Entry level Consulting Recruitment Webinar

Middle East and UK

Fall 2023 Cycle

By Shivani Gautam
October 2023
Consulting Overview
It is a professional services industry known for bringing in external expertise to help solve problems and
create value for different types of organizations

- Your boss is also not his own boss, you’re always at the service of the client.
- Expertise comes with years of practice, that’s why typically the older the firm, the more
knowledge it has cumulated and thus it is more renowned
- Organizations could be businesses, government entities or even not-profits

Consulting companies compete in the market for three things

- Talent (people they hire, people they work with)

- Trust (quality of service)
- Thought-ware (internal accumulation and external marketing of knowledge)

On a global level, most top-tier or generalist consulting firms tend to organize themselves in a matrix

Industry/ Sector/ Verticals Healthcare Utilities Financial …

services
Capabilities/ Functions/
Skills
Strategy
Operations
Marketing
…

Examples of true generalist consulting firms are - McKinsey, Bain, Boston, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, Ernst &
Young…

Some firms tend to specialize in certain industries. For example, L.E.K, ZS, IQVIA all specialize in in
Healthcare & Lifesciences

Other firms tend to specialize in certain capabilities. For example, Pearson Ham (pricing), Alvarez and
Marsal (Restructuring/ Turnaround)

Others are somewhere in between – Kearney, Oliver Wyman, Dalberg, etc.

Typical Career levels

• Analyst (entry-level, pre-MBA) ~ 1-2 years in rank

• Associate (entry-level, post-MBA) ~2-3 years in rank
• Manager ~5-6 years in rank
• Principal ~7-8 years in rank
• Partner ~15+ overall experience
Exit Opportunities

- Industry exits - work with clients or firms within your area of expertise
- PE/VC at Analyst/Associate or VP level based on total years of experience
- Founders of Office/ CXO roles at startups
- Entrepreneurship
- Think-tanks/ Policy-making
- …

Typical expectation from an entry-level consultant within the firm

- Ability to absorb and process large amounts of information fast and in an efficient manner
- Crystalize the information, synthesis the insight and present it in efficient oral/ written/ visual
formats
- Research ability
- Learnability
- Adaptability
- Confidence

Tools of the trade

- Powerpoint
- Excel
- Word
- Anything else is bonus (SQL/ Alteryx/ Power BI/ …)

NOTE

Resources to research more about consulting

1. Management Consulted
2. Consultancy.org
3. Youtube
Consulting in Middle East
Overview

Emerging economy – Nation building phase, transforming their countries and diversifying their
economies at an accelerated pace

One of the best places to be in consulting in the whole world right now

Bulk of the projects are in KSA; Companies are being incentivized to have a Riyadh office

Key Industries

- Energy and Process Industries

- Infrastructure
- Public policy
- Human Capital
- Sovereign Wealth Funds

Key Players & also Top recruiters

BCG, Kearney, Strategy&, McKinsey, Delta Partners

Daily life of a consultant

- Working hours are usually longer

- Travel is more frequent
- There might be some reservations in terms of DEI, but firms are global so it really shouldn’t
matter much beyond the client contexts
- For women : Abaya etc isn’t a must/ It’s well received but not mandatory

NOTE

Resources to research/ learn more about the geography

- Thought-ware published by Consulting Companies

- National Transformation strategy documents published by countries in the region

Resources to research/ learn more about consulting in this region

- Consulting fishbowl
- Glassdoor
- Talking to people on linkedin
Recruitment Timeline and Trends (London and ME)
STAGE Full-time/Summer TIMELINE What to expect How to be prepared
Internship
Employer Both September- Show up to the event, ask Application Tracker
Presentations & October relevant questions, make High level background research on the
Networking events warm LinkedIn connections, company
take notes Showing up/ Engaging
Following-up
Applications Full-time Early October- Track all the applications, Application Tracker
mid November fill out lengthy forms, CVs Time-management
and Cover letters Only making customization level changes
to CV and Cover letter
Screening Tests/ Full-time Early November Sit for 3-4 hour long tests, Practice Tests
Shortlisting – early maybe 5 tests a week in Time management
December peak season, chase HRs for Stay calm under pressure
shorlists
First Round Full-time Mid November- Two 45-60 min interviews Case Interview preparation
interviews mid December by Managers who will give Practice Relevant Cases
you an easy-to-moderate Company Research
business case, ask Resilience
behavioral questions, Time Management
explore fit
Second/ Final Full-time Late December- Two 60-90 min interviews Case Interview preparation
Round interviews March/April by Partners who will give Practice Relevant Cases
you an moderate-to- Company Research
difficult business case, ask Resilience
weirded behavioral Time Management
questions, and emphasize Emotional Resilience
on fit
Offer roll-outs Full-time Either before Lots of HR chasing/ cold- Emotional Resilience
Christmas or in mailing/ making decisions Informed decision making
Spring term
Applications Internships January Applying to new firms and Emotional Resilience
roles / re-applying for Informed decision making
internship roles with same
firms
Screening Tests/ Internships February Less hectic usually than full- Emotional Resilience
Shortlisting time recruiting but similar Informed decision making
rigor/ test Brush-up on practice tests
Interviews Internships March-April Similar but less stakes for Emotional Resilience
the employers and rapid Informed decision making
timeline Keep casing
Offer roll-outs Internships April-May Lots of HR chasing/ cold- Emotional Resilience
mailing/ making decisions Informed decision making

Note

Middle East recruitment follows the same exact timeline but it can seem a lot more unstructured and
scattered which is mainly due to any of the following factors

- Business need volatility

- The amount of hiring they have to do
- HR’s are shifty
- Not all firms have campus recruitments/ online job links
Financials comparison - London and ME
London Dubai
Analyst level pay ~35-50k GBP/ annum ~100k USD/ annum
Associate level pay ~80-100k GBP/ annum ~215k USD/ annum
Taxes 30-40% depending on tax NA
bracket
Rent + utilities (for 1 person ~2500 GBP/ month ~ 7000 AED/ month
living comfortably in a studio
or apartment sharing)
Food ~300 GBP ~ 500 AED/ month
Going out (commute/ eating ~ 80 GBP/ outing ~ 300 AED/ outing
out/ some ticketed event)

Numbers are mere estimates and subjective to realization/ change.

Please validate for your own reference before making decisions.

This is no means a recommendation of which is better than the other.

Preparation Strategy
1. Active Preparation
2. Passive Preparation
3. Process

(emotional resilience, time management and informed decision-making is relevant at all stages and at all
times; not to mention collaborating with friends and peers)

Active Preparation (focus of the rest of the session)

- Making your CVs and Cover letters

- Practicing Screening tests
- Case Interview preparation

Passive Preparation (later)

- Learning about the industry

- Learning about any firm
- Finding, consolidating, and tracking job openings/ applications
- Meeting people and making connections

Process (later)

- Filling out application forms

- Customizing your CVs and Cover letters
- Practicing relevant cases for the firm you’re interviewing for
- Specifically networking with people from the firm you’re interviewing for/ applying to

Making your CVs and Cover letters

For your “Consulting” CV

- Keep in under a page

- Always check your contact information is correct
- Follow the standard format shared by your career centre/ usually that helps you leverage the
“familiarity” experience, especially if you’re from a reputed university in your region
- Don’t worry about making this a consulting CV – every CV can be a consulting CV, all experiences
are relevant to consulting as long as you can demonstrate some transferrable skill or valuable
impact
- Quality of experience >> Quantity of experience
- Don’t shy away from talking about projects/ extra-curriculars/ etc
- If you can, try showcasing the following skills : Research, Analysis, Presentation, Stakeholder
Management, etc.
- Use the C-A-R (Context-Action-Result) format to structure your bullets (not more than 2 lines)
- Focus should always be on Impact; Quantify Impact if possible
 - Try to demonstrate exceptional achievement in any one or two thing(s) that you’re passionate
about
- Use additional information/ hobbies section smartly as it is usually the first thing an interviewer
will ask you about or talk to you about
- Keep updating it frequently as you gain more experience during your program

For your “Consulting” Cover letter

- Keep it under a page

- Follow the rule of threes - Introduction, Body and Conclusion
- Personalize to the reader, if you can
- Using references (names of people from the firm you’ve interacted with) is a good practice but
not an absolute necessity
- Run things on Grammarly till you get 95%+ score

Introduction
- Always clearly mention the role you’re applying to and the name of the firm, location (only
when you have to)
- Keep it brief
- Make sure you leave a succinct impression of your overall profile (hinting at 1-2 most relevant
experiences and education)

Body
- Structure it in 2-3 paragraphs; not more than 5
- Don’t detail out your CV or talk about all your experiences. Only chose relevant experiences that
can demonstrate key ideas you want to leave with the reader
- Use P-R-E-P (Point-Rationale-Example-Point) format to write your paragraphs
- Keep it succinct; don’t use flamboyant language
- You can follow any format to structure your body but some of my favorites are
- What drives your passion for Consulting?
- Why do you want to work with this particular firm and not any other consulting firm?
- Why do you think they should hire you out of all candidates? What makes you shine?
I believe I’m a goof fit for the <> role at the <> company because of the following qualities or
experiences.
- Quality 1 – justified by previous examples, highlighting the impact
- Quality 2 – justified by previous examples, highlighting the impact
- Quality 3 – justified by previous examples, highlighting the impact

Conclusion
- A good area to name-drop
- Have an optimistic and strong conclusion and not a weak summary
- Not more than a paragraph
- Try to personalize it to the reader
Practicing Screening tests

- Quantitative Reasoning *
- Numeracy/ Speed Math
- Verbal Reasoning *
- Essay style questions
- Logical Reasoning *
- Written cases
- Virtual cases
- Memory and IQ games *
- Behavioral/ Situational Tests
- Personality Assessment tests
- Gamified Assessments

Each company will have a different combination of some of the above. Ideal strategy is to be generally
prepared for the * ones (because they’re more basic and frequent) and then do special preparation on a
need basis for others

Look at this as an extension of your GMAT/GRE prep days and more like a brain stimulating activity.

You can spend 1-1.5 hours/ day for 5-10 days to build a good foundation before the peak stage and
then keep on practicing as and when you have time/need for a particular company

Don’t wait for the last day of the deadline to do this.

Don’t be shy to take help, but also know that sharing answers can only get your so far in the whole
process

Time management and resilience are the most important levers during preparation and also while
giving the test

Note

Preparation Resource for Screening tests

- Graduates First
- Bright Network
- Assessment Centre
- Job Test Prep

Case Interview preparation

Case Interviews are small stylized cases that try to mock the actual consulting process. Important things
that are judged are –

- Ability to process information

- Structured communication
- Creativity
- Teamwork
 - Learnability
- Analytical and reasoning ability
- Numeracy
- Commercial Sensibility (This is where your frameworks/ business concepts are tested)
- General Knowledge and Industry insights (It is not a need. But always good to have.)
- Thinking and Judgement

Case Interviews can be interviewer led (Your interviewer will drive the interview by giving you
information and asking you probing questions and nudging you in the right direction) or interviewee led
(You will be expected to ask more probing questions and lead the interview)

Cases can be very-structured where you get handed a 30 page pre-read and multiple quantitative and
qualitative exhibits and asked to present a solution in 30 mins or they can be very open-ended that just
begin with a small question like “Hey should your friend open a small artistic café in your neighborhood
in London?”

You can expect case interviews to have a separate Guestimate/Numeracy section or it will be covered
within the case.

You should practice guestimates like you practice cases, every time you do a case interview, spend
couple of extra minutes and exchange brain teasers and try to work through them together and don’t
forget to sanity-check your numbers. Always have a MECE approach to your guesitmates and be very
linear.

- Practice some guestimates on paper

- Practice some on excel as well (it will help you get structured) in your numeracy and avoid
mistakes

You can either expect 1 big case or even 2-3 mini cases/ guestimates, depending on the firm. Usually this
is communicated prior to the interview.

Pro-tip - The more senior the interviewer, the more open ended it can be and also weirder because
Partners tend to not read a lot of case materials before jumping on the call to interview you. So don’t
panic if final round interviews end up feeling not so smooth.

Most important thing to learn about casing – MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive)

How to prepare for it

Basics –

1. Victor Cheng’s Playlist

2. Victor Cheng’s website
3. Case in Point (Textbook at a Quick Glance)
4. Our casing resources shared by your career centre (e.g., Case Coach)

Intermediate –

1. Watching mock case-interviews

2. Practice solo cases (1-2) just to build some practice with frameworks
 3. Practice with friends (4-5)
4. Start practicing with more senior students/ MBAs/ ex-consultants (15-20)

Advanced –

1. Learning strategic frameworks – Porter’s 5 forces, Blue Ocean Strategy, PESTEL, Value chain
analysis, SWOT analysis, BCG Matrix, Ansoff Matrix
2. Learning economic concepts – Market equilibrium, Demand shocks, Supply shocks, Breakeven
Analysis, Fixed costs, Variable costs, Marginal Revenue, Marginal Costs, Pricing in Homogenous
and Heterogenous markets
3. Learning marketing frameworks – STP, 5Cs, 4Ps, etc.
4. Learning finance concepts – NPV, IRR, Pay-back period, CAPEX, OPEX, ROA, ROE, ROS
5. Learning accounting concepts – Types of Assets and Liabilities (concepts such as Depreciation,
COGS, Inventory, Goodwill, etc.) Contribution Margin, Variance, CVP, Direct costs, Indirect costs,
KPIs for different types of industry
6. Doing about 5-10 actual case interviews
7. Focus on presentation and behavior than mere analysis in casing practice

Expert –

1. Continuously read and update yourself about different industries and leverage industry findings
to inform your commercial sensibility and judgement
 DISCLAIMER

Views are personal and do not reflect of my employer(s)

All facts and figures are estimates and subject to rationalization/ change

This material is only for personal consumption and kindly respect that. I hope you do not circulate
without permission.

If you would like more detailed resources, such as CV templates, cover letter templates, summary sheets
of frameworks or an Excel application tracker, please fill out this form that takes 10 seconds.

THANK YOU

ALL THE BEST