Chris’ consulting preparation strategies (Part 1)

I am going to start my consulting interview preparation soon. I have decided to brainstorm what I need to improve in order to have a shot at getting an offer.

In Australia, Consulting graduate intakes happen in April 2012, so I still have over 7 months to prepare. However, as I mentioned in my previous post, I have a summer internship in an Investment Bank for 2 months. I don’t think I will be able to do any preparation at all while working those hours. That leaves me with about 5 months all up.

I divided my care preparation process into 4 main categories:

1.Polish up my resume and gain more experience

I think “polishing up the resume” is a misleading thing to say. I remember reading somewhere, a person was making comment on getting into Ivy League school and he said, the key is to “build a life, not a resume”.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am in my University’s consulting club doing a bit of pro-bono consulting work. The projects are very interesting and have given me a good taste of management consulting work. However, the competition to get into consulting is fierce and I know a number of other students who have started and run their own business. I should not become complacent and rely on the consulting club alone (as my other experiences are very finance oriented). I will always be on the lookout for more interesting life experiences.

2.Case skills

I would like to further segment case skills into two different categories: structured communication and structured problem solving framework.

Case skills can be seen as a tool to a) solve the problem in a systematic manner b) deliver your solutions in an easy to follow and structured way.

From what I have read, case skills is something that can be acquired quickly through training. I still don’t know a lot about this yet, in the coming posts I will start compiling free and paid resources that I think might be helpful.  I did recently purchased Barbara minto’s “pyramid principle”.  I will review the book once it is delivered.

3.Business acumen

Case skills is a probleming solving and communication tool whereas business acumen is what will solve the case. I believe Business acumen is the most difficult and time consuming to develop. In the coming weeks, I will find different ways to develop my business acumen.

4.Networking

As a student, the opportunity to networking with consultants is somewhat quite limited. I won’t have the opportunity to network with them until early 2012 when the firms come to my university to do company presentation.

I never quite believed in linkedin networking, however, through reading other firmsconsulting student ambassadors’ posts. I think linkedin networking might actually yield results. I will start utilising linkedin and report my experiences to you.

Please leave comments and share your thoughts with me.