PARADE Method

The PARADE Method ™ is an approach to answering job interview questions. It is

an approach developed answering these questions in job interviews for
management consulting, as well as interviews for senior positions in industry.

It can be used by candidates to prepare concise and powerful answers to

commonly asked consulting resume questions. It can also be used by
interviewers to remind candidates to identify all the key information needed to
assess a candidate’s career experiences.

For the purposes of this article, I will describe the PARADE method from the
perspective of the job-seeker.

PARADE is an acronym that stands for:

P roblem
A nticipated Consequence
R ole
A ction
D ecision-Making Rationale
E nd-Result

Let me explain what each of these 6 factors mean:

1) PROBLEM — What is the problem you or your organization faced? Since the
business of consulting (and executive management) is that of solving problems,
anytime you explain a career experience, extra-curricular activity, or academic
experience, frame the experience as a problem.

2) ANTICIPATED CONSEQUENCE – What consequence did you or your

organization face if this problem continued without resolution?

3) ROLE – What was your role in resolving this problem? Interviewers want to
know what YOU did… not what “we” did. A source of irritation for many
interviewers is when the candidate says, “We faced a $10 million drop in sales,
and we fixed this by landing three new clients for $3.3 million each.”

The savvy interviewer will immediately ask, “I see… and what specifically was
your role in this situation?” Did you find and close all $10 million in sales? Did
you just show up at the sales meeting? Did you cheer the sales team on from
the sidelines?

Save the interviewer the trouble and pro-actively explain what your role was in
solving the problem.

4) ACTION — What action did YOU take? What did you do? Be specific. Say, “I
did three things: a) I did X; b) I did Y; c) I did Z.”

5) DECISION-MAKING RATIONALE – Explain why you decided to take the action

that you did. What other options did you consider? Why didn’t you choose the
other options? Why this specific decision? What quantitative data did you
consider? What qualitative data did you consider?

Especially in consulting interviews, it is important that your decision-making

rationale include analytical factors (“I analysed X, and determined Y was the
better choice for Z reasons”). It is also important to consider inter-personal
factors in your rationale.

“Option A was the best logical option, but it was also a tough sell, given the
culture of the organization. Option B was 80% as good as Option A, but had no
cultural resistance. Given the political environment, I chose Option B.”

6) END-RESULT — After you took the action that you did, what happened? What
was the outcome? Be specific — when possible, use a measurable outcome.