So I've got an interview coming up with McKinsey, a major international business consulting firm, and I'm a math and physics person. I have a good grasp of common-sense economics, but that's about it when it comes to money and business. I'm sure I have a very naive sense of finance and business concepts; I'm pretty much a pure science person with good people skills, and I never took a business class as an elective at State.

I have an idea that I'll probably be asked to walk through a scenario or case study during the interview and talk about the things I need to consider in advising a company what course to pursue. What are some different scenarios this might entail? I'm thinking things like whether or not a company should acquire another company or product line, how a company can become more efficient and enhance profitability, how to determine what product line to push in a new campaign, etc, might come up. I'm also in Houston, so there's a fair chance it would deal with the petrochemical and energy industries.

What are some things I need to consider in situations like this? I'm not asking for someone to write an essay to do my work for me, but I could use a hand to point me in the right direction. I just don't know the business terminology and concepts that I should look up to read on. Are there any good online primers for business and business consulting that anyone knows of? I keep thinking of the monologue in Fight Club talking about how a car company determines if it should issue a recall.

2/6/2006 4:53:29 AM

start by learning and understanding Porter's Five Forces. If you can appropriately reference that in your interview, that would probably look good. Google it, there is lots of info out there. Also check out quickmba.com

2/6/2006 10:14:29 AM

bttt

2/6/2006 2:36:40 PM

not that you won't kick ass at whatever you do, but why are you looking for a job with a major international business consulting firm? you're a math and physics person. wouldn't you rather be doing something math and physicsy?

2/6/2006 3:06:40 PM

Just for fun I went to their website and poked around, it looks like they have 2 sample Q/A's in the career section. I'd just google/wikipedia some of the key words from their answers. Business stuff isn't that complicated, you could pick it up really quickly. If they are smart they will want to hire someone who is really smart but not necessarily a businessman over someone not as smart but has some business skills, similar to drafting for athleticism/potential over skills in the NBA and NFL.

2/6/2006 3:24:12 PM

Porter's Forces would be a good start. If you can use it to look smart in an interview, go for it, but you probably won't be making decisions using real marketing analysis going in (since it sounds like you have little experience). You should play up a mastery in Excel and Access if you know them (use the term "financial modeling"), know what a balance sheet, income sheet, cash flows sheet look like. Many places are putting a big emphasis on Cash Flow statements and analysis derived from them these days. Google "DCF" Discounted Cash Flow. If you know Peoplesoft, ADP, Hyperion, or any business or general ledger packages, tell them. If not, it shouldn't be a huge deal. You won't be doing journal entries or anything, I hope.

Consulting is mostly problem solving though. The grunt work is mostly easy Excel modeling, so having a firm grasp of Excel and being creative enough to lay out a spreadsheet that gets you the info you need is (from my experience) the biggest portion of an entry level position. Good luck.

2/6/2006 3:30:31 PM

Yeah, I've gone through the stuff on their website and also the stuff on Boston Consulting Group's site, who I should also be getting an interview with for their Houston branch. It was pretty helpful, but I know there's lots of other stuff out there.

Thanks for the terms with Porter's Forces, DCF, etc. I'll give those a shot and assume I'll find some other things to look up in more detail in order to understand those.

As for why I'm looking at the job, I think it would be interesting to apply my analysis and problem-solving skills to something more real-life than theoretical math, and doing consulting would let me be on a new project every few months, learning about new sectors of industry and things like that. I mostly just really enjoy learning, so the idea of trying something brand new that I can apply pre-existing skills to appeals to me. Also, my wife is doing Americorps here in Houston until October, so I just need something I can try that I could leave in October if it's not working out, but would still look good on my work experience. I'm still planning to go back and get a PhD at some point soon, I just can't do that in Houston b/c UH and Rice don't have researchers in the areas I'm interested in.

Also, are these likely to all be 60-70 hour a week kind of jobs? Is there any way to specify I don't want any more than 50 a week, and still get hired? Cuz no matter how fun a job is, I don't want to have fun at the job for 70 hours a week.

2/6/2006 4:39:31 PM

All in all, consulting jobs are the JAM!

You'll probably only work 4 days a week, but sometimes you may travel so it may end up being more than 40 hours/week.

It's always dynamic though, seeing as you're meeting different folks, which is why I dig the idea. Good luck!

2/6/2006 6:18:33 PM

is your hair still a color other than normal

2/6/2006 8:37:25 PM

It depends on the project and the level of involvement on the consulting firm's part, but I'd say that you will almost definitely be working at least 50 hours a week. One firm we've got in here on a project has the little guys doing 60+ and the big guys it's their life. But don't let that discourage you. It'll be different at every project, with every firm, etc.

2/7/2006 11:10:49 AM

sadly no, my hair is back to blonde.

2/7/2006 2:06:02 PM

So I got the job after finally making it through their long interview process!

Thanks for the advice, it gave me some great places to start looking for information that turned out to be very useful.

4/6/2006 2:44:50 AM

Nothing like being a hated, highly-paid consultant

4/6/2006 2:49:15 AM

whats the best way to get into consulting? I have been looking into it and it's something that im definitly interested in when i graduate. Even an internship would be AWESOME experience for now until i graduate, but i dont know of any firms that hire interns...

[Edited on April 6, 2006 at 11:02 AM. Reason : .]

4/6/2006 11:00:11 AM

get a t-shirt that says "willing to take a 100% travel position" and stand in front of any building with IBM on it

4/6/2006 12:32:54 PM