Management Consulting and Case Solving

for Dummies

5. How to deal with Dinners for Consult-

Shortlisted Students?

Issac Jojy

PGP 2014-16
Why do consult firms have dinners with shortlisted students and
how to deal with these dinners?

• Most consulting firms organize dinners close to the actual summer placement date. If they’re
going to put in time and effort to fly in their consultants from different parts of the
country/globe keeping aside client work and other important commitments, there should be
a valid reason apart from just having dinner with shortlisted students. It’s a cost investment
for them and they’ll definitely have something in mind as part of return on this investment.

• Do not think of the reason as them wanting to judge you. That is the negative way of looking
at it. Look at it as the firms wanting to genuinely evaluate you. When you look at it as them
wanting to judge you, that creates a negative thought and like I mentioned in the previous
document regarding how to deal with buddies, that negative thought turns into an infinite loop
and kills your confidence and character

• When you look at it from the perspective of them wanting to evaluate you, and combine that
thought with another thought that you also want to evaluate that firm as to whether you’d like
working there, it becomes a more or less level playing ground. Do not give them power. It
doesn’t mean that you should act all bossy and arrogant (in that case, you can consider your
chances killed by yourself), but think of it as a normal 2 way evaluation ensuring power balance.

• Consulting is a service oriented industry. The resources for these firms are people and their
thinking/analytical ability and talent. This will be primarily tested during your case interviews.
But in addition, there is also a people skills/likeability aspect of the candidates. Since the
primary resources are people and since the industry is a client-service oriented industry, the
firms will definitely want to know whether a particular candidate can be put in front of their
clients / whether the candidate is a good fit for their team etc. They would want to know
whether a candidate, who might be good at analytical skills, is also good at dealing with people.
And in a case interview, the time might be too short for them to evaluate these traits. I’m not
saying that all consult firms do this evaluation during dinners, but I feel it is reasonable for
them to evaluate because it is the industry requirement. If I were running a consulting firm, I
would definitely do it because getting the candidates without the necessary people skills might
put the entire company’s value and reputation at stake.

• You might be the best brain on the planet – And you might say that you can solve any case
on the planet. But that really doesn’t mean that you’re meant to be a consultant. The
communication and likeability aspect is also a big factor in this industry. It doesn’t mean that
you should a**lick or have a favoritism mindset – That is totally wrong. People skills basically
means you should be empathetic, take other people’s perspectives, admit mistakes if you
realize you’re wrong and overall be a fun person to be in a team. During the dinners, if they’re
 going to evaluate you and you evaluate them, their mindset will be “Will I want to have this
kid on my team” and your mindset should be “Will I want to work with this guy” who you
can consider as a representative sample of that firm. If these are the mindsets of the people
during the dinners, the dinners will turn out to be fun events.

How does it generally work?

• There will be a buffet with food which is definitely better than the mess food. So, it is
completely worth going for the dinners at least for the food. ;) Moreover, you don’t have an
option but to go since now you want to evaluate them as much as you think they want to
evaluate you. But anyway, for me, that’s about the main thing – the food. Let’s get to the less
important factors ( #sarcarm101 :P )

• There will be a few tables (5-6 students per table) and at least, how it worked for the companies
I went for – Those consultants take rounds. Like if there are 6 consultants from the firm, each
of them sit at each table for some time, asks everyone small introductions and then opens for
questions from the candidates. The candidates ask questions, the conversations happen and
the consultants switch with time between tables. That’s about it. (Don’t forget to have food
in the process of asking questions. Remember – You don’t want to go back to mess and have
the food there)

What questions to ask?

• First of all, acknowledge that it is a 2 way evaluation. Kill the negative thought that they’re
there to judge you which will kill your confidence and character to even talk properly. When
you acknowledge that it is a 2 way evaluation, realize that whatever will happen during the
dinners should be more of a 2 way conversation between friends, with the candidates having
to give the company folks a little extra respect, primarily due to the extra life experience and
service in the industry. That’s about it. The tone of the conversation will be set when you
acknowledge that. Next is what all questions to ask?

• Lol. This is funny. So I’ve seen people writing down a long list of questions, memorizing
them and just shooting them to the partners/consultants, without knowing that they can
easily see through all this. You know that their mindset is to see whether you’re a fun genuine
person to be with. When you memorize and state something, people can easily make out. I’m
not blaming my friends for doing what they did, because they were primarily affected by the
negative “They’re here to judge me. If I don’t ask, I will not get placed in summers. I need to
ask a lot of questions so that at least they get my attention” mindset. I think I’ve stated this
same point several times and I will not be repeating again. That mindset will not do you any
good. If I were a consultant sitting on the other side, it’ll be super-easy for me to see through
all this.
 • While sitting through their ppts, you’ll naturally have a lot of questions that come into your
head. For me, before even any of the shortlists came, the only real question I was bothered
about when it came to consulting was “How is the work-life balance in consulting?” and
nothing else. But when I sat through the ppts and just listened to the speakers speak, a lot of
questions naturally came in – Like for instance certain consulting firms have special
capabilities in certain sectors. I knew for a fact that my interests were not in finance. So when
I researched with a few friends of mine after listening to the ppts, I knew which all consult
firms were more into finance. That popped up a few questions in me. Likewise, the questions
that come into your mind are specific to the mapping you do between your unique skills and
capabilities / interests with the kind of work the different consult firms so. Do not worry
about it one bit at this stage when you’re reading this document. Just go listen properly during
the ppts and you’ll get the questions you want to get answered naturally. The only thing is
that you need to put in the effort to listen.

What else apart from questions?

• So you have a few questions ready in your mind. Do not memorize and all that. You’ll naturally
remember all this during your dinners, because it’s a 2 way evaluation and you would genuinely
want to know certain things and you can just ask those questions. In addition to this, there are
2 important things you need to do

• Give way: You have a few genuine questions that you need to ask them. But acknowledge the
fact that your friends also will have questions (Whether they’re genuine questions or they’ve
memorized questions is not the point). Don’t take life so seriously and think of it as you want
all your questions answered. If some questions are not answered, you can ask them after the
dinner in person as well. But during the dinner, you need to give way as well. Obviously, if
you keep on asking questions, the person who is evaluating you might want to evaluate others
as well and you would seem like a barrier to his objective. So not giving way would hurt your
chances in a way. So, do give way and make it like a fun group conversation.

• Listen to the conversations: I feel this is the most important part. I feel a lot of people miss
out on this. They just ask a question, get it answered and kind of isolate themselves from the
rest of the conversations thinking that “Yes. I’ve asked my question. The consultant has
noticed me”. That is just bullsh*t. That mindset will not really do you any good, not just for
the dinners/summer placements but in life. You need to listen to all conversations happening.
There might be things you never thought of that your friends might bring up that will be a
new learning for you. You can learn a lot from that. In addition, it can bring in new thoughts
in you as a result of which you’d want to know other genuine stuff that you hadn’t thought of
earlier, and you can ask that. Like I mentioned, make it a fun group conversation.

• I’ll give you an example from one of the dinners from last time. So I had asked something
(honestly don’t remember what it was) to the consultant. He was answering. In between, he
suddenly got some message on his phone and he checked it. He hadn’t finished answering and
 I was waiting for him to finish the answer. After checking his message, he just started to
complete the answer. Immediately, a friend of mine sitting on the next seat shot a question,
which had absolutely no connection whatsoever with the conversation we were having and
the partner got stunned. There was a few seconds of silence and he told my friend to wait until
he finishes answering my question. My friend wasn’t listening to the previous conversation. I
felt he kind of killed his chance there. Later a few of my friends came to me for few tips on
handling the next few dinners. I just told them to ask genuine questions, give way and listen
attentively. When some of them told me they were finding it really hard to engage in
conversations and even open their mouth, I even told a few of them to just attentively, analyze
the conversation in their head and if they have thoughts, just start using lines like “Ok. So, just
to add on to what we discussed, what about (question)” Listening will make it super-easy to
carry on conversations. These are all very basic stuff, but the whole negative judgment thought
completely makes a lot of people play their game on defense and makes them someone who
they’re not killing their confidence and character.

• I used to hog the food during the dinners like crazy. Did not really care about what the
consultants would’ve thought. Not saying that everyone should do it that way, but I’m a big
foodie and couldn’t stop any such cravings of mine because of a thought of what others might
think if they see me eat. Think about it – You’re going to be possibly working with those
people for a large part of your life. If every time you’re going to eat food, you’ll have to be
bothered about what others think about the way you eat or way you talk (the same negative
judgment thought), you’ll never have time to enjoy the food, be yourself and be happy.

• Another memory from one of last year’s dinners was – So an HR female who was good looking
was coming to the table where I was seated. Most of the dinners I had attended it had all been
guys and I was finally really glad to see a decent looking lady. The previous consultant on our
table had mentioned earlier that she was in HR. So she came and sat at the table. After a small
round of introductions, she asked “Any questions?” Knowing that she was in HR and she
herself asking the group whether there are any questions, I just asked the first question that
came to my mind at that moment with an innocent smile “How many interns are you planning
to hire this time? ;) ” That was an icebreaker for her with that group. Everyone had a small
laugh. She also had a laugh and that started off the conversation in that table. Later, I was on
the hotlist of that consult firm as well. Honestly, I did not do it intentionally. The thought just
came at that point when I saw her. It’s not that I went there prepared with that question,
knowing that this woman will come sit on the table.

• Point of all this being, just be yourself and ask genuine questions – whatever you feel like
whenever you feel like asking – just ask it. You can go prepared if you want to – But be genuine
in your questions after listening to the ppts – Don’t memorize – People will be able to see
through easily. Importantly, give way to questions of others. Listen to others and the
conversation overall. You’ll get intrigued by the way the conversation will head. Everyone is
awesome and when everyone just acts as themselves, the conversations at the dinners will
naturally turn out to be fun. And if it’s meant to be and if you deserve that company and that
company deserves you, it’ll work out. Either way, think of it as a win-win for both parties.