepared!) Why do you want to work in consulting? Why do you want to work in this company? Tell me 3 good things/3 areas of improvement about yourself. How do you see yourself in 5/10 years? Tell me about an occasion where you had to solve a difficult situation. Why did you choose to study at NOVA? Which courses did you like the most? Why did you choose to do Erasmus in Y? What do you do besides studying?

Case Questions

(1) A Japanese retailer of gas wants to augment its ROA (return on assets)from 4% to 12%. How would you proceed?

What kind of assets do we have? How are we different from competition?

The assets were the gas station and the land around it which could be

partly leased, increasing ROA.

(2) A credit card company (e.g., American Express, Visa) gets its revenuesfrom two types of clients: students and professionals. The company is currently

reporting a loss. Why? (with several pages of data).

On the one hand, the average balance of students is substantially lower

and their probability of default higher, which means they more often pay

4.Sam le Inteview Case


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penalty fees and increased rates for not having the money to cover their

credit card debt. Professionals, on the other hand, usually have more

control over their debts and pay less penalty fees. After some calculations,

we come to know the profitability with students is for instance +20 against

-5 with professionals, explaining the overall poor performance.

Brain Teasers

Estimate the market for light bulbs in Australia. You have a 3 litre bucket and a 5 litre bucket. How will you measure out

exactly 4 litres of water? Assume you have an endless supply of water and no

markings on the buckets. In a 24 hour day how many times do the hands of a clock overlap? You have a string that burns at different (unknown) rates for one hour.

Without a clock, how can you know youve reached 30 minutes?

How many liters of red wine are consumed annually in Belgium? How many hotel plastic shampoo bottles are consumed yearly in Portugal?

WEBSITE EXAMPLES:

Increasing Profits Increasing Profits in a Jet Fighter Manufacturer

http://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/increasing_profits.as

px

Your client is a U.S. defense contractor that manufactures the Mohawk Light Fighter

Jet for the British Royal Air Force. The company has produced the $20 million fighter

jet for the past 12 years. The British government has decided to put the contract out

to bid, however, and to secure the contract, the client's purchasing agents haveestimated the company will need to cut its costs by 5 percent. It has asked BCG to

help it reduce costs.

http://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/increasing_profits.aspxhttp://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/increasing_profits.aspxhttp://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/increasing_profits.aspxhttp://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/increasing_profits.aspx


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Magna Health

http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_well_in_the_interview/case_interview/practice_cases/magna%20health.aspx

Client Goal: To determine how to improve its financial situation.

Our client is Magna Health, a health care company in the Midwest. It insures patients

and provides health care services. Employers pay a fixed premium to Magna for each

of their employees in return for which Magna covers all necessary health services of

the employee (ranging from physician care and medications to hospitalization).

Magna currently has 300,000 patients enrolled in its plan. It has 300 salaried

physician employees who provide a broad range of services to patients in six centres.

These physicians represent a wide range of specialty areas, but not all areas. When a

patient needs medical treatment in a specialty area not covered by a Magna

physician, they are referred outside of the Magna network for care, and Magna pays

all referral costs on a fee-for-service basis. Magna does not own any hospitals itself,

instead contracting services from several local hospitals.

Magna's CEO has retained McKinsey to help determine what is causing the declining

profitability and how Magna might fix it.

Question: What key areas would you want to explore in order to understand

Magna's decline in profitability?

Personal Care Co.

http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-preparation/practice-case1-

quest1.asp?stage=1&ques=1

Client, Private Equity Co. (PEC) is looking to acquire Personal Care Co.

Personal Care Co. supplies a diversified product line of health & beauty products to

several market segments.

http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_well_in_the_interview/case_interview/practice_cases/magna%20health.aspxhttp://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_well_in_the_interview/case_interview/practice_cases/magna%20health.aspxhttp://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-preparation/practice-case1-quest1.asp?stage=1&ques=1http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-preparation/practice-case1-quest1.asp?stage=1&ques=1http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-preparation/practice-case1-quest1.asp?stage=1&ques=1http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-preparation/practice-case1-quest1.asp?stage=1&ques=1http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_well_in_the_interview/case_interview/practice_cases/magna%20health.aspxhttp://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_well_in_the_interview/case_interview/practice_cases/magna%20health.aspx


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PEC would like to sell the acquisition in 2-3 years for a profit.

The new management team PEC would put in place is unsure where to focus

Personal Care Co.'s growth efforts and, therefore, which segments to target with new

product launches.

PEC is asking Bain to provide guidance to help them decide to purchase this firm or

not. They also expect Bain to tell them where to focus their efforts.

P RACTICE:

In case you want to practice your numerical tests or case-solving abilities, some of

the bigger companies offer specific areas on their websites for you to do that. Some

others also give some pretty good tips and insight into the whole recruitment

process. We recommend that you go through this list of hyperlinks to improve your

chances:

Mckinsey & Company

The Boston Consulting Club

Bain & Co.

Oliver Wyman

Booz & Co.

A former McKinsey recruiter has created a website that helps applicants succeed in

their interviews. Go there for more info at www.caseinterview.com. It has lots of

testimonials from recent successful applicants from all over the world.

We also recommend that you visit www.simuladobain.com/. This website was

developed by Bain & Co. in order to provide an additional practice tool to the

applicants. Unfortunately, this website is only available in Portuguese.

Preparing and practicing may take a lot of work, but getting in is certainly one of the

most rewarding experiences you may have. Consulting is a very special type of work

to do; and that is why we have an entire club dedicated to it.

http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_well_in_the_interview/case_interview/practice_cases.aspxhttp://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/default.aspxhttp://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-preparation/default.asphttp:/www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-preparation/default.asphttp://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/4803.htmhttp://www.booz.com/global/home/join_us/apply/case_prephttp://www.caseinterview.com/http://www.caseinterview.com/http://www.caseinterview.com/http://www.simuladobain.com/http://www.simuladobain.com/http://www.simuladobain.com/http://www.caseinterview.com/http://www.booz.com/global/home/join_us/apply/case_prephttp://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/4803.htmhttp://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-preparation/default.asphttp:/www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/interview-preparation/default.asphttp://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/default.aspxhttp://www.mckinsey.com/careers/how_do_i_apply/how_to_do_well_in_the_interview/case_interview/practice_cases.aspx


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In addition to the training that you might have before going to the case interview, it

is extremely important to keep in mind some rules that you must consider whensolving a case-study. The following list presents you the Dos and Donts for the Case

Study, which was elaborated by The Boston Consulting Group in order to give some

tips to people applying to the Consulting Industry.

1 . DO:

Listen to the Interviewer and Ask Questions

The interviewer will begin by laying out the problem. You should take time to align

your thinking, ask clarifying questions, and communicate your line of reasoning to

your interviewer. The interviewer will also give you hints and help along the way, so

dont be afraid to take notes.

Structure the Problem and Develop a Framework to Solve it

Take a moment to think about the case to gain perspective. Putting together a

structure and a framework will help you clarify each step and enable you to identify

the analysis you may want to perform to reach a solution.

Focus on High-Impact Issues

Concentrate on the issues that will really make a difference and create value for your

client, but make sure that you explain the reasons behind your choices.

Generate a Hypothesis and Explore Options Creatively

Make suggestions on how to solve the key issues you have identified. The

interviewer will be looking for the same things a BCG client would expect when

working with usinnovative approaches that can change the rules of the game and

creation of lasting competitive advantage.

Synthesize Thoughts and Draw Conclusions from your Analysis

At the end of the interview, you should summarize the key hypotheses and options

you have developed. Then, conclude with your recommended solution to the clients

problem.

5.Dos and Donts


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2 .DONTS

Dont Rush into the Analysis without Developing an Understanding of

the Problem

During the discussion, the interviewer will work with you to organize your thoughts

and steer you toward a solution. Dont be afraid to ask questions that check your

understanding.

Dont Panic if the Answer is not Apparent

There is no right or wrong answer in our interviews, and you are not expected to

know everything about business. The objective of the interview is for us to learn

about your approach to solving business problems, so remember to discuss your line

of thought with the interviewer.

Dont Defend your Solution at all Costs

If the interviewer challenges the solution you propose, dont go on the defensive.

Acknowledge the possibility that the interviewer has brought up a relevant

perspective that you had not considered and re-examine your thinking accordingly.

Dont Internalize your Thought Process

The interview should be a dialogue between you and the interviewer, so make sure

you communicate your logic and underlying assumptions.

Dont Stick to an Artificial Framework

Standard frameworks you have learned in school may appear relevant, but they maynot hold up after closer consideration.

5.Dos and Donts

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Job Package|2011 Editio

SHOW YOU HOW!WE WILL

How to apply to thConsulting Industry


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How was it to work in consultancy? It was an exhausting, nerve-racking, terrifying,

nail-biting experience, but at the same time, fascinating, mesmerizing, incredibly

dynamic and educational, and fun, so much fun!

In the first day, I arrived curious, but mostly really nervous; in the last day I left

nostalgic, wanting more.

I arrived almost not knowing anyone, and I left calling everyone by their first name,

feeling part of a family.

I got to be a part of a real strategic project, spent my days working in a big known

company, and met people I would never have the chance to meet if it wasnt for this

internship. I made new friends and learned so much, even about myself.

It was undoubtedly an amazing experience, with late nights working, and late nights

partying, a perfect mix of work and pleasure. If you are even slightly curious, do not

think twice. Apply for it, try it, you will regret it if you dont.

Ins Relvas | Undergraduate in Management, Class of 10

The Boston Consulting Group (Summer Intern 10)

Working at a consultancy firm Is it hard? Is it tough? Time consuming? What I can

say is that it is unforgettable for sure!

In the beginning, when I first entered in the office, I felt like a kid in a candy store!

Everything was so new, so different from classrooms and regular meetings for courses

projects thatI didnt even know where to look. Luckily, I was welcomed better than

expected, which had a great influence in my adaptation process.

It is a fact that as soon as you arrive, you feel like you know nothing! You feel like an

absolute waste of time the several years that you spent behind a computer and burningthe midnight oil for exams. Nevertheless, you can experience an outstanding slope in

the learning curve. In little time you run across so many industries, companies and

countries that you actually feel a bit lost with so much information and so many tasks

to complete. But at the end of the day, you feel that you have achieved something and

you know that every little second was worth it.

6.Testimonials


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Being a consultant means challenging yourself each day and developing your skills at

the most. Hence, after the internship I understood that no other job would fulfill me,

personally and professionally, as much as being a consultant does!

Last, I cannot forget about the extraordinary people and amazing atmosphere that I

had at the office! Amazing professionals, incredible people and exceptional friends I

had them all supporting me when I needed and helping me even with the dumbest

questions. They were tireless in my early steps and even afterwards. This was, without a

doubt, one of the major reasons that led me to choose them as my preference to start

my professional path.

Diogo Cunha | Masters in Management, Class of 11Roland Berger(Summer Intern 11)

During our academic life, at some point in time, we wonder about what could be the

ideal career start. At the same time, we embark on a trip to know the existing industries

and companies. When consulting companies appeared in my path I got to know a bit of

the industry and each of the companies in particular.

This first contact allowed me to acknowledge some of the necessary characteristics for

a consultant: ambitious, team oriented, flexible and hungry for learning. I thought this

was the perfect fit for my early career and then I looked for recruitment processes in

this area, supported with the experience accumulated in the NOVA Consulting Club.

When I got the opportunity to work in a consulting company I found all this in practice.

I found an ambitious environment, where each consultant always pursues the best

outcome for the company and its clients. I found a team oriented spirit, with a very

strong support among peers, from top to bottom. This experience gave me a wide set of

different tasks which tested my flexibility and satisfied my need for learning.

Consulting is a great experience from the first moment. The learning curve is incredibly

steep in every possible dimension. Previously I had the belief that I should start in

consulting. Now I have the certainty.

Fbio Santos | Masters in Finance, Class of 11

A. T. Kearney (Summer Analyst11)

6.Testimonials


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Documents

NCC Job Package '11