Iim Lucknow Casebook V15

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Foreword As companies worldwide get more and more concerned about hiring the right talent for their key positions, candidate evaluation during interviews has become all the more sophisticated. The case interview is unique in the sense that it presents the candidate with a problem to be solved in the context of real-world business situations and seeks solutions that tests both logical reasoning and creativity. It allows the interviewer to evaluate the candidate’s skills in deconstructing a problem and communicating their thought process, the ability to think on their feet, handle ambiguity and assess their comfort with numbers. Although, traditionally used by consulting firms in their recruiting processes, the case method is now increasingly used for jobs across functions whether general management or investment banking. The casebook by The Consulting & Strategy Club of IIM Lucknow documents candidates’ interview experiences by different firms that have been hiring from the IIM Lucknow campus over the years. The ideal way to use this book would be for the candidate to first arrive at a case solution employing his own approach and then enhance his learning through comparison with the approaches documented in the casebook.

The Consulting & Strategy Club Amit | Arushi | Devika | Jyothirmayi | Riya | Saksham Arjun | Diwakar | Monika | Sanchit | Shaurya | Udit

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Table of Contents Skills Tested ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Types of Cases Encountered ........................................................................................................... 8 To-do List for a Case Interview ...................................................................................................... 9 Frameworks......................................................................................................................................... 9 Summer Internship Experiences 2015 .................................................................................. 15 Accenture Management Consulting ........................................................................................ 16 Interview Experience 1 ......................................................................................................................... 17 Interview Experience 2 ......................................................................................................................... 19 Interview Experience 3 ......................................................................................................................... 21 Interview Experience 4 ......................................................................................................................... 23 Interview Experience 5 ......................................................................................................................... 25 Interview Experience 6 ......................................................................................................................... 28 Interview Experience 7 ......................................................................................................................... 29 Interview Experience 8 ......................................................................................................................... 31 Interview Experience 9 ......................................................................................................................... 33 Interview Experience 10 ....................................................................................................................... 35 Interview Experience 11 ....................................................................................................................... 36 Interview Experience 12 ....................................................................................................................... 38 Interview Experience 13 ....................................................................................................................... 40 Interview Experience 14 ....................................................................................................................... 42 Interview Experience 15 ....................................................................................................................... 43

A T Kearney ..................................................................................................................................... 45 Interview Experience 16 ....................................................................................................................... 46 Interview Experience 17 ....................................................................................................................... 48 Interview Experience 18 ....................................................................................................................... 51 Interview Experience 19 ....................................................................................................................... 52

Alvarez and Marsal ....................................................................................................................... 53 Interview Experience 20 ....................................................................................................................... 54 Interview Experience 21 ....................................................................................................................... 55 Interview Experience 22 ....................................................................................................................... 57

Auctus Advisors ............................................................................................................................. 58 Interview Experience 23 ....................................................................................................................... 59 Interview Experience 24 ....................................................................................................................... 60 Interview Experience 25 ....................................................................................................................... 61

The Boston Consulting Group ................................................................................................... 63 Interview Experience 26 ....................................................................................................................... 64 Interview Experience 27 ....................................................................................................................... 66 Interview Experience 28 ....................................................................................................................... 69 Interview Experience 29 ....................................................................................................................... 70 The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Interview Experience 30 ....................................................................................................................... 72 Interview Experience 31 ....................................................................................................................... 74 Interview Experience 32 ....................................................................................................................... 76 Interview Experience 33 ....................................................................................................................... 79 Interview Experience 34 ....................................................................................................................... 81 Interview Experience 35 ....................................................................................................................... 83

Deloitte S&O .................................................................................................................................... 84 Interview Experience 36 ....................................................................................................................... 85 Interview Experience 37 ....................................................................................................................... 88 Interview Experience 38 ....................................................................................................................... 90 Interview Experience 39 ....................................................................................................................... 92

EY ........................................................................................................................................................ 94 Interview Experience 40 ....................................................................................................................... 95

Hay Group Consulting .................................................................................................................. 96 Interview Experience 41 ....................................................................................................................... 97

KPMG ................................................................................................................................................. 99 Interview Experience 42 ..................................................................................................................... 100 Interview Experience 43 ..................................................................................................................... 102 Interview Experience 44 ..................................................................................................................... 103

McKinsey & Co. ............................................................................................................................ 104 Interview Experience 45 ..................................................................................................................... 105 Interview Experience 46 ..................................................................................................................... 106 Interview Experience 47 ..................................................................................................................... 107 Interview Experience 48 ..................................................................................................................... 109 Interview Experience 49 ..................................................................................................................... 111 Interview Experience 50 ..................................................................................................................... 113 Interview Experience 51 ..................................................................................................................... 114 Interview Experience 52 ..................................................................................................................... 115 Interview Experience 53 ..................................................................................................................... 117

PWC ................................................................................................................................................. 118 Interview Experience 54 ..................................................................................................................... 119 Interview Experience 55 ..................................................................................................................... 121 Interview Experience 56 ..................................................................................................................... 122

Summer Internship Experiences 2014 ............................................................................... 123 Accenture Management Consulting ..................................................................................... 124 Interview Experience 1 ....................................................................................................................... 125 Interview Experience 2 ....................................................................................................................... 127 Interview Experience 3 ....................................................................................................................... 128 Interview Experience 4 ....................................................................................................................... 129 Interview Experience 5 ....................................................................................................................... 136 Interview Experience 6 ....................................................................................................................... 137 The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Interview Experience 7 ....................................................................................................................... 138

Altisource and Ocwen ............................................................................................................... 140 Interview Experience 8 ....................................................................................................................... 141 Interview Experience 9 ....................................................................................................................... 142 Interview Experience 10 ..................................................................................................................... 143 Interview Experience 11 ..................................................................................................................... 144 Interview Experience 12 ..................................................................................................................... 145

Alvarez and Marsal .................................................................................................................... 146 Interview Experience 13 ..................................................................................................................... 147 Interview Experience 14 ..................................................................................................................... 148 Interview Experience 15 ..................................................................................................................... 149

A T Kearney .................................................................................................................................. 150 Interview Experience 16 ..................................................................................................................... 151 Interview Experience 17 ..................................................................................................................... 153 Interview Experience 18 ..................................................................................................................... 154 Interview Experience 19 ..................................................................................................................... 155 Interview Experience 20 ..................................................................................................................... 157

Auctus Advisors .......................................................................................................................... 158 Interview Experience 21 ..................................................................................................................... 159 Interview Experience 22 ..................................................................................................................... 162

Boston Consulting Group ......................................................................................................... 164 Interview Experience 23 ..................................................................................................................... 165 Interview Experience 24 ..................................................................................................................... 168 Interview Experience 25 ..................................................................................................................... 169 Interview Experience 26 ..................................................................................................................... 170 Interview Experience 27 ..................................................................................................................... 173 Interview Experience 28 ..................................................................................................................... 175 Interview Experience 29 ..................................................................................................................... 176

Deloitte US Strategy & Operations ....................................................................................... 177 Interview Experience 30 ..................................................................................................................... 178 Interview Experience 31 ..................................................................................................................... 179 Interview Experience 32 ..................................................................................................................... 181 Interview Experience 33 ..................................................................................................................... 183

KPMG .............................................................................................................................................. 187 Interview Experience 34 ..................................................................................................................... 188 Interview Experience 35 ..................................................................................................................... 189 Interview Experience 36 ..................................................................................................................... 190

McKinsey & Co. ............................................................................................................................ 191 Interview Experience 37 ..................................................................................................................... 192 Interview Experience 38 ..................................................................................................................... 194 Interview Experience 39 ..................................................................................................................... 195 The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Interview Experience 40 ..................................................................................................................... 196 Interview Experience 41 ..................................................................................................................... 197 Interview Experience 42 ..................................................................................................................... 198 Interview Experience 43 ..................................................................................................................... 199 Interview Experience 44 ..................................................................................................................... 200 Interview Experience 45 ..................................................................................................................... 202 Interview Experience 46 ..................................................................................................................... 204

Summer Internship Experiences 2013 ............................................................................... 206 Accenture Management Consulting ..................................................................................... 207 Interview Experience 1 ....................................................................................................................... 208 Interview Experience 2 ....................................................................................................................... 209 Interview Experience 3 ....................................................................................................................... 210 Interview Experience 4 ....................................................................................................................... 212 Interview Experience 5 ....................................................................................................................... 214 Interview Experience 6 ....................................................................................................................... 216 Interview Experience 7 ....................................................................................................................... 218 Interview Experience 8 ....................................................................................................................... 220

A T Kearney .................................................................................................................................. 222 Interview Experience 9 ....................................................................................................................... 223

Boston Consulting Group ......................................................................................................... 225 Interview Experience 10 ..................................................................................................................... 226 Interview Experience 11 ..................................................................................................................... 228

Deloitte US Strategy & Operations ....................................................................................... 230 Interview Experience 12 ..................................................................................................................... 231 Interview Experience 13 ..................................................................................................................... 232 Interview Experience 14 ..................................................................................................................... 234

KPMG .............................................................................................................................................. 236 Interview Experience 15 ..................................................................................................................... 237

McKinsey & Co ............................................................................................................................. 238 Interview Experience 16 ..................................................................................................................... 239 Interview Experience 17 ..................................................................................................................... 241 Interview Experience 18 ..................................................................................................................... 242 Interview Experience 19 ..................................................................................................................... 245 Interview Experience 20 ..................................................................................................................... 248 Interview Experience 21 ..................................................................................................................... 249 Interview Experience 22 ..................................................................................................................... 250

Summer Internship Experiences 2012 ............................................................................... 252 Accenture Management Consulting ..................................................................................... 253 Interview Experience 1 ........................................................................................................................ 254 Interview Experience 2 ........................................................................................................................ 255 Interview Experience 3 ........................................................................................................................ 256 The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Interview Experience 4 ........................................................................................................................ 258 Interview Experience 5 ........................................................................................................................ 261 Interview Experience 6 ........................................................................................................................ 262 Interview Experience 7 ........................................................................................................................ 264 Interview Experience 8 ........................................................................................................................ 266 Interview Experience 9 ........................................................................................................................ 269

A T Kearney .................................................................................................................................. 271 Interview Experience 10....................................................................................................................... 272

Boston Consulting Group ......................................................................................................... 274 Interview Experience 11....................................................................................................................... 275 Interview Experience 12....................................................................................................................... 279 Interview Experience 13....................................................................................................................... 280 Interview Experience 14....................................................................................................................... 283 Interview Experience 15....................................................................................................................... 286 Interview Experience 16....................................................................................................................... 288 Interview Experience 17....................................................................................................................... 290 Interview Experience 18....................................................................................................................... 292

Summer Internship Experiences 2011 ............................................................................... 294 Accenture Business Consulting ............................................................................................. 295 Interview Experience 1 ........................................................................................................................ 296 Interview Experience 2 ........................................................................................................................ 298 Interview Experience 3 ........................................................................................................................ 303

Boston Consulting Group ......................................................................................................... 306 Interview Experience 4 ........................................................................................................................ 306 Interview Experience 5 ........................................................................................................................ 314 Interview Experience 6 ........................................................................................................................ 317 Interview Experience 7 ........................................................................................................................ 319 Interview Experience 8 ........................................................................................................................ 320

KPMG .............................................................................................................................................. 324 Interview Experience 9 ........................................................................................................................ 325 Interview Experience 10....................................................................................................................... 327

McKinsey & Co. ............................................................................................................................ 330 Interview Experience 11....................................................................................................................... 331 Interview Experience 12....................................................................................................................... 333 Interview Experience 13....................................................................................................................... 335 Interview Experience 14....................................................................................................................... 338 Interview Experience 15....................................................................................................................... 343

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About Case Interviews

Case interviews are usually based on real problems which interviewers themselves have encountered in the course of their client engagements. They usually last for about 20 minutes and seek to test the candidate’s problem solving skills. In a typical case interview, the interviewer states a problem and the interviewee goes about tackling the problem by asking a series of questions. The interviewer answers these questions based on how he wishes to direct the interview. The candidate must put forth a logical framework for solving the problem after having understood the key issues and must ideally make some recommendations/conclusions towards the end of a case. Skills Tested     

Problem solving skills Quantitative skills Communication skills Poise and professionalism Firm fit

Types of Cases Encountered  Estimation cases–Determine something by making reasonable assumptions about critical variables. For example: How many golf balls fit into a 747, or how many pens are sold every month on the IIM Lucknow campus?  Market Sizing & Entry/Expansion  Profit/Losses – Analyze changes in profitability, revenues and costs  Industry Analysis  Product Launch – Help a client gauge if and how to launch a product  Mergers & Acquisitions  Competition Handling

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To-do List for a Case Interview      

Take notes Do not make any assumptions Ask questions Take your time before responding Lay out a structure for the interviewer Summarize at regular intervals

Frameworks     

Knowledge of basic types of frameworks is helpful in case interviews Helps in structuring the case analysis especially complex cases Attention should be paid to minute details of the case Identify the most critical issue and try to find solution for it All the frameworks are very well-known and just using them won’t help you in cracking the interview  Don’t fit a framework forcefully. Use it as a checklist to be exhaustive in case you are stuck  Try mixing and matching frameworks with different types of cases  Try to form your own effective framework

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Some Important Frameworks

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SUPPLY AND DEMAND: The market-clearing price and quantity is determined by the intersection of demand curve and the supply curve.

PROFITABILITY: Try to find out the reason for change in profitability. Profit = P * Q - ((VC * Q) + FC) Profits are defined as total revenue minus total cost. Changes in revenue are due to a change in quantity, price or both. Total cost is the sum of variable plus fixed costs. Variable costs vary directly with quantity while fixed costs are set for a given period. 3Cs: It is one of the most widely used frameworks and one can differentiate their analysis by not using it. Still, a quick and effective framework for industry analysis!

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PORTER’S 5 FORCES MODEL: It is usually the first step in industry analysis and should be followed by further analysis. This makes it very time consuming in nature. Analysts use it for qualitative evaluation of a firm’s strategic position.

VALUE AND SUPPLY CHAIN: It can be used to examine an industry’s depth.

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PORTER’S GENERIC STRATEGIES: It is a very effective tool in analysis of the cases.

SWOT: In a full case analysis, this framework leads to time wastage and should be avoided. It can be used as a presentation framework.

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MARKETING FRAMEWORKS: These frameworks are very helpful in analysing marketing cases in consulting interviews. STP: Segmentation:  Consider variables for segmenting markets  Analyse the profile of emerging segments  Validate emerging segments Targeting:  Formulate a targeting strategy  Decision on which segments should be targeted Positioning:  Understand the perception of the customers  Position products in the minds of the consumers 4Ps:    

Product – Functionality, brand, packaging and services Price- Absolute and relative price Place- Channel, inventory, logistics and distribution Promotion- advertising, publicity, sales force, sales promotion

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Summer Internship Experiences 2015

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Accenture Management Consulting

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Interview Experience 1 Name: Aditya Pratap Singh Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 3 Commerce in XII. Did Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) in Finance from SSCBS, Brief Profile: DU. 2 years of work experience in EY in the consulting domain. Interview questions: 1st round – 1 manager A. Tell me about yourself – Started with work experience and took a 1 second pause. B. He picked one project (work ex) from my CV and asked me to explain the problem and what all levers did we tweak. C. The discussion went to NPV and IRR (because I mentioned it) – Was asked very in-depth questions. I had used NPV for a hospitality client for a buy-v/s-lease analysis. I was able to justify it. He then told me that his clients in Steel industry prefer IRR and asked me as to what could be the reasons. D. Gave a small case – Telecom client is rolling out promotional schemes and offers but the conversion is low. Client wants to improve conversion. More information was given upon questioning. Narration of the case interview:

a. Conversion was less than 1% - comparable to industry norms but the client wants us to improve it. b. Established player c. Schemes are targeting existing customers d. STP has no issue e. 3 ways of rolling out schemes – SMS, IVRS calls, manual calls. f. Focus on SMS, identify possible areas and generate ideas – some of the areas were – content, frequency, personalization of text messages (mention the name of customer using a script), ease of ordering (reply using SMS, missed call, website etc.), channel conflict, overall service experience and satisfaction, pricing and so on. These factors were categorized to appear structured. 2nd round – 1 partner/director Was made to wait 15-20 minutes A. 3 reasons why should I select you B. Guesstimate – Titan is launching a smart watch for Rs. 12,000. Estimate the market.

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a. I identified the cuts. b. Explained the approach that I planned c. Asked him if he was ok with it and if he wanted to put numbers - He said that numbers are not required d. Countered me at one place on logic – I Was able to defend my stance using Aspirational value concept 3rd round – 1 HR Be nice to the HR who is scheduling you (even if you are being made to wait), he/she might take your final round 2-3 minutes interview A. How were your earlier rounds? B. Did you make any mistake? C. 3 things that will stop you from becoming a good consultant – I struggled in this question. I had an answer ready for weakness but it was (obviously) miles from consulting. Tried to globe D. It seems that you are overconfident – tried to globe yet again. Finally, came up with 1 genuine weakness related to consulting. What do you think went right in this interview?

Leveraged my work experience.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Should have prepared an answer for "3 things that will stop you from becoming a consultant"

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Confidence is most important. Numbers are not at all important. Focus on approach and logic. Don't unnecessarily fit models. If they question you, you must be able to defend it based on logic.

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Interview Experience 2 Name: Amishi Bharti Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 2 Grad: NIT Jamshedpur Brief Profile: Stream: Metallurgical and materials engineering Work experience 42 months in steel industry Round 1 Q1 Tell me about yourself Q2 Show the entire process of making steel Ans: Showed it diagrammatically Q3 What changes would you do in the working of a steel plant for higher profit Ans: Question related to work experience so answered it accordingly Q4 How would you design the product mix (Using objective Interview questions (With function) indicative answers if you Ans Stated the objective function and the constraints choose to share them) Q5 Do you have any problems if you are asked to travel or go to remote areas Ans No. Supported it with an example in the past Q6 Do you have any questions to ask Round 2 Q1 Tell me about yourself Q2 Tell us the most exciting thing you have done in Goa Q3 What are your views on the current state of the steel industry

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 1 interview can be termed as case based. All the questions were centered round my work experience. General case questions like how would you increase the revenue was made specific to a steel plant. Entire interview was around 20 minutes. Round 2 was HR based. It was a friendly interaction and more like a conversation. It was a very short interview. It hardly lasted 10 minutes. Overall the interviewers in round 1 and round 2 were quite friendly and made one feel comfortable. I had gathered quite some information about the company, which helped me make an impression in round 1.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I could have worked more around with the product mix question in round 1 Work experience can be used as an advantage and thus should be prepared thoroughly.

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Interview Experience 3 Name: Ankur Agarwal Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 3 VIT University (Mechanical Engineer) Brief Profile: 10 months work experience at LnT Construction. - Why consulting?? Need to show that you are interested in it. Interview questions (With - Why Accenture? indicative answers if you An in depth knowledge of how Accenture is different firm other choose to share them) consulting firms and what are the opportunities it can provide. - Goals in your life? Should know yourself and your goals. Round 1:(about 1 hour) A very interactive round. More of a conversation with the interviewer sharing his experience. After a few minutes of interaction, questions were asked based on my work experience and interest in consulting. Then a case study on the construction industry was given where there was an issue of material shortage. An extension of the same was to get to the issue of improper labor distribution. The interviewer explained the processes and was very interactive. Not sticking rigidly to a particular framework was the key as the interviewer was more interested in the approach and how diverse I could think.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 2: (1 hour) Initially there were many HR questions on why consulting, why Accenture, why not General Management, my strengths, goals in life and in depth about my work experience and a few questions from my CV. After that a case based on manufacturing industry was given where I was expected to find out the output function parameters of the machine. The case discussion was nice, but halfway through the case, he told to switch on to another case. This was based on my work experience where I was asked to select any product and do the costing of the same. The interviewer was interested in seeing what all parameters I take into consideration and how diverse can I think. After listing down a lot of parameters, he told me that as a manager of a firm you are required to cut down the cost considerably to bag a big order. I was asked to do the cost cutting taking every possible parameter. Again, diversity in thinking and covering all areas was what he was looking for. Round 3: (15 minutes) The final round was an HR round with the Principal where

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questions like strengths, weaknesses, goals, achievement, failure, regret in life, one thing you want to change and similar questions where asked. It also included a rapid fire round in which one word answers were expected.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Not sticking rigidly to a particular framework for the case studies worked in my favor, as the case studies were more on my work experience where application according to the case was more important. Trying to cover all areas and giving all diverse ideas and trying to interact more with the interviewer and extract more information played to my advantage. Even asking relevant questions to the interviewer helped to show that I was interested in the job. Knowing more about the company would have been better as I had stated a wrong fact about the company. As stated by all my interviewers, Accenture hires not as interns but as future prospects, so try to show your interest in the company. Most importantly, you should be able to convince them that you are interested in consulting and that you are interested in the domain. Know about the company in depth and do not strict rigidly to a framework for cases, rather apply one as per the case and be as diverse in your thinking as possible.

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Interview Experience 4 Name: Anuj Singh Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 3 IIT Roorkee B.Tech (Metallurgical and Materials) Brief Profile: 35 Months work experience (8 months Oracle, 27 months ZS Associates) Round 1: (Manager) Tell me about yourself, a lot of resume based questions, views and impact of Volkswagen emission scandal, guesstimate. Interview questions (With Round 2: (Principal) indicative answers if you Tell me about yourself, resume based questions, a guesstimate. choose to share them) Round 3: (2 Partners) Tell 2 selling points about yourself, a case on the changed incentive compensation practice at Accenture. Round 1: Started with the tell me about yourself question. The interviewer had a family business related to my engineering field and hence got some unexpected technical questions, which I somehow was able to answer. Then it was more of a discussion regarding my work at ZS Associates and my achievements in basketball. Then she asked me to estimate the number of basketballs in Lucknow.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 2: The interviewer asked me explain few of the numbers that I had mentioned in my resume and some questions related to my work experience in a lot of detail. He then asked me to guesstimate the number of downloads of a personal organizer app. He then asked me if I had any questions for him. I asked him a question related to the projects he had worked on. He was really pleased with the question and spent the next 10 minutes explaining it to me. Round 3: Final round was with two partners. It started of by asking me to mention 2 selling points about myself. I had worked on projects related to incentive compensation at ZS and Accenture had just done away with their bell curve rating. So the next 20-30 minutes I was asked the reason for this change, its repercussion etc. With help of some numbers and estimates I to was able to explain it to their satisfaction.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

I was quite thorough with my CV and it really helped because I got a lot of questions from my POR and Work Ex. In each of the three rounds I got guesstimates so being comfortable with numbers also helped.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

-

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Be spontaneous. Be up-to-date with respect to any recent developments in the company you are interviewing for. Practice and be confident with numbers.

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Interview Experience 5 Name: Arushi Singh Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 3 B.Com (Hons), SRCC Brief Profile: Analyst, The Smart Cube (6 months) PG Diploma in International Business Operations Round 1: This was a short 15 minutes interview with the HR. The questions were CV based, mostly centering on the projects I did at Smart Cube, the kind of projects I'm interested in, which sector do I like the most, do I enjoy working in teams, would I be okay with working on long projects etc. Apart from that, there were a couple on how I was finding college and what PRiSM does, wrapping up with if I had any questions for her. Round 2: This was a 30 min interview with Principal (Vivek Chopra). It began with HR questions: Tell me about yourself, which POR did you enjoy the most (Volunteer teacher/social work) and what would your NGO kids say are your strong points and areas you can improve upon? I was asked my favourite subject Interview questions (With (International business), which was followed by “Give me 5 indicative answers if you reasons why companies choose to go international” and a case choose to share them) on that. Then he asked me a random question “What logics are used in lifts?” Since I had absolutely no clue he quickly left it. Round 3: This was a 20 min interview with Partner (Vivek Singh), beginning with “Tell me something not on your CV” and “What would your manager say are your strong points and weak areas?” As I had mentioned a course on Scuba Diving in my CV I was asked a case on it. After that was a random fun round - Tell me in One word the first thing that comes to your mind when I say the following words: 1. Success (Perseverance) 2. Failure (Experience) 3. One thing that irritates you (Fakeness) 4. One thing you hate about engineers (Not mentioning it here!)

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Round 2: Case: "Dabur has hired you to increase its international revenues to 25%". He directly wanted the solution instead of going about it like a case interview, so I used the Ansoff matrix as a base for coming up with several strategies, did a cost-benefit analysis of each strategy evaluating them on parameters, and then suggested the best strategy for short term and long term. Added a few Dabur-specific things like capitalizing on its Ayurvedic image and the growing trend towards natural/herbal products. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Round 3: I had to tell in exactly 2 minutes whether it was feasible for him to start a Scuba Diving Institute in India, finance not being a barrier. So I did a quick market analysis covering the overall macroeconomic scenario, current and forecasted state of the industry, and gave a checklist of all the requirements needed to start the institute. After establishing feasibility, I proceeded to discuss the probable locations (primarily Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep islands. Rejected Lakshadweep islands because they require entry permits), services offered by the institute and USP, possible tie ups with travel agencies, cruise ships etc. A key factor to mention in feasibility was seasonality of the sport. It rains more than half the year in Andamans, and scuba diving is not possible when it rains as it becomes difficult to see the corals. - Since I’ve lived in both Andamans and Lakshadweep islands and done scuba diving there, I had a lot of local knowledge, which I used to my advantage in the case. - In the 2nd interview, after I had given 5 reasons for why companies go international, he asked “Give me one more” another three times to make it stressful. But I didn’t yield and gave him as many reasons as he wanted, with real life examples, which impressed him. - Overall, I maintained a positive, enthusiastic and confident demeanor, which helped in establishing a rapport with the interviewers and making the interviews more like conversations. The sudden question on the different kinds of logics used in lifts had me stumped, so I just said that coming from a commerce background I wasn’t aware of it, but could attempt to answer it if he wanted. Thankfully he didn’t push it.

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Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

- Focus on HR and CV. Accenture does not require heavy case preparation. - Always prepare a question for the interviewer, it shows your interest in the company. - Stay calm and confident. Smile!

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Interview Experience 6 Name: Avhijeet Kapoor Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 2 Biochemical Engineering, IIT Delhi Brief Profile: 2 years of experience in startups Question: Guesstimate the number of heart patients in New Delhi. Followed the basic population based approach. Was asked a possible source of demographic data. Question: You are advising a government regulator. The manufacturers claim a certain nutrient level in their food products. However, when you test them the levels are below the requirement. How would you find out the defaulters and deal with them? Hint: The nutrient content was declining over time Interview questions (With indicative answers if you Question: How would you design a rewards/incentive program choose to share them) for food products manufacturers? Question: Who is the current CEO of Accenture? Question: Do you know about the verticals at Accenture? Question: Give an elevator pitch for your entrepreneurial idea. Question: How much funding would you require for your project? Question: Why consulting? (Answer in two lines) My first round was guesstimates and case interview based. I was asked to answer a guesstimate and apply statistics while finding out the numbers. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches

Next, I was asked to exhaustively explore the issue faced by a government regulator (low food nutrient content) and give recommendations to tackle it. One of my recommendations was a rewards system. I was asked to create an implementation schedule for it. I tried staying calm. Should have read more about the company beforehand. -

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Interview Experience 7 Name: Company: Round Brief Profile :

Marut Taneja Accenture Management Consulting 2 NIT Kurukshetra, B.Tech. – Electrical, 34 months work-ex, B2B Sales in Schneider Elecric Round 1: This was more of an HR plus guesstimate round which lasted for around 30-35 minutes. Below are some of the questions that were asked 1) Tell me the 3 best points out of your CV 2) Your experience in INDEX committee till now and what were your responsibilities 3) Why consulting 4) What do you know about AMC 5) What sets you apart from others 6) How will your previous work ex be of any importance to us

Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

7) A few questions on my extra-curricular activities I was then given a guesstimate about the number of airplanes flying over Lucknow at that particular moment. Instead of arriving at a number, I was asked to describe the approach. Round 2: This was a Case based interview which was taken by the Partner. This again went on for around 30 minutes. Round 3: This was a 15 minute HR round. Some of the questions asked were as below: 1) Why management 2) My motivation to join AMC 3) What did you learn in your previous job

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4) Do you think your sales experience is going to be of any relevance in AMC 5) What initiatives did you take while working in Schneder 6) Strength and weaknesses Problem Statement

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

An MNC that is into manufacturing of Healthcare Wearable devices wants to expand its operations in India by entering tier3 cities. Along with the device it provides service of a personal health instructor twice a week for a year. After the end of the period (a year) the device has to be returned. I was supposed to advice regarding the feasibility of the expansion of operations. I started by asking some clarifying questions about the company, its operations, the product, any competitors in India, pricing, market share etc. After a discussion of around 10 minutes, he asked me to come out with the market size for the product in any small city. It was a very interactive discussion where the interviewer kept guiding me towards the right direction. Although he did not seem to agree with the number that I arrived at, but he liked the approach.

What do you think went right in this interview?

I remained calm and confident during all the interviews. This helped me to have a nice conversation which is very important in a consulting interview. While solving guesstimate and cases, I tried to involve the interviewer as much as possible by thinking loudly and explaining my entire approach.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

My case interview could have been better as I was not able to structure it properly and the interviewer had to constantly pull me towards the right direction.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Just maintain your composure, show enthusiasm, look interested and interact well. Prepare your HR answers especially why consulting and AMC. Also, there is a high probability, you might get a case that you have no clue about. It is important not to get bogged down by the same and ask the right questions. They are looking for your ability to handle pressure situations and the logic and structure in your thought process.

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Interview Experience 8 Name: Monika Agarwal Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 2 B.Com (Hons), SRCC Brief Profile: Fresher Round 1: (20 minutes) 2 questions on CV Case: A reputed FMCG company wants to buy a brand of a competing FMCG company. The books of accounts value the brand at USD 100 million but the investment banks suggest a value of USD 130 million. What could be the reasons behind this difference? Interview questions (With Who is your buddy? indicative answers if you How many times have you spoken to her? choose to share them) Which all cases you did with her? Were you satisfied with her guidance? Tell me something about Accenture. Round 2: (10 minutes) Tell me 2 things about yourself that are not on CV. You have Rs 100. Where will you spend? A) On locally produced goods B) Donate to an orphanage Round 1: It started at a very positive note with questions from the CV. He asked about my internship experiences and POR. The interviewer seemed satisfied with the answers. Case: It was testing my finance knowledge as I had a few financerelated points on CV. The reasons could have been higher expected cash inflows, building of synergies. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 2: Started with clarifying a few things whether we could divide the amount between the 2 options and if we need to consider what others are spending in the market. Asked the interviewer what would the orphanage do with the Rs. 100. (Ans: fund 4 meals). I explained to him the multiplier effect that would take place if money was spent on Option A. (It would benefit the entire community involved in the channel of distribution and contribute towards the growth of the domestically made goods). Since Option A would have a greater impact, I suggested this option

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What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I was confident throughout. The interviewer tried to distract me in round 1 by asking questions in the middle of the case but I just answered them without taking off my mind from what I was doing. Should have read more about the company and practiced a few more cases with my buddy. Stay calm and composed. Just show that you are confident. Clarify any assumption that you take and follow a logical approach.

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Interview Experience 9 Name: Nehaarikaa Talwar Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 3 Graduation: B. Tech - CSE, GGS Indraprastha University Work Experience: Eko India Financial Services, 9 months Brief Profile: Concern Areas: Digital Banking, Payments, Banking Correspondent 1. Why MBA? 2. Why Consulting - Apart from the usual pointers, I talked about their projects, related them to my POR/work ex and explained why they interest me. Projects I talked about: a. Feasibility analysis of smart cities - talked about during PPT b. Market Strategy of HUL's Vision 2020 - talked about during Interview questions (With PPT indicative answers if you c. Go-to-strategy for SBI's digital solution for branch less choose to share them) banking - talked about during PPT + News + related to my work ex 3. Run me through your CV - I talked about my work experience, PORs 4. Why we should take you? (2 reasons) 5. How have you been spending time at IIM Lucknow? Round 1: Case Interview + HR CASE: Your friend has an e-commerce venture and has been facing losses. What would you recommend? The interviewer expected me to analyse costs, majorly in logistics and promotions. Recommendations to control them. CV related questions on PORs Why consulting? Why MBA? Time at Lucknow? Run me through your CV Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 2: Guesstimate + HR How many airplanes would be above your head at present? Interviewed wanted a qualitative analysis only. Just the factors that would affect the answer. 1. Air corridors. 2. Flights Scheduled during that time. 3. If Lucknow lies on the routes CV related questions. 5 divisions at Accenture Strategy Round 3: Partner Round CV related questions. Give us 2 reasons why we should take you? Why Accenture and consulting? What was the motivation behind

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being involved with so many projects/organisations in college? [I had 6-7 PORs]

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

1. Talking about 3 projects and relating them to my past experience and interest displayed my interest in the firm and the role. 2. They look for logic in case interviews and guesstimates. There were no major low points. 1. Could have approached the case in a more structured manner. 2. Could have asked better question in round 1. 1. Go through the website, know about the divisions and projects. 2. Identify your interest in a particular division and sector 3. Be ready with smart questions to pose to them, if they ask so shows interest. 4. Be thorough with the sector/industry concerning your previous organisation. (in case of work ex) 5. Find more reasons to join consulting, than the cliched ones. 6. Be honest & logical, smile and you should be through :)

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Interview Experience 10 Name: Rachana Kanikarla Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 3 B. Tech, Biotechnology, 2009-2013 Brief Profile: Work ex: Consultant, PwC, 22 months Round: guestimate + case Guesstimate: calculate the number of tennis balls in the city of Delhi. Case: A retailer is looking to increase his revenue by 100 crores Interview questions (With by next year. What can he do? indicative answers if you choose to share them) Round 2: It was a role play. I was a consultant and had to sell a project to a client, a nasty client in that. It was kind of a stress interview. The interviewer tried to be condescending. Round 3: (HR + small case) Give us two reasons why we should take you? Narration of the case What are the things you look for in professional life? interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) There is a change in GST that influences various industries and their systems. You, as a consultant has the ability to implement that change. Estimate the market potential for this change. What do you think went I was confident throughout the interview. Was able to turn the right in this interview? interview into a conversation. What do you think went I could've done the cases better. I believe I took more time than wrong in this interview? what is required for each case. Have answer for why Accenture. Be confident, comfortable and Any tips for future happy. batches on the basis of Don't worry about getting the right numbers. Numbers do not your experience matter.

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Interview Experience 11 Name: Sarang Shamshery Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 3 Mechanical Engineer from BITS Pilani Goa, 2013 Brief Profile: 20 months of work experience at Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd. (Enterprise Risk Management) Interview questions (With Tell me about yourself. Tell me something not on your resume? indicative answers if you Why consulting? Why Accenture?Explain Work experience? choose to share them) Work-ex related projects? 2 cases as elaborated afterwards Round 1: HR+CV Basic Tell me about yourself. Work-ex related questions. Tell me something not on your CV. Round 2: Case Interviewer asked me to choose a sector. I picked Financial Services and e-commerce. Straight away went into a case. Asked me the valuation of Snapdeal and will I recommend buying it at say ($5 Billion).

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Solution: Listed out cost and revenue sources elaborately. Interviewer guided me to segregate buckets like promotions, logistics, etc. He needed the factors I'll consider in order to arrive at a decision. I added that I'll even conduct a dupont analysis, which lead to another discussion on the different parameters of dupont and what each component represents and how (Profitability, ROE, etc.). After drawing an elaborate case diagram, he asked me to summarise the case. He seemed pretty convinced. Round 3: Case+CV Started off by asking whether I attended the ppt. What did I like about it. After a few minutes of general HR, they went through my CV and saw that I play guitar. Gave me a case based on it. Case: I am a person with a lot of money and want to set up a business manufacturing guitars in India. Should I do it or not? Take 2 minutes to think and then give me your answer in 1 minute. In those 2 minutes, I listed everything that came to my mind about what can we use to evaluate the guitar market. Started with the market size of Guitars in India. Like any other market sizing problem, took suitable assumptions and arrived at a number. Listed current competitors. Their penetration and brand value. Whats missing currently from the market.

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Went to evaluate the business: Diversity of guitar typesAcoustic, Classical and Electric. Wood sourcing - different woods used (rosewood and maplewood), Pickups, strings and other components. Geographic location (North v/s South) for making a plant. Evaluated pros and cons. Was cut short that 2 minutes were over and I need to know your answer now. Told him that it seems a very profitable business and should go ahead. Supported my decision with rationale and numbers as calculated.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

The comfort level I established with the interviewer(s) in all rounds was one thing that I feel was perfect. One reason for that was that I had already interacted with two of them before during ppts/case workshops. So, they remembered me by face. I knew most of the current projects of Accenture and its recent news, which benefited me in two out of three interviews. Sometimes, I ended up giving answers too quickly when asked a question, especially in case based interviews. Being able to absorb the question and answer them after giving the right amount of thought to it is definitely an area for me to work upon. Maintain your composure. Know your CV well. HR answers are crucial for the interview. Be prepared with good questions in case the interviewer asks you if you have any questions. It should reflect that you are really interested to join them. Read about the "Digital" focus of Accenture. Smile and be confident.

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Interview Experience 12 Name: Shivi Garg Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 2 B.Tech. (Computer Science) from JIIT, Noida Brief Profile: ERS Consultant at Deloitte US India - 22 months 1. Brief intro of yourself Interview questions (With 2. Profitability of a business plan - business provided was dance indicative answers if you academy because I have two years experience in classical music choose to share them) 3. Problem solving case 1st round - HR+Case 1. Intro - very detailed. Interrupted and discussed a lot 2. HR Question - Biggest achievement 3. If we ask you to invest in a business of opening a dance academy. Would you invest? Will it be a profitable venture? How? Relate to your experience? - I answered telling that it would be a profitable venture. I also shared my expansion plans and the marketing strategies I can use to maximize the profitability. 4. They asked me to summarize the answer in 30 seconds. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

2nd round - HR+case 1. A situation where I was in a fix and couldn't make it - shared a personal experience. The interviewer took it well. 2. Problem solving case (15 minutes) - Gold insurance company is experiencing lot of costs. Investigate. - Key was to look into all the cost objects. I figured out that the company was situated in a rural setup and therefore power and electricity was costing them bit too much. I suggested using tablets. The interviewer had laptops in mind

What do you think went right in this interview?

3. Any questions? - I asked how and why Accenture is linking with amazon cloud. There was a detailed discussion of 15 minutes on this topic. I maintained my calm and confidence. I was thinking out loud and presented all the ideas in my mind even without asking - example while answering the dance academy question, I proactively shared my future plans and expansion strategy The 30 second summary sealed the deal in 1st round In the second round, the interview was going moderate but I asked a question to engage the interviewer in a conversation and buy some more time to prove my skills and understanding. Did a healthy discussion with him, which helped a lot

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What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I was very confident in the first round but in the second round, I got a little nervous and did not give a good structure to my case. Just stay calm and confident Prepare really nice questions Write on the paper provided. They do take them into account Think loud and don't hesitate from sharing your ideas with the interviewers.

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Interview Experience 13 Name: Siddharth B. Ghivari Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 4 College: IIT Roorkee, Chemical Engineering Brief Profile: Work Experience: 3 years at IOCL Q) Tell me something about yourself? Q) Why Accenture? Q) Why consulting when you have a background in Operations? Interview questions (With Q) What happens in a committee at IIM Lucknow? Tell me indicative answers if you about Beer Game (Written in CV as part of OIG)? choose to share them) Q) Tell me five major expense heads as part of promotional campaign done in Under grad school? (I was the promotional cocordinator for my technical fest) Q) What was your biggest achievement in your work experience? Round 1: HR + Guestimate Guestimate: No. of heavy vehicle trucks in western India Round 2: Case Case: There is a pharmaceutical company who are having frequent stockouts at the retailers store. You need to analyse the problems and come out with a solution. I asked about the manufacturing (whether in house/ outsourced) Interviewer: Factories present all over the country but only two belong to the company. Rest are on lease basis. Me: Stockouts happening for certain products/ all the products? Interviewer: Happening for 30% of the products on a regular basis. Rest of the products it happens sometimes. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Me: Location of factories Interviewer: Around 6 factories. 2 in North, 1 in west, 1 in East, 2 in South. Me: Any transportation issues Interviewer: No Me: Supply chain of the company. Interviewer: Manufacture- Main warehouse (one in each region)CFA- retail store Me: Any use of software for communicating the demand from retailer to manufacturer Interviewer: An ERP software used but it not very effective I analysed other problems. At the end he told me that pharmaceutical cases are very complicated. Took him a year to

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solve the one he asked me. Round 3: Case+ HR HR: Tell me two things which will convince me to give you an offer right now? Case: I have a factory for packaging all kinds of meat. I need to set the speed of the conveyor belt. What should the speed be? Ask 6 questions. I'll answer them together. I asked 6 questions for which his answer for either good question or not relevant but he did not answer any one of them. He asked me to ask more questions. I asked one/two more and the round ended. Round 4: HR One question about the biggest achievement in IOCL?

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I was calm during all the rounds. I did not panic in the third round which was what they were checking as they did not answer one question I asked in the case. I had gone through my CV a no. of times. I had prepared stories about each line. They analysed my CV completely. I could have done the second case a bit better. I could have made my resume a bit better. The future batches should prepare their CV well. They need to put numbers, which they can defend in an interview. HR is very important. They don't proceed to case without doing HR round first. Disha HR questions to be done without fail.

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Interview Experience 14 Name: Surbhi Jain Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 3 No work Experience Brief Profile: Engineer, Stream- Information Technology First round started with the most frequently asked question: Tell me something about yourself. Interrupted in between while I was talking about POR's. Asked to tell about a POR in detail. Then the interviewer jumped directly to cases. Was asked two easy cases in the first round. One was on the declining sales of the company. I had to find out the reason. On solving I found the reason was the improper training of sales people. Other was on the declining manufacturing capacity of a company. I followed the value chain approach. The reason was more than expected breakdown of the machines.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Second round started with HR questions from my CV. Asked about my college project and a POR in detail. Some other HR questions like a situation where I convinced people about my idea and started something from scratch. Told about the dance club I started in undergrad. Then the interviewer moved on to a case. The case was more of a logical reasoning question. The case was: If I had to lay off some people from one unit of my organization, how would I go about it? I divided the problem in two parts: First we will have to identify the number of people from each department who can be removed and then we will find out whom will we remove. I talked about various ways like bench marking with competitors, with other units of my organization (Internal bench marking) for the first part. For second part I talked about parameters such as productivity, work satisfaction, absenteeism and some more. The interviewer seemed convinced with the solution. Third interview was with the partner. It was more of a stress interview. I was given a guesstimate. It was about finding the number of people who will come to my sketching classes started in Delhi. I was very confident from the beginning and was well prepared with the HR questions. In the stress interview I maintained my cool. I could have solved the guesstimate better. Made some mistakes in assuming some percentages. Be well prepared with your HR answers and CV. It can make or break your chance to get through a company. Also practice as many cases as you can with different sets of people.

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Interview Experience 15 Name: Vidhu Garg Company: Accenture Strategy No. of Rounds: 3 B.Tech in Engineering Physics, IIT Delhi Brief Profile: Risk Analyst, RBS (7 months) Business Analyst, Urban Ladder (5 months) Interview questions (With Round 1: HR + guesstimate + case indicative answers if you Round 2: HR + case choose to share them) Round 3: HR + case Round 1: (60 minutes) Tell me about yourself Questions related to work experience, mainly from CV Why consulting? Do you think that the ecommerce business model is sustainable? (I answered that it is. Also talked about what companies are entering into and their innovation like Kindle and Amazon cloud) 1 case - You have an ecommerce company, the revenue is growing but the profit is not. (It was about reducing the costs. Mentioned the different types of costs involved and then analysed each of them. Suggested cheaper alternatives. The problem was high transportation costs. I was telling him different ways of handling this when he interrupted and asked me to do a guesstimate instead) Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

1 guesstimate - Calculate the number of autos in Delhi (Approached this from the demand side, calculated the number of rides and then autos) What major would you go for? (I said that I have not yet come across all the fields, strategy is still left. I would like to have an idea of all the branches before choosing one) Okay, out of Finance and Marketing which one would you choose? And why? (I said marketing) Would you like to ask any question? Round 2: (20-25 minutes) A lot of questions from CV Tell me about a leadership experience of yours? Which branch of Physics is your favorite? 1 case - I have to launch Parle G glucose biscuits in the US. What all factors would you look into (Typical market entry case, was mainly about STP)

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Would you like to ask anything? Round 3: (15 minutes with 2 partners) What 2 things about you would you like us to know? (2 strengths) 1 Case - If you work for the CFO of a metal mining company, what all factors would you care about - I mentioned 5-6 factors namely political stability of the country, licenses and regulations, changing technology (told them how change of extraction process of Aluminum had reduced the costs significantly), financial condition of international markets (How Glencore is facing problems of lesser imports from China because of economy slowdown) He asked me if I was missing any other point. I said that I could not think of any. Then he said that FX rates should also be taken care of.

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Would you like to ask any question? - I asked why they did not hire from IITs like other consulting firms. I spoke fluently, answers did not seem rehearsed. I was spontaneous almost all the time. Supported my points with examples either from personal experience or news. Interview was more of conversational. I could have been more structured in my approach towards the cases. Be confident and be yourself. Don't mug up HR answers. That might be visible in the interview. Don't lose your calm. The interviewers did not take a stress interview and were interactive. Be logical in your approach. Take time to think and then reply. Try to solve cases first with common sense, recalling a case framework might miss out some points.

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A T Kearney

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Interview Experience 16 Name: Ajay Rathore Company: A T Kearney No. of Rounds: 3 Brief Profile:

NIT Calicut, 2013 Electrical & Electronics Engineering Goldman Sachs, Analyst, 2013-2015

Round 1: General Introduction Interview questions (With Round 2: Why consulting, Why ATK? indicative answers if you Greatest achievement, both personal & professional choose to share them) Round 3: Energy sector as I showed interest in same Round 1 – Introduction (2 min) + Case Interviewer - Siddharth Jain Case - Design a delivery system for a e-commerce for a city based on demand Basically design everything from number of delivery hubs in city based on demand and their proximity to one warehouse to number of delivery boys required, the area they will cover and number of deliveries per person. Lot of variables in the case, initially I went to the qualitative aspect but was told to focus on the actual variables and did so. I spend around 20-25 minutes on the problem and was asked to conclude. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 2 - HR + Guesstimate (partner round 1) HR - Why consult, ATK, brief introduction and mainly focused on resume Guesstimate - Usage of number of lens pairs in a year Solved from demand side, from finding actual users to their average usage Went for 10-15 minutes maximum. Taken straight to next partner round Round 3 - interests + case (partner round 2) Partner was from energy sector, so we talked mostly about the Industry since I was interested in renewable sector and the type of projects. Case - Market for company in Germany, which produces a part used in Safety equipment and factor affecting demand He was mostly testing me on the approach of the case. Lasted 10 minutes.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

Taking cues from Interviewer. Directing the HR and about me part very well in interviews Giving cues to Interviewers to talk about Taking it light.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Give better approach to first case and be crisp in it. Could have given better responses to questions asked maybe

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Be chill, let it flow and enjoy the process.

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Interview Experience 17 Name: Ankit Raj Company: A T Kearney No. of Rounds: 4 Mining Engineering - IIT Kharagpur Brief Profile: Work ex - KPMG, Management Consulting, 2 years 4 rounds in total - 2 normal case rounds and 2 partner rounds. Interview questions (With The first two rounds were case intensive with a guesstimate in indicative answers if you the 1st round. Partner rounds were a combination of HR choose to share them) questions, a small guesstimate and a small case. Round 1: 45-60 minutes. Guesstimate + case based on same Estimate the market size of ISL (Indian Soccer League) in India (in terms of number of viewers or followers)

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

I started off with a top-down approach; used assumptions on the way and cross-checked with the interviewer. The exercise was quite conversational; the interviewer helped me with some assumptions as well. At one stage of the estimation, he asked me a specific question. I needed the proportion of television watchers who would prefer viewing football. I was going with a geographic segmentation and he asked for a different method. I was finally able to give the answer after taking some time. He was looking for the method of "what else do people watch / do if not football... so on and so forth" I was asked to calculate each and every number quite accurately and give the basis for each assumption as well. Then after the estimation, he asked what factors you would take into account to see if the ISL as a whole is profitable or not. This was a confusing question and I asked a lot of questions to clear my doubts. The fact that was confusing was which entity to focus on while calculating profits for ISL. He had mentioned initially that all stakeholders should make profits – so I clarified whether I should take my “system” as ISL or the organizing entity. He pushed me a lot to think of more factors. Finally, he asked how you would increase the following / viewership of ISL, if you had sufficient budget – gave answers relating to promotions and infrastructure investment. While leaving, he asked me if I had any questions. I had completely forgotten to prepare for this (in spite of being repeatedly told), and had to say no nothing. Round 2: Business scenario case – which country to export to? (30-35 minutes) The client is a passenger vehicle manufacturer of India. Sales are dipping, so client wants to export. How would you decide where to export?

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I started off with basic questions pertaining to the client and its products. The discussion was much more interviewee-led in this interview. He just wanted an approach to the problem and not some specific countries (I clarified this early). In the middle of the discussion, I was asked to solve the case on the green-board. I made two buckets - market attractiveness and ease of entry and listed factors in each of them. While I was analysing the market attractiveness bucket, he was pushing me to think of 1 more factor, which I was unable to get. I then requested him to let me write all factors in both the buckets. It turned out I had written the said factor under the second bucket. Once I was on the board, the interview got very conversational. We were discussing each point, ranging from costs implications, technology improvements needed in the cars for a different country, political stability, economic stability etc. Overall, it went very well. And yes, I asked a question this time – the basic one – was this a real case and if yes how did the team go about it? Round 3: Partner round – HR and a guesstimate (20 minutes) The round started with him just giving a comment about the "spot-offer" system. He then asked me what I thought about it. It was so casual that I didn't realize at first that the interview had started (he was working on his laptop at the time). But, I managed to give a balanced answer. The partner was from IIT KGP and he asked a lot about my life at IIT - what did you do in your free time; which subjects you liked; which hostel etc. Then a question on my experience at KPMG - what did you learn? Then, all of a sudden he asked me to stand-up and quote something by Brutus from Julius Caesar (it's there on my CV). I went blank for the first few seconds as I could not understand why I was being asked this question (Prepare your CV thoroughly). Finally, I realised and said a line. Then, he asked me a guesstimate - market size of contact lens in India. It went average. Finally, I asked him a couple of questions. Round 4: Partner round – small case (15 minutes) The Partner asked a little about my internship with Tata steel. He then went straight to a case from the steel industry – Your client is a HR/CR coil manufacturer with some related services as well. How would you increase the realization per unit? He clearly mentioned that he was just looking for different ways and not a full-fledged approach. I listed a few suggestions. He seemed satisfied with them, but was looking for another answer. Finally, he gave me the answer (bundling of services) – one which I had thought of at the first instance but forgot to write down and The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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hence missed it completely. I told him how I had thought about the answer – by relating to aviation industry – bundling and unbundling of services. He seemed convinced. I asked a couple of questions in the end.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

1. I attempted each case from first principles - using a basic MECE analysis. I did not try to force fit any frameworks or asked irrelevant prepared questions. All my questions were contextual and specific to the case. 2. I engaged the interviewer in all the rounds and had a conversational approach to solving the case. 3. I was given the feedback at the end that my breadth of thinking was very good, and that I did not miss out on any factors in the interviews, 4. I was completely honest in my responses to the HR questions. Regarding the Brutus quote, I told the partner honestly that I do not remember any quotes by him now, so can I quote something by Antony? He allowed me to do so. 1. I could have solved the guesstimate better. I had made some irrelevant assumptions, which I tried to defend with the interviewer. Finally, he asked me not to take such an assumption and then go ahead. Later, when I arrived at the final number, he showed me how I would have missed about 50-100 mn from my estimate had I taken that assumption. 2. I did some erroneous calculations in the beginning, which should not have happened. 3. I should have prepared a few questions to ask from the interviewer, 1. Make full use of the mentors assigned - do at least 3-4 cases with them. It's evaluative as well as very helpful in preparing you for the case. 2. Practice different types of cases rather than too many cases. Doing too many cases leads to a narrow frame of mind - you will automatically memorize questions and use the same in all cases. 3. Use basic first principle approach to solve cases - don't force fit frameworks. 4. Be honest in your HR answers. Partners and senior recruiters will absolutely know when you are lying - trust on this. But you should also have a proper justification or an alternate suggestion. 5. Prepare 3-4 questions for each company you interview 6. Don't panic if you are stuck. Just think out loud and make your way. Listen carefully to the interviewer and engage him; he is there to solve the case with you.

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Interview Experience 18 Name: Kavya Bhargava Company: A T Kearney No. of Rounds: 3 Brief Profile: Fresher, B.Com (Hons) from SRCC Interview questions (With Three cases and about three guesstimates were asked. Details in indicative answers if you the next question. choose to share them) Round 1: With a Partner It started with a tell me about yourself question. Then one significant achievement in college. Then a case: I was asked to determine how and why can AT Kearney charge double the price compared to its competitors. What justifies this action. It wasn't this direct but it boiled down to this. Round 2: With a Principal How to popularize Chess in India and on profitability case. A Narration of the case national manufacturing company; labour strike in one of the interview (Please be as factories was the reason. descriptive as possible) One simple guesstimate; no HR Round 3: With a Partner Mostly an informal conversation about IIM Lucknow and the consulting life. Discussed a couple of cases that the Partner had worked on. 2 guesstimates: Estimate the number of cups used on campus and number of people tuning in to the radio daily. One specific HR question: Why ATK, how did you rank ATK and why that particular rank. I think one of the things that worked for me in this particular company was that by the time I was being interviewed, I wasn't nervous anymore and to a certain extent I stopped thinking of it as a do or die situation. What do you think went It helps you calm down and the interviewer can see and right in this interview? understand you better. In contrast, you might be too strung up and hence not able to show how you think/communicate clearly leading to you tanking the interview. Another thing I made sure of was that I kept the interviewer engaged and that they didn't get distracted. What do you think went I extended my answers a bit sometimes. You can come across as wrong in this interview? a bit talkative. It's always better to be more to-the-point - Don't let the pressure get to you. It's not the end of the world. - Don't talk too much. You don't want to appear immature or Any tips for future chatty batches on the basis of - Always give answers according to the person who is your experience interviewing you. Having backup answers and changing your attitude according to the person that is interviewing you is always a good idea. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Interview Experience 19 Name: Surbhi Garg Company: A T Kearney No. of Rounds: 3 Chemical Engineering, IIT Delhi Brief Profile: Work experience at Flipkart (1 year) Round 1: HR Questions followed by a guesstimate Round 2: Tell me about yourself followed by case on market Interview questions (With entry strategy for an international company, which hosts music indicative answers if you concert and the demand for such a music concert in India choose to share them) Round 3: Started with a case which went like As Lord Krishna, devise a strategy for Pandavas to win the war against Kauravas The 1st round was pretty simple. It was a basic HR round and I was asked a simple guesstimate on the number of women blazers sold in India. I applied demand approach where I divided Indian population on basis of gender, age, occupation etc.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

The 2nd round was on market entry strategy for a company, which hosts music concerts. I was asked to evaluate if it should enter India and what would be the demand for such a music concert. It was again a market entry case combined with a guesstimate. The 3rd round was a bit tricky, I was told that I am Krishna (yeah Lord Krishna) and I have to devise a strategy for Pandavas to win the war against Kauravas. I was really confused on how to approach the case and I started it using all war jargons like army, weapons and stuff when interviewer gave me hint that I needed to relate it with a business scenario where a smaller company (Pandavas) want to establish itself in a market led by a big company (Kauravas). I had to apply the analogy and discuss it for a real business scenario. I took some time at that point to restructure my case, and had a comeback. I was confident during interview, which made me talk comfortably with interviewers. I was initially not able to catch the interviewer's hint to relate the Pandava-Kaurava case to a business scenario hence I sort of fumbled during initial part of interview. Just be calm and confident during the interview and try not to miss any hints by interviewer. They would generally give you ample hints to reach the solution. Define the problem clearly and get the broader structure right. Also do prepare “Do you have any questions for me?” well.

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Alvarez and Marsal

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Interview Experience 20 Name: Deepika Saxena Company: Alvarez and Marsal No. of Rounds: 2 B.Tech in electrical engineering from NIT Allahabad, 2012. Brief Profile: Worked as design engineer at Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd: 34 months 1. Tell me about yourself Interview questions (With 2. Guesstimate : Market size for milk in Mumbai indicative answers if you 3. Case study on whether a PE firm should invest in a multi choose to share them) specialty hospital in Lucknow Round 1: Tell me about yourself and your work at Reliance. He asked me why I considered myself an ideal candidate for A&M. The interviewer asked me to estimate the market size for milk in Mumbai and analyse why organized players such as Reliance are losing out to unorganized players in the milk market in Mumbai. Narration of the case interview (Please be as Round 2: Brief introduction about myself and then a case study. descriptive as possible) It was related to a multi-specialty hospital in Lucknow and I was asked to determine whether a private equity firm should invest in the hospital. This was the problem statement laid out and I had to ask questions to the interviewer to gather relevant pieces of information and come up with final recommendation. Prior to the interview, I had done my homework regarding the firm and the profile for which it had come to recruit. I was confident throughout the interview, trying to be as interactive as What do you think went I could while solving the case and the market-sizing problem. right in this interview? Even when I made certain mistakes, I did not defend myself or get nervous, rather I admitted whenever I overlooked some aspect of the question or did any calculation error. Even though I tried to be very interactive throughout the case analysis and guesstimate round, there were few instances where I estimated some figures or adopted a method for solving things What do you think went without explaining them clearly to the interviewer. So he had to wrong in this interview? ask me why I did certain calculation or how I arrived at a certain number, which I think I could have avoided by explaining every single step to the interviewer. Stay calm and confident. Don't get nervous if you do some mistake while solving the case. The interviewer is there to guide you if you go a bit off track. Just maintain a calm composure and Any tips for future try to keep the case study round going as more of a conversation batches on the basis of than an interview. Think out loud. If you are asked a question your experience you don't know the answer to, don't blurt out the first thing that strikes your mind. Rather, request the interviewer to give you a minute to gather your thoughts. They'll gladly give you time to think. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Interview Experience 21 Name: Jay Shah Company: Alvarez and Marsal No. of Rounds: 2 B.com, CA, Fresher Brief Profile: Done a lot of social work Round 1: Run me through your profile- hardly some time spent here Case analysis Interview questions (With indicative answers if you Round 2: choose to share them) Tell me about yourself. CV related questions on extra-curriculars. Didn't ask about academics Case analysis Round 1 Run me through your profile Picked up TT from my profile and said, "you think you can beat me?" Discussion on TT was a light one. Intention was rapport building Case analysis- kept narrating details on a health sector related case. Advise to be given on profitability Factors considered to be enlisted Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 2 Tell me about yourself. Getting a rank in CA Entrance impressed. It suited the profile. Picked up 'art' from CV and some discussion on the same. Case analysis: Case about e commerce. Market entry case related to ethnic wear. Narrated the case. Gave some figures Asks factors to be considered. Before case was over the first round interviewer took her out. They discussed for 3 whole minutes. She asked me to stop writing and leave. As I was leaving, they said "you are selected"

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What do you think went right in this interview?

Confidence was critical At times I couldn't pick on the hints that the interviewers were dropping about the case. But I stuck on and kept trying. Showed dedication. Was cheerful and relaxed throughout the interview. Being a CA also gave brownie points As a matter of coincidence, I had some extra-curriculars for each of the interviewers liking. Rather than asking questions they started telling their experience with the activity passionately. I didn't do justice to number crunching.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I objectively went about analysing the case without going into the calculations. I also hadn't done case preparation. I was focussing more on General Management and marketing. Alvarez and Marsal was the only consulting Day 0 call I had. Case practice would have helped The role offered is business advisory. They prefer differentiating themselves from consulting. A good amount of importance is given to being an organizational fit. So be cheerful and show motivation and willingness to learn. Not much time is spent on CV/ HR. That part is a hygiene factor. Majorly does the work of rapport building. Demonstrate good logic for case analysis.

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Interview Experience 22 Name: Saharsh Agarwal Company: Alvarez and Marsal No. of Rounds: 2 Shri Ram College of Commerce, (B.Com- Hons) Brief Profile: Worked at DE Shaw and OYO Rooms prior to joining IIML Q. A PE firm wants to invest in the healthcare sector. It needs to decide on whether it's going to invest in the eye care segment or Interview questions (With the dialysis segment. Advise. indicative answers if you choose to share them) Q. A snack manufacturer in the unorganized space operational currently in Maharashtra and Gujarat wants to expand to Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Advise. The HR round was the generic questions such as - Tell me something about yourself Narration of the case - Why Consulting? interview (Please be as - What do you understand by due diligence? descriptive as possible) - Work experience and complete understanding of the role - Explain the business model of OYO Rooms Half the interview is won by attitude. Confidence and the What do you think went willingness to learn in your internship is what was the key. right in this interview? Number skills are a must (mental math) and the ability to use numbers while solving a case. I could have prepared for cases better. Had prepared mainly for What do you think went finance because of which the structure wasn't excellent. To my wrong in this interview? advantage, structure wasn't exactly the main criterion. Be thorough with basic finance and interact with companies in Any tips for future every opportunity provided with. You're judged by companies batches on the basis of right from Day 1 and make the right impression from the first your experience time you meet the officials till you walk out of the interview room.

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Auctus Advisors

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Interview Experience 23 Name: Argha Mondal Company: Auctus Advisors No. of Rounds: 3 IIT Kanpur, B.Tech Electrical Engineering, Batch of 2012 Brief Profile: Work-ex: Opera Solutions, 33 months Round 1: Decision Tree Based Quantitative case. Asked to determine the optimum inventory for a retailer to maximize profits. Sales depended on the demand, which had 3 scenarios of high, medium and low with different sales and occurrence probabilities. Explained the scenarios, with the expected sales Interview questions (With revenue in each case based on basic probability calculations. indicative answers if you choose to share them) Round 2: PVR is acquiring DT Cinemas. Analyze the situation. I had some experience with the workings of the multiplex retailers, so the question was relevant to my work-ex. More of a discussion on the factors and the pros and cons of inorganic v/s organic growth. HR rounds started with basic HR questions like about yourself, Narration of the case reasons for leaving last job, resume based questions about PORs interview (Please be as and work projects. Mainly they are trying to look for a fit with descriptive as possible) their firm and an enthusiasm to work in an uncertain and high responsibility environment. Round 1 Case: I asked all the relevant questions and probed for the right data. I also came up with a MECE framework for the decision tree. What do you think went right in this interview? Round 2 Case: I was able to cover all-important aspects. HR: My past work-experience allowed me to leverage a lot of my work into the HR answers. Also, to all his questions, I had answers with some incident to justify it. For the second case, I started to solve the case as a quantitative What do you think went case, when it was basically a strategy case. The interviewer had to wrong in this interview? pull me back from the numbers a couple of times. There are two cases in general. One quantitative decision tree Any tips for future based probability case. These are generally number intensive. batches on the basis of Second is a qualitative strategy case. your experience For HR, try to leverage instances from your resume to justify our answers.

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Interview Experience 24 Name: Devika Mathur Company: Auctus Advisors No. of Rounds: 2 Grad - NIT Allahabad Brief Profile: Stream - Biotechnology Work Ex- 12 months at INDUCTIS (EXL SERVICES) Interview questions (With Both the rounds had one case each. The cases are different from indicative answers if you the general market entry and profitability cases. They deal with choose to share them) expected probability of different scenarios of any situation given. Round 1: Only Case Round 2: Case and HR combined

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Eg of case: I am a supermarket chain and have to order deodorant of the brand Ferrari. How much should he order to maximize his profit. On asking the interviewer, you will get the further details. There are 3 different seasons of sale: low, medium, high. Assume margin to be same throughout. During these seasons lets say the probability of the deodorants being sold is 1, 0.6, 0.4. If you are not able to sell all the stock and have to return to the company, you have to bear a loss per every bottle. The basics of probability, being good at math helps. The cases are very logical and just think from a basic level. I was honest throughout my HR interview and that is essential under all circumstances. I am from a consulting background and relating thing and giving examples from previous background and learning helps as well. Maintaining your nerves is one thing I could have improved upon. It helps you think logically and helps solve the case better. During the period of preparation, focus on your mistakes and ake sure to work upon them. A variety of cases always helps you on the final day.As per the final day is concerned, keep yourself calm and composed. :)

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Interview Experience 25 Name: Sandip Kumar Sen Company: Auctus Advisors No. of Rounds: 3 Graduation college: BITS Pilani Stream: M.sc Economics+ BE. Mechanical Brief Profile: Work Experience: 2 Years Organization: Credit Suisse Role: Equity research analyst Round 1 (Case): A company wanted to find out the best way to prepare itself for a possible increase in demand. It could continue with current technology or experiment and invest in a new technology (The success of new technology was not certain) or it could outsource surplus demand to other small manufacturers. The cost of production would have been different in different case. Which of the three options would have provided with the maximum profit Interview questions (With given the uncertainty around demand and success of new indicative answers if you technology? choose to share them) Round 2 (HR): The entire round revolved around my internship experiences and positions of responsibility. They basically wanted to see how I will manage client-facing roles and why I wanted to leave finance and join consulting. Round 3 (Case): A bank wants to open 100 ATMs in the city. Where should it open them for maximum profit? Round 1 started with small HR round. The interviewer picked up one of the research work at Credit Suisse and had a small discussion. Then we proceeded to case. I was able to draw an exhaustive structure in first five minutes, which helped me ask key questions. I did the calculations (It was a probability based case) in next 5 minutes and reached the final conclusion. The interviewer was quite satisfied. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 2 was complete HR round. I had prepared a lot for it and so was able to answer all his questions with relevant proof in my CV. He too was very satisfied. Round 3, the final round was with the partner. Since the first two rounds went pretty smoothly, I had become slightly complacent and started very poorly. I was all over the place and was not able to draw a good structure. However, I recovered in time and was able to gain some of the lost ground. Since my round 3 went very bad, they had some additional informal meetings with me to check my analytical skills. They

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discussed with me about Bihar Election, problems in IIM Lucknow etc. Finally they were convinced and I got the offer :)

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I was quick to make a good structure in first round and so reached the solution very neatly. I had prepared a lot for HR interview and so was able to answer all the difficult questions that they asked in round 2 and the informal session after round 3. In round 3, although I had started horribly, I was able to maintain my composure and do some bit of damage control. After two excellent rounds, I assumed that I will get the job and hence became complacent in round 3. I should have kept myself on high alert in the all-important round 3 with the partner. We all are smart enough to crack consulting cases. HR answers can sometimes become the differentiating factor in a 50:50 case. So, I would suggest everyone to devote at least 40% of total preparation time in HR questions.

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The Boston Consulting Group

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Interview Experience 26 Name: Aatish Pandit Company: BCG No. of Rounds: 2 IIT Delhi - Civil Engineering - 2013 passout Brief Profile: KPMG management consulting - 2 years Interview questions (With Meaning of your name? indicative answers if you (Try and make it an interesting conversation starter) choose to share them) Tell me about yourself? 2 rounds (both case) We were called in a batch of 7, all of us were asked to wait in a common area and were called one-by-one by our respective interviewers.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 1: with Partner (mainly case) - general questions like how are feeling today, tell me something about yourself? - 5 min chitchat and then into the case - Very specific problem statement, not an open-ended case - Case: A bank has recently acquired licence from RBI to operate, devise an optimal ATM placement strategy for Delhi market given a budget constraint of INR 1 crore. - The partner was looking for factors to be considered. He narrowed it down to only cost, given budget constraint. - Listed down all possible costs, and factors on which the costs will depend. For eg. rent cost will depend on location, cash replenishment cost will depend on number of cash dispensing cycles per day etc. - After considering all the costs and factors, calculated cost for setting up one ATM at Delhi airport. This came out to be 45 Lacs given very high rent at airport. Hence not advisable to put an ATM at airport. - But given high visibility for ATM at the airport, recommended that the company can simply consider this ATM to be an advertisement and reach higher number of customers. - Partner seemed satisfied. Round ended with a knock on the door by the PCommer. Round 2: with Project Leader - started with tell me about yourself and then straight into the case - Case: Client is an EPC player, wants to expand into other businesses. What factors would you consider while suggesting him? - started with basic questions like, what do you mean by EPC?, what business is our client into currently?, in which geography, why does he plan to expand, any other objective in mind? etc.

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What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

- Explained him my approach first that how I would like to tackle this problem, when he agreed then went into drawing the structure on paper. - First, listed all possible industries where EPC is applicable. - then listed parameters on the basis of which either filtering or ranking of industries can be done. - He was satisfied with the approach. > Came out of the room and after waiting for 10 minutes, was given the offer by the Partner and Associate Principal. > Stayed calm & confident > Asked questions where I did not have prior knowledge > Stated all my assumptions beforehand > Always tried to engage the interviewer by constantly interacting with him and showing interest in what he is saying > Should have listened carefully to what interviewer wants > Could have made the structures more neatly Stay calm and confident during the day. Even if you don't know something, be candid about it and stay focused. Only thing which will take you through that day is your confidence. But be cautious, don't be over-confident, can go horribly wrong if you come out as arrogant while being confident. Ask for honest feedbacks from your close and reliable friends while doing mock interviews.

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Interview Experience 27 Name: Avinash R Kothari Company: BCG No. of Rounds: 2 B.com, Chartered Accountant, CFA - US, Brief Profile: 3 years of work experience in debt syndication and investment banking (PINC) Broadly case based interviews with very pointed questions on HR. I had one case on pricing a product and deciding on whether to manufacture in India or China. Required lot of thinking on the toes. Second case was on government policy making related to child Interview questions (With education which is government sponsored. This case was indicative answers if you difficult and couldn't be cracked without prior knowledge of the choose to share them) costs involved in government-sponsored education. Some knowledge related to world bank and IMF funding was also required. One question was common in both the rounds. "Why consulting?" Given my background in finance and as a CA handling this question in the right way was very important. More than 5-7 minutes were spent on this question. My first round was with a partner known as Mr. Gupta. He seemed to be in a rush though asking questions while we were walking from one room to another. He was pretty much straightforward and cut through the small talk relatively quickly. Just after we sat he gave me the case and we began discussing it. The case was moderate in difficulty and required us to list down all the costs involved in manufacturing a product in India and comparing it with manufacturing costs in China. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Interview was very interactive in nature and not at all stressful. He guided my thinking from time to time and appreciated the good points also giving me a boost of confidence. Round 2: Principal named Ms. Seema working in social impact segment. This round was slightly stressful initially but after hearing the why consulting answer she got convinced and interview went smoothly thereafter. Initial minutes were spent only on why

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consulting. The one line that worked for me in that answer and allowed me to sell myself completely was "I look at consulting as a sophisticated form of entrepreneurship." Handling this question correctly was key to cracking the interview. Apart from this there was no other HR question. Remaining part of the interview was completely case based. In the case a prior knowledge of IMF and world bank funding came to my rescue. The case was a relatively difficult one and she was very helpful at certain points. It was that kind of case in which we could have easily lost our composure. Breaking up the benefits of government-sponsored education in short term and long term gave the structure. However just mentioning that long term benefits will be abstract and cant be counted would not be correct. I had to mention a number of domains under which benefits could accrue. The case ended on a good note and you know it when the interviewer is still delighted to speak to you even after the time is over. Regarding HR questions: Being honest about it made a lot of difference. Given my background I had to be really convincing about consulting. This would come only after a good amount of time is spent on the answer. Speaking confidently with honesty and being frank about it did the job. What do you think went right in this interview?

Case questions: My ability to have a range in my thinking and to suggest various parameters to be looked at came very handy. Coming up with a few corner points convinced the interviewer. Though this is more random in nature, it worked for me on that day. Others: Good eye contact and ability to make the interview conversational. Regarding cases I think I could have been more succinct and quick in reaching to the solution. However that's a perpetual challenge.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

The interview could have been better and more convincing if through my HR answers I would have been able to drive the interview to topics, which I wanted to discuss. Like work experience and discussion on various sectors that I would have covered. Had it been so, my reliance on case to crack the interview would have reduced.

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Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Much has been said about personality, loud voice, eye contact and an aura to crack consulting interview. But people, BCG is completely different. It is more about your logical chain of thoughts and your achievements. Expect BCG interview outcomes to be drawn from case solutions and not from cues about your charm and personality. However, prepare HR question very well. Don't goof up in that area.

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Interview Experience 28 Name: Danvir Suri Company: BCG No. of Rounds: 2 BA (Hons) Economics from Delhi University MSc Economics from LSE Brief Profile: 5 months at HSBC 22 months at Genesis Economic Consulting Interview questions (With First round had a case and questions on work experience indicative answers if you Second round had a guesstimate and a little HR choose to share them) Round 1 Had done a project on mobile payments. Interviewer was also interested in the topic so asked me to describe the project.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Case involved giving costs and benefits of moving children from Anganwadi to government schools at the age of 4 rather than at the age of 6 in the context of studies that have shown positive outcomes for early interventions in education. Interviewer wanted me talk about the potential benefits. I divided the benefits into those to the individual and his family (increased income) the government (increased taxes, lower subsidies) and society (lesser crime) etc. Was also asked how I would estimate these benefits. Spoke about how you could use existing studies, use a control group etc. Round 2 Was asked to guesstimate the number of x-ray machines sold in a year. Divided demand into replacement and new. I started with replacement demand, and took Lucknow as a sample. Spoke about the different class of people and how they were treated by different hospitals. Divided hospitals into tiers which would cater to different section of population. Interviewer at this point asked me to stop with numbers and just explain the methodology so I spoke about how the ratio of x-ray machines to number of beds would vary, and this would be higher for hospitals catering to the rich. Then spoke about new demand. Was told to stop at this point. Was confident and played to my strengths. When I was asked to explain the mobile payments project I did so in great detail and in a structured way. Use HR answers to impress interviewers with communication skills. Prepare a unique answer for Why BCG/McKinsey?

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Interview Experience 29 Name: Diwakar Agarwal Company: BCG No. of Rounds: 2 Btech Mtech dual degree, Electrical Engineering, IIT Kanpur. Brief Profile: 34 month experience at Intel (software+hardware engineer) 1. Estimate the size of new xray machines in India. Interview questions (With 2. Client has recently received license for banking operations in indicative answers if you India. It wants to start operations in Bangalore such that the net choose to share them) annual loss is not more that 1 crore. you need to help him make the strategy. Round 1: It was a small guesstimate. As the interviewers were wrapping up they asked me to finish it fast telling them the approach along with approximate numbers without calculating the final answer.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

I started with the population of India, divided it in BPL and APL population (Above Poverty Line population being able to afford medical care). Then I divided them in 4 age groups i.e 0-15, 1530, 30-45, 45 and above. The frequency of each group falling sick is different with first and last group falling sick much more (assumed 6 times a year). I assumed that about 40% of times the treatment will need an X-ray. Hence I had total demand for Xrays. Now I made a cut based on Income. High income people would go to places which are costly and hence less crowded => number of X-rays taken by machines in these places per day will be lesser. Assumed (20,35,50) X-rays per machine for these three cuts. After multiplication I had the total number of machines needed. Now the new machine requirement can be calculated based on the expected life of a machine and the population growth rate. At this time interviewer prompted me to think more if I missed something, I could not guess. Then he asked me to compare with the car market. Then it realized that I missed accounting for second hand market for X-ray machines. Round 2: It started with a basic tell me about yourself. Then the interview directly came to the case. In the start he mentioned that this is a quantitative case and he is looking for specific numbers in the end. At first he said that the client is looking for entering in a particular baking service. He asked me to list all the services provided by a bank and then he said that he is looking to

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establish only ATMs in the first year.

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I needed to find out locations and number of ATMs in each location such that total loss in a year is not more than 1 crore. I then listed down the sources of revenues (only transaction fee in this case) and costs (rent, operating cost, electricity, internet etc) security, refilling cost). I was asked to identify prime locations for these ATMs (malls, airports, train/bus/metro stations, corporate offices/parts, school/colleges, residential societies etc). Made a matrix for the each cost revenue for 5 of these locations. Based of net profit/loss at each location I suggested some possible ATM distribution. During both the rounds, interviewers kept pressurizing me to do it faster but I did not lose my calm. I missed few factors during round 2 for which the interviewer had to probe me. I could have been more thorough in each step if there was no time pressure. Just be confident and have a reason for whatever you do during the case solving. Always keep in mind what was the problem statement and keep track if your approach is leading to a solution.

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Interview Experience 30 Name: Manasvi Goyal Company: BCG No. of Rounds: 3 IIT Delhi - Electrical Engineering Brief Profile: 3 years at NetApp as Software Developer Interview questions (With Round 1 - General HR + Guesstimates indicative answers if you Round 2 - Case + Why BCG? choose to share them) Round 3 - HR + Case + Guesstimate Round 1: General HR - Tell me about yourself and Why consulting questions. Two guesstimates based on the statement - A new 5 star hotel is being opened by client in a metro city. Guesstimate 1 - Estimate the water bottle consumption per day for the hotel Started with assuming the metro city to be Delhi. Identified the customer segments - business/corporate. Identified the various places where water bottles could be used - rooms(single, double, suites), conference rooms, party halls, restaurants, waiting area and staff. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Interviewer asked me to write an equation to define the water bottle consumption for rooms. Took some constant water bottle consumption per day (staff + complimentary bottles) and a occupancy factor for single/double rooms to come up with a linear equation. Guesstimate 2 - Interviewer asked me to calculate water bottle consumption for a restaurant. I started with the standard approach of taking the population of Delhi and then discussed some cuts like age, income etc. Interviewer asked me to find a way in which one could directly estimate the expected footfall in restaurant. After a while, I figured that by directly looking at the competitor's footfall we could get a ballpark number. Interviewer asked if I have any question. Asked him a well thought question. Round 2: It was a pure case based interview. Profits of a hospital were declining. Clarifying questions - location, speciality, customer segments and competitors. Then looked at the revenue as well as cost aspects. Interviewer asked me to focus on revenue streams. Listed out - patients, pharmacy, diagnostic centre, hospitalization and surgeries as the key revenue drivers.

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Interviewer specifically mentioned fall in number of surgeries. Listed quality, price, technology, image and doctors as the major factors affecting the number of surgeries. Identified the issue as reputed doctors moving to a competitor hospital. As patients were 60+ in age and wealthy people with heart diseases, they preferred to go to reputed doctors. Other reason was decline in cleanliness of the hospital. While walking back from the interview room to the waiting hall, Interviewed asked me why BCG? Round 3: The round started with basic HR questions - What is NetApp? Brief overview of my job responsibilities? Why MBA? Comparison of life at IIML v/s IITD? Why consulting? Then it went to a data intensive case. In nutshell the case was to perform a cost-benefit analysis of moving children of age 4-6yrs from Aanganvaadi to primary school. Aanganvaadi is a preschool place in villages where children of age 4-6years are taught. Due to lack of workforce Aanganvaadi is not a good place for educating children. Interviewer asked me to list revenue streams as well as cost streams for the government if it allows movement of children. Guesstimate: Interviewer asked me to calculate number of new primary school teachers required if children of age 4-6years are to be moved in primary schools. In first round, I understood the hints given by the interviewer and took sufficient time to come to an answer instead of just trying random ideas. What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

In second and third round, I was confident and calm. I guess solving both cases with a well defined structure and explaining my thought process to the interviewer helped me build good rapport. Both these rounds were more of discussion oriented. In first round, I got stuck for a while and repeated an answer twice. I could have avoided it. Practice cases well. Be calm and confident during the process. Engage the interviewer by thinking out loud.

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Interview Experience 31 Name: Nitish Rathi Company: BCG No. of Rounds: 3 B.Tech. Chem Engg., IIT Kharagpur; cleared CFA Level-II; Work experience: RIL (project management) - 2.75 years, Motilal Brief Profile: Oswal Securities (equity research, oil & gas) - 7 months, and Capital One - 6 months Why did you shift to Motilal Oswal Securities? Interview questions (With Tell me about yourself? indicative answers if you Have you ever taken risk in life? choose to share them) Why do you want to join consulting? Had total 3 rounds:1) Principal – Prateek Gupta Interview started off with 1 HR question – why did you shift to Motilal Oswal Securities (I had a few of job-shifts in CV)? Had a good reason for all of my job-shifts. I used them as demonstration of willingness to seek challenging work and gain diverse exposure. It followed by a calculation heavy case on a tractor manufacturer who wants to know if he should install capacity of gear boxes in the existing facility in India or start gear-box manufacturing in China. He pressured on the time constraint of finishing it in 15 minutes. I had practiced similar cases, hence I was very comfortable in structuring, getting the relevant data required, and calculating the break-even period. He then asked if I had any questions. The interview went really good. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

2) Principal – Shweta Bajpai She asked me a couple of HR questions, which I was prepared for. One of the question – Have you ever taken risk in life? – was not so common, but I had thought about such an instance before during preparation, and hence could share it without any hiccups. She then shared her background (she was in Technology and Media practice), and gave a market entry case of a Technology company who wants to enter India with its internet search engine tool (similar to google). I briefed her about my structure, but I was then asked to restrict to market size estimation only. I broke the revenue streams into parts, and checked with her for assumptions taken. Many a times she gave cues to where I was going wrong. Finally, I came up with the size of USD 700 Million and told her it seems to be an overestimation (I checked later, actual size was USD300-400 Million, which I think is fairly good estimation). While summarizing, I was not very crisp, as I was thinking about where did I go wrong. I left with a feeling that it

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didn’t go that well. But, after 10-15 minutes was called for third round. I was really excited now. 3) Director – Seema Bansal

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

She asked me where was I from, and I was able to make good connection, as I shared my diverse exposure of staying at more than 6-7 States during my education and work-ex. I was then asked why consulting. Then she gave a case that a public health organization, which supplies vaccines across India, was facing frequent stock outages, or wastages due to oversupply. Post few clarifications, I prepared the entire value chain of the vaccine supply and distribution. The problem lied in demand forecasting. Then the case became more of discussion as to identifying different ways of demand forecasting, what should be the criteria to choose, etc. She then asked me if I had any questions. It was noon when my interview started, and it was my first interview for the day. By that time a lot of offers had already been made. But, I was really cool and calm during my interviews. It was something very important in demonstrating confidence in solving cases, answering HR questions, etc. In my second round the interviewer had to give me a lot of cues to get me on the right track, as I had not practiced guess estimates much. Prepare and practice well for the interviews, but on the interview day you should not worry about the outcome.

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Interview Experience 32 Name: Nirali Raichura Company: BCG No. of Rounds: 3 Brief Profile: CA+ Bcom graduate, 2 entrepreneurial ventures. Round 1- A gearbox manufacturer in India wants to expand the production capacity. To evaluate options between India and China Interview questions (With Round 2- A new bank has received license in the recent past and indicative answers if you wants us to frame the ATM set up strategy in Mumbai. choose to share them) Maximum cash burn limit is Rs. 1 crore. Round 3- A foreign search engine wants to enter rural India, what all can be done? Round 1- No HR, only case (15minutes) as specified above. Case description: First was a background study of the company. Then was told to focus only on quantitative factors for decisionmaking and therefore was completely a number focused case initially. I started with the differences in the yearly- fixed and variable cost between alternatives and then the set up cost, etc. The yearly cost difference was favorable towards China, but the set up cost for China was high. Ultimately the decision lied on how much time would we take to recover our set up cost from the differential benefits in yearly costs. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

In my case, we could recover the set up costs in 1.5 years and the project was for a period of 5 years and hence capacity was to be set up in China. After this, I was asked to list down the qualitative factors I would consider for my decision making- I took the value chain approach for the same. Round 2- No HR, only case (15minutes) as specified above. Case description: After the problem statement was given, I asked for some moments to think so that I could go about my initial questioning. However, the partner said "No. Suppose I am taking you to the CEO of this Bank right now and he asks you what your strategy is going to be. Give me a 30 second response that you will give him". After 2-3 permutations, the apt answer to be given was "I will set up some ATMs at residential locations,

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corporate houses, railway stations, airport, near colleges, malls, etc. The number of ATMs need to be evaluated." The case then turned completely numerical. I was supposed to estimate cash inflows and outflows for each of the 6 alternatives above and arrive at a decision. The trick was to do it using matrix method and marginal costing. Also, the partner did not appreciate the standard way we approach cases- evaluation of environment, opportunities, competition, etc for a market entry case. He kept saying he did not want such approach till the time I started focusing on numbers, since that was what he wanted. Key was to take the hint. Another key was to know the meaning of cash burn. At the end he asked the 3 most important learnings for me from the case. Round 3- 2 minutes HR, case (15minutes) as specified above. HR- Briefly tell me something about yourself, what is your biggest achievement during college days. Case description- A background check on the company was done first. The case started with finding out the rural consumer pain points. For this I segregated the rural population by age and found their occupational/ career requirements. For eg: Trainings for farmers, education for children, etc. Then I identified the non-educational requirementsentertainment, etc. On being asked to consolidate on what possible offerings we could provide, I listed down four: Online education, Farmer training modules/ collaboration platform, Entertainment apps and Travel apps. The next step was to list down the factors affecting decisions for each one of them- like level of requirement for consumers, internet connectivity required, population who will use the products, long and short term benefits, etc. I allocated scores on the scale of 1 to 5- 5 being the most positive and used matrix system for presentation. The case ended with decision-making.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

1. Being confident and assertive. I would have easily buckled down in my 1st and 2 round where there was quite some grilling and expectations were to go about the non-conventional way for approaching cases. But, staying confident worked to my advantage. 2. Took hints. I had a open mind and hence was able to take hints towards the direction the interviewer wanted to take the case to. Could have used and exhibited my background knowledge (as a CA) a bit more in the 2nd round- which I did towards the end and got the feedback from the interviewer that I should have done that earlier. Be prepared for any mix of HR and Case. You cannot make it without being very positive and confident. Do not give up till the end, no matter how bad you think the interview is going.

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Interview Experience 33 Name: Rachit Shah Company: BCG No. of Rounds: 2 Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst Level 3 Cleared with 2.5 years of work experience in the Mergers & Brief Profile: Acquisitions Advisory department of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and 3 months of professional teaching experience (CFA Level 1 and a finance certification course) at Edupristine Round 1 - Guesstimate the number of water bottles used in a restaurant in a day Indicative solution - Started with asking questions regarding the size, type and area where the hotel is located. Went on to determine the occupancy rate, factor in seasonality and finally determined the usage in the different sections of the hotel like rooms, restaurant, meeting rooms, gymnasium, etc. Post this there was a follow up guesstimate of the expected footfall in the restaurant Interview questions (With Round 2 - Cost benefit analysis of reducing the entry age for indicative answers if you primary education from 6 years to 4 years choose to share them) Indicative solution - Started with trying to understand the reason for reducing the entry age. This provided me with a very good idea of the direction in which the case needs to be solved (increasing the number of kids who get exposed to formal education). Went on to do a revenue versus cost analysis both for short as well as long term. Potential revenue - Increase in GDP due to higher literacy rate, higher taxes, entry of private sector investment, increased employment, etc Potential costs - Teachers & administrative staff, investment, marketing expenses, closure of nursery schools, etc. Round 1 - The round started with an informal discussion about the campus and what the best memories of the interviewer were in campus. Went on to talk a little bit about my work experience in PwC and about life in Mumbai in general. After about 10 minutes of informal discussion, he gave me the guesstimate which was again was more of a discussion & not a proper case Narration of the case solving session. interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) Round 2 - The first 10 minutes were about the interviewers experience so far in the company and the interviewer wanting to understand more about my teaching experience (I have been associated with a professional teaching institute & have also taught underprivileged children for 8 years). This was followed by an HR question of Why MBA given my interests and involvement in the teaching profession. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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She then gave me a case in the education sector which seemed complicated at first but could be solved by maintaining a continuous conversation with her and because of my prior experience in the sector.

What do you think went right in this interview?

Continuously maintained a healthy conversation with the interviewers while solving the cases and this helped to get relevant points to solve the cases.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

-

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

The most important thing is to continuously maintain a conversation and ask questions if you think you are stuck. The interviewer is always willing to help you by giving you hints and pointers. All you need to do is ask! Also be confident & positive and always maintain eye contact with the interviewer.

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Interview Experience 34 Name: Saksham Pant Company: BCG No. of Rounds: 4 B.E. (Hons.) Electronics and Instrumentation, BITS Pilani Pilani Campus. Brief Profile: Worked for 22 months as a hardware engineer at Nvidia Corporation, Bengaluru. Round 1: Case – Tractor manufacturer, with a plant in the outskirts of Hyderabad. The part of the facility where the spare parts are manufactured is running out of capacity. Need to take a decision on whether to establish a new one in the same facility or in China and then bring the spare parts to India. Round 2: Case - Regional newspaper in Kolkata, experiencing a decline in sales. Need to identify the core issues and provide solutions/recommendations. Interview questions (With Round 3: Case – Cardiac hospital in Delhi, revenues are indicative answers if you declining. Need to identify the core issues and provide a choose to share them) solutions/recommendations. HR questions like – Why BCG? Round 4: Case – Anganwadi is a government sponsored childcare and mother-care center in India. Apart from nutrition it also provides preschool services to children from 4 to 6 years of age. The problem is that the children who attend primary school after going through the Anganwadi preschool perform very poorly compared to others. So the Government is planning to shift the preschool services of Anganwadi to formal primary schools. Need to look at all the cost and benefit considerations. All rounds lasted for around 20-25 minutes with 1 or 2 extra minutes in the end for me to ask a question to the interviewer.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 1: Partner (don’t remember the name). The interview started with my brief introduction while the interviewer was taking me to the interview room from the waiting area. The case was mostly numbers based and calculation intensive. I took the value chain approach to cover all the aspects of cost comparison. Apart from the monetary factors, I also mentioned some non-monetary concerns like acceptance of made-in-China products etc. The case was pretty straightforward and the interviewer was very helpful, so it went quite well.

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Round 2: Principal (don’t remember the name). This case was a qualitative one. Did a 4P comparison with the other local regional newspapers along with the online channel. Forgot to bring the advertisement revenue into consideration initially and had to be hinted towards that direction. The interviewer politely contradicted me many times but overall the interview was good. Round 3: Anurag Agrawal, Principal and IIML recruitment lead. This was a very simple and short qualitative case and revolved around customers experience and promotion. It was more of a casual conversation and the case lasted for less than 10 minutes. It was followed by the question of why I want to join BCG. The interviewer added to my answer based on his own experience. The interview went well according to me.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 4: Seema Bansal, Partner and Director. I found this case to be the toughest as it required a broad span of monetary and non-monetary factors to be taken into account. It also involved a short guesstimate of the number of children affected by the scheme. I missed out on a few aspects, like the long term benefit of reduced cost of Government subsidies through improved education facilities, and had to be hinted. The interviewer was quite helpful but overall I wasn't able to ace this round completely. According to me, my confidence and enthusiasm worked well in my favour. I was able to properly communicate my approach and was successful in picking up hints on being prompted by the interviewers. I had prepared a few questions for the interviewers beforehand, which came in quite handy. I was clear in my mind and well prepared for questions like why consulting and why BCG and hence was able to convince the interviewers about the same. Not much went wrong for me in the first 3 rounds expect for 1 or 2 small calculation mistakes or missing out on 1 or 2 aspects. In the last round, I was expecting an HR interview and wasn’t prepared mentally for another case based round. I somewhat lacked energy in this round and could’ve come up with a better structure. Based on my experience, I would say that confidence is the key to crack the interviews. Be confident and enthusiastic at all times while communicating with the interviewer. Always keep smiling, even if the interviewer is trying to contradict you. Try to communicate your structure and approach before delving into it and be crisp in your responses. This should do the trick.

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Interview Experience 35 Name: Shubham Jain Company: BCG No. of Rounds: 2 Brief Profile: NSIT, B.E. (ECE), 3 years work experience Both rounds started with 'Tell me about yourself' and questions Interview questions (With based on my response to the above question. After the case indicative answers if you interviews, I was asked about how did I think the interview had choose to share them) gone, and if I had any questions for them. Both rounds were case based interviews. In the first round I was given a case about a news daily in Kolkata with dwindling sales. I was asked to identify what the root cause could be and then to suggest some alternates to Narration of the case increase revenues. interview (Please be as In the second round I was asked to design location strategy for descriptive as possible) ATMs for a company, which had been recently awarded a banking license. The constraint was the net budget of Rs.1 crore. The location strategy was to be designed with visibility of the bank as the main aim. Kept the interviewer involved. What do you think went Asked the right questions. right in this interview? Followed a structured approach, and provided a variety of solutions. What do you think went I should have covered the breadths first, before diving into wrong in this interview? depths of the structure. Any tips for future Follow a structured approach, but do not let it constrain the batches on the basis of solutions you can think of. your experience

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Deloitte S&O

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Interview Experience 36 Name: Ashish Kapoor Company: Deloitte S&O No. of Rounds: 3 IT Engineer from NSIT. Average extra curriculars/PORs. 4 Brief Profile: years work experience in analytics consulting. Awards and promotions during work-ex. Round 1: Guesstimate round - Royal Enfield is launching a new bike at a price of 2 lakh in India. Estimate the market size. Round 2: Case study round - A data intensive case. Profits dipping for an insurer. Some basic questions on workex. Interview questions (With Round 3: Partner/Director round - Asked me for feedback on indicative answers if you the ppt and case workshops. Was more of a discussion rather choose to share them) than an interview on analytics and how it can be leveraged in the consulting context. Was asked use cases and scenario-based questions like how can Deloitte pitch analytics competency to a client 1. one who has a full fledged analytics setup 2. one who has heard the buzzword and wants to set it up Guesstimate Round: 1 interviewer went on for about 20 minutes. Started with the population of India, split it by age, income and gender first to find the potential buyer profile. Then assumed a small market among these potential buyers since not everybody is interested in bikes and even for those who are, this is a semiluxury product and not a utility item. Also looked at other competitors in this segment like Duke, Kawasaki etc. Also in this case the usual 5 years life for a vehicle is not applicable as this segment would in most cases be a onetime purchase. I do not think I was being evaluated much on the numbers or accuracy of Narration of the case assumptions in this round. The focus was more on the approach interview (Please be as on how to split the market and which segments to target. descriptive as possible) After the guesstimate, he flatly said he had a concern with why I wanted to move to strategy consulting from a data scientist role given the demand for analytics. The last 5-7 minutes went in convincing him. Had a clear answer prepared for this and he did seem convinced. Case round: 2 panelists, Went on for close to 40 minutes. The case was a straightforward profitability problem where the profits of an insurer were consistently dipping for the last 3 years while the industry remained stable. The sheet on which he had the case was divided into four sections and I was being fed data

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sequentially. I started out with dissecting profit into revenue and costs at which point he showed me revenue trends for last 3 years on the first part of the sheet. Revenue was broken down by average premium per customer and number of customers. Back of the envelope calculations without rounding off were expected. I had to prove that revenue was stable in these years. Made me calculate percentage change year on year. As soon as we settled that since revenue isn't an issue, I was given five options on what could be causing a profit dip (2nd part of the sheet). Three of these options related to drop in revenue (eg. competitors lowering prices, new entrants etc) and only one related to costs (something related to operational inefficiencies in the IT department). I identified this option and he showed me the next part of the sheet, which described the processes and steps in IT. One point clearly stated that a few critical softwares had become obsolete and had started to malfunction. I suggested that to get the new software in place, we could either outsource the development or build it in house or buy a product from a technology company. They presented data on two options (last part of the sheet), which had tentative costs and revenues over a three-year period for two cases: buying a product from Microsoft and developing the software in house. Was expected to do a cost benefit analysis taking NPV into account and compare the two options. Again calculations were pretty intensive and answers were being checked in decimals. The focus was a lot on speed and accuracy in calculations and rounding off was not permitted. At the end I was asked to summarise in 30 seconds for the client CEO, my findings. Some basic questions on work-ex were also asked at the beginning of this round. The guy knew a bit of analytics and asked me questions on regression and model efficiency etc. Fairly straightforward. Partner/director Round: Started off with asking me if I knew the names of people I had interacted in the previous rounds. I remembered one name but luckily remembered the name of the director himself from the PPT and case workshop. Then went on to ask my feedback on PPT and case workshops. Had a suggestion on the case workshop, which were discussed in detail. Asked me if I had any questions at which point I brought up the concern the interviewer had shown in the first round and made sure I cleared it out with him as well. This is where the use cases and scenario questions came in.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

I could luckily bring up some industry specific points in the guesstimate (from my interest in automobiles) and the case (from prior experience in insurance). I made sure to address their concerns regarding the fitment and my inclination towards management consulting with examples from my work-ex and tied in the need for MBA within the same making it a coherent story which I felt was crucial, especially in the last round. He did agree that there was a concern.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Towards the end of the case, i missed an input he had given while I was calculating a number and ended up asking a silly question which could've been avoided. Otherwise I felt it was a near perfect interview.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Just remain calm and relaxed, especially in the partner round. The questions I was asked weren't particularly difficult. They were just looking for structure and clarity of thought is what I inferred.

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Interview Experience 37 Name: Komal Havelia Company: Deloitte S&O No. of Rounds: 2 SRCC – Bcom Hons Brief Profile: Work Ex – 3 years - KPMG - 5 months, CEB - 28 months Round 1: Basic HR questions such as tell me about yourself and work experience details. I was asked a question on probability in which time durations were given for the student arrival and bus departure from the bus stop, and I was supposed to compute the probability of student catching the bus. The answer was divided in a number of scenarios. Interview questions (With indicative answers if you Round 2: A lot of HR questions (tell me about yourself, why choose to share them) consulting, why did you leave KPMG, my work profile at CEB, my entrepreneurial initiative, discussion around US bschool offers I had) and then a case on an insurance company. Round 3: They just made the offer and asked me “if you decide to not join Deloitte, what would be the reason”. The case was on an insurance company based out of US whose profitability had declined. I was first told about the company background and the amount of change in profits. I was then asked the probable reasons why the profitability might have declined. Post that I was given four factors which the CEO had shortlisted as reasons behind the decline. I was asked to relate these factors to the profitability in the US insurance industry scenario and explain why each of these might be the right causes. They wanted qualitative answers for this. When they were satisfied with my answers, they gave me a sheet having four tables. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

The first one had information on components of quantity and revenue for the 3 insurance products over the period of decline of profits. I pinpointed that revenue wasn’t an issue here, since for two products having a majority of sales, the premiums had increased with the quantity sold and for the third one, revenue was almost unchanged. So, cost was the problem. The second table had information on 4 softwares which were used for different purposes in the process. One for storing all client background data, etc. One of the recommendations for cost savings I made here was integration if possible, otherwise better collaboration between these four software teams since their work was not independent of each other.

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The third had information on cost and benefits from two alternative solutions over a period of 3 years. I asked for the internal rate of return and based on it, calculated the NPV of the 2 alternatives. One alternative had a very heavy negative cash flow in the first period, followed by increasing net positive flows whereas the other had much better net inflows in the first period but they were decreasing over the three years. The NPV of the first alternative was better. I gave my recommendations with reservations such as “recommendation is based on the fact that a similar trend will continue post 3 years”, etc. Then I was asked to convince a third person who just entered the room of the viability of my decision. I used the number of years it would take to recover the lost profits through the recommended channel vs. the other channel as one of the ways to convince him. What do you think went right in this interview?

The case went pretty well since I had prepared more complicated/difficult cases for my other consult shortlists.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

In the first interview, I mentioned something about poems in my “tell me about yourself” answer. He asked me to recite a poem, and I wasn’t prepared for that.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Be confident and very interactive during the interview. Don’t hesitate in asking for details not given in the case.

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Interview Experience 38 Name: Pranay Vimal Company: Deloitte S&O No. of Rounds: 3 B.E. (IT), BIT Mesra, ZS Associates (17 months), Accenture (12 Brief Profile: months). Tell me something about yourself that is not on your CV but still Interview questions (With connects you to your CV - Explained to them the reason behind indicative answers if you why I chose Engineering and then my job profiles and how it choose to share them) shaped my personality. Why are my engineering grades low? HR Questions: Basic questions around CV and background. From there the interviewer jumped to my hobbies - got hooked on to cooking. Asked me a few questions about my cooking preferences and gave a guesstimate on the market size of Chicken in India. Simple one - key metrics to sub divide the problem - Population - % Vegetarians - Income - Household Size - Frequency, by this time interviewer said I am satisfied with your thought process, please go for the next round.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Case: Production inefficiency of a company. Revenues going down. Reasons? Gave me 4 options to choose from. I chose correct. Production Efficiency. Tried to make me buzz as much as possible from the answer but I had my logic behind it because customers and revenue per customer both were increasing for my client. The only reason that I could see was production inefficiency, so I did not. Some more qualitative questions. What should your client do? Answer - Either change the technology used for production or repair it. Again correct. Some data based questions after that. I did all kind of calculations to show the profits through both the methods. The interviewer asked me to find out the Net Present Value, which I could not. I told him that I do not know how to calculate it. Partner Round: Where have seen the case before? My team tells me that you know the case and that your answers are quite familiar to our solution. I told him that I solved the case just now and have never seen the case. Having worked in similar situations, case solving comes naturally to me. He asked me if I was that kind of a person who does not change his view. I told him that I am a rational person, I don't buzz only in situations when I have done my research completely and I am logically satisfied with my solution. Second Question- If you don't get into Consulting at all, what will you do. I told him that I am interested in E-Commerce companies and will look at the options at my hand before reaching to any conclusion. After that, it was all about his and my

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consulting experiences. We talked for around 10 minutes more. Comparisons between ZS and Deloitte and how I find them similar and at the same time quite different organizations.

What do you think went right in this interview?

I had a conversation with all my interviewers and was not trying to just answer their questions. Always calm even when the interviewer was trying to make me buzz from my answer. Had logic behind everything that I said. Did not utter anything without a reason behind it.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

I could have solved the end part of the case better.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Be calm and talk to the interviewer rather than just answering his/her answers. Always have a smile on your face. They would like to know if you want Consulting as first preference or not.

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Interview Experience 39 Name: Sneha Khurana Company: Deloitte S&O No. of Rounds: 3 Dual Degree (Economics and Electronics & Instrumentation) from BITS Pilani, Goa Brief Profile: Worked for an year in LatentView Analytics as Business Analyst and 1.5 years in Thorogood Associates as Business Intelligence Consultant 1st Round: Tell me about yourself Something you are passionate about - I spoke about travel What did I learn from travelling Guesstimate to estimate the revenue of Makemytrip in an year Interview questions (With Partner Round: indicative answers if you What I learnt during my work experience? choose to share them) Why does everyone mention leadership when they talk about work? Why Deloitte? If you could ask one question to me (partner) what would you ask? The rest was discussion on my feedback from previous rounds 1st Round - The interviewer was a senior manager who asked me about my background. I mentioned that I want to travel to 30 countries before I am 30 and he asked me to list the countries I have been to and what I learnt. He then asked me why not travel to 30 states in India and then asked about a few destinations in India and what I knew about them. He asked me what was the feedback from people who had already been interviewed. He then gave me a guesstimate on the Revenue of Make my Trip in an year. I first listed all the possible revenue streams of Make my trip. I had missed out on the revenue from tour packages and he pointed that out. After that he asked me to just calculate the Narration of the case revenue from flight tickets. interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) Round 2: The Case was on a Hospital in the US whose profits were declining and the economy was also in recession. After I drew the revenue and cost streams they told me that the profitability was low because they were not processing the insurance claims fast enough and the cost of processing them was high. They gave me data on 4 processing centers with the revenue, cost, processing amount of each center. I had to identify the problem processing centers. They then gave me two options of either outsourcing the operations or doing performance improvement with the cost associated with each and asked me what option The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

they should go for. They then said the hospital had decided to go forward with buying a processing agency and with 4 options and asked me to select which one (based on revenue, cost and collection %ages). They also gave the P/E and EV/EBITDA value of recent similar transactions and calculate the price, which the hospital would need to pay. I was finally asked to give my recommendation of buy/not. I recommended not buy because the price of the processing center was more than 60% of revenue of the hospital because and there was a recession in the economy. I also mentioned that if I knew the current financial position of the hospital and the cost of debt I would be able to make a better recommendation. I was pretty relaxed during all the rounds and was not flustered when they tried to confuse me during the case. I had prepared questions for Deloitte (mostly based on my interest in Sustainable Supply Chain) and asked one during the first round and partner round. The interviewers spent quite some time answering those questions and in the first round he was happy that I had gone through their practices and projects in detail. I could have structure my case better and have done the calculations faster. -

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EY

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Interview Experience 40

Name: Company: No. of Rounds: Brief Profile:

Ankur Kedia EY (PI) 1 IIT Roorkee, Metallurgical & Materials Eng., 34 months of work-experience at ZS Associates and a startup Voziq

Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Round1: PI All questions were based on my CV. Asked me in detail about each and every projects I have done.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Since my work-experience at ZS was related to consulting in pharmaceutical domain, the interviewer asked questions on pharmaceutical market in India and where it is going. Also, the key players in the market, biosimilars and how attractive are biosimilars. I have also worked on contact center analytics. So, the questions were framed around how to reduce churn in a telecommunication company of India. What are the key factors that determine the churn rate in subscription business model. Few HR questions on why I switched companies, and why I want to join EY.

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I was able to explain my work-experience very well. Prepare your CV thoroughly

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Hay Group Consulting

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Interview Experience 41

Name: Company: No. of Rounds: Brief Profile:

Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Kannav Mahajan Hay Group Consulting 2 HR Consulting Interview 1 Case 1 - I was asked to analyze the falling profits of a Retail multi brand cloth store like Shopper stop. I did the Revenue-Cost analysis and was directed to cost section by the interviewer. While analyzing the costs, I figured out that it was the high iteration rate of staff in store which was leading to high costs since new people had to be trained. The interviewer asked me for suggestions to reduce iteration. Case 2 – The number of customers who were shopping with our mega store were decreasing. I was asked to analyze why. Upon the analysis, I could find out that high waiting time at cash counters was the cause of resentment in customers. We had not done proper research as to how many cash counters were needed for how many customers. At the end I was asked what rate determines the rate at which each customer is serviced. Interview 2 Case 3 – I was told that I have found a CEO of a company who is expanding their operations globally. In such a scenario, our firm, which is well known for restructuring organizations, sees a value proposition. I was asked to make an elevator pitch to the CEO to convince him to give the business to us.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Case 4 – I was asked to present 10 points on which incentive structure of a company should be redesigned. I made a mistake of not asking why redesign in the first place. So there I did lose some points. Interview 1 Case 1 - I was asked to analyze the falling profits of a Retail multi brand cloth store like Shopper stop. I did the Revenue-Cost analysis and was directed to cost section by the interviewer. While analyzing the costs, I figured out that it was the high iteration rate of staff in store, which was leading to high costs since new people had to be trained.

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The interviewer asked me for suggestions to reduce iteration. Case 2 – The number of customers who were shopping with our mega store were decreasing. I was asked to analyze why. Upon the analysis, I could find out that high waiting time at cash counters was the cause of resentment in customers. We had not done proper research as to how many cash counters were needed for how many customers. At the end I was asked what rate determines the rate at which each customer is serviced. Interview 2 Case 3 – I was told that I have found a CEO of a company who is expanding their operations globally. In such a scenario, our firm, which is well known for restructuring organizations, sees a value proposition. I was asked to make an elevator pitch to the CEO to convince him to give the business to us.

What do you think went right in this interview?

Case 4 – I was asked to present 10 points on which incentive structure of a company should be redesigned. I made a mistake of not asking why redesign in the first place. So there I did lose some points. 1. Despite being my 8th Interview of the day, I did keep a calm expression. I guess that does matter after all. 2. I was honest about my interviews in the day and was confident in what I spoke

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

1.I could have asked more questions without rushing to conclusions

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Despite not being able to make it to other companies, try not to lose it. Stay strong at all times. And if possible, try not to become too particular about one company. Its rejection can hurt you a lot.

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KPMG

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Interview Experience 42 Name: Ashwini Gupta Company: KPMG No. of Rounds: 2 B.TECH(MECHANICAL) from NIT-BHOPAL, Brief Profile: 58 Months in HPCL as Operations Officer Two members were present in the interview panel. 1. Tell me about yourself? 2. Why MBA after these many years of work-ex? 3. What all other IIM calls (Considering my top600 rank in CAT) did you have? -Only L&K; told him about my not so high academic scores (10+2 & Grad) 3.a Why your academic scores are low? -Told him about them being above average but as IIMs compare relative CGPAs (prevalent now) with the absolute (prevalent then), they appear below average 4. Describe the job roles that were handled by you in HPCL? 5. Questions about one of my job -projects. How you were able to save 80 Lakhs. What role did you play in it? -In-depth knowledge about the project from developing the blueprint till the execution and end-results. 5a. how were you able to quantify the savings? Interview questions (With 6. You like solving puzzles. Then answer this puzzle. indicative answers if you Gave a puzzle. choose to share them) 7. Gave a scenario pertaining to my work-project and asked me to enumerate at least five factors affecting it. -was able to give a total of 7 factors with 3 as sub-heads under 1 head; could quantify the effects of each of these factors on the overall scenario by relating the corresponding sub-projects to substantiate the claim( e.g. factor 5 can have a max.10 % effect on overall o/p which is evident from my project x with PCRA where I got it as 10%) 8.What are your subjects of interest? 9. What methods do you employ to keep off the pressure in highly demanding situations? -told what I do in the short-run and in the long-run(related it to what I used to do during my work-ex) In the end, they asked me if I have any questions to ask. I asked two questions one pertaining to KPMG's zero presence in fields relating to conformance to specialized statutory standards (OISD in my case), and another pertaining to third-party audits and The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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inspections which are increasing exponentially in government sponsored energy sector enterprises.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

In the first round we were asked to carry a write-up with ourselves but since I was pulled out directly from Snapdeal's process, I could only get 2 minutes to write it just outside the interview room. The round two was more like a formality in the form of interaction with one of their partners Substantiating every answer by relating it to an experience/event of my life-This way you are efficiently covering your whole CV in the interview and also making sure that the interviewer have also thoroughly gone through it. Being thorough and precise about each and every thing mentioned in the CV. Quantifying all my CV points. The write-up that were supposed to be carried along with me. Though, it seemed it had a very small weightage as compared to the interview. -

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Interview Experience 43 Name: Samrdhi Ramawat Company: KPMG No. of Rounds: 2 College graduation- B.Tech from JIET jodhpur in electronics Brief Profile: and communication engineering Work ex- 0 years What is your passion? How is it positive? Where are you from? Tell us about your family. Are you a role model for your younger brother? How is your experience at IIML? which subject you like the Interview questions (With most? indicative answers if you Are you comfortable with finance? choose to share them) Imagine you have a matchbox factory, tell us 5 methods in which you can add more value to its supply chain. About what you are very passionate? if you are asked to encourage your juniors to pursue that as hobby then what you will say? Do you have any constraints related to travelling? Narration of the case There were two rounds interview (Please be as first was HR + functional and the second was partner round in descriptive as possible) which the senior partner interviewed about my interests I think my self-confidence and the way I talked that worked in favor of me. What do you think went They wanted to check my interest in the field and how much right in this interview? passion i have for my interests. Just be honest and engage them in the conversation. That's the key to success. What do you think went I could have done better if I had read more about FRA. A wrong in this interview? proper interest in one particular area should be there. Any tips for future Know about the company, the role they are offering. Be clear batches on the basis of with what they are offering and how you fit in that role. Have your experience confidence and be clear with your answers.

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Interview Experience 44 Name: Shaurya Manish Company: KPMG No. of Rounds: 2 College graduation- B.Tech from NIT Warangal Electrical and Brief Profile: Electronics Engineering Work ex- 32 months at NTPC Ltd Tell me about yourself ? Many Questions around power sector. What do you think is the future of power sector in India ? It was more of a discussion. My experience at NTPC. Problems faced, learning and challenges. How is your experience at IIML? What is your favorite subject? I Interview questions (With told Finance and Macroeconomics. I was thoroughly drilled in indicative answers if you these areas. choose to share them) 2 puzzles – You have to weigh objects from 1 kg to 50 kg. Minimum number of weights required to accomplish this. Another puzzle using AND/ OR logic. Your hobbies and interests, Guestimate the number of trees in Lucknow. Any Questions you have for us? Narration of the case A Telecom Tower operator is making losses. Diagnose. Answer interview (Please be as was pilferage of Diesel Generator. descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

My job experience at NTPC and passion about power sector.

I could have done better if I knew more about Profile. HR questions are boring but are the differentiating factor. Smile during the interview. Prepare for at least one subject thoroughly.

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McKinsey & Co.

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Interview Experience 45 Name: Amlan Lenka Company: McKinsey & Co. No. of Rounds: 3

Brief Profile:

Graduation- BE hons CIVIL, BITS Pilani- 2013 Work ex- 23 months. Business Analyst for DELL Financial Services (Marketing Analytics)-17 months Assistant Manager- Citibank Global Decision Management (Campaign Management)-6 months

Round 1 - Junior Partner It had a basic HR (personal) and 1 Case and 1 Guesstimate Case- I am a cellphone carrier company (Airtel/Vodafone) and my revenues are falling. Guesstimate- Number of Chemical Engineering graduates in the country. Round 2 was with a Senior Partner and hence was more of a Interview questions (With conversation. indicative answers if you Case- I am a white goods manufacturing firm and my growth is choose to share them) stagnant (Possible maturity of the industry). Should I venture into manufacturing smaller electrical equipment. Pros and Cons. Round 3 Partner It was an extensive case on online grocery delivery business (Grofers) Case- I am a private equity firm. Should I invest in something like a Grofers. Why? Why not? Round 1- Lot of numbers and the idea was to check the thinking capability. I had done a case on the value chain of cell phone carriers and so that helped. Guesstimate was also a bit confusing and had lost my calm for a Narration of the case minute or two. interview (Please be as Round 2- Amazing conversation with the Director. He seemed a descriptive as possible) little tired at first but we managed to have a pretty decent chat over a lot of things including the origin of my name. Round 3- Extensive number crunching and idea generation. Heavy case which included a guesstimate for market sizing. -Maintained my composure at all times What do you think went - Was extremely confident right in this interview? - Could strike a chord with each of my interviewers What do you think went - Could have kept my answers short and crispier which is highly wrong in this interview? critical. The firm is here to help you. It is not you against them. If you Any tips for future have a shortlist you already are good enough. So take the cues batches on the basis of and be confident of your own abilities. your experience Pick up a friend or two with whom you can practice cases.

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Interview Experience 46 Name: Anuj Singh Company: McKinsey & Co No. of Rounds: 2 IIT Roorkee B.Tech (Metallurgical and Materials), 35 Months (8 Brief Profile: Months in Oracle, 27 Months in ZS Associates) Round 1: Tell me about yourself, resume base, a guesstimate and a case to find out why the profitability of a cellular network Interview questions (With company is declining. indicative answers if you choose to share them) Round 2: Tell me about yourself, case on how to increase revenue of Google in India by 10x and a guesstimate. Round 1: Interviewer asked to introduce myself followed by few questions about my work at Oracle (he knew about the product I worked on very well). Then he gave a case to determine reason for decline in profit of a cellular network company. Interviewer was in a sort of hurry and kept on pushing me to do it fast. He kept giving me clues, which helped me move forward and solve the case. This was followed by a guesstimate, which he asked me Narration of the case to solve in 2 minutes. I was able to do it but missed a factor interview (Please be as towards the last step. Finally he asked me whether I have some descriptive as possible) questions for him. Round 2: Started with "tell me about yourself". The interviewer used to work previously in Google so asked me a case about how can Google increase its revenue in India by 10x. He kept on asking me to give more and more ideas. He then asked me to synthesize the case. This was followed by a small guesstimate. What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

In the second round, I felt that I was too involved in solving it rather than making it an interactive exercise. I also got a little nervous during my first round, which the interviewer was able to sense. Keep the process interactive. Be thorough with everything on your resume. Practice case and guesstimates with time limits.

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Interview Experience 47 Name: Anuja Rege Company: McKinsey & Co. No. of Rounds: 2 Brief Profile:

B.Com from HR College, Mumbai; Chartered Accountant. Work-ex at EY in assurance services of 21mths+ 3 years of articleship 1 round was with a partner and 1 with a director. Both involved 1 case each with some HR questions.

Round 1- The partner started with some HR questions. Tell me about your work-ex, some of your qualities, narration of one incident about one of my qualities, etc. Thereafter we proceeded Interview questions (With to solve a case. The case was a market entry one. Before ending indicative answers if you the interview, he asked me whether there was anything I'd like to choose to share them) ask them. Round 2- It started with a case with basic HR questions like tell me about yourself, why McKinsey etc. To ease the talks, he started with how has the day been, asked me how many interviews I have given so far. The case was based on supply chain management.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 1- This round lasted for about 30mins. The initial HR was to assess how I fit into the profile of a consultant. He remarked that intense interaction with various clients that I had during my work-ex was a quality, which fit into the life of a consultant. Thereafter the case was one, which I could not complete in the given time. An electronic goods company was not growing since the past few quarters and they wanted to get into white goods sector, which had seen considerable growth in recent times. We discussed why there is a need to diversify, why growth had halted. The case involved him being the CEO and me as the consultant. So only precise and relevant questions had to be asked as he had given time constraints. Round 2- This round lasted for around 20 minutes. I was able to solve the case pretty quickly. It was a moderately difficult case with a slight catch. It involved a Japanese chemicals company wanting to enter India. The HR questions were quite easy to tackle.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

In the round 1, I exhibited confidence even when I understood that the case was getting nowhere. A thorough revision of the variety of cases that I had solved in the month of preparation helped me tackle the crux of the case in Round 2. In the HR questions, I answered all of the questions honestly and took a moment to pause & think when I could not think of an answer - not being too prompt without having thought through. In round 2, while laying out options for supplying the product, I assumed that the product was B2C. The interviewer pointed out my mistake, which I then readily accepted and amended my solution. It is vital to not make any assumptions, no matter how trivial. Confidence is the key. Solving a variety of cases is important. Quantity of cases solved does not matter if each additional case you solve does not teach you something new. It's crucial to not make assumptions and if you need to make any, you should clarify the same with the interviewer beforehand.

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Interview Experience 48 Name: Mugdhaa Company: McKinsey & Co. No. of Rounds: 2 Brief Profile:

B.Pharm. (Hons.) from BITS Pilani, Pilani 11 months at Goldman Sachs as an Analyst (Regulatory Operations)

Tell me something about yourself. (Round 1) Interview questions (With Tell me something about yourself in 30 sec (Round 2) indicative answers if you Why Pharmacy? Was it your choice or your parents? choose to share them) Do you have any questions for me? Round 1: Interviewer: Self Intro Me: A few questions along the way out of curiosity. Interviewer: Tell me something about yourself. Me: Answers Interviewer: Now let's do a case. Asked me my preference amongst three sectors he'd given. I chose Pharma. A simple market entry case in which the company had to enter the market. I had to suggest what exactly should the company aim at while entering the market to get maximum revenue. Forgot the main thing. After a few hints, caught it and then admitted that that should've been the first thing coming to my mind. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 2: Interviewer: Be crisp, be concise and to the point. Me: Okay Interviewer: made me do a guesstimate Me: Taking time with calculations Interviewer: Tried to show that he didn't care about it, wanted answers quickly. Kept asking me questions in the middle to throw me off while trying to solve the guesstimate. Next we went to a case: Normal profitability case. Almost had the answer. He said chuck it. You are almost there. Never finished. Post that was asked multiple times if I had any questions for him. I asked him to introduce himself. Was a short conversation but I ensured it was still two sided and not just him speaking.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

I communicated well. Accepted that I had forgotten something. Stayed calm. Tackled it as if it were a conversation rather than an interview. Followed first principles even if I wasn't able to come up with a structure. Was confident of whatever assumptions I took during the interview because I had a logical backing to it. Gauged that the interviewer in Round 2 didn't want me to use a paper and wanted me to verbally solve the case.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Could've worked a bit better on my guesstimate numbers. Formed a better structure to my case. The tell me about yourself should be about you and not everything from your CV. Add that one thing you are passionate about and in your conversation it should show, maybe through an instance or an experience.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Be calm, consider it to be any friend talking to you, it helps. Admitting that you've made a mistake might just work in your favour. Do not get worked up because of that. Try maintaining eye contact with the interviewer(Obviously not to an extent that it feels like you're staring). Shows that you are confident.

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Interview Experience 49 Name: Sanchit Jain Company: McKinsey & Company Round 2 Rounds Brief Profile : B-Tech, Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi (2009-13) 20 months work experience at Samsung Research Bangalore Round 1: The interviewer first introducted himself, his practice areas and work. Then my part started with the standard question ‘tell me about yourself’ which led to more discussions around my job, interns and PoRs. There were situation based HR questions as well which went to the secon level detailing atleast. Next we did a short case on a cement manufacturer which had increasing costs and a small analytical problem on the same. Finally the interview ended with me asking some questions about consulting in general and McKinsey in particular. Interview questions (With indicative answers if you Round 2: The partner met me in the waiting room only and we choose to share them) chatted on the way to the interview room (which was my section classroom only). He was also doing a case in Jaipur only (my hometown), so we talked about, my family, and background. There were some questions from my CV and then we talked at length about our recent Europe trips. The case was purely idea generation for a tourist company entering Jaipur and establishing an exciting and profitable business. After the case, the interviewer asked me why I saw McKinsey as a fit. I gave my reasons and the conversation culminated with me asking more questions on the same lines to the partner. Round 1 Case: A cement manufacturer is facing increasing costs. After understanding about the company and industry and doing a value chain approach, we zeroed in on transportation costs. The mines were located close to the plant so inbound logistics was not a problem. In outbound logistics, the company was dependendent on rail (60%) and road (40%). Then I focussed on road transportation costs and identified the various levers that can affect these. I divided them into different buckets Narration of the case and here important points were fuel and backhaul costs (return interview (Please be as journey). The numerical problem was around breakup of some descriptive as possible) of these costs for the company and impact of increasing fuel prices (the interviewer wanted me to do the exact calculations to the second decimal point and we saw the difference approximation caused to the final cost figure.) Round 2 Case: A tourist company was looking to setup something exciting and profitable in Jaipur. After understanding the problem statement and requirements, I started with deciding what to setup. Based on the different attractions I had seen or heard about, I classified them into categories and tailored them The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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to Jaipur/ Rajasthan/ Indian context. The partner was impressed with the idea of a light and sound show (on the lines of Songs of the Sea, Sentosa, Singapore) on villages and rural India. Next we talked about concept research, target audience and feasibility.

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I was confident and well prepared with my HR answers. My case solutions reflected some structure and creativity. Throughout my interview and resume, travel was reflected and I played that card well in my second case. My case in the first interview didn’t go that well as I approximated the numbers. But then I course corrected and quickly did the calculations. Case preparation is important but keeping an open and creative thought process is vital. Give a lot of time and thought to HR questions and preparing about yourself. The answers should not be memorised and they should be something that you totally believe in. Have some good questions prepared for the interviewer.

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Interview Experience 50 Name: Surabhi Kothiyal Company: McKinsey & Co. No. of Rounds: 2 Education - B.E. Electronics + M.Sc. Economics, BITS-Pilani Brief Profile: Work ex - Bain Capability Center (10 months) 2 rounds of CV based interview. Both interviews started with "Tell me something about yourself" and continued from there. Interview questions (With Round 1: After HR questions, the interviewer asked me what indicative answers if you kind of cases I had practiced with my buddy. Then asked me to choose to share them) pick my favourite one and give a structure on how to solve it. Round 2: Primarily HR round. The interviewer asked me to pick a case on sports or smoking, I chose smoking. Case: When can you light a cigarette from the wrong end? Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Described above I knew my CV well NA Concentrate on HR, especially for McKinsey.

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Interview Experience 51 Name: Swarnima Gupta Company: McKinsey & Co. No. of Rounds: 3 Brief Profile: SRCC, B.A.(Hons). Economics; Fresher First Round: *Tell me about yourself *One situation when you convinced a group of people : what approach did you use ? An alternate approach that can work *Brief discussion on a social entrepreneurship venture that I had worked on in the past *Case: how will you reduce the travel cost of the Government of India: Second Round- video conference Interview questions (With *Brief Introduction indicative answers if you *Case 1: Infosys is growing at below industry average growth choose to share them) rates. How do you increase growth? * Case 2: How to reduce logistics cost of E-commerce businesses like Amazon Third Round: *Case : Client is the Govt. of U.P. : work on restructuring the power distribution system, currently running in losses, has huge debt -how to make it profitable? i) Given figures for different costs: Make a P&L ii) Identify sources of losses iii) Suggest measures to mitigate the losses and tackle the debt Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Same as Above

What do you think went right in this interview?

*Maintained composure *Asked clarifying questions wherever needed * structured thinking in case solving

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

* Solutions of the second round cases lacked detail

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

*Be very logical throughout *Confidence and maintaining composure is essential

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Interview Experience 52 Name: Utsav Kumar Company: McKinsey & Co. No. of Rounds: 2 Brief Profile:

Dual degree (Economics + Electronics) from BITS Pilani Work experience - Bain Capability Center (11 months)

1. Work experience related to kind of cases I had worked on Interview questions (With 2. How would I expect work at McKinsey to be different - what indicative answers if you different skill sets would I require etc choose to share them) 3. Discussion on ecommerce industry 4. Small case on the ecommerce Industry

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 1 The initial discussion was around my work at BCC and the kind of cases I had worked upon. The interviewer asked me for the kinds of skills that I had to work with and then asked me to compare if I expected the work at McKinsey to be any different. This resulted into a discussion about the client interfacing aspect which I pointed out would be the stand out difference. I had also mentioned that I liked McKinsey's focus area of 'Going digital'. So the discussion turned into a case midway as he asked me for my views on the business model being followed currently based on heavy discounts offered to capture audiences. Then he asked me whether the app only model being followed by some companies is viable or not. This finally turned into a small case where an ecommerce company's financial numbers across segments was given and I was asked to calculate which segments were profitable. Finally I was asked for suggestions to lower the inventory cost and logistics cost of an ecommerce company. Round 2 - Purely HR based Right out of the box I was asked for reasons why I should be selected. He pointed out that I was involved in Credence so would be inclined towards Finance also. I gave my points why I preferred consulting to Finance and also why I thought Credence was an important learning experience for me. He then asked me for my views on ICSE v/s CBSE and which board did I think was a better option.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

The questions in both interviews were very different and probably not something that I had ready answers for. Hence I made sure that my answers were logical and most importantly short and succinct. Also in my first interview I was very sure about the workings of the ecommerce industry. This helped me give very solid answers especially on the utility of app only model.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

I did not realize when my interview turned into a case so I had to ask clarification questions later on. Had I realized it sooner, I could have tried to bring them up slightly less abruptly

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Ensure that you know about your work experience especially if it is in a highly relevant domain. Also don't neglect reading up on businesses or sectors that you would normally follow. For all that you know, your entire interview can be based on it.

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Interview Experience 53 Name: Vineet Rawat Company: McKinsey & Co. No. of Rounds: 3 IIT BHU Varanasi Brief Profile: Work Ex- 0 Having Flipkart on my CV the question was framed on increasing Logistics cost of Flipkart over years. Solution: 1. New Products: Furniture, Durable goods incurring more cost 2. Greater Coverage 3. Return Policy 4. Larger Customer Base Interview questions (With 5. More complaints regarding products so double trip indicative answers if you 6. Fake Orders choose to share them) 2. Electricity Distribution Loss Problems: Bad Debts: Write off policy, collection systems, penalties levied 2. Transition Loss: Wiring Material, Maintenance, Distance, Step Up and Step Down variations 3. HR Based + Small Case 3. Theft 4. Govt. Distribution Base 1. Mostly about college life. 2. Leadership instances. Narration of the case 3. Why Consulting at this age? interview (Please be as 4. How do you pursue your hobbies. descriptive as possible) 5. Why Placement Committee when already did this sought of work in under graduation college 6. Instance: On the feet thinking 1. Structured Approach in all three cases 2. Confidence 3. Be yourself What do you think went 4. Interaction was the key right in this interview? 5. Thinking aloud 6. Numbers: Was able to deal with big numbers in Second case1. Composure What do you think went 1. Composure wrong in this interview? Any tips for future Structures should be intuitive not bookish. Create your own way batches on the basis of of solving the case. your experience

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PWC

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Interview Experience 54 Name: Gowtham Maddirala Company: PWC No. of Rounds: 1 Brief Profile:

B-Tech 2010 IIT Madras Civil Engineering 30 months in Mold Tek Technologies Hyd 22 months in I&CAD Andhra Pradesh

1) Tell me about yourself 2) What would you do if there are two high priority works which are to be submitted simultaneously? - related to team work - you should say that you would take the help of other employees 3) What have you done in the Irrigation department 4) If there is a railway track to be built what all factors would you take into account to choose between two villages through which the track has to pass? - Can answer using PESTLE 5) The same above question if you are profit centric, social Interview questions (With welfare oriented, if you have to take politics into account indicative answers if you 6) How would you tackle if your colleague or your immediate choose to share them) superior is corrupt and unethical? - Maybe this is the turning point of my interview as I gave examples in my own life, Volkswagen case where there was a communication gap, satyam case where the auditors were PWC. Tried to explain that if we don't tackle these practices immediately it might lead to a huge organizational failure 7) What do you know about GRID? 8) Tell me about feasibility analysis you have done before 9) Have you done any Technical feasibility analysis? 10) About grades GRID means Government Reforms and Infrastructure Development Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Interview questions are both technical and HR related. Interview went on for one hour. Interview taken by 1 HR (female) and a technical person (male) HR woman enters and takes the interview for 20 minutes and leaves. The other guy started asking HR questions and then slowly moved into technical questions with some HR questions in between. You will be asked GRID related questions.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

My experience was what helped me in the interview. They already selected some people which made my interview even more difficult. I have an experience in Irrigation department and I know everything about the problems of government projects, technical feasibility etc. For example in the interview, I told them that one of the factors for determining the site for the construction of a retaining wall would be consulting the villagers and asking their opinion. Even though it doesn't matter it would gain the confidence of the villagers and they will in fact would help us instead of being a hindrance like in Narmada project. He was very impressed by this and I think this prior experience helped me a bit.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

I could have been more practical and crisp while talking. I could have answered the questions without going into too much details.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Be practical. Know about the company. Show huge enthusiasm in a calm manner rather than showing desperation. You would have to tell lot of examples and be unique. They have to remember you through your examples. Show confidence and don't show desperation.

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Interview Experience 55 Name: Sanjay Kumar Dudani Company: PWC No. of Rounds: 1 Brief Profile:

B.Tech, NIT Calicut, Work Ex-22 months in family business

Interview questions (With 1) If you were to construct an airport, what factors would you indicative answers if you consider before choosing a particular location? choose to share them) 2) CV related and General HR Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

There was only one round of both case and HR

What do you think went right in this interview?

I gave my answers based on some frameworks and proper structures.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

May be a little more knowledge on the infrastructure front would have been handy.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Be calm and composed

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Interview Experience 56 Name: Shashwat Sharma Company: PWC No. of Rounds: 2 Brief Profile:

B.Tech from IIT Mandi in Mechanical 10 months work-ex as network and security consultant

Interview questions (With 1st interview was straightforward HR questions, why join this indicative answers if you company, what do you understand by consulting. choose to share them) 10 minute interview, 5-6 questions. Others were grilled more. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Was not asked detailed case, they just asked me what factors to consider when in building a power plant. Went through all the possible angles, the interviewer seemed fine with it. Hardly a 10 minute interview, no grilling. Interviewer asked a little more about family, nothing much.

What do you think went right in this interview?

I could think about different angles in the question about power plant. Rest I was direct and crisp with answers, which I guess they liked (they can see-through globing i guess).

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

I could've been a little more thorough with the HR answers, it would've made a stronger case for me.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Just relax before the interview, be thorough with HR answers, have a little knowledge of the industry of your graduation stream. Nothing more.

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Summer Internship Experiences 2014

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Accenture Management Consulting

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Interview Experience 1 Name: Arushi Agarwal Company: Accenture Strategy Name of interviewer and R3- Jayesh Pandey, Partner designation R1, R2- Don’t remember Round (First/Second/third) All Brief Profile : IIT Delhi, B. Tech (Textile Technology) (Graduation College, stream, 1 year experience at KPMG in Shared Services and Outsourcing Work ex details, etc.) Advisory (Strategy Consulting) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them) Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 1: General HR, followed by Case involving numbers. Round 2: Pure HR Round 3: General HR, followed by an abstract case Round 1: Interview started with ‘Tell me about yourself’. It went straightway to a case from the FMCG sector. Problem was about the falling market share of an FMCG company. Interviewer was looking for a structure to the problem and the various factors that I can come up specific to the FMCG sector. He gave me some numbers, which had to be traced backwards to get the company’s profits. A little tricky but doable. The company’s profit margin had to be compared to the industry average and some knowledge of various ratios of this industry, helped me give valuable insights. Round 2: This was taken by the company HR. The various questions asked were- How was my last interview? What could I have done better? Why Consulting? Why not go into my field of engineering? Why did I leave KPMG? What can I do to motivate a team? Who has a greater influence in my life- school or parents. Why? Why Accenture? Any questions you would like to ask? Round 3: It was taken by someone in senior position. It started with tell me about yourself? Revolved around the work I did at KPMG and why I left it? My biggest learning out of my job? Then he moved on the case. The case was about a magician who was controlling the supply of food that was eventually going in the well. I had to determine the speed of conveyer belt, that would help in transfering the food. He asked me to list the questions I would like to ask him. He had made a confusing diagram. I didn’t not get into the mathematics, and asked basic questions about the motive of the magician. Why is the food going inside the well etc. I also listed down the questions related to mathematics on a piece of paper.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

My approach to the case in the last round. Rather than solving the problem, I stressed more on what was the problem and what exactly was happening. I had also prepared my HR answers well in advance, which helped me on the final day. I was confident throughout all the rounds

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

In Round-1, I was in a hurry to do the numbers, which led to some error. I realised it early and immediately corrected it.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Prepare HR answers well in advance. Prepare “Do you have any question for me?”

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Interview Experience 2 Name: Himani Anand Company: Accenture Strategy Name of interviewer and Round 1- HR, Round 2 – Head, AsiaPac, Round 3- Partner designation Round (First/Second/third) Three rounds Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, B.Com(Honours), SRCC, Fresher Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: Round 1 was the HR Interview with questions covering indicative answers if you the followingchoose to share them) Tell me about yourself Why Consulting? What have you done in IIM Lucknow all this while? Favourite subjects- Questions covering accounts, ratios, interpretation of financial statements Round 2: The round with Asia Pac head started with him asking me which horizontal or Vertical I see myself in. On mentioning Finance, the whole interview revolved around Financial Management and Investment concepts besides basic FRA. Questions on Capital Asset Pricing model Other models to measure risk ( Harry Markovitz model) Which one is better? NPV vs IRR My stand on US- Syria war, Hong Kong protests Why consulting How has the journey been so far in IIM Lucknow?

What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 3: The partner wanted to testify the claims made by the second round interviewer about my inclination towards Finance. He gave me situations and asked me what impact each event or transaction will have on Profit and loss statement, Balance sheet and Cash flow statement. Questions about companies preferring lower profit or higher profit ( Shareholder confidence vs tax evasion) Questions on Income tax provisions, indirect tax provisions Clarity of thought in talking about my area of interest Structure, coherence in HR Answers

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Know your CV really well Maintain your calm, it shows. Enjoy the process

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Interview Experience 3 Name: Karthick Nivas Company: Accenture Strategy Name of interviewer and NA designation Round (First/Second/third) First - HR Second - Case Brief Profile : IIT Kanpur (Graduation College, stream, Civil Engineering (B.Tech.) Work ex details, etc.) Work Ex 22 months (Flipkart, Aspect Ratio) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 1: HR interview only Tell me about yourself. Why consulting Questions on my CV - Long discussion on projects that I did at Flipkart No cases Some discussion on the “Digital” focus area of Accenture. I asked the interviewer about his experience at operations projects at the company. (Operations was his area of specialization) Round 2: Case only A marketing strategy case. Client is a perfume seller in Jaipur. The perfumes he sells are not to be found anywhere else in the world. The product has not been tried by people elsewhere apart from the city. Tourists to the city have been intrigued by its flowery smell and usually buy some to take back home. How to go about increasing the business? The case was very interactive. The interviewer expected me to frame a structure and ask the right questions. There was a lengthy discussion at the end about pricing and the right marketing campaign to be chosen. I was able to hold onto my point albeit minor modifications in light of continuous questions and interruptions by the interviewer. Some of my answers were made fun of by the interviewer but he was generally very cheery. I believe he was trying to test my composure and I think I did well by sharing with him the logic of my answers. I was unsure about some of my points after being mocked by the interviewer. My lack of knowledge of perfumes was a bit of a problem. Be cool and logical in your thinking. The interviewer looks for gaps in your thought process. So, list out any assumptions that you take inadvertently in your mind.

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Interview Experience 4 Name: Neha Agarwal Company: Accenture Strategy R2- Mr. Jayesh Pandey, Partner at AMC came for the PPT, and a lady interviewer (probably HR), but did not talk. Before I left the room, she told me about the various teams at Accenture and asked me for location preference. Round (First/Second/third)

R1-Mr. Akash Kedia, Principle 2 Rounds (long interviews, 35-40 mins each)

Brief Profile : BITS-Pilani-2012. MSc. Economics & B.E. Mechanical (Graduation College, stream, 1 Year internship at Morgan Stanley Capital Intl prior graduationWork ex details, etc.) (2011-12) 2 years as Research Analyst at Corporate Executive Board (consulting/research) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Round 1: long and conversational, asked one case. Overall interview was CV heavy. Q1- Tell me something about yourself (During my introduction, I mentioned that I did M.Sc. Eco in UG, so he started asking questions on the Indian Economy) Q2- What do you think about the current macro-economic condition of our country from business perspective (Spoke about retrospective tax and transfer pricing, discussed the Vodafone case, how tax policies impact business sentiments) Q3- What do you think about the current inflation and exchange rate of our economy? (lot of discussion happened, QE tapering also came up) Q4- After QE tapering and witnessing its effect on Indian exchange rate, what are some of the most impactful steps taken by Govt to control the fluctuation in exchange rate? (mentioned cap on gold imports, meeting the demand for foreign exchange by using country’s reserves- not sure to what extend it is correct, but he seemed convinced) Q5- What are some of the things that can be improved to promote business? (mentioned about a client co. (Fortune 500 firm) that was trying to open a subsidiary in India and the challenges it faced, and some suggestions on what can be done to promote entrepreneurship in India)

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Q6- Asked me to explain a project I did at workplace on reputation risk (discussion was mostly focussed on how I conducted primary research and came up with the final recommendations) Q7- Tell me something about the firm you worked at and your role? Q8- Asked me about 2 other short term projects from work mentioned in CV Q9- Asked a case- Very standard ‘Sales Declining’ Case- My client is from auto industry, his sales are declining, analyse why? (asked me to list down all the possible reasons) Q10- Tell me about your experience at IIM Lucknow and what would you like to change? (add courses on entrepreneurship, law and ethics, and sustainable business practices) Q11- Have you explored Lucknow, outside your college campus? If so, one thing you’d like to change or dislike? Ans: Nothing came to my head, so said: Introduce direct flight from Lucknow to my hometown, Udaipur. The connecting flight takes more than 15 hrs! He laughed. Q12- Tell me one thing that is not there on your CV. Q13- Why Accenture? Round 2: Q1- 1 case- refer next section for its description Q2-One thing I liked about the Accenture PPT and case workshop, one thing that I did not like (mentioned that function info was missing) Q3- Which team would you like to join- CN or India Business- I did not know what these teams are, so asked them to explain. Q4- Is it okay if we send you to a small village like xyz on a client project? Q5- What will you do if we do not select you? what other shortlists you have? (mentioned that this cannot be disclosed as per Placecom rules)

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Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Case in Round 11- One of our client’s sales (Auto Industry) are declining, why? : Sales= Price * Volume Looked at all the causes affecting Price and Volume. He did not answer qualifying questions. Told me to list all the possible external and internal factors. I wrote everything. Then he discussed it point by point. Note- Practice drawing a MECE. Refer to the 3-case file they gave during PPT. He was not looking for industry knowledge. Case in Round 2- (went on for 35 minutes, lots of questions and criteria, interviewer gave me a lot of time to think and structure) There is a housing society “The wasteful society”, you collect all the household garbage and sell it to 5 different businesses. Determine what price you will pay to the society members in Rs/kg, given you want to make a profit of 20% for a year. Information given: The garbage you collect is sold to the following 5 vendors: a. b. c. d. e.

Compost Manufacturer Plastic Recycler Paper Recycler Metal Recycler Miscellaneous

The following questions were written on the case sheet: Q1- How would you price the garbage to make a profit? (what would be your strategy) Q2- What information would you need to proceed in the case, prioritize your questions (i.e. the most important information should be asked first: you will be evaluated on that) Q3- Apart from obtaining money from the above 5 vendors, what are other revenue streams? Q4- What are some of the other factors you would consider when you price the society? (Ans: Society maintenance charges) (did not discuss Q3 and Q4 in detail) Solution: The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Ans1- Assess how much waste I would get on a daily basis, calculate the cost and revenue streams, factor in profit margin and calculate the price. Questions asked: 1- What is the amount of garbage produced by the society/ household and how many households are there? Interviewer: 4.5 kg/ household, 180 households 2- Are all households producing the same amount of garbage? Interviewer: 120 households produce 14 kg/day, and the remaining 60 produce 1 kg/day. Recalculate the average value if it doesn’t come out to be 4.5kg. Gave me a calculator to do so. 3- Why do these households produce such a large quantity of garbage? Also, does this lead of 2nd degree price discrimination? (i.e. charge households on basis of the amount of garbage supplied) Interviewer: Large family size. Yes, we charge these households differently, we will look into this later. 4- Can I assume if the quantity of garbage produced remains same each day? Ans: Yes 5- Apart from households, who else supplies us garbage, e.g. local kirana stores? Interviewer: Ignore, we only consider households 6- Who is collecting and disposing waste currently? Do we have the figures on what price the competitors/current vendors are charging? Interviewer: Ignore. 7- What is the segregation of waste? i.e. what proportion of waste goes to each of the 5 vendors? This will help me determine revenue. Inter. Assume 20% to each, he also gave me price/kg obtained from each of the vendors. Revenue Streams: Q1- I obtain: 120*14+ 60*1=1740 kgs of waste everyday from the society. Is all of it segregated and sold or some quantity is wasted/ non usable. Interviewer: No waste, all of it is useful. So 1740/5 goes to each of the vendor. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Revenue: Sum of (Price from each vendor*1740/5) Other revenue stream: Q: Since I will be collecting waste for an year, can I charge the society for an annual contract fees/ society maintenance? Interviewer: No, ignore that. Think of more ways by which you can earn money. Q: Do I get any subsidy or payments from government/ society maintenance unit for cleaning the place, as it leads to social benefits? No Interviewer: let’s look at cost streams, for now, we can stick to the revenue obtained from our five vendors. Cost streams : a. Transport costs: Int: elaborate more: what transport costs: Me: I assume a truck goes to collect the waste, it will go from the garage to the society, collect the material from there and go to five vendors to deliver. Do we have the kms travelled per day? And price charged per km? Interiewer: some discussion on how to determine the cost. He said, price/kg is not the right metric, gave me price/km/kg of waste taken. The cost of transport depends on how much it is loaded and the distance travelled. Also, we decided to assume that it carries all the waste of 1740 kgs in different containers throughout the route. So cost is: 60*1740*x (he was looking for the right metric, price/kg/km. I only asked kg/km. Also, he also wanted me to ask him how much weight is carried at one time, as it goes to 5 different vendors delivering 1740/5 kgs. He wanted me to ask these two questions, even though we later decided to ignore this in calculation) 2- What are the labour costs involved in segregating the waste for 5 vendors? This is a manual process so would require us labour. Interviewer: we’ll ask the society people to do so. They’ll segregate the waste and give us. However think of the costs associated with this. Me: We’ll keep 5 separate bins for this. So costs of bins is required.

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q- Do these bins wear out, how many times do I change the 5 bins in one year (interviewer gave me the costs of the bins) 3- Labour: drivers salary (ignore, that’s included in transport), labour to pick garbage and unload it at vendors place. Cost associated: total annual salary My salary, as I manage this business: to be ignored 4- Do we calculate price based on profit before tax, or should I factor tax paid? Inter: ignore tax, calculate EBIT 5- Are there any financial costs? Have I made any investment for running this business on which I to pay interest? Ignore this 6- Any other set up cost? Ans: No 7- Finally, the price paid to households as we purchase the garbage from them. Interviewer: Proceed to calculations Revenue: X Costs: Y (from all the factors) + (Z= cost paid for garbage) Profit: 0.2 total costs Total Waste 1740 kg Using all this data, calculate an appropriate price. X- (Y+Z)= profit= 0.2 (Y+Z), we know X and Y so calculate Z. Z is the total price I will pay for 1740 kgs of waste. I started drawing the graph for 1 kg and 14 kg waste to determine price for these two bundles (2 degree price discrimination). He looked at the graphs, but told me to ignore and calculate price by directly dividing it by 1740. He told me to summarize everything to the lady interviewer sitting in the room. Important: I filled 5 sheets in collecting all the information He looked at the sheets to see how I organized all the sections of the case, like cost stream, revenue stream, list of questions to be asked etc.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

1- Was prepared to answer questions based on CV. 2- Was able to structure the case verbally and on paper. Both the interviewers checked that 3- Interview was conversational

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

R2 interviewer seemed a bit intimidating in the PPT and I was praying he doesn’t take my interview. However, when I entered the room, I saw him and got very nervous. Because of this, I stumbled a little in the beginning, but as the interview progressed, I was fine.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

1- Practice cases on paper, draw MECE and structure each subpart neatly. 2- Know your CV well, specially work and academic projects. Prepare HR answers. 3- Take notes during PPT and read about the company: they ask for it during interview. 4- Try to engage the interviewer, especially during the case. Smile and be confident. 5- Ask one question to each interviewer at the end of the interview. This shows your interest in the firm.

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Interview Experience 5 Name: Pooja Agrawal Company: Accenture Strategy Name of interviewer and Partner: Jayesh Pandey designation Round (First/Second/third) Associate followed by HR and final round was by a partner Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

B.Tech Pulp & Paper Technology, IIT Roorkee, Fresher Round 1: Introduction, Reason for a career in Consulting (I mentioned my dad’s business which he picked up) Case was on profitability of a tea packaging company(Dad’s business) Round 2: 1. Introduction (something not on CV) 2. Discussion about family, my hostel life & other generic stuff 3. Interviewer read the comments of R1 and asked about how confident I am with quant. (I messed up some calculations in first round) Round 3: I was the last one to be interviewed. Interview began with the case directly.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

1. How to increase the number of bank accounts of a public sector bank? (gave a lot of details: targeted segment, existing customers, mean & median age and income of customers) 2. How to commoditize the perfume being sold at the Jaipur city palace & used by the royal family? He wanted me to think of a marketing plan for 5-10 mins. He wanted a oneon-one debate rather than a structured solution on paper. I was very relaxed and interactive during the interview. The interviewer said that he was looking for consistency in the marketing case. I gave a proposition for the product and stuck to it till the end. I think that really helped.

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

HR answers: most important, Have a clear answer for ‘Why consulting’ Involve the interviewer during the case as much as possible.

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Interview Experience 6 Name: Tanveet Saluja Company: Accenture Strategy Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus, Batch of 2013 Worked for 1 year in Carrier Airconditioning Round 1: Questions revolved mostly around my CV. I had done a 6 month internship in Logistics department of Skoda. So he asked me a case study on how to improve profitability by reducing the logistics cost. Basically he wanted to check how many areas of logistics I touched upon and how could cost be reduced in each. He also asked which area I wanted to specialize in? What would I look at first while looking at income statement of a company so as to determine the health of a company? Round 2: HR Round. Tell me about yourself. Why consulting? Why is academic section of your CV so strong? Most remarkable achievement during your workex.? What are your hobbies? What would you do first after finishing your MBA? Round 3: This round was with the partner. Again questions from my CV. The partner had a degree in chemical engineering. So he asked me questions on heat transfer. ( I had done heat transfer during my graduation). Asked me my favourite course at IIM Lucknow. A few questions from microeconomics followed. Had a 15 minute discussion with him on Prisoner’s dilemma in the airline as well as soft drink industry. He ended the interview with the question: Why Accenture?

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview?

Be calm and composed. Consulting interviews are basically about having a wholesome conversation with the interviewer. The more comfortable you are higher are your chances of selection

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Do not mug up frameworks for case prep. Be logical in your approach.

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Interview Experience 7 Name: Vishwas Nandan R Company: AMC Name of interviewer and Round 1 : One Senior Manager designation Round 2 : One Partner, One HR Round (First/Second/third)

2 Rounds

Brief Profile : NITK Surathkal, Mechanical Engineering, 23 months of work (Graduation College, stream, experience at Hero Motocorp Ltd. Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you  Most of the questions were related to my work experience choose to share them) at Hero Motocorp (Supply Chain related)  Explain ABC analysis? (Classification of parts based on sales)  Questions related to Flipkart’s Big billion Day - What is the motive behind Flipkart’s big billion day? - Given the negative publicity that flipkart witnessed, would you as an entrepreneur have such a sale for your company? - Estimate the customers that flipkart would have gained due to the Big billion day Round 2:  Tell me about yourself?  Why Consulting?  Why Accenture?  Work ex related questions  Calculate ROI for your project at Hero Motocorp.  Which subject did you like the most in first term? Explain economies of scale? Why does the cost increase after certain volume? How can that be avoided?  Repeated questioning on why management? and why consulting?  How comfortable would you be in applying your work ex related learnings in a bank?

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Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

Questions were mostly related to Flipkart’s Big Billion Day 1) Guesstimate the number of customers flipkart would have gained due to the Big Billion Day sale. - Calculated it for a smaller area taking IIML as sample and suggested about extrapolating these numbers to a city like Lucknow or maybe even India - Mentioned about the skew in the results if extrapolation was done with IIML as sample. - Explained about the error corrections that must be considered while extrapolating like Computer literacy, awareness about the sale, internet availability etc. Structured approach to all the answers Was confident throughout the process and involved the interviewers hence both the rounds were like a discussion

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Research on the various divisions of Accenture and the kind of projects taken up by those divisions Know your CV well Preparation of HR answers is crucial

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Altisource and Ocwen

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Interview Experience 8 Name: Dipak Saha Company: Altisource Name of interviewer and designation Senior Manager, HR Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them) Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Jadavpur University, Power Engineering, Incident Analyst for a major international bank at Tata Consultancy Services, 22 months Round 1: Mostly questions on my work experience. My learning out of it. Knowledge about the company. Why did I choose to work there? No case interview.

What do you think went right in this interview?

I could talk at length about my work and back those up with some of the awards that I won during work. Being strong at Mathematics also helped.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Did not knew much about the organization. They wanted candidates to do more research on the organization.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Practice puzzles Go through the company website and ppt Prepare your HR answers well

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Interview Experience 9 Name: Naman Gupta Company: Altisource Name of interviewer and Oliver, HR Head designation Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

First Thapar University, Electronics & Communication, Genpact Headstrong (Big Data Analyst) Round 1: Purely Work-ex based, What was your work? , What was your role? , What was the team setup? , What was the impact of your work on Client’s Business Round 2: What type of work appeals to you, where do you see your career in future, Again purely work-ex in very detailed manner

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Honesty about my work Willingness to learn Explanation of my work in layman terms Confidence Spontaneity Lack of preparedness about company’s work Prepare your work-ex really well They look for people who wants to apply logic Stress on your analytical skills

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Interview Experience 10 Name: Rishika Malik Company: Altisource and Ocwen Name of interviewer and designation Mr Oliver, Head of HR Department, Altisource Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

One SRCC, BA (Hons), Economics. No work ex Round 1: Please run me through your CV. What do you know about our company? (Along discussion on it. what are the various services which Altisource offers, what is loan servicing etc. There are 5 different Altisource companies. Read about them. A lot of information is available on the Altisource and Ocwen websites) Please ask me any anything you want to know.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview?

I gathered a lot of information about Altisource and Ocwen and the services it provides. Ocwen basically does loan servicing. Altisource provides technology solutions to companies, it has its own online real estate marketplace, Hubzu etc. Loan servicing is uncommon in India and it is important to understand it if one wants to crack this company. Sufficient information is available on the company websites.

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

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Interview Experience 11 Name: Somya Sheshank Company: Altisource and Ocwen Name of interviewer and Oliver Dsouza, Director Human Resources at Altisource designation Round (First/Second/third)

1 round

Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

IIT Roorke – Btech Metallurgical and Materials Engg, 2yrs work ex at iRunway India Pvt Ltd Round 1: Q) Tell me everything you know about Altisource (discussion weny for about 15 mins). I had contacted seniors at Altisource, so I had a decent knowledge of the functioning of the company. However, the interviewer was not impressed and expected extremely fine details about the company. (Note that the operations of the company cannot be easily understood from their websites and other public information. It is better to get in touch with employees) Q) Tell me about your job.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

They were interested in knowing your role in as much details as possible. They were looking for some kind of a match between the role they had in mind and your background. They do not ask any case.

The fact that I presented my work ex details in a manner which was easily understandable and showed a match with their requirements. That I did not delve very deep into understanding the operations of the company. Make your you read/ask around as much about the company as possible. That is all that is required.

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Interview Experience 12 Name: Vaibhav Sharma Company: Altisource-Ocwen Name of interviewer and Mr. Praditpto Sarkar + Mr. Oliver D’Souza designation (Senior Manager) + Director (H.R) Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Only 1 Round B.Tech (Computer Science) , 2 years work experience with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) in the Healthcare vertical

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Not Applicable

What do you think went right in this interview?

The interview was primarily linked with my work experience in Computer Sciences Corporation. My knowledge of the I.T service sector came in handy during the interview. Also, it is important to be well aware of the various kinds of challenges and opportunities in the sector you were working in.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

I was not well versed with the kind of work Altisource does and its relationship with Ocwen financial services. Please ensure you do adequate research about the company.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 1:  Walk us through your resume esp. your work experience  Tell us more about your team structure and project details  What do you know about Agile methodology?  Tell us about the challenges you faced because of the geographically dispersed teams  What are your predictions for the I.T sector in the healthcare vertical?  What are the challenges to achieve such growth? (follow up question to the previous question)  Were you satisfied with your job with CSC? What else are you aiming for after you pass out from IIM-L?  Do you have any questions for us?

 If you have work experience related to I.T, Analytics or Operations, make sure you are well prepared for work experience related questions.  If you are a fresher, be prepared for some puzzle questions.  Please do your basic research about the company

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Alvarez and Marsal

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Interview Experience 13 Name: Arpit Kumar Singhal Company: Alvarez and Marsal Name of interviewer and 2 Interviewers(Both having experience for quite long in consult designation firms) Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

2 Rounds Delhi College Of Engineering , Electrical Engineering, Tata Steel Ltd - 3 years, Project Manager Round 1: Tell me about yourself. Why Alvarez? Why consult? Work experience at Tata Steel. (He was interested in knowing how I solved problems at site) Case. Any question would you like to ask me. Round 2: Tell me something that is not mentioned in the CV. How do your friends perceive you? (No beating about the bush) Do you read management books? One finance problem. One current affairs question. Any question would you like to ask me. The case was printed and quite long(about a page). It was about auto components part and everything was given about it. Suggestions were to be given whether a new company should enter it or not. I was given time to read it and just had to structure it. He interrupted me whenever he felt I was going haywire. I had well prepared the initial questions – about myself, why consult and why Alvarez questions which helped me in gaining confidence. It was my only interview of the day so I was quite relaxed. The interviewers also seemed friendly. I hadn’t prepared ‘Something that is not mentioned in the CV’ question. I had to come up with on the spot answer which could have been better. Do well prepare your HR questions and work experience part. It really helps on the final day.

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Interview Experience 14 Name: Kritika Gupta Company: Alvarez & Marsal Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

First B. Com (Hons.) from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Work experience: 21 months KPMG (Transaction services) Round 1: Analyse the hair care industry for a company that wants to enter the Indian market; Given the profits of two companies, where would you invest – (Ans: ask the interviewer for respective investments for the two companies and then calculate ROCE); few work experience based questions Round 2: HR questions (leadership experiences, why does the profile interest you etc.) Analyse the hair care industry for a company that wants to enter the Indian market.

What do you think went right in this interview?

I was calm throughout the process, had practiced more difficult case studies for other consulting interviews, so the one asked in this interview seemed simple.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

The interviewers were not very expressive and didn’t drop any hints as to how the interview was going. This made me loose a little confidence towards the end.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Understand the work profile well before interviewing. Have basic financial concepts in place (basic FRA knowledge form the 1st term would suffice), read a little about M&As.

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Interview Experience 15 Name: Nishant Kumar Company: Alvarez & Marshal Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) First round was case study based A case was handed and each candidate was given 20-25 mins to solve the case before their 1st round Second round With the firm partner A fin question was asked in addition to 2-3 Hr questions regarding why interested in finance, why consulting etc. BITS Pilani, 3 yrs Marketing and Sales Analytics

Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1:. The case given to me dealt with 2 skin care companies, indicative answers if you market leaders in their segment. 2 new market companies had choose to share them) entered the market eroding off the market share of the established firms. Data reading working capital, paid in capital and operating expenses were given. The case was followed with 3 questions. 1) Discuss the current market situation? 2) What should be the strategy of Skin Care India Pvt. Ltd ( the market player in the mass market segment) 3) If you are a PE which firm would you invest in? In the first round of the interview these questions were discussed in detail and various other scenarios were also taken into consideration Round 2: A finance question regading P&L statement of 2 companies were asked.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview?

Also basic Hr questions such as interest in finance, why consulting etc were also asked. Stated above

Logical conclusion of the case in round 1. I think I was able to justify my interest in finance which added to my cause.

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A T Kearney

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Interview Experience 16 Name: Anupam Bhattacharjee Company: A T Kearney Name of interviewer and Round 1: Manish, Partner designation Round 2: Nithin, Principal Round 3: Can’t Recall Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

BITS-Pilani, B.E. (Hons) Electrical and Electronics, Work Ex-23 Months, Intel and Broadcom (Wireless Communication) Round 1: Brief introduction followed by a guesstimate. Round 2: General questions about my work area and interests. Followed it with a case. Round 3: Introduction followed by discussions on my work area. No cases in this round. Round 1: The problem statement for the guesstimate case was: One of the leading automobile players in India has decided to launch an electric vehicle (priced at around Rs.7 lakhs) and wants to estimate the market size for the same. Initially started with the traditional top-down approach segregating the potential customer base into rural and urban households and then looked to find what fraction of households would be interested in and can afford the EV. Next we discussed the potential factors and trade-offs that would be involved in the decision making process of any customer when he has to choose between an EV and a fuel based car. Post that we did some calculations to estimate the size of each segment. Round 2: This round started with spending the first half hour discussing my work, projects and interests. It was largely conversational. This was followed by a case. Problem Statement: One of the leading players in the automobile sector in India currently has its production facilities offshore. It wants to explore the option of setting up local production facilities and see if it is economically viable to do so. The case was mostly quantitative and involved lot of numbers (fixed and variable expenses, projected sales figures for 5 years) and required calculating the BEP and YoY profits. Round 3: HR based round which included CV Review, why consulting, questions on my areas of interest and long term career goals.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

1) Was calm and relaxed throughout the interview. 2) Wasn’t hesitant to ask for clarification whenever I got struck while solving the case. 3) Was able to engage with the interviewers while discussing my interests, work and projects Missed one or two hints while solving the case where the interviewer had to prod me along in the right direction.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

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Interview Experience 17 Name: Gautam Bansal Company: AT Kearney Name of interviewer and Round 1: Partner (Manish) designation Round 2: Principal (Nitin) Round 3 : Principal Round 4: Senior Partner Brief Profile : B.com (H), SRCC (Graduation College, stream, Audit Analyst with Deloitte and Touche (USI) for 17 months in Work ex details, etc.) the Asset Management and Real Estate sectors CFA level 3 Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me something about yourself. indicative answers if you Guestimate: Estimate the demand for 2 wheelers in the market. choose to share them) Round 2: Why consulting? Mathematics puzzle: No. of ways you can move across chessboard from one end to the diagonally opposite end. Case: You are approached by a consumer goods manufacturer based out of South India. He wants to understand if it is viable for him to open a plant in North India. How would you help him? Round 3: 5 minute introductions. Case: Oil and Gas industry. I am a natural gas producer from 10 years ago. Discuss the applications of Natural Gas in the market. How attractive is the market for natural gas?

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 4: HR round. Tell me something about yourself. Why Consulting? Questions based out of CV. Why AT Kearney? Do you have any questions? Round 3: After discussing the applications of natural gas, the interviewer asked me to discuss the market potential of natural gas in the transportation market. Thereafter, worked out cost benefit analysis in comparison to petrol and diesel. R 1: I was calm and the interviewer gave me time to settle. The case was easy. R 2: I handled the numbers well. There was a tricky tonne to Kg conversion in the middle. Didn’t miss it. 1. Two of the interviewers were unresponsive. Another one was too responsive, almost like a stress interview. 2. Oil and Gas was an unfamiliar industry. Getting to the applications of Natural Gas took some effort. 1. Being composed is definitely one of the top 2 things that matter. 2. Define the problem clearly and get the broader structure right. 3. Prepare “Do you have any questions for me?” well.

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Interview Experience 18 Name: Mit Kotecha Company: A.T. Kearney Name of interviewer and 1st round: Akshat Seth(Principal), 2nd round: Manish(Partner), 3rd designation round: Nithin Chandra(Principal), 4th round: Mohit Rana(Partner) Round

4 Rounds

Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, IIT Roorkee, B.Tech Biotechnology, Fresher Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me about yourself; Case on Energy sector indicative answers if you choose to share them) Round 2: Why consulting; Challenges faced by a consultant in life, followed by a case on automobile industry Round 3: Case Interview and No HR questions. Round 4: CV based questions and Tell me about yourself Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Case 1: Problem Statement: A thermal power is plant facing losses Case 2: Problem Statement: Help a biscuit manufacturing plant to relocate to some new place and estimate the break even. Case 3(Abstract): Problem Statement: How can you improve the efficiency of an automobile manufacturing plant

What do you think went right in this interview?

My HR answers were well prepared. My areas of interest matched with 2 of the interviewers, which helped me to generate talking points and steer the interview in my way.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

In case 1 it took me a bit longer to reach the solution but in other two cases nothing went wrong as such.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

It is important to stay calm during the case interviews. The interviewer will be ready to help you out so it is important to clarify your doubts, but don’t ask the same question again and again. Take some time to understand the case question and confirm with the interviewer before proceeding further.

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Interview Experience 19 Name: Prateek Sekhani Company: A.T. Kearney Name of interviewer and Akshat, Principal designation Round (First/Second/third) Round 2 Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata B.Sc. Economics Honours Work Ex: Futures First; Proprietary Trader; 6 months Round 1: Puzzles like how many moves are needed to get from one corner of a chessboard to the other. Plus HR questions like, why will you choose A.T. Kearney etc Round 2: Case: Various uses of CNG/LPG, and is it feasible for a vehicle to convert to LPG.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 3: Size of the second hand car market in India Initially Akshat, principal asked me about a few basic points on my CV. Then he said if I had any questions. I asked about what work A.T. Kearney did in the energy sector since that was of interest to me. Then he gave me a case on the same. He asked me to enlist various uses of CNG/LPG in/around Delhi. I bifurcated it into 2 parts: Domestic and Commercial. Domestic included uses In the house and Outside the house. Inside the house was essentially stoves plus any appliance if any. Outside include vehicles, generator, etc. Commercial comprised of factories (I suggested boilers when asked to specify where), street lighting, office lighting, trucks+commercial vehicles etc. Post that he asked me to assess the viability of converting a car to LPG. I enlisted monetary + non-monetary factors. Monetary factors included per km cost of using LPG vs per km cost of Petrol/Diesel. Then based on average distance, the break even disctance was calculated. For noon-monetary, factors like trunk space requirements, reputational factor, accessibility of LPG stations etc were considered. Post that we spoke briefly about the Solar sector in general, with focus on scope of Solar energy in India. This came up since I had mentioned that it was an area of interest. The fact that I knew in depth about the energy with solar sector specifically helped a lot. Apart from that, idea generation was something that went in my favour.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview?

I could have been more crisp and mutually exclusive while enlisting my points.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Whatever little I could gather from my experience was that Consults thrive on good personality, confidence being a BIG factor. Just be extremely composed, confident and converse well. You probably may not do exceptionally well in the case but as long as you come across as a smart fellow, you should be sorted. Having said that, you won’t be able to sound smart if cases don’t go as intended, so prep those well. ;)

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Interview Experience 20 Name: Shifali Makkar Company: AT Kearney Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) 4 rounds Brief Profile : Bcom(Hons) (Graduation College, stream, Sri Venkateswara College Work ex details, etc.) Delhi University Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 1: Ques: HR Based Round 2: Case Based Round 3: HR Based Round 4: HR + Offer Round 1: Completely HR based round. Touched upon family background, educational background interests, CV based. Round 2: Interviewer was a partner Guesstimate Round 3: HR: Personality testing Round 4: With partner HR In all the rounds, I should conviction in what I believed and said. Was confident in my HR answers. Solved guestimate ques. Was honest and struck conversations in all interviews. Always involve the interviewer and remain confident of what you say. Even if the interviewer refutes your stance, not to get nervous. Keep a calm and pleasant face on. MECE very imp in structures. Reflects on your holistic thinking ability.

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Auctus Advisors

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Interview Experience 21 Name: Deepali Jaiswal Company: Auctus Advisors Name of interviewer and Akshat Jalan, Business Analyst (Round 1) designation Abhishek Mukherjee, Senior Manager (Round 2) Saurabh Singhal, Associate Director (Round 3) Round (First/Second/third)

3 rounds in all

Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

B.Tech. Civil Engg, IIT Bombay, Work ex – 23 months at eGain Communications (Product Engineer) Round 1: HR: started with tell me about yourself, asked about my PORs at IIT, discussion about my work ex. Other questions: When in a group – are you the silent one or the one who speaks the most, Asked to narrate a good story based on my POR. Why consult? Why Auctus? Round 2: Case + HR round Case: 2 cases – 1st quantitative, 2nd qualitative. HR: Why consult? Why Auctus? How is Auctus different from other consulting firms?

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 3: Case + HR round Case based on organisational structure. Discussion upon various topics – hometown, family. Other questions – Do you like travelling? Which all places have you been to? Why Auctus? Round 2: Quantitative Case: Problem Statement: Company A manufactures beer bottles and has only 1 customer B. A sells 50 lakhs bottles per annum. B might raise the demand to 1 crore “after a month” in case IPL takes place this year. A has to decide “today” if it has to go for production of 1 crore bottles. Options for increased production are: (i) Produce as much as A can and get remaining from 3rd party. (ii) Buy a new machine which could produce 1 crore bottles. There is a probability that the new machine might be defective. Approach: I started the case by stating (drawing tree) that there are 2 possibilities i) go for increased production ii) not go for increased production.

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In case (i) there are 2 possibilities a) purchase the new machine b) get from 3rd party. In case (i)(a) again there are 2 possibilities (1) machine is defective (2) it is not Followed by stating: to deduce the most appropriate option we need to calculate expected value of profit for each case for which I asked following questions: Current capacity of production (75 lakhs), probability of occurrence of event (IPL), current cost, cost of buying new machine, probability of it being defective and consequences, cost of getting from 3rd party, profit per bottle. (Asked other questions as and when required). Then computed expected value of profit for each of the 3 possible options and suggested to go for one with maximum expected value of profit. Discussed the case for about 45 mins. The case was followed by HR questions for 20 mins. Qualitative case: Problem Statement: A company is planning to construct a school in Indore. Suggest construction options for profit. Approach: I started with questions: Does the company has prior experience in this sector? How many schools are there in surrounding area and type? Which part of the city are we aiming at (outskirts)? Since it was on outskirts I suggested that it could go for full + day boarding and continued further on that: type of school (medium, standards, registration fee). He stated that the land was quite big and cheaper (as it is located on outskirts). I suggested that company could invest in other options like sports (swimming pool, TT etc.) for which it could charge. Could lend a portion for cafeteria etc. Didn’t discuss much on this case due to lack of time. Round 3: Case based on organizational structure Problem Statement: A company X is performing well but the CEO and CFO are not at good terms. How should X proceed? Approach: I asked for causes of conflict (Personal + Professional). Discussed more on the issue and suggested for restructuring. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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What do you think went right in this interview?

I was confident and the discussion was very interactive. Picked up hints from interviewer. Cracked the quantitative case in first attempt (structure + calculation). Well prepared for – why consult, why Auctus and about the company.

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Ask clarification questions. Think loud. Have a good discussion. Stay calm, confident and happy. Enjoy the process.

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Interview Experience 22 Name: Divya Chopra Company: Auctus Advisors Name of interviewer and Consultant, Consultant, Senior Manager, Director designation Round (First/Second/third) Round 1 : Consultant (HR) Round 2 : Consultant (case) Round 3: Senior Manager (Guesstimate) Round 4: Director (HR) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Graduation: NIT Nagpur, B.Tech, Electrical and Electronics Engineering Work Ex: Deloitte Consulting, 23 Months Round 1:  About me  Why consulting and why are you a right fit  CV related questions  Consulting is very challenging. Do you think it is in line with what you want to do in life  Are you fine with travelling for work  What qualities does a consultant need  What is the difference between solving a case in an interview and solving a case practically for a client Round 2:  Case Round 3:  Guesstimate

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 4:  HR CASE: There is a beer company. Its current sales is X. It manufactures the beer bottles in-house at present. Since the World Cup is approaching, it is expected that the sales will become 2X. The beer company has to take a call whether it should increase its production. If it increases production, it will have to manufacture more bottles. At present the bottles manufacturing plant is running at 80% capacity. Firstly decide if the company should increase its beer production or not. I had to ask for all the costs involved and selling price from the interviewer. If we go with the option of increasing the production, then shall we manufacture the bottles inhouse or outsource them. The costs for each of the activity was given. Explore all possible scenarios and decide.

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GUESSTIMATE: I have a piece of land. Should I sell off the land or build a school on it. For this guesstimate, you need to ask a lot of questions and calculate the cost of establishing a school on the land and calculate the cash flows in a 10 year horizon. Compare it with future worth of selling price of the land.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

CASE: I could come up with all the possible scenarios quickly. I calculated the expected profits for each of the scenarios and came up with the best one. This case could have been solved using opportunity cost of each scenario as well. GUESSTIMATE: I asked the right questions. The case was calculation intensive. I made a few calculation mistakes, but the interviewer was not worried about calculation goof ups. Be confident. They are looking for enthusiastic people, good communication skills and presence of mind.

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Boston Consulting Group

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Interview Experience 23 Name: Anand Barot Company: BCG Name of interviewer and 3 Rounds of interviews. designation Last round with Partner named Ravi Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds Brief Profile : IIT Bombay (Btech +Mtech) (Graduation College, stream, Workex-33 months, Work ex details, etc.) 20 months: American Express, Last 13 months: Business development in a food-processing and retail firm Interview questions (With Round 1: Case of Market entry indicative answers if you Scenario: The firm was a two-wheeler manufacturer in India and choose to share them) wanted to introduce its product in Nigeria. I was asked to explore the options it might have and how it should do it. Approach: I first found out the demand and competition in Nigeria. Also looked at the company’s capacity to meet the price requirements of the customer. Important point was that the twowheelers were used as taxi in Nigeria. This point came out when I got an answer to the amount of usage of the product as 50,000 kms annually which was very high. Price we could offer was higher than competition so I suggested changing the design to have two customers per ride than just one, there by increasing revenue per ride and thus customer’s willingness to pay higher. Then interviewer asked questions about how to market it. I suggested a few advertising ideas like showing increase in standard of living of taxi driver due to usage of product. Then question was how to get over the inertia that people felt in buying as no one had used our product. For this my options ranged from approaching taxi driver unions to limited number of product units in market for a free 6 month period for the user to experience the product. I also suggested a more spread out distribution within the country to increase visibility of product. Round 2: 5 min HR questions like tell me about yourself, etc. Case of value chain management Scenario: The company was a supplier of excavation and other construction equipment. Recently, it had experienced a sharp rise in its warranty costs. I had to probe the issue. Approach: I studied the value chain and understood how product complains were generated and solution provided by company. In this I found that the dealer’s engineer was responsible for checking validity of complains and it was the dealer who got a commission for every complaint that he managed or solved. This was major point that hinted at possible collusion between customer and dealer. On further probing it was found that there The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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was a fraud happening at the dealer’s end. The dealer was generating false complains to earn more commission. To solve the issue I suggested having a company engineer look into the complaint validity. I also suggested having a remote way of monitoring the product health. Both these solutions were a bit time taking and costly. So a better solution from me was to monitor each product and number of complains it generated in a given period of time. If the same product generates more than normal number of complains in a period, it can hint at possible collusion and the firm can look into that complain before authorizing the warranty. Round 3: Case of distribution network and ROI Scenario: The firm was a cement manufacturer and wanted to expand into other regions. I had to explore ways and what areas to target. Approach: I looked at regions where the selling price of product was high and suggested we target these regions. Looked at various costs to the dealer or seller of the cement such as inventory storage costs, etc and how we can give him incentive to store and sell our product. Basically it was about increasing the ROI of the dealer wrt costs he incurs to keep our product and benefits he receives by selling it. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Done above. The first round allowed me to look at a diverse set of options across functions such as marketing, pricing, design, etc. The good point was identifying early in the interview that the two-wheeler was used as a taxi. Another good thing was that with each question that the interviewer put forward to reject my suggestion, I was able to give another alternative option. Second round was more about finding the issue rather than ideation. I was able to unearth the issue well and solution suggested was very practical according to the interviewer. Third round was more about gelling with the Partner and being calm. At times when he probed me, I was able to maintain composure. All 3 rounds went well wrt establishing a good repo with the interviewer. The communication was two-sided and involved. Most things went well. Only thing that could have been better was that in 2nd round I took some time suggesting a good solution. But then when interviewer hinted at a few things, I was quick to catch up. So, that too worked in my favour.

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Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

It is always good to be prepared with your HR answers. That is not to suggest that you cram them up. They need to be genuine and your preparation should involve having a few pointers for each answer. Most important thing is staying calm and composed and to enjoy the process. You should come across as someone who is enthusiastic about solving problems. Isolate each interview and don’t let it affect next interviews. It is good to have frameworks at the back of your mind for each type of case. But in the interview, try to ask good qualifying question before putting a framework on paper. Think aloud and let the interviewer be involved with you in the process of reaching a solution.

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Interview Experience 24 Name: Arpit Vnayak Company: Boston Consulting Group Name of interviewer and 3 partners designation Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds Brief Profile : Same as above (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: 1) Tell me about yourself? 2) What are the important indicative answers if you factors you will look at if you are a cement dealer? choose to share them) Round 2: 1) Case on building materials

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 3: 1) Guesstimate no of tomatoes sold in a residential area by a new organised retailer Round 1: Had to talk about working capital requirement through dealer terms, inventory requirement, etc. Round 2: Two parts 1) draw the decision tree about how would you look at a niche building materials business and 2) come up with a formula with clear variables to estimate the overall market size

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 3: Straightforward guesstimate with important cuts being, % of people that consume tomatoes, type of people that will buy from such a store vs regular vegetable vendor, etc Reaching the important points early with little talk on the various other points that could have been addressed, talked about. They were not looking for exhaustively looking and covering all points, instead wanted you to reach solution immediately and then completely cover them.

Not much While solving cases we emphasize a lot on MECE thinking, trying to cover everything before reaching a solution. While that is important to make sure we don’t miss out on any point, on the day of interview it’s different with just 15-20 mins per interview. Try practising in such time frame closer to the interview date and close the case within least time possible.

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Interview Experience 25 Name: Gautam Bansal Company: The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) 2 rounds Brief Profile : B.com (H), SRCC (Graduation College, stream, Audit Analyst with Deloitte and Touche (USI) for 17 months in Work ex details, etc.) the Asset Management and Real Estate sectors CFA level 3 Interview questions (With Round 1: Case: Your client is a fruits and vegetables retailer who is indicative answers if you facing inventory management issues. choose to share them) Round 2: Brief introduction. Why consulting? You must be having a busy day. How many interviews are you through with? Case: A 20-25 slide PPT. The client is a Dairy farming corp. based out of Western Europe. Its current market is almost saturated. The client wants to expand its existing operations. It has several markets within dairy under consideration. Evaluate the prospects. Narration of the case R1: Began straight with the case. interview (Please be as Case Analysis descriptive as possible) Identified that the problem could either be surplus or wastage. Understood the inventory procurement and management system. Took a sample fruit for a given week and proceeded with inventory optimization. Developed alternative inventory plans and selected the best one. Then asked to synthesize.

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

R2: The interviewer didn’t have my CV. He preferred a brief introduction. Probed about other shortlists and interviews I had. Case Analysis Then opened an elaborate PPT and walked me through the slides. It was a Dairy Farming Corp. based out of western Europe and we looked at acquisition targets across 4 markets. After 10 minutes of running me through a number of tables and graphs, I was given a minute to think and recommend the best option for the client. R1: I answered to the point and was quick with my analysis. Seemed like they had no time to waste. R2: Didn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Concluded with a recommendation and case synthesis. R2: Data overflow. There was too much data to comprehend. 1. Respond to the tone of the interviewer. 2. Being composed is definitely one of the top 2 things that matter.

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Interview Experience 26 Name: Mohit Agarwal Company: BCG Name of interviewer and N/A designation Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds in total. The interview rounds were more case centric and less focused on HR. The HR questions, if any were interspersed with the cases. Only the first round had a demarcated HR round and then a case Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Electrical Engineering, IIT Dlehi Deutsche Bank (3 years) Round 1: 10 minute chat on the HR and then a 20 minute case. Round 2: 30 minute case Round 3: 20 minute case

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 1: HR questions started with the usual “tell me about yourself” which later graduated into “tell me a situation where you created an impact and brought about a change” Case: The case was not a very difficult one in terms of laying out the right levers but had a lot of number crunching to do. Problem Statement: A pharma company is in phase-1 trials of a first of it’s kind drug in the world that can cure baldness permanently. Should it go ahead and sell this formula and rights to a potential buyer and if yes, for what amount. Approach Two things in the problem statement set the path for me. a. “Phase -1 trials”, so phase -2, so phase-3 etc had to be looked into – basically the whole development stage from a drug in a lab to a drug in the marketplace. b. “for what amount” – clearly this case demanded working with numbers, because it was not just a yes/no question, but also asked an approximate deal price. Solving the case. a) I laid out the value chain in development of a drug. b) The interviewer on prodding gave me costs involved in the phased clinical trials and their probabilities of success.

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c) CATCH: Phase 3 trials success of failures probability does not affect the overall outcome in expenditure, as even if it is a failure, you have spent the money d) So I have an approximate numbers on cost in different scenarios. e) Now, I tried to estimate the potential revenue that can be earned from this drug. The interviewer gave the selling price of the drug has been fixed at USD1000. So now its more of a question of market sizing. f) Since the company is a global pharma giant, it would be selling all over the world. g) The problem was now reduced to finding the number of potential male bald customers worldwide ready to shell out USD1000 for a cure. h) The math worked out that there was no way to make money from this drug (It took a little bit of guts to state this conclusion to the interviewer), and the company abandon this project. Or better still, if somebody is ready to buy the right, just sell it for any amount above the costs you have incurred so far. Round 2: Straight to the case, no beating around the bush, no small talk. I actually liked this interview style. Problem statement: The client is a motorcycle manufacturer from India, wanting to sell motorcycles in Nigeria. For simplicity we will talk in INR terms. The motorcycle market of Nigeria is dominated by 3-4 Chinese manufacturers who sell motorcycles at INR25k. My bikes cost INR50k. How do I sell them there? Case approach: First I tried to understand the Nigerian motorcycle market. Also, I tried to understand if there was any possibility of the Indian maker to sell cheap – that possibility was ruled out. So, if cost leadership does not work, product differentiation will. How could we then differentiate our product? a) CATCH: As it turned out in the course of our discussion, the motorcycles were used as taxis b) The drivers owned the motorcycles and plied pillions around the city for a fee. c) I worked out the math for these chinese motorcycles buying cost, maintenance, life, mileage, etc. d) If the Indian client could beat that number, we could have a winner - the buying cost was high, but we were better on mileage, on life (3 years vs 2 years for the chinese product) and on maintenance. Still the number was not favourable. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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e) Next came the idea, that if we could not reduce the cost for the drivers, can we improve the revenue. An idea that I blurted out, but which turned out to be the one the interviewer was looking for – was to have a longer seat so that a total of three people could ride the motorcycle comfortably. f) Now the numbers started making sense. Also note that the previous numbers would have changed, because the mileage with 3 people on board will be less than 2 ppl onboard. Also, the amount individual customers are ready to shell out for a shared taxi will be lesser than for a private taxi. All these changes accounted for, the numbers still looked positive. g) So a go ahead was declared. h) Now came the second part, given that we decide to enter Nigeria – how do we position ourselves as a brand and convince the locals to tru out our new expensive product – the benefits of which can only be ascertained after a period of one or two years i) The answer came in renting out these bikes to the drivers on a trial basis, and let them appreciate our better bikes and let word of mouth do the rest.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 3: The case was a no quantitative one. It was about a private bank which has recently got 50 branch opening licences from RBI. How to decide where to set up these branches? a). I went in with zero pressure into the interviews b). I was very calm and interactive throughout. In round one, the electricity in the interview room went off in the middle of the interview. And it was very dark. I got up and drew out the curtains,etc. c). I did not flabbergasted when the person in front threw numbers at me. Nothing in particular that I can think of. Sometimes I missed a lever of two, but the interviewer led me in the correct direction eventually. a). Be calm, but be enthusiastic in the interview. Enthusiasm shows. b). Make the interview a two way process. Let the interviewer help you solve the problem. He will drop hints. LISTEN to them.

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Interview Experience 27 Name: Mohit Kataria Company: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Name of interviewer and Round 1: Partner designation Round 2: Partner Round 3: Partner Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Three Rounds B.Tech from PEC. Worked for 21 months in Strategic Services Group (SSG) of The Smart Cube, a business research firm. Round 1: 10 minutes on Introduction and general HR. 20 minutes on the Case. Round 2: 20 minutes on the HR. 5 minutes on the Case. Round 3: 25 minutes on the Case.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Description of 3rd Case A tractor manufacturing company’s share is declining. Background Questions: Company Description, Manufacturing Operations, and Revenue Split – by product and geography. The company had 4 tractor models (different hp powers). Discussed about the various possibilities of the revenues decline – any particular geography, product or channel. There was a particular region where the sales were declining. The sales in the region primarily consisted of 2 tractor models – 35 and 45 hp. Tried to approach the problem by dividing the issue areas between Internal and External. Internal – Company related issues related to 4Ps. External – Competition, Consumer Behaving Pattern or External Environment overall (PESTLE). The prices of the product w.r.t to competitors was at par. However, the maintenance costs was higher as compared to competitors and hence the sales were going down.

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Solution: Proposed a solution of providing extended warranty. Also the excess costs incurred by the company could be recovered by increasing costs of the other 2 tractors (as its market price was slightly lower than its competitors) as the company did not want to compromise on the profits. What do you think went right in this interview?

It was very interactive. Plus the breadth of issues that I could cover was the key that impressed him.

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Missed the maintenance costs in the first phase. Came up with it during the second round of investigation. Just be comprehensive. It does no matter if reach the solution or not. Just be exhaustive and have a structured approach.

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Interview Experience 28 Name: Parvez Jesani Company: BCG Name of interviewer and Don’t remember the name, Partner designation Round (First/Second/third) First Round – HR + Case Second Round – Only Case Third Round – A little bit of HR & Chit chat on why BCG v/s McK etc Brief Profile : Narsee Monjee – B.Com, CA, CFA (Graduation College, stream, 2 Years work ex – Credit Suisse (4 months), Edelweiss (9 months), Work ex details, etc.) eParent (1 year) Interview questions (With Round 1: Why consulting, why BCG? indicative answers if you Case on market entry for a Mobile Repairing Centre choose to share them) Round 2: Case – Profitability – Tractor industry. Narration of the case Round 1 – Tell me something about yourself. Why consulting and interview (Please be as why BCG? descriptive as possible) Case on market entry of a Mobile Repairing centre (the authorized repair centre for a company) – If I am an authorized service centre for a mobile company and I want to set up my own mobile service centre to service handsets of products whose warranties have expired, how should I enter the market.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Round 2 – Case on Profitability – Tractor manufacturing company. My profits are declining. On further questioning, I found out that the company dealt in 3 types of tractors. Followed the standard approach and figured out that there was a problem in the after-sales service of one type of tractor. He gave me some numbers to work out and suggest changing the prices of the tractors based on the competitors prices, gross margins. Round 1 – I screwed up the 1st round. He wasn’t convinced with my why consult answer and coz of that I screwed up my case too. Also, it was the 1st interview for the day and screwed up coz of nervousness. Didn’t ask qualifying questions. Structure was all over the place. Round 2 – Perfect Interview. Qualifying questions were perfect. Applied the correct approach. Detected the problem in the after sales service. Perfect recommendations. 1st Round – Since I was very nervous, I screwed up the first round.

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Interview Experience 29 Name: Radhika Saini Company: BCG Name of interviewer and Partner designation Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds Brief Profile : Eco (Hons) – Hanraj College (Graduation College, stream, MSc Economics – London School of Economics Work ex details, etc.) Worked for one year on Indo-Pak economic relations policy research Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me something about yourself indicative answers if you choose to share them) Round 2: No questions – only case Round 3: No questions – only case Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 1: The case was based on a tractor manufacturer and the falling market share of the company. The primary idea was to lay out all possible reasons for such a fall both from the view of supply and customer demand. The qualifying questions ruled out the possibility of supply side problems and hence demand side was key. Repair and maintainence costs were the reason for falling customer demand. The case was fairly quantitative in nature. Round 2: The aim was to improve the profit per ton of cement sold. This was again a quantitative case where the different transportation routes were to be mapped and the most profitable markets were identified. Markets where profits were lower were abandoned. Round 3: This was a case discussion as opposed to a case solving exercise. Here the interviewer discussed the various possibilities for starting a new shop in terms of pricing, costs, financing, recruitment, location, etc. The first round required a systematic approach and therefore adequate preparation helped to solve this case in a structured manner. The third round required innovation and spontaneous ideation which is possible if similar cases have been attempted before. Overall presenting ideas with logic and structure helped me.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

The second round did not go well for me. Here it was easy to get lost in the many levels of the case and therefore it would be useful to attempt some quantitative cases as well. Along with this, it was important to stay calm when solving the case was hard which I was not able to do well enough.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Prepare hard and work on exploring all possible options within a case.

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Deloitte US Strategy & Operations

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Interview Experience 30 Name: Abhinav Maingi Company: Deloitte Round (First/Second/third) Round 1: HR Round 2: Case based Round 3: HR Brief Profile : Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee – ECE (Graduation College, stream, Goldman Sachs - 12 months Work ex details, etc.) XLPAT (start-up) – 12 months Interview questions (With Round 1: Discussed points from my CV. Stress was on graduation indicative answers if you and work-ex. Briefly discussed my reason for joining a start-up choose to share them) after Goldman Sachs. Why MBA? Why consulting? Round 2: Started with introduction. Interviewer gave me a case and then based on my structure gave me a datasheet. Based on these two, I had to take a decision. (Case was on cable business). He asked me about items in P and L a/c and balance sheet. Some more questions revolving around FRA concepts were asked.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 3: Why Consulting? Why should we take you? Why should we not stop recruiting from IIM L? This was a stress interview. Your client is a cable operator whose profits are declining. You need to identify the reason behind this and provide a solution. I asked initial qualifying questions like geography, other businesses, technology, etc. Then I asked about forward and backward linkages and explained him my understanding of the value chain. He approved the value chain. He then gave me a datasheet. From the datasheet it could be easily seen that the problem was in the forward linkages. Then I quickly discussed the entire value chain with numbers.

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

He said, give me the most likely problem and solution linked to it. The problem was with the set-top-boxes and I explained why I felt it is the problem. Solution was to change the vendor. I solved case quickly and gave recommendations in a structured way. In my final interview, I was asked names of people who had interviewed me in previous rounds. I did not remember the names. Focus on your academic subjects. Good case solving is just a big +.

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Interview Experience 31 Name: Komal Agrawal Company: Deloitte Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) 1st Round : HR 2nd Round : Case based 3rd round : Case based + presentation round Brief Profile : B.Sc. Biology, MBA IB, Associate Consultant at Infosys Ltd(Graduation College, stream, 23months Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: It appeared that they intended to make a stress interview. indicative answers if you As I entered, he stood up, shook hands, but refrained from smiling. choose to share them) Work ex details on CV were discussed, was asked to explain the difference between agile and waterfall methodology of development (methods used in IT industry) and explanation was followed by 5 to 6 other questions on the same topic. Q. Why did I join IIM Lucknow and not IIM Bangalore? A. justified my stance Q. Is IIM Lucknow adding value as per your expectations? A. I mentioned learning in stress, time management and sharing of ideas…(globe) Q. In your cv, I don’t find any POR on campus? (committee etc.) A. told about Bhavishya Q. What all shortlists do you have? A. After 3 seconds pause, “It would be good if you could ask pcom” Q. Interviewer stood up: “O Really! Every other person who came to this room told me about other shortlists. Now tell me, what other shortlists? A. Ask pcom( it’s important to be calm and not panic) Q. “B.Sc. Biology! Hm..how good are you in Maths” A. Humbly gambled, “Sir, I am good that’s why I am here” I felt like the opportunity died this very moment… Q. Do you have any questions? A. No Sir.( he was disappointed and mentioned that everybody else had a question) I globed about some friends who are in deloitte and then compared Mckinsey and deloitte work culture, to prove that I have some idea of the role being offered. (please prepare a question to be asked) I was escorted out the door. Round 2: Case based, qualitative along with data sheet. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 3: Principal round. It was mix of case study briefing and cv. Lot of questions on personal life, work life balance, consistency in Deloitte. Eg. Q. If we give you PPO, will you be willing to travel. Q. Why consulting. Q. Solution proposed in the case. Q. You have never done one thing at a time. (Entrepreneur when student, left college when student, job to IIML etc.) How will you be consistent and satisfied in Deloitte? Q. Why didn’t you peruse you start up ahead in spite of being successful. A. Told him about problems faced in scaling and some issues in a small sized organisation that tickled his funny bone. Later I linked this with best practices in Deloitte. Q. Any questions. A. took lessons from previous interview, made up a question and globed (type of project etc.) Case: A cable box manufacturer wants to outsource manufacturing. (a) Is this a good option (b) If they don’t pursue this, what else can be done. (c) What are decision making criteria (d) If you go for outsourcing, how will you process with the analysis Data sheet was provided when I brought up cost into discussion. Fixed and variable components were given along with annual production for three years. I was asked to calculate cost per unit and base my decision on the data of three years( including cost of machinery- fixed component and other assets)

What do you think went right in this interview?

Different scenarios mentioned in the case and don’t know what they liked in first interview, but probably my answers were to the point and I didn’t panic

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

I should have prepared a question to be asked, could have rehearsed the answer for “how good in Maths” and “which other shortlists”.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

For all the interviews, just know the answer to “who am I”, (you did somethings, you didn’t do others, you should know why you made those decisions; what are you good at and be aware of things you are not good at) It is not only about the time period from the day of your shortlist till your interview, it is about your journey till date.

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Interview Experience 32 Name: Rupika Malhotra Company: Deloitte Consulting S&O Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third)

I had two rounds of interviews only (the others had three)

Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Miranda House, Economics hons Work ex: 3 years, at Forrester Research

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 1: it was a one hour round. Basically they took my 1st and 2nd round together. 20 minutes of HR and the rest was case based Round 2: last round which was the partner round. They discussed the case with me again. They asked me to present it as if they were the client. Other aspects of the case that I missed were also explored. The case was about a cable box making company that had to decide if they should go for outsourcing or continue manufacturing in house. Profit and sales figures for the last 2 years and expected figures for the next 2 years were given. All aspects of the case were to be explored. You are expected to “think out loud” and talk about everything that might be of importance in making a decision for the company. And it helps to be structured in your thoughts. For example, when you talk about outsourcing, talk about how its going to impact your costs, what kind of costs (fixed/ variable) and how, what will you do with the facility that was earlier being used for inhouse manufacturing, etc. Do the same for the other options. Any approach to solve the case is fine as long as you cover all aspects in a structured manner. I was guided well by the interviewer- If he saw me getting stuck somewhere in the case, he would start a discussion to get my mind working again. Overall, it was like a discussion and not an interview.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I think the fact that I was “thinking out loud” was a positive. Like I said, this way I was able to engage well in a discussion with the interviewer. I was also asked questions about my work ex in the same interview (HR and case round were taken together in my case). I had made sure that I knew all aspects of my previous company (since Deloitte was one of our clients there). I knew there was a chance that the interviewer would already know a lot about my previous company and work and so I could not mess up there. And I think this helped which is why he took my case round in the same interview. HR round is the first step- one can’t afford to mess it up. There were times when I gave up (when I was solving the case). That is one thing I should not have done. Prepare HR well. Practice some cases to build a structured approach to solving them Be confident when you talk about your CV. Shows that you know where you come from and what you want.

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Interview Experience 33 Name: Shalu Mitruka Company: Deloitte US S&O Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) Round 1: Senior Manager Round 2: Senior Manager Round 3: Partner Brief Profile : Architecture and Economics from IIT Kharagpur, with 20 months (Graduation College, stream, of job ex in Pharma domain Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: 2 small cases (related to pharma domain). Few questions indicative answers if you on my hobbies. I was asked to summarise my work ex which was choose to share them) followed by 2 case. Round 2: Detail case study. They were more looking into idea generation

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 3: Why deloitte? Why consulting? And was asked to present my case of 2nd round in 2 minutes. Where do you see yourself after 10 years. FIRST ROUND Case 1: You want to setup a sales force team in India and you are a US based Pharma company. what will be your budget. So firstly I asked about the drug which I want to launch in India, generic or patent. Who are my competitors? Then how much I want to invest, do I want to start small or want to be a market leader. Do I want to start from scratch, want to sell license, or want to merge or acquire some Indian based company. Regarding sales force, do I want to build a new one, or tie up with existing companies? Further I also asked about pricing regulations in India, do I have to follow a price cap, if yes then what’s the expected profit. For all these I was asked to take assumptions and move on. Secondly I divided costs into external and internal factors. External factors included (costs related to filing of Patent in Indian market, etc) . Internal costs related to HR costs, Sales rep salary, training, samples and free drugs to doctors, land ,factory setups ( told in more detail) Case 2: further on the above case I was asked to estimate the number of sales rep required to launch the drug. Solution: For this I asked rough estimation of market size in India, and expected market share for the drug. As per the client’s US benchmark, they invest 30% of the revenue on sales so i got the amount they want to invest in sales rep ( let’s assume X). If one sales rep costs Y, therefore we can estimate the number of sales rep required (X/Y).

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SECOND ROUND: Case: I am a US based company and I sell 3 products A, B, C (I don’t rem exact name) and I am having losses. I assume the reason for facing losses can be either economic downturn, new competitors, or internal problems in the company. Tell me what is the exact reason So I started with few general questions to check whether it’s economic downturn or new competitors or internal problems. Then I was provided with data sheet ( Please note: the data mentioned below are just rough numbers to give idea about my case) 1) As the sales were neither increasing nor decreasing as per figures and not the market size has increase much. So it was not an economic downturn. As the client’s market share has actually increased rather decreasing so it was not competitor’s problem. So I was only left with increase in costs due to which my profits have not increased. Further I also checked if I am pricing less as compared to my competitors. So I was asked to calculate the price of company’s products. So as the prices were not changed in 3 years so I have three equations and 3 variables (2400000 = 1000A+ 1500B+ 1200C, 23000000= 1100A+ 1550B+1100 C and 2500000= 1200A+1600B+1250C). After I wrote equations I was asked to stop and further sheets were provided

In second sheet process diagram was made and small footnotes were given (PLEASE READ FOOTNOTES) So I figured out that process 2(setup2) was 50% time not working which was causing delays in process 3 and process 4, thus increasing costs. Also Setup1 and setup 2 was installed in 2 different time frames and more over they do same work, so there The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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was no requirement of second setup, setup1 can do it ( there was good discussion on this, I don’t remember exactly)

After this as I figured out that process was not efficient, I was given 2 possible systems (shown below with their sales and cost) and was asked to choose one. Though system 1 seemed to be good with high sales and less cost but after few years profit was declining whereas in system 2 though we were at loss but profit was increasing at a much higher rate. Further I was asked to calculated NPV values ( on which I said I have no idea as I was asked to choose some r value)

What do you think went right in this interview?

My first round had 2 cases related to job ex. As I prepared for job ex cases, I was able to do good. I was confident and was smiling. Whenever I faced problem while solving the case I asked for help and they were helping me in solving the case. It was a very friendly environment for me.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview?

They asked about NPV and some finance concepts about which I had no idea, except NPV formula

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

1) Should know about your job ex nicely, each and every detail 2) Be confident and smile 

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KPMG

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Interview Experience 34 Name: Prateek Kumar Company: KPMG Name of interviewer and Senr. Consultant designation Round (First/Second/third) 2 Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them) Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview?

IIT Kharagpur, Civil Engg. , 22 months in Techno-commercial aspects of Construction in JSPL

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Knowing your CV through and through. And Case practise

Round 1: GD – Discuss feasibility of “ Make in India” Round 2: PI & Case Case : If govt. wants to collaborate with private players to open education institutions what are possible quality/Financial check measures My Experience in Govt. projects Gave the solution based on experience & insight too soon without more mental exercise

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Interview Experience 35 Name: Swapnil Vadnere Company: KPMG (S&O) Name of interviewer and Senior. Consultant designation Round (First/Second/third) 1 Brief Profile : NIT Bhopal, Information Technology, 24 months at Deloitte (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: PI indicative answers if you choose to share them) Narration of the case Case: interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview?

My Experience of working at Deloitte

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Answered the question “things that you hated about Deloitte” straightforward without giving proper thought Thorough preparation of HR answers, CV and past work experience details

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Interview Experience 36 Name: Tuhin Kanti Mondal Company: KPMG Name of interviewer and S&O summer internship designation Round (First/Second/third) 1 Brief Profile : IIT Kharagpur, Instrumentaiton; almost 5 year work ex in (Graduation College, stream, GAIL(India) Ltd. in operation, maintenance and project Work ex details, etc.) development. Additional relevant exp : quality control, ISO audit management, SAP procurement job etc. Interview questions (With Round 1: a) why are you so famous in your batch? Why everybody indicative answers if you talks about you? b) What did you do in your job? c) a few basic choose to share them) questions in operation. d) 2-3 questions related to extra academic activities. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

No case was asked. Their strategy for the interviewees were to test them with a blow of unexpected question at starting. The success rate depends on how can you tackle the blow and answer promptly. With a heavy operation background I faced a few questions related to operation and a few questions related to relevant work experience. Be open minded. And for KPMG you should expect some starting blow. Whatever it is try to provide the information such a way they can’t verify. Be confident, and try to put a smile. Also be through about your CV points, in details.

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McKinsey & Co.

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Interview Experience 37 Name: Akhilesh Chauhan Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and Suvojoy (Partner) designation Suveer Sinha (Associate Partner) Mandar Vaidya (Partner) Vikas (Director) Round (First/Second/third) All Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

IIT Delhi Dual Degree (Chemical Engg.), 2 years consulting experience in Supply Chain, Operations & Risk Management Round 1: General HR followed by discussion on one of my projects in the public sector. Interviewer popped a case out of that. How to control PDS kerosene leakages in petrol pumps? Round 2: A case on a hotel operating in losses. Made me calculate the profit margins for ‘Room’ & ‘Non-Room’ segments of the hotel followed by qualitative discussion on how to improve profitability. Round 3: General HR (mostly around football). Guess estimate on estimation of 1 year revenue for NEUFC (ISL team)

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 4: Intense HR Round 1: Went by the distribution of kerosene across various nodes & analysed issues. Discussed measure to control it at retailer points (Consumer data digitization, mapping to Aadhar card in the future, etc) as well as at wholesaler points (this is where the bulk of kerosene was lost). Overall, had a good discussion. Round 2: Somehow became nervous while doing the initial calculations. Realized it & took a step back to form an income statement of the hotel & broke it into ‘Room’ & ‘Non-Room’ segments. Found out that ‘Non-room’ segment is under heavy losses. Discussed ideas to improve it. I think this interview did not go well. Did not get a good response from Suveer. Round 3: Broke NEUFC revenue into components (Stadium sales (Tickets+food), Merchandise, Sponsorships, Broadcast revenue, Player transfers, etc). Guesstimate for only the stadium sales for the whole tournament. I think this was the cracker I was waiting for. Interviewer seemed very much impressed.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 4: Very dis-interested person in front. Did not try to make an eye contact with me. Working with something while I was giving my ‘Tell me about yourself’. After I finished he took a 30 second pause looking down. I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Then he suddenly asks me what is so special about me? Probably my response was satisfying for him and he asked me whether I had any questions for him or not. Then we discussed about his experience at Mck. I believe strong HR answers helped me a lot. Had done decent case practices which was required. Also, confidence level was just right in the process.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Got stuck in round 2 case. I think I panicked for a while but then I quickly took a step back & approached the problem again in a structured manner. Also, could have given more ideas in round 1 & 2 interview cases.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Never ever panic in the interview. Always keep a smile on your face & answer confidently. While doing your case practices, do take time out to introspect for at least half an hour before sleep every day. This will help you build strong HR answers.

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Interview Experience 38 Name: Amrita Singh Company: Mckinsey Name of interviewer and Partner designation Round (First/Second/third) All three rounds I was interviewed by partners. Brief Profile : B.Com (Hons) from Jesus and Mary college, Delhi (Graduation College, stream, University.Worked at the Paralympic Committee of India for 33 Work ex details, etc.) months as the Assistant Director (Adminstration & Coordination) Interview questions (With Round 1: Generic HR questions.One simple guestimate to indicative answers if you estimate the size and revenue of Apple I phone 6 in India. choose to share them) Round 2:A case based on tackling the problem of Anemia in India (assuming the role of the Prime Minister of India) Round 3: A case based on market entry of a firm into India (basic structure required).HR questions on why consulting?Long term goals? Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

Case 1: If you were the Prime Minister of India how would you tackle the persistent problem of anemia.(key pointers- conduct a pilot, rope in the rural local leaders as they are very strong opinion leaders) Case 2 : A well reputed pharma firm wants to enter the indian market.Chart out the structure for the same.Decision on whether to manufacture locally or import from the host nation.Slight costing structure figures were given with basic calculations required. Confidence and not coming under pressure.Maintaining a calm attitude really helped.My HR questions went very well as they were thought over. (comparing different case experiences with friends led to the conclusion that HR plays a very vital role and is a key distingushing factor)

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Interview went well.HR questions were the tricky part.Was repeatedly questioned on why my ambition for music wasn’t translated into a career choice.Further how suited I was for consulting given my non analytical background.In the first round I made an error in the calculation of the guestimate,however they were only testing the approach/struture.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Just be confident.Being yourself is the key.Do not try to lie to impress the panel.Honesty is highly appreciated.Be clear on why consulting.Practice as many cases (in a formal structure and environment).Note the feedback and continously work on the same.

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Interview Experience 39 Name: Arpit Vinayak Company: McKinsey & Co Name of interviewer and Mr. Rajat Dhawan + 2 other partners designation Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds Brief Profile : Engineering (IIT Madras, B.Tech Biotechnology), 4 years work-ex: (Graduation College, stream, Jaypee Capital Services (Derivatives Trader, 6 months), JP Morgan Work ex details, etc.) (Equity Research Analyst, 2.5 yrs), Samara Capital (PE Analyst, 1 yr) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Round 1: 1) Tell me about yourself, 2) Biggest failure in life (from the McKinsey test), 3) What would your suggestions be to the PM Narendra Modi on making the recently launched MadeInIndia Campaign successful, 4) Guesstimate the no. of iPhone 6 that would be sold in India post the upcoming launch Round 2: 1) What were your biggest learnings from the work experiences in all companies/ profiles you worked for/ in 2) Need to reduce the waiting time in the OPD of a hospital. How would you do it Round 3: 1) Why MBA after such work experience? 2) Short quantitative problem on variable/ fixed expenses of a hotel 3) How would you reduce the setup cost of a hotel company?

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 1: 1) Suggested things around SEZs, substituting imports (focus on specific sectors), etc 2) Reached a very large no of 30MM over the quarter. Hence was not good overall. Round 2: Very specific case, data specific. Recently executed by the partner. Discussed the current work schedule of the doctors and suggested ways around reducing waiting time: incentives for taking appointments, etc. Round 3: Qualitative case

What do you think went right in this interview?

Except for round 1, case interviews were good. Was able to reach exact, tangible solutions.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Round 1 wasn’t good. HR answers could have been better. Guesstimate wasn’t good.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

1) HR answers are important. Take time to prepare well. 2) Some interviewers tend to get very friendly, to make you comfortable and talk about things you shouldn’t, don’t lower your guard/ be too friendly.

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Interview Experience 40 Name: Fern Sharma Company: McKinsey Name of interviewer and Mr Vikas ,Senior Partner designation Round (First/Second/third) First Brief Profile : Works on Pharma cases (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: Why consulting? How has IIML been so far indicative answers if you Spoke about committee and ABG experience. Linked why choose to share them) consulting with experience in analytics Round 2: Only HR questions. What advice will you give my 8 year daughter? Long term plans? What do you think the role of partner is in the firm? Advice: Let her follow her dreams. There is no ultimate success. You choose your own path. She is lucky enough to be born in a family where all the resources will be provided to her to follow her passion. All she needs is great guidance and freedom of thought. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Long term Plan: See myself as a partner in McKinsey in 8 years Movie theatre case. Single screen cinema suffering losses in Mumbai Listed all the revenue and cost streams. It was a cost side problem as everything was done internally with 100 employees for food vending, maintenance etc Solution: Outsource all the activities and cut down on labor costs My confidence in answering all the HR questions. More than the case, they were judging the communication skills. Also I listened to their view. In the case it was 50-50 talking. Nothing 1) Prepare Why Consulting? Long term plans and Why McKinsey questions well 2) Involve the partner as much and take pauses while solving the case. No need to rush 3) Stick to the structure that you have been following with your case group

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Interview Experience 41 Name: Krishnan Sankaranarayanan Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and R1: Abhishek (EM) R2: Partner (Don’t remember the name) R3: designation Partner (Don’t remember the name) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

B.Com, Loyola College (2011) Goldman Sachs, Fixed Income Round 1: About me and a case Round 2: Case Round 3: HR

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

R1: Apart from the pleasantries and usual HR questions, the first case was based on automobiles and how the share of the automobiles industry can be improved globally and contribute more to the GDP. I missed out few options but the interviewer was satisfied I discussed those options I had put forward at length. R2: The case was related to the benefit given to LPG customers (DBT) and how can it be implemented for kerosene since it is widely used to adulterate diesel. The partner expected a solution with regard to eliminating the benefit which was not utilized by deserving people.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

R3: Completely HR. The partner asked me a lot of questions on why consulting, my goals in life, how will working in McKinsey help me achieve them, etc. Throughout the rounds, I was quite calm. I did not rush unnecessarily at any point of time and I also gave feasible solutions rather than giving solutions that could not be implemented. This worked in my favour. Also, in the 3rd round, I did not memorize my HR answers and deliver it due to which I was able to engage in a conversation due to which the partner was interested and the interview went on for 45 min. During the 2nd round, the case problem was quite long due to which I did not write legibly and the interviewers generally tend to see what you write to judge your thought process. The partner was initially apprehensive about my illegible handwriting. During case rounds, make sure you write legibly and think of all the scenarios possible while trying to do MECE. It does not matter if you take 1 or 2 more minutes but keep the interviewer engaged during moments of silence. Be honest in your HR answers and do not tell your HR answers verbatim.

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Interview Experience 42 Name: Nishtha Khandelwal Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and Ruchi (Associate Partner) designation Vikas Badoliya Malcom Gomes (Engagement Manager) Rajat Dhawan (Director) Round (First/Second/third) All Brief Profile : B. Com Honours, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Fresher (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me about yourself followed by 1 case discussion indicative answers if you choose to share them) Round 2: a case discussion followed by few HR questions Round 3: HR round and one guesstimate Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 4: HR Round Round 1: You own an e-commerce website which sells jewellery, fashion products and apparel majorly for women. You have spent a good amount on marketing the site but still are in losses. Now you have to make a strategy to earn profits. Basically an idea generation case; suggested innovative ideas to increase revenues Round 2: A person owns a single screen cinema hall in Mumbai which is in losses. Find out problems and suggest ways to turnaround the same. Round 3: Guesstimate on how many students pass out as commerce graduates from Chennai every year. Round 4: HR round; asked to explain things from cv. All the interviewers were completely engaged in the process; got a compliment for my confidence. Take time off before starting with an answer to the case. For HR answers, be confident of whatever you say, try to quote examples with every answer. Understood the question wrong in one of the round but realized a minute later. Admit your mistake and proceed. Be very confident in the interview. Put a lot of focus on HR answers as they are equally important.

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Interview Experience 43 Name: Parvez Jesani Company: McKinsey & Co Name of interviewer and Mandar, Partner designation Round (First/Second/third) First Round – HR + Guesstimate Second Round – HR + Guesstimate Brief Profile : Narsee Monjee – B.Com, CA, CFA (Graduation College, stream, 2 Years work ex – Credit Suisse (4 months), Edelweiss (9 months), Work ex details, etc.) eParent (1 year) Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me something about yourself, asked a lot about my indicative answers if you start-up as to how and why I started it, etc. – explained him the choose to share them) problems we faced in scaling it up. Got a case related to that – If I get a funding of Rs. 10 Cr, what will I do?

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 2: Tell me something about yourself, why consulting, why McK? Guesstimate – Expected sales of iPhone 6 in India Round 1 - Explained him the strategies that we had thought about – Products that we were planning to introduce, the ways we thought of expanding geographically, etc. And then he made me do a Guesstimate on the expected no of customers in 3 years. Followed a top-down approach – Rural/ urban – age – income level – need-gap. Round 2 - Followed a top-down approach – Rural/urban – age – income level – need-gap. Round 1 – It was absolutely perfect. Since it was a case related to my start-up, I had a few ideas in mind on the expansion front. I took the cue on the guesstimate and jumped onto it. Round 2 – The partner was not at all responsive. He showed as if he didn’t care when I was doing the guesstimate. I kept on running him through my assumptions and tried my best to engage him. Try to do some cases related to your work-experience.

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Interview Experience 44 Name: Shifali Makkar Company: Mckinsey Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) 4 rounds

Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Bcom(Hons) Sri Venkateswara College Delhi University Round 1: Ques: Initial 5 mins HR ques (background, passion, interests etc) Followed by a small case based on my interest area mentioned in CV Round 2: Case Based Round 3: Case Based Round 4: Case Based Round 1: Case: To chalk out plan for opening a theatre school I started with a MECE structure about all steps (plan of action). Then asked him prior to proceeding further which one to focus on first. The interviewer wanted me to draw out a plan for generating revenue so then delved further into it listing down all the possible options. He wanted to test my comfort with numbers too, so asked the revenue potential of a year and its profitability. Round 2: Interviewer was a partner Case: As an advisor to PM, give suggestions on the MAKE in India Campaign. Drew out structure, tried to ensure it to be a MECE one but was a highly open ended topic. Was a one sided interview, very little response from the interviewer’s side. Round 3: Interviewer was a lady, senior consultant. A case on testing the profit viability of a baby care firm going online. Round 4: With Partner A cash flow case on whether government should invest in eco cars and introduce it across the country

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What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

In the first 3 rounds, I ensured that I remained calm and confident. Didn’t lose composure or become nervous. Ensured a conversation flow with interviewer and took hints at appropriate times. In case solving, balanced between structure and spontaneity. Structures were MECE. Round 4: Structure was in place but faltered in solving it right. Always involve the interviewer and remain confident of what you say. Even if the interviewer refutes your stance, not to get nervous. Keep a calm and pleasant face on. MECE very imp in structures. Reflects on your holistic thinking ability.

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Interview Experience 45 Name: Surbhi Kalia Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and Partner, Partner designation Round (First/Second/third) 2 Brief Profile : Chandigarh College of Engineering & Technology, Punjab (Graduation College, stream, University Work ex details, etc.) Fresher Professional Theatre Artist Interview questions (With Round 1: First round was completely HR. It started with “Tell me indicative answers if you about yourself”, and questions like “Why Theatre”, “Why choose to share them) consulting”, “Why Mckinsey” and “your learnings in B-school and in Internship”, “How have your experiences shaped you” and “Why MBA after Engineering”, “Why consulting after Engineering”. Basically, questions were driven from my preceding answers . To end with “ Any questions for him”. Round 2: Again, it began with “tell me about yourself”, “Why not Theatre as a profession” and “Why consulting”. And then he asked me to connect Theatre with Consulting. Ended with “Any questions for him”. Narration of the case Round 1: First round was completely HR. It went for about 30-40 interview (Please be as minutes. descriptive as possible) Round 2: After the HR questions, he took me towards the case by asking what all can I do for Theatre. I listed down few options, out of which, one was to organise theatre events and have a Theatre company. He took that as a case topic, and gave a case. “You own Surbhi Theatre company. How will you promote Theatre” (expect unorthodox cases in Mck interview) I asked for some time, and listed down my thoughts as bullet points. I gave him options like listing down theatre groups, organise yearly Theatre events et al. Then after like fifteen minutes of discussion over this, he asked me to calculate revenue from these theatre festivals. I divided it into two, one from cities with lavish Theatre culture like Delhi, others with lesser level of Theatrical activities and fervour. Based on the Theatre fests I had been a part of, I calculated the revenue. He seemed pretty satisfied with the analysis. Importantly, I kept asking him if I can use the assumptions I am stating. It is imperative to verify your assumptions.

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What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 1: I was honest in my answers. Be yourself in the interview. He kept asking me questions, and I answered with the experiences of my life. This turned the interview in a a casual conversation. Towards the end of the interview, he also shared his own experiences of the organisation with me. Round 2: It was about Theatre! Again, I verified my assumptions. And I kept him engaged.

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Be yourself. Keep a smile on your face. It helps to keep your calm. Think on your feet. I think, having a question to him in the end, when he asks, does help. Read the cues and expressions of the interviewer. Take time to structure your thoughts. It becomes easier for you to think ahead in the right direction.

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Interview Experience 46 Name: Swati Thakur Company: McKinsey and Co. Name of interviewer and Round 1: Partner (Case) designation Round 2: Partner (Case) Round 3: Director (Short-HR Only) Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Economics (H), St. Stepehen’s College, Delhi, 24 months across Analytics & Consulting Round 1: HR-Tell me about yourself, background, experience so far (personal) Discussion on PORs, slightly longer discussion on my workprojects undertaken, insights Guesstimate: No. of tennis balls in India at any point of time (2 approaches) Case: Falling revenue of a Theatre in Mumbai; wasn’t typical was a detailed discussion on all possible aspects that could affect revenue/profitability Round 2:Brief intro, some basic HR; Follow-up question/comments on my answers in the HR form filled a week prior to placements Case: Valuation of different revenue streams for an Indian Super League Team (mainly a lot of number work)

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 3:Short HR with Director (10 minutes) Questions on past work-ex, activities in college, views on some current economic issue Round 1: Guesstimate: No. of tennis balls in India at any point of time Though the initial plan was to discuss the appraoch and the numbers both, we ended up discussing the apprach at great length. He then asked me to give him another apprach for the same, which I did. We discussed the pros and cons of both approaches. Case: Falling revenue of a Theatre in Mumbai Asked qualifying questions about the industry, about the revenue streams, the theatre and genre. Laid down the basic structure of the case; then we went into a detailed discussion of the value chain. Beyond the basic structure, I think I was being tested on depth of analysis, idea generation and thinking on my feet.

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We discussed the whole process of how and why a customer would come to any particular theatre, then looked at the possible issues at each step. We then proceeded to discuss different scenarios-what would happen if any particular aspect of the theatre as altered, what can be the possible areas of improvement for the theatre in particular and any theatre in general.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 2: Valuation of different revenue streams for an Indian Super League Team The intent of the case was to check my comfort level with numbers because that’s what the partner made me do. I had no idea about ISL and I said that clearly to which the partner readily gave me a brief overview of how it works. Then, I laid down a structure after asking a few basic questions about their revenue streams. From then on, it was me calculating revenue from different sources to the last decimal. Even when I did make a small error, I gracefully accepted it and it was fine. Round 1: HR- I was honest with my answers and the interviwer mentioned this as something he liked. Guesstimate- I was able to switch to a different approach as soon as he asked me to. Was able to point out possible flaws in both approaches. Case: The detailing and idea generation were things he really liked.  It is important that your HR answers are not made-up because the interviwers appreciate honesty  Its good to have a question in mind to ask when you’re given a chance at the end of the interview  If you don’t know something in a guesstimate/case or if you think you made an error somewhere, it is perfectly okay to ask/accept and take a step back

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Summer Internship Experiences 2013

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Accenture Management Consulting

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Interview Experience 1 Name: Ankit Singhania Company: AMC Name of interviewer and One senior person , One HR, One Partner designation Round (First/Second/third) 3 Rounds Brief Profile : BITS-Pilani, Chemical Engineering, Oracle Financial Services (Graduation College, stream, Software -22 months, CFA Level1, family work experience in Work ex details, etc.) pharmaceutical Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you Tell me about yourself choose to share them) Why AMC? Why Consulting? Why not finance? Why MBA from Engineering? Any question you would like to us? Round 2: Mostly HR Tell me about yourself Why AMC? Why Consulting? Any question you would like to us? Round 3: Tell me about yourself Why AMC? Why Consulting? Any question you would like to us? Narration of the case Round 1: interview (Please be as 1. Ranbaxy production is falling. Give me the structure and descriptive as possible) exhaustive list. 2. Ranbaxy profits are falling. Give me the structure of all the parameters under consideration. Round 3 : 1. Calculate the cost of the disease ( opportunity cost+ medical expenses+ social +emotional cost ) 2. List down all the parameters to be considered while constructing a Toll booth on highway to generate maximum revenue. What do you think went Knowledge about company and cracking the case. right in this interview? What do you think went Why consulting could have been more better wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches Read about the company on their website and include that on the basis of your information in your answers. experience Practise basic case solving frameworks

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Interview Experience 2 Name: Arpit Agal Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and Round 1: Senior Manager designation Round 2: HR Round 3: Partner Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : Chemical Engineer from IITB, 22 months of work experience at (Graduation College, stream, Capital One Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you  Mostly questions on my work experience at Capital One choose to share them) and what I learnt out of it  One basic question on marketing strategy of a company  Why Accenture? Why consulting? Round 2:  Pure HR interview with all kinds of standard HR questions like leadership examples, strengths, why consulting, hobbies, social work etc.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 3:  Partner Round- Checking the fit. Similar questions as earlier. No case studies or guesstimate. All the rounds had a common objective: checking whether consulting is fit for me. They were especially keen on the learnings out of my work ex. Any standout achievement will really help here. Otherwise the questions were quite straightforward. No technical stuff for me (cases, guesstimates). “Why Accenture” is one question which was asked in all the three rounds. I was quite relaxed and had prepared well for my HR answers. I had prepared couple of questions on Accenture based on their ppt and website which helped in making conversation a better one. I had a break between my second and third round due to other interviews. It caused a slight break in the flow although not a major one.  Go through the website and their campus ppt well  Be prepared with “Why Accenture” answer  Prepare for all the standard HR answers well in advance. It really helps on the final day.

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Interview Experience 3 Name: Mohammed Mudassar Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and Rounds 1,3: Do not know designation Round 2: HR Round 4 (Telephonic) : Vishwesh Prabhakar, Partner Round Brief Profile :

4 Rounds Computer Science Engineering, Osmania University, Hyd. 12 months at Google as Corporate Operations Engineer

Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Round 1: Why would a person with a very technical background want to go into consulting? What is the current mobile phone I use? (At the time, I used a Micromax A74) Why has Micromax succeeded? What has it done correctly? What do you understand from Micromax’s recent advertising campaigns? Why has it cast Hugh Jackman? Why is Nokia doing badly? What are the strategic mistakes it has made? Which other industries interest me? (Apart from technology, my answer was Aviation) Why is the aviation industry not profitable? Caselet: How would I approach the situation if Boeing asked me to help their suppliers (HAL) improve their output? What recent major deals in aviation did I know about? How would I be able to handle the pressures and challenges of a consulting career? Round 2: Largely conversational, my experiences and expectations from consulting and whether Accenture would fit me. No clichéd HR questions. Round 3: Guesstimate the size of the Indian Diaper market. Repeating the point about me being too technical for the role. Round 4: What is Accenture’s current stock price? Is Accenture a public or a private company? Where is Accenture headquartered out of? What is causing deflation in Japan?

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More questions about the state of the Japanese economy and macroeconomics in general. What should the governor of RBI focus on? Narration of the case interview

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Boeing parts:  I was only asked to list the broad areas I’d look at. Listed transportation, supply chain, labour relations, and legal arrangements.  Added one or two possible problems under each issue and suggested solutions. Guesstimate(Diapers):  Structured using the number of kids in India using population statistics, the family income, and cost of diaper by guessing the percentage of families who would use diapers.  My initial estimate was $12 billion, way too high, and without him pointing it out, I tried to adjust my various estimates.  He was fairly happy with the structure and did not try to correct the numbers too much.  Google on my resume helped. My interviewers looked at that, smiled at me, and probably did not look beyond that on the CV.  In Round 1, the interviewer stated an incorrect fact about the aviation industry and I corrected him. This made me look knowledgeable and he didn’t ask too many factual questions after that.  Also, on the questions involving me being too technical, I took a consistent stance that I like technology and I believe it can be applied through consulting. I felt they were trying to get me to change my stance, but I stuck to it while respecting their point of view. I think this helped.  The spontaneity I was able to show was helpful in turning the interviews in directions I preferred.  In the second round, I wasn’t really sure what I had to say as I was more prepared for questions than a conversation, I felt I rambled a bit.  In the fourth round, I could plainly not answer many questions on macroeconomics.  The questions I asked were perhaps a bit naïve.  In-depth knowledge of one or two sectors is very valuable.  Consistency of answers across interviews and your CV makes you look sane.

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Interview Experience 4 Name: Rhythem Pahwa Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and Round 1 – Senior Manager from Supply Chain Vertical designation Round 2 – Some HR executive Round 3 – Vikrant; Partner, heads the sustainability practice are Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Three rounds B.Tech from PEC (2010 batch); Prior work experience of about 5 months with Mu Sigma, Bangalore and 26 months with ZS Associates, Gurgaon Round 1: Some basic questions like tell me about yourself, why consulting Discussed one project from Mu Sigma and one from ZS in detail, nature of responsibilities Case on an FMCG giant who was facing a sharp decline in profits. The interviewer did not allow me to use a pen and paper and rather asked to orally discuss the case. I questioned the ins and outs of the business, the industry and other basic qualifiers. The issue was with the supply chain. Gave him recommendations on how to enhance the profits. After this he gave a couple of hypothetical situations pertaining to sales and distribution issues and how I would go ahead. The interview lasted for about 45 mins. Round 2: Tell me something about yourself, typical HR situations (significant achievement, situation where you achieved something significant after overcoming obstacles, etc.), which practice area would you like to work in at AMC, what do you know of that practice area, what do you remember of the ppt, what did you like, what is it that you didn’t like. The interview lasted for about half an hour Round 3: This was the Partner round. Some general questions from my work-experience, which practice area would you prefer, why, recent developments in that practice area, a couple of projects from my stint at ZS He asked me an HR case. A Financial services firm recruits and trains Financial Advisors but for some unknown reason the attrition rate is huge. Investigate why. He just gave me 5 mins to

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Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

discuss and solve the case with him so had to be really fast with the analysis. After this round he made the offer and I accepted it. Explained above Spoke enthusiastically, did well in the cases Couldn’t justify satisfactorily why I wanted a particular practice area Prepare well for HR questions, it helps

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Interview Experience 5 Name: Sabyasachi Dhar Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and Principal designation Round 3 Rounds (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : Economics (Hons.) St. Xavier’s College. Worked for 35 months as (Graduation College, part of the Essar Group Corporate Risk and Insurance stream, Work ex details, Management Team etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you choose to share them) Tell me about yourself (was the only HR question in this round) How did you balance your work/studies with your extra-curricular activities? Explain your work experience Questions on work experience like the type of risks associated with vessels or the state of the Insurance industry in India If your previous employer came to accenture for consulting advise, what advice would you give them? Case 1st asked me about how Tata Sumo is doing in India, to which I replied not well at all. Then the problem statement was to help Tata come up with a decision regarding the future of Sumo. Walked him through the value chain and stressed on the cost and value drivers and came up with 3 solutions, to which he seemed impressed and stopped the discussion there Post the case, he asked about the current Economic condition of India and what implications the forthcoming elections and the budget hold. Had a discussion on that for 10 minute and then he asked me if I had any questions. Asked him why Accenture is the only Consulting firm that is publicly listed while the others are privately held? He seemed impressed again and explained the whole idea behind going public. After 10 minutes of discussion, the interview was concluded. Round 2: The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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HR round. Asked various questions like tell me something about yourself, why Accenture, why consulting, tell us something that drives you, why did you give up on sports, what convinced you to do an MBA. Also ran through my CV and asked HR related questions regarding the Positions of responsibilities that I held and the extra-curricular activities I took part in. Round 3: Was the final round. Again asked me to introduce myself and in general spoke about what I did in life and what drives me. Also wanted to know what I was passionate about in life. I had a feeling that the objective was to test whether I was passionate about the things I care about.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

The conversation ended with him asking me whether I would like to choose Accenture Global or Accenture India, to which I replied Accenture Global and linked it to everything else I had spoken to him about. The problem statement was to help Tata come up with a decision regarding the future of Sumo. I took a minute off to get the 1st two layers of the structure in place. Then started with the Cost and Value drivers and complemented it with the value chain to figure out where they were going wrong. After looking at every aspect, we came to the conclusion that the Tata Sumo is falling behind due to improper positioning of the vehicle vis-à-vis it competitors and the lack of sheer innovation that the subsequent models have shown. Clarity of thought Structure to answers, especially HR answers Interacting with the Interviewer, asking questions wherever necessary Not fumbling and losing the main chain of thought

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches Preparation of HR answers, most essential on the basis of your In a case, look at every aspect possible experience If you don’t know how to proceed, take time out to think and involve the interviewer as much as possible Don’t jump to conclusions

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Interview Experience 6 Name: Stuti Garg Company: AMC Name of interviewer and designation -Round First, Second(telephonic) (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : MNNIT Allahabad, Electrical Engineering (Graduation College, Worked at NTPC Ltd. for about two years stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you 1) Walk me through your CV. choose to share them) Ans: I started with academics. Elaborated on the special achievements in it. Talked about my stint with NTPC and the projects I did there. He himself asked about various extracurriculars and PORs I mentioned and asked me to elaborate on them. 2) Which project was your personal favourite at NTPC and why? Ans: I spoke about a rural electrification project and told them how I got complete autonomy while executing it. Spoke about other facets like interacting with gram panchayats etc. 3) Do you think Kyoto Protocol is biased? (I conducted a panel discussion in college about carbon emissions control) Ans: Talked about its various clauses, how they are administered and how much say developed nations have in it. Finally giving some examples concluded that isn’t biased. 4) Which are your favourite three books? (I was a member of literary club in college) 5) What did you read most as a kid? Ans: I said Tintin. He too turned out to be a huge tintin fan and we went on talking about it for another 10 minutes. 6) If I ask your best friend to describe you in one word, what do you think she’ll say? 7) How is coal paucity hindering our progress? (worked in thermal plant) Ans: I said that we had abundant coal. The problem is in our policies and practices. Elaborated on that. 8) Do you want to ask me anything. Round 2: Was a telephonic round. Three very generic questions were asked. 1) Which was your favourite subject in term 1? 2) What do you do in free time at IIML? 3) How has the journey been so far at IIML? The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

1) A burger joint’s profitability is falling despite same sales revenue? Analyse the reasons. 2) ESPN has to bid for an upcoming cricket match series. Give them a reasonable quote. Ans: I asked about the kind of series: test, oneday or IPL. I asked about the match’s location. He replied India to which I asked if India was playing. Enquired about the sponsors, ad revenues etc. Coherence and structure in answers I was very candidly chatting with them which probably worked in my favour

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches Know your CV really well. on the basis of your Sort things out in your mind before answering. experience Ask them only relevant questions. Never beat around the bush. Stay calm and composed.

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Interview Experience 7 Name: Suraj Serikar Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and Don’t remember designation Round 4 (Telephonic) : Vishwesh Prabhakar, Partner Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

4 Rounds Graduated from IIT Madras, 2 years work ex at Olam as a consultant Round 1: Case + HR Interview kicked off by tell me about yourself. Then asked about my PORs at IIT. Gave a case on Olam expansion strategy in between discussion about my work ex. Then some questions about Accenture and HR. Asked if I had any questions for him. Round 2: HR Tell me about yourself? Why Accenture? Why consulting? HR person was interested in my work ex and PORs, asked a plenty of questions on that. Round 3: CV Based + HR Tell me about yourself? Asked how my day was, as my energy levels were bit low at that point of time. I had an entrepreneurial venture at IIT and interviewer was asking questions related to entrepreneurship trends in India and issues faced in my venture, key learnings etc. Interviewer was working in a similar domain of supply chain (Sales and distribution) and we had a discussion on challenges involved in projects. What were my expectations from Accenture and why I prefer it over working for Olam? Round 4 : Telephonic interview- CV Based Was very short interview and partner was quickly running through my CV and asked about my entrepreneurial venture and why it failed?

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Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Suggest a strategy for Olam to expand in next 2-3 years in coffee commodity business unit? Interviewer was looking for structure and logic in the approach. I walked him through the value chain in coffee business and then focussed on areas in procurement and distribution currently controlled by other parties. Then proposed for forward integration for the product and explained the rationale using some examples of other businesses of Olam. Interviewer appeared to be quite convinced at this stage and he moved on to some specific set of questions in commodities. I was quick to realise the case presented to me in between conversation and I had asked him time for structuring it. There were no signs of nervousness as I had sat for ample number of interviews before and was very comfortable and confident throughout the process. Was quick to catch cues from interviewer and focused discussion on topics that engaged him. Was cheerful throughout the process. I was completely exhausted as interviews were scheduled towards end of the day and my energy levels were not high. Be confident, energetic and enjoy the process.

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Interview Experience 8 Name: Swati Singh Company: Accenture Management Consulting Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) Four rounds in all Brief Profile : Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, Delhi (Graduation College, stream, (Mechanical Engineering) Work ex details, etc.) 2.5 years’ work ex. with an Indian automobile company (R&D) Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you 1) Tell me something about yourself? choose to share them) 2) Work profile? (Some more questions related to it) Most questions after that were supply chain management (SCM) related because I had worked in an automobile company (caught me off-guard since my area of work was research and not production). Some of the questions were 3) Difference between SCM inside the firm and outside the firm 4) How does an automobile firm manage its inventory? 5) What is the difference between centralized and de-centralized supply chain? Advantages and Disadvantages of each 6) What are the various ways in which you’ll reduce inventory pile up? Round 2: (HR) 1) Tell me something about yourself 2) How was your experience of working with XYZ Company? 3) Why consulting? Why not join the old firm back? 4) Why Accenture? 5) How do you fit in? 6) What if we are not able to recruit you today? Round 3 : Started with the usual tell me something about yourself. Then he started questioning me on why I want to choose consulting as a field and why I don’t want to work with my old firm again. Then he gave me a guesstimate: Estimate the no of passenger shared auto rickshaws in Lucknow The guesstimate could have been done using multiple approaches so he asked me the different approaches I can use to arrive at the final answer. He also cross questioned me on the assumptions I had made while solving the guesstimate. Round 4: The interviewer was also a mechanical engineer so he asked me a lot of questions on SI/CI engines, Torque Speed curve, Knocking etc. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 4: Market entry strategy for a Chinese automobile firm My approach was to first evaluate whether it is the right environment and time to enter and then move on to how to enterby utilizing existing capabilities or developing new ones. Round 1: I was able to give some work related examples to support my understanding of concepts which I think he really liked Round 2: I was calm and confident throughout Round 3: I logically explained my assumptions without getting perturbed by the interviewer’s cross questioning (even though a few data points actually turned out wrong) Round 4: The case went well as I could cover almost all the areas Round 1: I was not very well prepared to handle SCM related questions. Round 2: Nothing as such Round 3: I should’ve taken more time in solving the guesstimate and not rushed into getting an answer If you have core manufacturing work-ex, irrespective of the department you were in, be thoroughly prepared with operations related questions. Also, be prepared for a few question from your undergraduate stream

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A T Kearney

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Interview Experience 9 Name: Naveen Bansal Company: A T Kearney Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

PEC, Goldman Sachs Round 11. Tell me something about yourself (was asked the same question multiple times in the process) 2. Your most significant achievement in life 3. Support your hobbies with examples: I mentioned reading novels and was asked about the last novel i read and what did i like the most in the novel Round 2 1. Explain what I did at Goldman Sachs (Job role and responsibilities) 2. One instance where you think team work was most important (linked to work experience) Guesstimate 1: Estimate the demand of ACs in India Case 1: A two wheeler manufacturer, a market leader in the category, has a lot of cash available for investment. The firm is a proprietorship and has an owner. The owner now wants to move to the small car segment. Advise him if he should venture into small car market or not. Case 2: Estimate the demand of Cement in India. - Was asked to devise both top-down and bottom-up approach for estimating the number. Top-Down approach included looking at Macro indicators (GDP Per capita and Cement consumption per capita). The Interviewer had all the numbers but he was waiting for me to ask.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Prepare some questions to ask to the interviewer. 1. Stay happy! a smile on your face really works! 2. Don't hesitate in asking for time to think. It is perfectly fine! 3. Make HR questions as personal as possible! ( a BIG +) 4. Maintain your stand following the Pcom rules if asked about offer. Ask for some time to think and contact PCom immediately.

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Boston Consulting Group

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Interview Experience 10 Name: Aditya Dogra Company: The Boston Consulting Group Name of interviewer and Rishabh, Project Lead (First Round) designation Sachin Kotak, Principal (Second Round) Priyanka, Principal (Third Round) Amit Sachdev, Principal (Fourth Round) Brief Profile : B.Tech. Civil Engg, IIT Bombay, Work ex – 11 months at (Graduation College, stream, Inductis (Analytics) Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: Brief introduction followed by a case indicative answers if you Round 2: No HR questions, went to the case straight away choose to share them) Round 3: Brief introduction followed by a couple of experience based questions, this was followed by a case Round 4: Introduction followed by a guestimate Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 1: The case was concerning a mobile device manufacturer facing a decline in profits. It had opened new stores through a franchisee recently and started selling products at a lower price. This had affected the equation with the set of old retailers. In addition the margins provided to the retailers by the client weren’t competitive which were causing it to lose sales. Round 2: The interviewer had shaken things up a little by doing away with the conventional over the table discussion and the case was solved on a blackboard. Problem statement was developing a presentation to be made at a round table conference of procurement managers. I started off by laying out the broad structure of the presentation. Later the discussion moved onto coming up with different environmental factors that need to be included which would concern the day to day work of a procurement manager. I bucketed these factors into Political, Economic, Social, Technical and generated ideas for each backing them up with recent events eg. Under economic factors one of the concerns was currency fluctuation which would affect price of procurement and how hedging could mitigate the risk. Round 3: The case was about a pharmaceutical company launching a new vaccine and looking to decide upon a pricing strategy. I listed the 3 factors I would consider to fix the price point - manufacturing and selling costs, pricing of competitive products, value of product to customer. The interviewer directed me to consider the first factor since there were no competing products and the third factor was very qualitative. The problem was then reduced to estimating the size of market, forecasting

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sales and asking questions to get complete information about the costs involved (R&D, Patents were major costs). Round 4: The case involved estimating the demand for the upcoming Mumbai metro. I proceeded by breaking the problem into three parts – shifting of passengers from Mumbai local, shifting of passengers from other modes of public transport, people shifting from private to public transport. I made reasonable assumptions about the % of passengers that would shift from each segment on the basis of the information I had about the metro routes. Post that there was some calculation involved in estimating the size of each segment as frequency multiplied by capacity (separately for peak and non-peak hours). The interview ended with a good discussion about my work at Inductis on a financial services project as Amit himself had been working in that domain. What do you think went right Picked up the hints given by the interviewer – in my first round, in this interview? after laying down the approach I was going in a different direction. At that point I picked up a hint from the interviewer’s expressions and took a step back to then move in the right direction. 2 of my interviews had lots of calculation involved which I was able to handle extremely well. What do you think went wrong in this interview?

With a new format and a very unconventional case in the 2nd round it took a little time to adjust and for a while I wasn’t giving the kind of ideas the interviewer was looking for.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Extremely important to stay calm and confident throughout the interview and have a good discussion with the interviewer.

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Interview Experience 11 Name: Chinmaya Golecha Company: The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Name of interviewer and Amit Sachdeva, Principal designation Round (First/Second/third) One round Brief Profile : Worked at Deutsche Bank Centre as a part of the TMT team in (Graduation College, stream, London (11 months) Work ex details, etc.) B.Com (H) from SRCC CA Inter Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you 15 minutes - Quick chat about the CV, some relevant interest areas choose to share them) around my work-ex and some PoR’s. 25 minutes - Case around Computers/Laptops manufacturer’s service revenue increase. Round 2: n/a Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 3: n/a Case overview: There is a computers/laptop manufacturer, global leader, with two revenue streams – Primary selling of products Service revenues from maintenance, repair and replacement parts Global average split is 75%-25% respectively but India split is 95%-5% Problem Statement: To increase revenue stream from services in India Case Approach: 1) Background questions: Inquired about the supply chain. What services are offered, how they are offered, who offers them. Discovered that problem area was sale of replacement parts and the services entailed therein Discovered that the company follows a hub-and-spoke model, ie: one central distributor in the country who gives spare parts to all retail stores (100% franchisee system) 2) Approach: Decided to approach the problem using the most basic Revenue

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breakdown = Volume x Price If we can find why revenue is down either because of Volume or Price than we can find the issue. I felt, prima facie, that the problem lay in Price (as my understanding is for a replacement part, I would get something cheap rather than go the actual store after warranty and overpay). However, I was told that the price offered outside the stores was 20% higher than the in-store price. The Problem statement thus became: Why are people not buying replacement parts from us even if they are cheaper? To drill into this, I decided to get into the shoes of a consumer. The various problems (logical flow, thus MECE) could be: Do I have access to a store? Do they have parts? Do they have good staff (technicians that can help etc)? Turnaround time? Other service elements? I dived into each bucket to find that the problem lay in spare parts after spending considerable time on good staff and access. (I established that distribution/reach was good so people did not find it inconvenient to visit our stores as well as we had skilled help that could effectively and quickly solve consumer problems) Re-visited the supply chain to figure out where the problem was with spare parts. Discovered that the hub sent them to the stores but still the stores did not have inventory. Spent time analysing the inventory situation using the interviewers help. Discovered that each store had an individual P/L and were giving the inventory to other people (who were in turn selling it at a 20% markup) and taking a cut!

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Recommendations: Establish Inventory issue norms, and ensure random checking of inventory at stores. Very Interactive – Interviewer was very involved in the case Picked up all the hints dropped – the interviewer lit up when we spoke about black market selling of the replacement parts Nothing majorly, Missed a couple of things where the interviewer had to prod me along in the right direction Enjoy the interview! It is actually great fun, and if the interviewer realises you’re enjoying it, it acts as a huge positive!

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Deloitte US Strategy & Operations

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Interview Experience 12 Name: Abhinandan Pandey Company: Deloitte Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) 1st Round : HR 2nd Round : Case based 3rd round : Case based + presentation round Brief Profile : Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur (Graduation College, stream, Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering Work ex details, etc.) Ericsson India Global Services Pvt. Ltd. – 35 months Interview questions (With Round 1: Questions on hypothesis testing (I had mentioned QAM indicative answers if you as my subject of interest) choose to share them) Why consulting, Why Deloitte, Asked me to sing as I looked nervous in the beginning of the interview, How your analytical skills will help in consulting. Round 2: It was a case based round. A case was provided which dealt with the sources of revenues and profit and the various advertisement mediums to be reckoned for the summer Olympics in 2015. It was a calculation intensive case, so it involved simple calculations for which the interviewer gave some time. Went for around 40 minutes

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Round 3: The case which was discussed in Round 2 had to be presented to a senior partner. What followed was an in-depth discussion on the same case and another case. This round lasted for around 30 minutes. Summer Olympics will take place in 2015. Our customers are conducting the event. What are the major sources of revenues for them? Major sources of profit? What are the costs involved? How will you price the tickets to earn so and so amount of profit? How will you make a team. How will you prioritize the tasks? I was confident and bold enough to think on my feet. The interviewers seemed more interested in how one approaches a problem. They were complicating the problem as I got deeper into it. The key is to consider all possible aspects and quickly chose the best possible alternative as a part of the questions which were asked. Might sound like a cliché, Thinking out Loud helps a lot! I fumbled in 2 instances. There are times when the answers just don’t strike! But keep your calm, keep thinking as there is always a next question and there is always a better way to answer the next question!

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Interview Experience 13 Name: Anmol Mahajan Company: Deloitte US S&O Name of interviewer and Senior Manager designation Round (First/Second/third) 3 Rounds Brief Profile : B.Tech in Electronics and Electrical Comm. Engg. from IIT (Graduation College, stream, Kharagpur (2010). Work ex details, etc.) Worked for three years as R&D Design Engineer at Analog Devices, Bangalore Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you In this round, I was asked some basic HR questions like, choose to share them) Tell me about yourself? Why did you choose consulting as a career? Why Deloitte? Long term goals? Questions regarding my prior work experience and my role and scope in R&D. Then the interviewer introduced himself and we briefly talked about his role at Deloitte for some time where he answered some of my questions on his career. He asked me if I had any questions regarding Deloitte as a firm. I responded with a question to which he gave a detailed response. No guesstimates or case questions were asked in this round and it primarily focused on HR questions and clarity about my long term goals. This was an elimination round and some of the candidates were eliminated after this round.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 2: Case based round with two Senior Managers Round 3: Synthesis presentation round with two senior managers. Round 2: Round 2 was with two Senior Managers from Deloitte. There were a few HR questions primarily based on why consulting as a career. Then the interviewer told me that this is a case round and if analysis is done right I would be expected to come up with apt recommendations for the client. The client is an automobile firm with an annual turnover of around $10b. Our client has a parts supplier which has an annual business of around $400m (90% of their total business was done with our client). On one day, our client company’s CEO gets a call from their supplier that due to financial troubles, they are going to shut down operations from next month onwards. The case was about recommending solutions to our client in this scenario. I started by asking questions regarding the business model of the automobile client, their other suppliers, current inventory of parts with our clients and when will they exhaust it, environmental factors

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like geographies they operate in, availability of substitute suppliers in these geographies. From the responses to such questions it became clear that a solution was to found with their current supplier itself. So I started asking them questions regarding the details of financial problems the supplier was facing. Upon few of such questions I was given a data sheet with 5 to 6 tables detailing the various factors like direct costs, overheads, expenses, number of units sold, unit price, environmental factors like industry comparison of costs, labour unions etc. at each of their three plants. After this, the discussion was more quantitative in nature with me calculating present profits/loss for each of the plants, suggestions for cost reduction based on industry comparisons etc. These questions primarily focused on the ability to understand the data given in various tables and link them with each other and come up with tangible parameters through some number crunching. Once this analysis was done, he administered another angle by giving an option to our client to invest $10mn in the supplier’s firm in return of advancement of technology which would lead to reduction in prime cost. He asked me if our client should make this investment. I asked further questions on time factor as to if we invest now how far from now would we see reduction in costs. He said we would analyse two situations one where the returns are immediate and the other where the reduction in costs is earned three years down the line. For the current scenario, since I had already calculated the profitability/loss of each of supplier’s plant, it was easier to calculate the benefits of the investments. For long term analysis, I answered that we would have to look into NPV of our investment with discount factor depending on many risk factors. We briefly discussed about what could be the risk factors given the data in the data sheet. On this he was happy and said that I would have to present the synthesis of the case in the third round.

What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 3: The third round was act based with a senior manager acting as a client. I briefly gave the synthesis of the case with my recommendations. This was followed by a few counter questions asked by senior manager (acting as a client) which I answered briefly. Once they were satisfied with my answers, we went back to normal mode where few questions regarding the expectations from the internship, expected learnings, etc. were discussed. - Preparation of HR answers and knowledge about Deloitte and the role on offer - Ability to perform basic calculations at a good pace - Exploring various avenues of solving the case and giving logical pros and cons of each

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Interview Experience 14 Name: N Susheel Kumar Reddy Company: Deloitte US S&O Name of interviewer and Rd1,2 - Senior Manager designation Rd 3- Partner Round (First/Second/third) 3 Rounds Brief Profile : Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras (Graduation College, stream, Work in Caterpillar – 35 months, operations Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you Tried to unsettle by saying you are in the wrong room, and I choose to share them) worked for your company so expect really tough questions Why consulting and why deloitte? Few questions from work, and then extracurriculars. Guesstimate on stadium gate receipts for Indian Hockey league? No.of matches played, no.of seats in each stadium, occupancy rate, etc. were calculated What are your long term goals? Round 2: Case on a firm which has 3 plants and is making huge losses. Data sheet is given with details of cost and productivity of all 3 plants. We decided to look into the costs being incurred, split the cost into 3 buckets – Wages, Material and overhead costs. Material had no scope of cost reduction, Wages – we identified in plant 3 the no.of salaried were more than hourly hence more cost. Similarly in overheads – Plant 3 has too much inventory holding cost. So we decided to reduce these costs, but even reducing these didn’t turn a profit so we decided to shut plant 3 and move the production to plant 1 and plant 2 Later I gave suggestions on how to raise cash for increasing the production in the other 2 plants – Money by selling plant 3, Loan or money from market Later did profit analysis to prove the investment is giving good profit Round 3: Had to present the case I did in Round 2 to the partner – he was acting as the client whose case we took up and solved. Drew the tree structure and explained him how we went about each and every bucket before identifying root causes. Possible solutions for root causes and suggestions to improve. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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The partner kept asking many questions, not agreeing to most. He was only satisfied when the arguments made were based on numbers. Later he asked basic HR questions like, what field of consulting would I choose? Why deloitte? Etc. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Mentioned Above

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

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KPMG

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Interview Experience 15 Name: Prince Arora Company: KPMG Advisory Services Name of interviewer and 2 interviewers over a video call. Do not recall their name and designation designation Round (First/Second/third) Only One Round Brief Profile : Fresher, Dual Degree IIT Madras [8 pointer] (Graduation College, stream, Member of The Consulting & Strategy Club Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you Tell us about yourself. Questions on Business Current Affairs, choose to share them) leaders. Why KPMG? Who all are its competitors? What are its business lines? A few questions on FRA acronyms and their importance (like EBITDA) Narration of the case Estimate the market size of Biscuit Industry in India. interview (Please be as It was a guesstimate. They gave me some time to work out the descriptive as possible) solution but I made some quick assumptions and took them through my thinking process. I solved the case from supply side. Then once I was done, I asked if I should solve it from the demand side as well. The interviewers asked me to elaborate upon the way I’ll go about it. Came up with a ball park figure. What do you think went The guesstimate and the level of enthusiasm shown towards right in this interview? solving it. I think they were looking for the right approach and not the correctness of the final figure. What do you think went I messes up a little on the company specific questions. Do go wrong in this interview? through the Company RG before you enter the interview. Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Stay confident. They seem to like people who are confident about what they speak. If you don’t know an answer, tell it to them politely.

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McKinsey & Co

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Interview Experience 16 Name: Abhishek Gupta Company: Mckinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and Involved an Associate Partner (Pradeep), Partner (Navtez) designation Round All (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, NSIT (2011 Passout) stream, Work ex details, 18 months in J.P. Morgan and 5 months in Reliance Capital etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: Short tell me about yourself. Then one guesstimate and indicative answers if you then a case discussion choose to share them) Round 2: Tell me about yourself. HR question on leadership qualities and instance related to that. Case discussion. Round 3: Purely HR with partner, asked questions on why not finance, why consulting, why Mckinsey?

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

After each round you will be asked if you have any questions for the interviewer, if you have some good questions then do ask, but do not ask for just for the sake of asking. Round 1: Guesstimate: Value of a bulb with infinite life (involved basic DCF calculation, evaluation of expenditure you might do in case of a normal bulb). Case: Problems that a truck association might be facing in getting truck drivers (possible problems and solutions for those). Be innovative as possible. Although I didn’t reach the exact problem in the end (only got to know this after the interview from a friend), but explored quite a few areas to get through to the second round. The interviewer was very silent and unresponsive, you just had to carry on with the case on your own. A solution to the truck problem was that the people got AIDS as they went at different places, and then they had problems getting married. Second was that there were health problems, due to them eating food at different places and uncomfortable seats, no proper place to sleep. Round 2: Case: Why a shipping company is going in loss. Evaluate the possible problems and suggest solutions. Suggesting solutions to every case in the end will be required and this is where one’s idea generation will be tested. Also involved testing of quant skills, specifically math calculation required (basic but one can panic under pressure).

What do you think went right in this interview?

Being calm and confident, thinking on the feet really helps. I had already gone through a fair set of interviews before, so wasn’t

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nervous at all. While you would have done an umpteen number of cases before hand, but every case will be new and will require you to go to different breadth and depths. While case solving remains a very important part, they also test you on your HR skills. The second round was the deciding factor, after which directly there was a partner round. In the end managed to convert the call. Finally, it was very important to smile over the course of interview which lasted 30-45 mins What do you think went To be frank, I think everything went right for me in this process. wrong in this interview? Although I did miss out the exact cause of the problem in the first round but wasn’t so much a big deal. The way you structure your thoughts is more important. Any tips for future batches To me case solving had much more importance in the course of on the basis of your the interview, but HR answers shouldn’t be ignored for sure. experience Make sure you are properly dressed. You get evaluated on every aspect.

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Interview Experience 17 Name: Anonymous Company: Mckinsey and Company Name of interviewer and Rounds 1,2: Case Study designation Round 3: HR Round 3 Rounds Interview questions (With Round 1: indicative answers if you 1.) Tell me something about yourself? choose to share them) 2.) Convince me to sell my company even when it is doing very well in the market. Round 2: 1.) Case study on Indian Telecom sector

Narration of the case interview

Round 3: 1.) McK vs BCG question 2.) 5 ways India can win 5 Gold medals in upcoming olympics Case 1: Selling the Company  Started by giving financial benefits of selling the company.  Gave implications on entrepreneurship front, brought views surrounding family society

Case 2: Indian Telecom Sector  Case was about increasing revenues from Mobile apps.  Started with geographical expansion of the company service by looking at various strategies (M&A, Alliances, Joint venture etc).  Went ahead and looked at companies promotional strategies, delved into customer segmentation for better targeting.  At last suggested some modifications in apps to make it more users friendly and appropriate for smart phone users. What do you think went  Case went well, Interviewers were happy in both the cases right in this interview? about the approach I took.  Were happy about my past work ex What do you think went  I could have better put recommendations in cases wrong in this interview?  Could have brought more practical examples during my HR answers  Engagement with partner could have been better. Any tips for future batches  Keep Structured approach throughout interviews on the basis of your  Consistency within answers is important experience  Be confident and calm on D-Day.

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Interview Experience 18 Name: Aviral Srivastava Company: McKinsey Name of interviewer and Vikas Bhadoria, Partner designation Shivanshu, Principal Mukund Sridhar, Associate Partner (Not sure) Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : B.Tech Mechanical Engineering from IIT(BHU), Varanasi. One (Graduation College, stream, year work-ex as Analyst in Inductis, Gurgaon (Analytics Work ex details, etc.) consulting). Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me something about yourself not in your resume. (I indicative answers if you talked about how being a good student in school opened up choose to share them) avenues in leadership and extra-curriculars and shaped the person I am). Turning points in my life that shaped me. Regrets in life. A short description about my work at Inductis. And then case. Round 2: A very brief tell me about yourself. How did your previous interview go according to you? Couple of things about my interests in meditation. And then case.

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 3: I was ushered in within 5-10 minutes of my previous interview. Mckinsey had made us fill a subjective sheet during out Aptitude test. Mukund had access to the sheet. He asked about a regret I had written: My CGPA in college. He asked if I had any questions about Mckinsey and my company priorities. A little chitchat and that’s all. This round hardly lasted 5 minutes. Round 1: Vikas brought in the case decisively (not as a gradual flow in conversation): “My friend owns a standalone cinema theatre in Mumbai. Profits and revenue taking a hit. What should I do?” I started the case with the usual qualifiers (since when, what has changed, industry, competition, type of movies, location etc). I made a structure but he sounded disinterested. Kept throwing me off my game with vague disinterested hints. None of my directions seemed to appeal to him. I persisted. Took some timeouts to rethink approaches. Came up with 3-4 approaches before we went into one. Then he asked me to ideate. Round 2: I am a shipping company. And my profits slipping. Give an exhaustive list of things you will evaluate. I did reasonably well. I missed the factor of fuel and he pointed it out. New scenario: cost in fuel changed drastically 3 years ago. What will be your current profit/ loss if the fuel cost hadn’t changed? Sounds simple and it was. I kept looking for a trap and started number crunching only after a minute. The moment I got the

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number, he seemed satisfied. He asked me to give recommendations. And I took a 20 sec pause to structure recommendations instead of hurtling them all out. The interview ended here, on a much more positive note compared to the first one.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I was calm across interviews and somehow managed to leave the stress at the door before all rounds. I received positive feedback regarding this later on. Round 1: My HR answers were interesting, passionate, structured but natural. I never gave up during the case and persisted despite several setbacks. I didn’t mind starting from scratch repeatedly. My idea-gen was adequate. Round 2: I gave an honest and humble feedback about round 1 when asked. Initial structure during case was ok (I missed fuel, but he pointed it out). Most importantly, I could crack the math in the case in my first attempt (it was quite simple really, but turns out, many silly mistakes were made during the day). I managed to structure my recommendations as well and generate several relevant ideas. Round 3: Frank genuine answers about my academics and work experience. He asked about people at my previous company, expectations from Mckinsey etc. Round 1: I didn’t think my case went all that great, as the interviewer looked disinterested throughout and kept redirecting me. Halfway through the case, I realised that cracking the case was out of the question. I came out of the interview apprehensive but luckily was ushered into round 2 before I could dwell on it. Round 2: I entered the interview unsure, given my performance in the first interview. I kept trying to give subjective solutions and state assumptions when all the interviewer wanted was simple math. I kept thinking the case can’t just be simple maths, but initially it was! Round 3: I was mentally prepared for a case but there was none. Prepare on your CV. You need to have recall value in the eyes of the interviewer. Structure HR answers. But they will sound natural only after practice. It helps if you have 2-3 USPs in your mind. For example, I had quizzing, meditation and a childhood abroad. Never give up in a case. Keep your cool as people get unsure of simple math during cases and literally end up doing written calculation where mental should have sufficed. Don’t read too much into the interviewer’s body language (unless he’s giving you hints during a case). Take pauses during cases but don’t let the silence get heavy.

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Each interviewer may ask you at the end if you want to ask him something about the company. Don’t do DCP. Ask him genuine questions that you think that a person of his stature and experience can answer better than a younger employee at the firm. Do not judge your own performance in the interview. You will never know what the interviewer is thinking. You might have been given a tough case just to see your response.

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Interview Experience 19 Name: Ishani Roychowdhury Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and Round 1: Gunjan (Partner) designation Round 2: Vikas (Partner) Round 3: Navtez (Partner) Round Three rounds in total (third round was purely HR) (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : Economics Honours from St. Stephen’s College, 21 months of (Graduation College, work experience at Bain Capability Center (BCC) stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me about yourself, followed by related questions on indicative answers if you my answer, why consulting. Next 15 minutes was a case. Ended choose to share them) with a brief discussion about the Partner’s consulting career so far. Round 2: Follow-up question on an answer that I had written in the HR form filled a week earlier. This was followed by questions on my work experience and how the BCC model works. This was followed by two quick cases. Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)

Round 3: Pure HR round Round 1: This was the first case of the day for the Partner and we spent 12-15 minutes on HR at the beginning. She asked me about myself which I had prepared well. That led to questions around my career decisions, a bit about my work experience and society work at undergrad college. This was followed by the case. She gave me two choices and asked me to pick one. I chose the IT case. Case statement: I run a software company which sells accounting software in India. Before launching accounting software, I had hired a market research firm who estimated the market at Rs.XY (some figure). However, in spite of having a share of 45%, we have not been able to penetrate the market any further. The idea was to start with exhaustive qualifying questions that covered competition, region of operation, industry dynamics. I figured that the problem did not lie in the company per se, but in their target customers. They focused mostly on the SMEs who used traditional accounting books rather than accounting software. I was also abruptly stopped in between, after which I quickly synthesized and gave in my recommendations. My recommendations were around creating awareness to migrate more people to online accounting applications She asked me if I had any questions for her. I asked her a question which extended the discussion for 5-7 more minutes.

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Round 2: 2-3 questions on the HR form submitted earlier. This was followed by a detailed discussion about my work experience, some case examples from my previous work, the BCC model and how it works and why consulting. Case statement: My friend owns a single theatre in a metro city, has been losing profits steadily. Suggest ways to improve his profitability. The case was about generating options and the Partner kept insisting on more suggestions. I looked at the revenue and the cost side separately, divided them into short term and long term plans, and tried to logically structure my suggestions. For the revenue side, I had gone by the customer purchase process approach to ensure nothing is missed. This was followed by a second case which was a guesstimate: Another friend of mine wants to sell tennis balls in India. Estimate the demand. The approach was usual, starting with sources of demand and estimating it using population. Finally, he asked me if I had any question for him. I had a question and the discussion went on for 5 more minutes.

What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 3: This was the most interesting interview experience of all. I was told it was like a hygiene test before I went in, and I was relaxed yet energetic. The partner looked at my HR form and asked me similar questions, as in my previous interview. The discussion touched upon various topics- mostly around my work experience, family, school life and career decisions (it was like a friendly chat after sometime and I had much to talk about). He also asked me why I would want to join McKinsey. At the end, he said it was a good discussion, that he thought I am fit for consulting and felt no need to give me a case. In all the rounds, I was energetic, smiling and engaging. The HR questions were extremely crucial which I thought went well. About the cases, I had thought my first round case wasn’t great- it was my first case of the day and I couldn’t tell whether she was happy with my recommendations. However, later I heard from others that she was actually happy about it. The second round cases went well- I managed to generate as many options as he wanted, and did not give up. In fact, I went into lot of details on the guesstimate and he stopped me in between to ask for the final answer.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Nothing major, I guess. The idea is not to ‘solve’ the case, but to display your structure and your method of thinking and to engage the interviewer throughout. Any tips for future batches Be calm and enthusiastic throughout. Carry yourself with on the basis of your confidence and smile- that reduces the nervousness too. Prepare experience your ‘about me’ well because that feeds into the discussion that follows. Also, the questions on ‘why consulting’ and ‘why McKinsey’ are common. Further, it’s very important to structure your HR answers too.

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Interview Experience 20 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Mashantha Viswanathan McKinsey Mr. Anil Sikka – Senior Specialist Ms. Gunjan Soni – Partner/Senior Partner Ms. Aayushi – Engagement Manager Ms. Aayushi - first Mr. Anil Sikka – second Ms. Gunjan Soni - third B.Com (Professional); St. Francis College for Women, Hyderabad, Analyst at Ernst and Young Hyderabad for 11 months in the Advisory service line Round 1: HR – Tell me about yourself, one wild/fun thing I had done. Guesstimate – If I needed to increase the prevalence (usage) of contraceptives in India by 20%, what sort of a number would I be looking at? Round 2: HR - Tell me about yourself, Working individually vis-àvis working with teams, how have I dealt with people taking credit for work that I do. Guesstimate – As head of a publishing house, I was asked to estimate the readership for a book that I wanted to publish

Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 3: HR - Tell me about yourself. A retail chain wanting to enter India; how would I go about it? Variables and KPIs that I would look at. Followed a value-chain centric approach; was asked specific questions at each stage such as the kind of metrics I would look at. 1) Was confident and comfortable; felt more like a conversation rather than an interview (especially the second and third rounds) 2) After a point, we were discussing the solution for the case together (happened in the first round) 1) Was initially nervous and I guess it showed in my first round 2) Could have been more targeted with my questions 1) Don’t get flustered; keeping your cool is very important 2) Try to approach it like you’re going to meet a new person rather than you’re going to face the most important interview in your life; it helps in being yourself => More confidence => Best performance

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Interview Experience 21 Name: Pratik Goyal Company: McKinsey & Co. Name of interviewer and Suhail (Associate Partner) designation Naftez (Partner) Vikash (Partner) Round Total 3 Rounds (First/Second/third) Interviewers names in order Brief Profile : St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata (Graduation College, Chartered Accountancy Inter stream, Work ex details, Fresher etc.) Interview questions (With Round 1: 3 structural approaches to solve the problem “ India indicative answers if you should win 5 gold medals in 2020 olympics” choose to share them) Round 2: About yourself not in the CV? Why consulting? An estimate of the total number of glucometers sold in India in a year. Round 3: A cinema hall whose profits are falling - Problem finding and Recommendations. An approach to estimate the revenue of the cinema hall and the cost was also asked. My leadership roles and why no POR in IIML? My entrepreneurial venture and the business logic behind it? Why not Finance as a career choice? Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible) What do you think went right in this interview?

The HR part went very well The idea generation was very important and the initial two levels in the structuring which should have incorporated a MECE. The ability to communicate what I was thinking was very important in the cases. What do you think went The nervousness was very high and so required a little time in idea wrong in this interview? generation in the first round but kept talking to the interviewer so that dint leave much gap and made up for the nervousness. Any tips for future batches Generally the interviews are targeted to test the idea generation on the basis of your ability, comfort level with numbers and the problem solving ability experience which form the main work of consultants. In the softer aspects the HR answers are very very important. Knowing the CV is very important and should be a reason for why u did what u have, and it will generally be a part of all interview rounds. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Interview Experience 22 Name: Shreya Sachdev Company: McKinsey and Co. Name of interviewer and R1- Shivanshu (Partner) designation R2- Vikas (Partner) R3- Gunjan (Partner) R4- Navtez (Partner) Round (First/Second/third) Round 2 Brief Profile : B.A. (Hons) English- Lady Shri Ram College for Women-Fresher (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Interview questions (With All three interviews revolved around my educational background indicative answers if you (I’m the rare breed of Literature students that occasionally crop up choose to share them) here) and how that fit in with IIM Lucknow and Consulting. I was also asked about my internship with a Fashion House and my motivation behind taking it up. Finally I got asked about my expectations from a Consulting job. The interviews ended with me asking each of the partners questions. Shivanshu was working on a data- heavy project so I asked him about how he dealt with the more mundane aspects of Consulting. I had a prior interaction with Vikas at the McKinsey dinner and I continued with the same discussion regarding Entrepreneurship opportunities at McKinsey. Gunjan and me spoke about opportunities for women at McKinsey and the initiative she had started regarding the same. Navtez was working on a case in the same sector that my father works in, so we discussed the current challenges faced by that sector. Narration of the case “My friend runs a standalone theatre in the heart of Mumbai, but interview (Please be as has recently been witnessing declining profits.” descriptive as possible) I initially structured it into a regular profit and loss case, but after the first 4-5 minutes (possibly because he gathered that I had no problem structuring the case) he jumped directly to recommendations. The rest of my case focused solely on me shooting options as to how he could possibly increase his profits. The suggestions included the obvious ones such as price of tickets, show timings, staff requirements etc, and then we went on to other areas such as the Food and Beverages counter, Parking and so on. At that point, after we had exhausted all avenues he asked me to come up with out-of-the-box solutions, and we spent the rest of the interview solely on idea generation. What do you think went I was smiling and confident throughout the interview even though right in this interview? I was convinced that I had quite possibly tanked the case interview before this. The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I could bring myself to look outside my structure and give him solutions over and above the ones I didn’t ask for numbers, possibly because numbers were where I had messed up in the last case. If I had gotten over the phobia in time the case solutions I presented would have had more of an impact. Reading the cues and expressions of the interviewer always help. Apart from that don’t make the mistake of getting trapped by your structures because McKinsey partners usually tend towards unorthodox case interviews.

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Summer Internship Experiences 2012

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Accenture Management Consulting

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Interview Experience 1 Name Company Name of interviewer and designation Brief Profile Interview questions

Deep Banerjee Accenture Management Consulting Vishwesh Prabhakar, Partner Chemical Engineering from Bangalore, 1 yr Work Ex at Tesco Retail, 3.5 yrs at Indian Oil Corporation as Assistant Manager handling Supply Chain and Operations Round 1: Work related, Industry related, Latest Trends in Supply Chain, CV related, Case analysis, Related to current energy problems in India Round 2: My apprehensions about Accenture

Narration of the case interview What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 3: HR Questions “I’m a chemical manufacturer. Help me optimize my outbound logistics” - Work experience matched with their requirement - Industry knowledge - Information about the company In the case interview, I mistook “optimize” as “cost reduction” only. Should have taken other factors into consideration - Be energetic and enthusiastic - I firmly believe that the first 2 minutes in an interview decide the outcome to a great extent - In the case interview, even if you go wrong at some place, do not fluster and keep trying

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Interview Experience 2 Name Company Name of interviewer and designation

Ipsa Kalra Accenture Management Consulting Round 1- Anurag Johri, Strategy Head Round 2- HR Round 3-Saurabh Bhatnagar-Partner

Round

Case in first round only

Brief Profile

Graduation in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata. Fresher. Round 1: Started with some questions on leadership as I stated it as strength. Followed by 2 cases on projected soap and 4 wheeler market in 2020.

Interview questions

Round 2: Basic HR questions on weaknesses and anyone apart from me who should make it to AMC.

Narration of the case interview

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 3: Questions on academics (PGDM), ranging from MANAC to economics and MS Excel. Keynesian Vs Classical Types of Costing Lookup in excel Branding General questions on the current education system in India I was asked to choose an industry of my choice. I chose FMCG sector. I was first asked to give the market size of the soap market in the year 2020. The interviewer was not looking at numbers but at multiple approaches. I gave the income segmentation approach, rural-urban divide approach. He suggested the extrapolation of GDP approach. I also made a point that in the urban market soaps are soon being replaced by shower gels etc. The interview started on a good note and they liked the way I spoke and conducted myself. They expected me to suggest the GDP approach myself. Consulting interviews require you to be able to give a holistic picture of the case presented. Keep the interviewer involved at every step.

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Interview Experience 3 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation Brief Profile Interview questions

Meghana Katiki Accenture Management Consulting Vivek Mishra, Ridhima (HR) and one more Senior partner IIT Kharagpur, Biotechnology, Deloitte Consulting -23 Months Round 1: Case and CV  Explain me one of the projects you took up at Deloitte  Why consulting  Which subjects did you like in term 1 Based on my answer he said link Marketing and Economics.  Explain one initiative you took Round 2: HR  What do you like about Accenture  What do you remember from Accenture’s PPT  Did you attend the session by our senior partner, Give one positive and one negative feedback I handled the negative part very tactfully: starting with slight negativity but ending on a very positive note. Would like to join IB or GTIN. Understand the difference properly.

Narration of the case interview What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 3: CV  Walk me through your academic background.  Why did you leave something as promising as Biotechnology for something as mundane as Management consulting.  Tell me one challenging task that you did I gave the example of a project at Deloitte. Well a guesstimate was given to me but I never realised it was one. I told about how demand is actually estimated in Apple and how they produce less than the estimation to keep the hype. I knew from beforehand what they were looking for. I could project all those qualities in some or the other answer. My HR answers were well prepared and reviewed before I entered the interview. I kept a smiling face though one of the interviewers’ kept a shrewd expression on his face. I steered the interview in my way by giving answers of all HR questions based on experiences and stories and talking about things I knew very well so that I could handle the drilling questions.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview?

I took Economics’ name as one of my favourite subjects and couldn’t answer some questions properly.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Any company, any interview, HR answers are extremely important. More so to tailor the answers to the company. It is also important to understand the values and culture of the company and portray a fit in the interview. Accenture’s PPT is very important to them. If you are serious about that company make sure you attend the ppt.

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Interview Experience 4 Name Company Name of interviewer and designation

Preethi Viswanathan Accenture Management Consulting Senior Manager

Round

Had three rounds of interviews

Brief Profile

Electrical Engineering from Anna University; Prior work experience - 11 months as Graduate Engineer Trainee in Larsen & Toubro Ltd, ECC division Round 1:

Interview questions

 Some basic questions like tell me about yourself, other interviews for the day  Why did you choose consulting?  Questions on POR's mentioned in the CV and which I consider the most important among them  Why Accenture and how do I feel it is different from the other consulting firms?  I was also asked about my role models  Questions regarding power sector – what are the problems in the sector at present Case on a pure-play thermal power generator with installed capacity of 2,000 MW in India. The company is making losses in the recent years I went ahead with a lot of questioning regarding the company, type of clients current financial position, current risk exposure in terms of fuel, market etc and the related businesses that the company is already into. I came up with a framework to analyses the profitability using the basic structure of costs and revenues. I first analysed on the cost side considering various parameters like fuel, distribution, overheads etc. I was then told to focus only on the revenue side. After further probing about the pricing and the sales volume (in MW) , the interviewer indicated that the power was sold The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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only to the government. It was found that the company generated power which exceeded the government's requirement as per the contract with the company. I recommended that the excess power generated could be sold to private players to minimize losses Round 2: HR round Questions on primary skills required for a person in consulting Was asked about which of the skills I have and which I still need to develop Question was again asked about why consulting and why Accenture? Round 3: The Partner asked me about my educational background, my interest in music, my favourite course in Term I. After I told it was marketing, I was questioned on some basics and was asked to explain my marketing project. I was also questioned on some challenges I faced here at IIM L. Questions on work experience were asked maily relating to the role I had at L&T. After that he urged me to ask questions as he felt I have been asked enough. I questioned him about some news which was mentioned in the RG doc about AMC opening an Innovation centre. I further questioned him about the roles offered and the functions of IB and GTIN and sector preference for projects. He explained the answers in a detailed fashion.

Narration of the case interview

I was asked to wait for a while, the offer was made and I accepted it. Explained above

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What do you think went right in this interview?

I prepared well for HR answers and was able to answer the questions on consulting well. Thorough knowledge about everything that I wrote on the CV A firm answer about why I wanted to join AMC as it was asked in all rounds of my interview

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Nothing that I can specifically point out. • • •

•

For AMC, it pays well to know well about what work the company does and some recent happenings that the company was involved in. Frame good questions for asking at the end of the interview as my third round was primarily based on that Generate a plethora of options when analysing a case. It shows that you can think in multiple directions. In summers, most companies look only for people with ideas rather than skills. Hence, this is the most important phase of a case interview as far as summers are concerned. Thorough CV and HR preparation are of prime importance

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Interview Experience 5 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation Round Brief Profile Interview questions

Salonee Gupta Accenture Management Consulting HR Head, Saurav I had 3 rounds of interviews Civil Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering, with 23 months experience in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. Round 1: Some ice breakers like about yourself, walk me through your CV and why consulting, details about other interests and especially work experience related questions, followed by an elaborate guesstimate, and if you want to ask us anything in the end Round 2: Some ice breakers like about yourself, walk me through your CV and why consulting, details about other interests, followed by if you are comfortable working anywhere and want to ask us anything in the end

Narration of the case interview

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 3: Some ice breakers like about yourself, walk me through your CV and why consulting, details about work experience, followed by some course related questions from FRA and QAM, and if you want to ask us anything in the end Guesstimate in the 1st interview: Estimation of Baby Diaper market in India Followed by questions like, what was a major assumption in your estimate, what could have been a better approach for estimation, etc. My ability to think of different ways to approach this problem, and being able to point out a flaw in my estimate and a solution to that Could have been a little more structured 1. Take 2 mins to structure your thoughts before starting the estimation. These 2 mins are very critical. 2. Try to think of out of box solutions and recommendations once the problem has been identified. 3. Maintain your calm during the interviews as they check your confidence level.

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Interview Experience 6 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation Round

Shivani Rastogi Accenture Management Consulting 2 senior partners and 1 HR

Brief Profile

Jadavpur University, IT Consultant in PricewaterhouseCoopers for 2 years

Interview questions

Round 1: Tell me something about yourself. Had a long discussion on ABG scholarship. Asked a case and a guesstimate. Do you have any questions for me?(this was a long discussion as well) Round 2: Why AMC? Why not go back to PWC? Would you like to work for ops or strategy? Why? Which sector did you like working for in your last job? Some work-ex specific questions. Do you have any questions for me? Round 3: It was not an interview really. Just asked me if I had any questions for her. They asked me a case they had recently worked on. A Japanese pressure boiler manufacturer wants to enter the Indian market. They make high pressure resistant boilers. Advice them on how they should enter the market. Approach-They expected me to list the various options like set up a plants in India, export from Japan, enter a JV with a local player etc. Then he asked me to compare the various options based on some criteria I thought best. I chose ROI. So then he asked me to compare for the options in a tabular format, without any numbers, just using High and Low. Guesstimate-No of eBook readers in India Approach-I started with the income level division. Then I went on to percentage of target age (12-40ish). Then with the penetration of laptop and desktop among them (considering they would have at least one of them before purchasing and eBook reader) and he asked me to stop at this. I think my structured approach to the problems was what worked for me. Also I showed my interest in taking up operations and supply chain courses. This was also appreciated by one of the partners.

Narration of the case interview

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

3 rounds

I think the interview went quite well for me except when asked about which sector of my work experience I liked working for the most. I tried to show positives in each of the 4 sectors I had worked on and he seemed unconvinced .

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Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Lay out the structure well. They seemed to be more interested in covering the breadth of options rather than drilling down on them. Also they didn’t seem to bother much about numbers and percentages in the case and guesstimate.

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Interview Experience 7 Name: Company: Round Brief Profile Interview questions

Sruthi Nooka Accenture Management Consulting 3 Rounds Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad; Prior work experience - 35 months as Business Technology Analyst in Deloitte Consulting Round 1: Questions regarding my prior work experience, nature of responsibilities, reasons for shifting from technology consulting to business consulting Questions regarding my areas of interest(operations in my case) – I was asked to compare the supply chains of apple and dell, HUL and P&G Case on Market expansion for HUL product(Dove) into one of the north eastern states Round 2: What skills do you think a consultant needs? Which one of those skills do you lack in? Learning from prior work experience, significant achievements I was asked if I attended the pre-placement talk and what I liked the most about it Round 3: Questions regarding work experience – I worked on SAP implementation, so the interviewer asked me to give three reasons why companies go for ERP implementation – a hidden form of cost-benefit analysis case

Narration of the case interview

Questions on subjects of Term – I and Term – II: Regarding Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, Prisoner’s Dilemma, a small case on how a business operating in oligopoly can stay profitable, applications of QAM in all areas such as marketing, finance, operations, economics etc. Problem Statement: What factors should HUL consider if it’s wants to launch one of its products in one of the north Indian states? The interviewer was looking for the approach only and not extensive detailing.

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Firstly, I clarified on why the expansion is made – for profitability or expanding the customer base I analysed the scenario in three parts – Customers, Company’s capabilities and Competition By analysing the available customer segments and targeting the required segment the demand can be estimated and thus the profitability based on factors such as size, affordability and growth rate of the chosen segment In terms of company’s capabilities its financial and operational capabilities should be considered. Factors such as investment cost, company’s financial position, investment cost as a proportion of the company’s overall cost base should be analysed under financial capabilities. Operational capabilities include resources, availability of channel partners in the new market etc.

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Competition analysis determines entry barriers and possible threat from competitors I have answered questions regarding my prior work experience well and I could explain the reasons for transition from technology consulting to business consulting convincingly. My case analysis went pretty well. In the third round, I have answered all the questions asked about academic subjects with practical applications. I had to give some impromptu answers for certain questions regarding my previous question. Even though I justified my answers well finally, I could have organised my answers better.  Know about the company thoroughly. In case you have not attended the ppt, find out the same from your friends who have attended it and try to get as much information as possible from seniors.  Lot of students have been questioned about academic subjects. So it’s good to brush up on basics before attending the interview.  In case of students with prior experience, prepare well in advance about your nature of work, roles and responsibilities, nature of projects handled. Be ready with some examples through which you can explain your problem solving skills and leadership skills.

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Interview Experience 8 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation

Ashok Patsamatla Accenture Management Consulting Senior Manager

Round

2 Rounds

Brief Profile

Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras; Prior work experience - 24 months as Analyst in KPMG Management Consulting Round 1:

Interview questions

Some basic questions like tell me about yourself, other interviews appearing for on that day. What is your view on team work in consulting? Do you think it is always important? Questions regarding my prior work experience, nature of responsibilities and reasons for continuing in consulting industry Questions regarding power sector – what are the problems in the sector at present, recent interventions by the government (SEB bailout package) and my views on the same, Case on diversification strategy for a pure-play thermal power generator with installed capacity of 2,000 MW in India. I went ahead with a lot of questioning regarding the objective for diversification, current financial position, current risk exposure in terms of fuel, market etc and the related businesses that the company is already into. Interviewer indicated that the company wishes to leverage on its current strengths and to hedge current risks through diversification. Financial position of the company is not a constraint. I came up with a framework to cover the entire value chain of the power sector and a basic fish-bone analysis of options at each stage of the value chain. I believe that this stage (option generation) is very crucial and needs to exhaustive. I came up with close to 20 options for diversification during this stage which impressed the interviewer. I was then told to focus only on the immediate upstream and immediate downstream options with just a macro overview of The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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each option. I did a basic investment horizon to benefits analysis for each of the options and finally suggested the following recommendations: 1. Acquisition of a coal mine in Australia/Indonesia since exposure to imported coal was found to be high. Also it can hedge exchange risk (relevant in the current macroeconomic condition) 2. JV with a port developer to save on transportation charges and to benefit from increasing imported coal demand in India 3. Power trading to better leverage the excess thermal generation capacity due to seasonal demand fluctuations 4. EPC player – offer EPC solutions to huge upcoming capacity in India The interviewer was very much satisfied with this and indicated that there might be a role suited for me for summers. Round 2: HR round was skipped and was directly taken to Partner round. Round 3: The Partner (Vishwesh) asked me about my educational background, CGPA drop during graduation period, current academic performance at IIM Lucknow in Term I. I justified these aspects to which there was no other additional questioning. Then he asked me about the kind of culture that was prevalent at KPMG and what I did not like about it. He explained in fair detail about the kind of culture at AMC and what made him stick to the firm for the past 15 years. He asked me if I wanted to work on any sector in particular and I expressed interest in working on some academic oriented projects that AMC takes up from time to time on pro-bono or in conjunction with World Bank etc. The partner then told me that he headed a new practice at AMC – the sustainability practice – that deals in such projects. Narration of the case interview What do you think went right in this interview?

At this stage, the Partner made an offer and I accepted it. Explained above My sector knowledge in power helped in fair detail at the option generation stage and I was lucky to have gotten a case in that sector itself.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I prepared well for HR answers and was able to answer the question about team work in consulting well. Thorough knowledge about everything that I wrote on the CV Nothing that I can specifically point out.  For AMC, it pays well to know well about what work the company does and some recent happenings that the company was involved in.  Frame good questions for asking at the end of the interview  Generate a plethora of options when analysing a case. It shows that you can think in multiple directions. In summers, most companies look only for people with ideas rather than skills. Hence, this is the most important phase of a case interview as far as summers are concerned.  Thorough CV and HR preparation are hygiene factors.  Always smile!

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Interview Experience 9 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation Round Brief Profile : Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Siddharth Raghuvanshi Accenture Management Consulting 1. cant recall 2. HR Head 3. Saurav – Partner 4. Alumnus 4 Rounds I have done my dual degree (B.Tech+ M.Tech.) in Computer Science & Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. After that I have worked in FICO as a software engineer for 1 year. Round 1: It was more of a chit chat round. First, the interviewer asked me – Tell me something about yourself. In my answer, I mentioned about founding and heading 70 member team of Student Welfare Group at IIT Kharagpur & co-founding a start-up named estumart.com at IIT Kharagpur. The interviewer became more interested in my work at Student Welfare Group & he asked me in detail about my work. Then he asked few questions on my start-up like whether it is still working or not, what was the motivation for the start-up & having such a good engineering profile, why didn’t I opt for an MS degree. In the last, he asked me whether I have any questions. I asked about the difference between GTIN & IB profile. First he I told him, what I knew about both the profiles, then there was some discussion regarding why I want to choose IB over GTIN. Round 2: It was with HR. She too started with tell me something about yourself. Then she asked why we should take you. Then she asked why “how do you think you are better than others who are being interviewed now”. Answered all these questions. Then she asked me if I have attended AMC Pre Placement Talk or not. I told her that I have attended it. Then she cross questioned me by asking about the stipend details. Told her. Then she asked “why Consulting”. Then “why Accenture”. Then “what are the core values of Accenture”. Globed the last answer, as I felt core values of most of the consulting firm are similar. Later I found that 4 out of 6 core values, which I answered, were correct.  Round 3: This was the round with the partner. He seemed like a cool person, which gave me an opportunity to ask him the most important question – ‘Tell me something about yourself’. I found that he was working in GTIN. So that gave me opportunity to further ask him some questions like what he thinks is good about GTIN. Do people in GTIN get to work with Indian clients or not. On site opportunity & so on. After that, the partner asked about my favourite course in the Term 1. I told him QAM. Then he

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asked me the reason. After that he asked some questions on Anova, I had to tell him that it still has not been taught. Then he asked my next favourite course. I told him marketing management. Then he asked the reason. Told him. Then he asked me some questions on definition of brands. Gave him the answer with some examples. Then he asked me some questions on Micro economics like on demand & supply, how micro economics is different from macroeconomics, definition of GDP, GNP, prisoners’ dilemma & its implication in the industry.

Narration of the case interview What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 4: It was with alumnus. He was the founder of The Consulting & Strategy Club. So he asked me in detail about our work & how do we pitch to a client, etc. It was more of a discussion rather than an interview round. No cases or guesstimates were asked to me. I had interest in the consulting. So I have gathered a lot of information about Accenture, their different profiles. The discussions with the interviewers showed them that I had genuine interest in consult work. My 2nd interview was not that good according to me. I had to globe sometime like in question on core values of Accenture. The most important thing is that you should be confident enough. Consult interviews are more of a discussion rather than interviews. So take it in that way only. If you have any genuine doubt, you can also ask questions to them. It will be appreciated.

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A T Kearney

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Interview Experience 10 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation

Nidhi Mehta A.T Kearney 1st Round : Sidharth Jain , 2nd round : Praveen (Principal), 3rd round Manish(Partner)

Round Brief Profile

3 rounds Shri Ram College of Commerce ( Eco Hons), 13 months workex with Tata Capital Ltd. (Senior Credit Officer) Round 1:Tell me about yourself ; post the case I was asked to give my view on the recent reduction in CRR rates

Interview questions

Round 2: Why Consulting ?

Narration of the case interview

Round 3: No HR questions were asked. However,The partner asked me if I had any question for him. Case 1: FICCI is planning to launch a new electric car, It has been proposed that this will lead to a reduction in pollution. Should the new car be launched? Approach : This was a case involving a guesstimate. I first looked at all the stakeholders that could be affected by this proposal including the current car manufacturers. The interviewer however guided me that it is assumed that all car makers will start manufacturing this car. The question then came down to the emissions produced by a regular car and an electric car. I further sub-divided the cars into small, medium sized (hatch backs and sedans) and SUV’s. I also talked about the emission levels being different for diesel and petrol cars. Emission levels depended on the mileage and data was given for the cars and CO2 emission levels. Case 2: I am a steel manufacturer. My profits are decreasing. Help me out. Approach: This was a simple profitability case. I started out by asking him about his business: the no of factories, locations and if profit had been reducing in all of them. I then looked at the revenue and cost heads. I asked him if he wanted me to look at a particular head and he said I could start with revenues. Within revenues I looked at the price and volume. Prices were constant so I began analysing the factors affecting the volumes. I looked at both supply and demand sided factors. Through this analysis I came to know that the competitors had an integrated procurement whereas the client’s cost of raw materials was higher. Also some of the machinery was obsolete. Branding of the steel and delivery time were also issues of concern.I gave

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some recommendations such as improving the quality of the steel ,having a branding strategy, giving cash discounts and attractive margins to dealers , looking for alternate suppliers. Working on a backward integration was suggested as a long term strategy. Case 3: Estimate the number of car servicing that take place in India

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Approach : The partner didn’t want me to get into calculations. He specifically told me to give me the just the approach. I started with estimating the number of car owners .We could divide Indian household into different income categories and estimate car owners. Some percentage of this would be old cars and others would be new. The new ones would probably be under free servicing schemes. The old ones could chose to go to the service centre or chose a local mechanic. The owners of expensive car owners would chose the servicing. Based on this we could estimate average number of breakdowns in a year for different car ownersand the corresponding requirement of servicing. Next we need to estimate the number of accidents as servicing will have to be done in this case as well. Case 1 : The catch in the case was that the emission levels were higher for the electric car. I could identify that this was because electricity was being generated by thermal energy. I also took into account transmission losses that would happen in electricity generation. I guess what went right was that I took into account all aspects of the case instead of following a narrow approach. Case 2: The interviewer didn’t have a specific problem in mind. He was just looking at the approach and how many areas of concern I could identify. I was comfortable with profitability cases and I guess I structured the case well. Case 3: The case lasted for just 5 mins and it was important to communicate a proper structure. Case 1 : It was not a typical case so in hindsight I could have structured it in a better way. Case 2 and 3 : Nothing went wrong as such It is important to stay calm during the case interviews The interviewer will be ready to help you out so it is important to clarify your doubts. Take some time to understand the case question and confirm with the interviewer before proceeding further.

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Boston Consulting Group

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Interview Experience 11 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation

Mohit Agarwal Boston Consulting Group Navneet Vashisht, Partner

Round Brief Profile

3 Rounds Chartered Accountant, Graduate from SRCC; Prior work experience -22 months as Associate in BMR (tax consultant) and Ernst & Young (Transaction Advisory Services) Round 1:

Interview questions

Some basic questions like Why consulting and why BCG. Case on acquisition strategy of a large Indian conglomerate looking for diversifying into IT services. I took a complete background check with regard to the motivation behind diversifying into IT sector. Also, what kind of IT businesses it wanted to diversify. The interviewer suggested that they want to achieve revenue of USD 5Bn from current USD 4Bn. Also, they want a margin of 12-15% from this new business. Also, the major consumer of IT services are Europe and US. So, I divided the problem into two parts – 1. Whether IT business would serve them the purpose for achieving desired revenue. 2. If yes, then what would be the strategy for entering into IT services? I started off with the projected revenue estimates for all types of IT services. However, the interviewer changed the problem statement (due to paucity of time I suppose). He asked what would be the basis for selecting companies from an acquisition standpoint from an initial pool of companies across the globe. I came up with two matrix table wherein I stated what the Indian conglomerate wants from the acquisition (ie Need) and what it can offer to the target company (ie want of target) and tried to match it. The interviewer informed that the Indian conglomerate was cash rich company, stands on its values and has strong client relationship with manufacturing sectors / vendors.

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So I started linking all of them –  funding – requirement for cash strapped companies  Reputation – It can offer brand value to companies not well known  Client relation to leverage – Companies not present in manufacturing IT services. Also, during discussion, I linked the problem practically to how Mahindra went on to acquire Satyam and what factors it looked before bidding. I think the interviewer was impressed with the linking to case to practical situation. However, I think the interview did not go so well. However, I knew I would be given another chance to perform. The interview ended on brief chat with Hindi literature on poetry and short stories. Round 2: The interview was taken by Principal in BCG. Problem Statement – An Indian Cement market share is declining. MA: Define market share? Interviewer: Market share is defined by quantity and sales value. MA: There could be 3 possible scenarios: Market stagnant, we are losing out to competitors; Market growing but we are not growing as fast as market; market shrinking but we are losing more than our competitors. Interviewer: Second scenario MA: Major customers Interviewer: Real estate companies After a brief background question, I started off with the problem analysis. I broke the problem into Demand and Supply side. Under demand side, I mapped the consumer behaviour analysis of buyer and brought out several points. However, the interviewer was interested in delving into supply side. Anyways, he told me to analyze demand side. Based on our discussion, we realized that pricing and timely delivery was an issue. Pricing is based on cost plus pricing. Cost The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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includes transportation cost which was significantly higher than industry standards. High transportation cost stems from the fact that the factory was located far away from the market. Also, acquisition of lime stone has been a challenge for the company. I think the interviewer was impressed from the fact that the problem was solved from the demand side. Also, I quickly suggested 2 solutions to the problem:  Short term – Reduce prices and take a hit on profit to regain market share  Medium term – Follow hub and spoke model to reduce delay in delivery time  Long term – Acquire a source (may be mine or long term supplier) for lime stone The interview ended with HR questions as to – why MBA after CA, why consulting, why BCG and why not industry after CA. Round 3: The third round was a very brief round. The problem statement was – Whether Uninor bid for the next spectrum auction? I took background questions regarding in which circle it operates and its vision in India. I suggested that I would do a Net Present Value analysis and would bench mark against return expected by Norway Head Office. We went into revenue stream like voice and data. Cost included operating, spectrum, license fee etc. He seemed to be satisfied with the response. Also, he asked me why AT&T is not bidding for the spectrum. I explained that Uninor has invested time, effort in understanding Indian market which AT&T has not. I drew learning curve of both Uninor and AT&T. He seemed impressed. Narration of the case interview What do you think went right in this interview?

At this stage, the Partner made an offer and I accepted it. Explained above I think structured approach to the problem and able to articulate it well went right in the interview. Also, I linked the problem to practical situation which helped me in cracking the case.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I was nervous in my first interview; hence initially I went in haywire manner. However, I was told that one needs to perform in 2 out of 3 interviews to get through. I did well in my second interview and hence moved to third round. So in case, you do not do well in one of the interview, it should not matter. It’s important to think clearly and structurally. 1. Be calm and composed. Even if one interview does not go well, one would have another chance to perform 2. Take good background questions to understand the problem. Dissect the problem and then approach 3. Structured thinking is very important. Also, explain briefly the broad bucket in the structure. 4. All suggestions should have some basis based on the inputs taken during t he interview. 5. Thorough CV and HR preparation are hygiene factors. 6. Always smile!

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Interview Experience 12 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation Brief Profile Interview questions

Shraddha Gupta Boston Consulting Group Rahul Jain, Partner ( First Round) Seema (Second Round) Economics Honours, St. Stephen’s College No Work Ex Round 1: What drives you to do well at academics? A truck company has just entered India. They want you to design a financing strategy for them. Basically they want to ensure that people who want to buy their trucks will have access to financing.

Narration of the case interview

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Round 2: The government wants to redesign the way it supplies vaccines to rural areas. What parts of the supply chain will you outsource? The partner started off by asking me about academics (I had a really high CGPA that time) and I asked him a bit about how he was also one of the top rankers in his time at Lucknow (he’d mentioned this at the BCG dinner earlier). He then gave me the case question. I started by focussing on the different factors that were important for a person to get loans from banks (like creditworthiness, availability etc.) He said the structure was fine but he wanted me to focus more on the link between financing and the truck purchase. So I figured out that I needed to understand their target customers better. We discussed that for a while. It turned out that there were two kinds of customers (forming 50% of the total each) One was large fleet owners who bought lots of trucks together and had no trouble with financing. The others were smaller ‘players’. They took a loan from a local moneylender and used the purchased truck as collateral. So I suggested we focus on the smaller guys (because they did not have access to traditional financing) and try to get the moneylenders to promote our trucks. He then drew a couple of graphs and asked me to figure out what kind of monetary compensation we could offer the moneylender. The case was really different from the ones I had done earlier so I really enjoyed it. It didn’t really feel like a case interview at all, felt more like a discussion. I was able to pick up the clues well. Can’t think of anything. Try to have fun. Don’t fret too much about how many cases you have practiced.

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Interview Experience 13 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation

Wamika Mimani Boston Consulting Group Navneet (Partner)

Round

First

Brief Profile

St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata; B.Com Honours, CA Inter, Fresher He asked me for a quick introduction. We spoke briefly about IIM Lucknow and then he straight off headed to tell me about the interview pattern. He told me that we’d do a case and then move on to discuss any questions I had about the company. The case was about an Indian conglomerate entering the IT space. I was asked to prepare a detailed market entry strategy at the start. When I outlined that he could opt for a JV, an acquisition or an own set-up, he asked me to probe further into the JV idea. From there on, the case was about identifying specific metrics to ascertain the best JV route. It was a very spontaneous case discussion, and we covered a variety of opportunities, problems and solutions in and around the original problem statement. I kept my cool. At one point, I realised that he was not getting the specific reply he wanted. Instead of panicking, I asked for a minute, took a step back and reworked the problem successfully. What worked most was the level of engagement with the interviewer. Post the case, we had an excellent dialogue about the sector in which he was working on a case. I rushed to give a particular answer in the case, which was absolutely unnecessary. It was crucial that I didn’t get nervous after that. Keep high energy through the interview. Feel confident and remember that, at the end of the day, an interview should most importantly be a good conversation. Second Vikram (Principal)

Interview questions

Narration of the case interview

What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience Round Name of interviewer and designation Interview questions

Narration of the case interview

He asked me to talk about the past 8-10 years of my life briefly. He told me that he’ll administer a case, and that he didn’t expect me to solve the case. He clearly told me that he was testing me on my approach and the questions I asked. The case was about a cement company losing market share. It has set up new plants too. There was some amount of data to play with and a lot of technical jargon (which I suspect was to just throw me off track!)

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What do you think went right in this interview?

What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I structured the problem in a very detailed manner. I asked relevant questions and took my time. I also got lucky that intuitively I managed to find the root cause of the problem, though it wasn’t expected out of the case. The rapport with the interviewer was good during and after the case. Nothing really, I was quite happy with how the interview went. Look happy, it rubs off on to the interviewer as well! It’s important to practice ample cases so that you’re confident with your problem solving.

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Deloitte

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Interview Experience 14 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation Round Brief Profile Interview questions

Divya Chandra Deloitte S & O Senior Manager 3 Rounds Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani; Prior work experience - 10 months in BHEL, New Delhi Round 1: HR round: Interviewer started with his introduction first. Then some basic questions like tell me about you, hobbies. Which all places have you travelled till date? Is travelling an issue? Questions regarding my hobbies and interests. Why consultancy? Round 2: Case Study Round: A case study on Health industry was given. It was related to Hospitals and Clinics in USA. A lot of number crunching was required. Also emphasize on all key points looking at numbers with lots of option generation. Round 3:

Narration of the case interview

What do you think went right in this interview?

The Partner asked me about my educational background. Why not finance? Current academic performance at IIM Lucknow in Term I. Why consulting? Scrutinized CV well. After this round, the Partner made an offer and I accepted it. Case emphasized on a lot of number crunching. A chain of clinics and hospitals were owned by a company based in the USA and were generating losses. A whole set of data sheet was given to analyse. It needed identification of the various problems leading to losses in hospital revenue. Then options to cut down on costs were to be given based on the expenses given in the sheet. Quick calculations and analysis of data sheet was a plus point. I was able to answer the question why consulting well. Thorough knowledge about everything that I wrote on the CV.

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A smile throughout the interview helped. What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

None. 1. Prepare why consulting question well 2. Be quick in calculations and generate as many options as you can when analysing a case. Think of out of box solutions to the problems in the case. 3. Thorough CV based preparation is required.

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McKinsey & Co.

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Interview Experience 15 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation

ANURADHA TYAGI McKinsey & Co Round 1: Pradeep (Principal) Round 2: Navtez (Partner) Round 3: Mandar (Partner)

Brief Profile

Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, Economics (Hons), Analyst in the Advisory Practice at Ernst & Young Round 1: Apply Econometrics and other Economics concepts to define the distribution of ticket price between Lufthansa & United Airways if a passenger pays INR 50,000 to fly the route Delhi-Frankfurt-New York. (Lufthansa takes the passenger till Frankfurt and United Airways from Frankfurt till NY)

Interview questions

Ans : Bargaining power, occupancy ratios, original ticket costs for standalone routes-Range for Lufthansa is INR (15,00030,000) & Range for United Airways is INR (35,000-45,000) Round 2: Presentation to the industry about projections of supply & demand of Oil & Natural Gas in India by 2025. Explain all parameters involved in the projections Ans: No clear-cut answer in this case. Was tested on general understanding and ability to tap as many levers as possible Round 3: You seem to be inclined towards Theatre. Let us try and understand the functioning of Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon-its profitability and possible recommendations if any

Narration of the case interview

Ans: Again, case involved numbers and exploring several factors. I don’t remember the exact answer but the revenues came to approximately 5 crores annually, not too sure. All three cases stemmed from casual conversations with the respective people. The first one started with talk about my favourite subjects within Economics, the second was after I was asked about my background (my father works with RIL) & the third was when my interest in theatre was questioned. Hence, the point I am trying to make is that please be clear about what you speak because your case can be an off-shoot of the conversation. CASE 1: My questions resulted in me getting details about the occupancy ratios of the two airlines, competitor airlines, routes travelled by both the airlines, preference of passengers etc. The right questions and numbers helped me clarify relevant points &

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discuss some economics concepts which the interviewer wanted to see. CASE 2: I was not given any data or prior information and hence had to make assumptions and clarify my logic at each stage. Started with 3 scenarios-worst, expected & good. Went on to explain why demand in this industry would always grow & hence supply should be the focus. Delved into India’s dependence on imports, bureaucracy issues, treaties with other nations-India-Afghanistan pipeline, political scenario of OPEC countries & other oil rich nations like Iran, geologists & their ability to tap the right oil fields, Risk Analysis-Probability & Severity of finding oil in India (this point fetched me great review) & of course, not to forget the regulatory environment in India & Public-private players in the Industry. Some substantial arguments were discussed and I came up with some other parameters & a conclusion.

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

CASE 3: In order to understand the case, I questioned about the revenue levers and what I think was the business model-different shows-main v/s others, footfall, income through business besides shows, peak season etc. Discussed cost levers & made a couple of recommendations based on the parameters. Structured cases, exhaustive option generation, relaxed & confident personality and ability to build a connect with each administrator in all rounds Nothing really. I maintained my cool and came across as relaxed and composed for all three rounds. My feedback from the firm while they made the offer was that I managed to keep myself very calm and my cases structured even though at times it seemed difficult. -Do not give up at any point in time during any case. Sometimes the case may not be your comfort area but you need to drive yourself till the end & that matters -When numbers are thrown at you, keep your cool and work it out without being under any pressure. It’s better to get the right answer than mess up simple math -Practice cases and be clear about HR answers. Nothing should precede the other, give equal importance to both

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Interview Experience 16 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation Brief Profile Interview questions

Harshita Kesarwani McKinsey & Co R1 - Sambit (EM)/ R2 - Pradeep (Partner)/ R3 - Palash (Partner) Economics (H), SRCC, 2010 Nomura – 2 years, Fixed Income, Global Markets Round 1: About me and some related questions followed by case. Round 2: About me and HR answers around extra-curriculars, teamwork, initiatives and leadership

Narration of the case interview

Round 3: Case on a healthcare product launch with a guess estimate. The twist was that I had to do everything without using pen and paper. This was an interesting new challenge. Round 1: Case was based on a telecom firm’s tower construction costs which were higher than peers’. This was a stress interview and the guy kept insisting on structure. I think the important part was to keep calm and not to lose patience. Round 2: No case

What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 3: Case was on a joint replacement product. As mentioned, it was without pen and paper so focus was all the more important. Round 1: I think what really worked was patience and smiling through the 40-45 minutes. The feedback I received was that I never stopped myself from thinking through every option which helped in covering every possible bucket. Round 2: I don’t think all HR answers can be prepared and the ones I answered here were some that I had never heard before. What really helped was that I had listed a few situations before Summers week that described key qualities that I would like to talk about in a specific answer. Round 3: Not being familiar with healthcare at all, I think what worked was taking time to understand the product and the market. Also, the case became more like a conversation which helped me solve the case well. The guesstimate was tricky to do only in the head but in the end he was looking only for the approach and not the actual market size figure.

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Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

HR answers are supremely important – run answers through people and work on the feedback. Be prepared for any kind of interviewer. Each has their own unique style – keeping calm is the best way to crack the interview.

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Interview Experience 17 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation

Karabi Mitra McKinsey and Company Can’t recall

Brief Profile

I graduated in Economics honours from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and worked for one year in Google Hyderabad, as an Account Strategist. Round 1: Case based interview ( have narrated below)

Interview questions

Round 2: HR based: was asked the following: 1.) Tell me about yourself, in the course of this question, asked me about my family as well. 2.) Why consulting 3.) 2 instances of leadership 4.) Asked about music as it was in my CV that I had taught the piano. 5.) Also, asked about my work experience. Narration of the case interview

What do you think went right in this interview?

Round 3: Case based interview ( have narrated below) The first case was about a pharmaceutical company which had come out with a new eyedrop which cures myopia, and I had to price the product. Here we had to look at alternatives, such as cost of wearing glasses all your life, and the amount you would be spending, and discounting the amount you spend each year. I mentioned the cost of glasses, doctor visits, contacts, also laser surgery etc, to finally compute the price. The second case which I got in the 3rd round, was also about a medical company which was facing a problem of falling profits. Here there were several problems, low productivity, and falling sales as well. Here the sales force was required to convince the doctors about its products, as they would then prescribe the medicines. Important thing here was whether they were targeting the right doctors who had a lot of patients, whether doctors were already loyal to some other company etc. What worked in all the interviews is that I was quite calm, and the interview was more of a discussion, rather than a question answer interaction. I think it’s best to be frank and just treat the interviewer as someone who is actually interested in hearing about your experiences. As for the case interviews, it is very important to ask questions if you have any queries, and to always let him know why you are making whichever choices and assumptions in the course of the case.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview

I don’t think anything went wrong.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Practicing a lot of cases not only with others, but also going through solutions on your own helps a lot. It is important to keep analyzing your mistakes rather than doing a lot of cases. HR answers are probably even more important than the case themselves, so it is important to prepare them well in advance.

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Interview Experience 18 Name: Company: Name of interviewer and designation

Swati Sengar McKinsey & Co. Deepak, Partner

Brief Profile

B.Com (Hons) from Shri Ram College of Commerce 23 months work experience with KPMG

Interview questions

Since it was Deepak’s first interview of the day, he didn’t want to do a case. It was a 20-30 minutes HR interview. The broad questions were: - About work experience ( I focussed on achievements and initiatives) - About dance (my spike as per my CV: I focussed on leadership skills, handling failures and motivation skills adopted) - Biggest failure in life - Conflict management techniques used in teams - Academic performance at IIML (he was referring to my CGP of term 1) - Life at IIML ( I focussed on my learnings, positive and negative aspects) No case

Narration of the case interview What do you think went right in this interview?

Since it was my first interview of the day, I was quite enthusiastic and had a big smile on my face (appearance is very important). I was relieved when Deepak told me that he didn’t want to do a case. I tried to answer in a story-telling format (its important that the interviewer understands the flow of the answer). I believe my energy level was good and I was quite confident while conversing with Deepak (important to note that its a conversation and not a question-answer session). Before entering the room, a senior had told me that Deepak was in Australia for 2 years so I brought it up in the conversation.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Also, Deepak was among the first batch of students who were recruited by McKinsey. I asked him about his experience and he seemed quite emotional about it. For a few questions like biggest failure in life, I first gave an answer which he thought was an achievement and not a failure. Later, I substantiated the answer with another instance which seemed to satisfy him.

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I was using my hands a little too much and I think Deepak was getting distracted by the movement.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

-

-

Its very important to keep energy level high Engage the interviewer in a conversation and don’t stop yourself from saying something by virtue of being the interviewee. Give yourself importance and talk proudly about your past experiences Pick up hints thrown by the interviewer A firm handshake always works and exudes confidence Don’t freak out and have fun

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Summer Internship Experiences 2011

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Accenture Business Consulting

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Interview Experience 1 Company Name: Round Brief Profile :

Accenture Business Consulting Shalabh Malhotra 2 Rounds IIT Guwahati, Mechanical Engg., 10 months in NTPC Ltd.

Personal interview questions

1st Round 1. Tell me about yourself. Examples from life to justify for whatever points you had mentioned. 2. Guesstimation Case 3. Do you like travelling? Which all places have you been to? (A consulting job requires a lot of travelling. Make sure you justify that you love travelling) 4. What do you know about Accenture and ABC? Which vertical in ABC interests you the most?

Narration of the case interview

2nd Round This round is based on your work-ex. Know your company well and have a good hold on your sector. 1. Tell me about your experience in NTPC Ltd. 2. Why NTPC Ltd. after engineering and why MBA now? 3. Present Power Scenario in India. Difficulties faced by thermal power plants at present. 4. Future of Nuclear Power Plants. Pros and Cons. 5. Hydro-electric plants and their pros and cons. Problem statement: You are a private company who has got the contract to install street lights in Lucknow. Guesstimate the number of street lights that will be required and the expected profit you think you can earn. Structure: 1. I assumed Lucknow’s area to be 20km by 20km. 2. I, then, divided the city into a matrix assuming it to be criss-crossed by #60 20 km roads running horizontally and vertically each. 3. Then estimated an approximate of 30% area to be under forest cover. 4. Divided the roads in the remaining 70% area into roads present in residential and non-residential (commercial + highways) areas. Took an estimate on number of street lights present per km in both these areas. 5. Finally came to a number on the number of street lights taking into account that some places will have 2 lamps on a single post while others will have just 1. 6. After that estimated the product + set-up cost for each street light.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview?

7. Estimated the running charges (maintenance and electricity). Electricity charges would depend on the number of operation hours and watt-rating of the lamp. Maintenance charges and profit margin was estimated. 8. In the end a total estimate of profits was calculated. Though I was called for the 2nd interview, I think I didn’t do well in the Guesstimation case (1st round) itself. The 2nd interview was good but I guess they were calling people for the 3rd interview based on both the interviews combined. Prepare for cases and Guesstimation well.

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Interview Experience 2 Company

Accenture Business Consulting

Name:

Binay Jaiswal

Name of interviewer and designation

4 rounds were held. I don’t remember the specific names of all the people. The first round was taken by Gautam and third round was taken by one of the alum.

Round (First/Second/third)

1st and 2nd round were case interviews. Third was a work experience specific interview and last was the HR round.

Brief Profile : ( Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc. )

B.Tech in IT from NIT Durgapur

Personal interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

Round 1:

45 months of work experience: 37 months in IBM and 8 months in TCS as SAP ABAP Technical Consultant.

The first questioned asked was the number of shortlist on day 0 and the interviewer jumped straight into a slide in his laptop. Basically the slide had plenty of line diagrams. I had no clue what it was about. As we started interacting, I figured out the line diagrams showed number of units sold in a span of 8-9 months. I was asked to analyse the line diagrams. On further interaction and based on my answers, I came to know the diagrams had the data about the number of units sold by various companies and total number of units sold in each month. The figures didn’t show any consistent pattern and I was asked to figure out why was it so. Basically only thing I could figure out was the sales showed cyclical nature and the number showed a positive trend just before Oct-Nov and a dropping trend in Jan-Mar. There was a clear market leader but the sales were decreasing in latest months while there was a fierce competition for the second and the third slot. A detailed discussion took place about who can take the second place and why. Then he asked some FRA question related to the graphs. The discussion boiled down to FIFO/LIFO method and he gave some data for a particular company and I was asked to show the impact of LIFO or FIFO on Profit, COGS, Taxes, and retained earnings.

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After that he asked a short case on airline industry and it didn’t revolved around rising oil prices (Aberration of current Market condition). According to the case, one courier company increased the freight charges though there was a decrease in oil prices. My answers revolved around higher interest rates and depreciation which decreased the operating profit of the courier company. But he was looking for something else and the case was supposed to be analysed from demand-supply side (Microeconomics!!!!). With his input we concluded that the business model of freight industry was changing. Companies who used to transport by rail/road now started using Air Freight which increased the demand suddenly and hence the price. Further because of capacity constraint, the Air Freight company bought few new aircrafts and hence wanted to break even early to make the most of current market. Note: The interview went Ok types. Interviewer expectation was much more and I think I could not handle the Airline case upto his expectation. He wished me good luck for the next round. Round 2: I came to know that they have scheduled my first round again as they were expecting more. The interview started with “How did the first round went”? I said “It was decent but I should have done better”. He asked “would have or should have”? I said “Should have”. “What went wrong” was his instant question. I gave my analysis and he looked satisfied by my analysis (He displayed like that). I was told that this round will have 2 parts: (i) Case (discussed below) and (ii) some general questions As he was very satisfied with the case analysis, the second part of interview was not much of pain. It was more of a general discussion. As I had work ex in IT industry, I was asked how will I handle management consulting as its very different from IT consulting and required very competent skills. I was also asked about the highest level of client interaction and how I managed them. He specifically asked for one of the CV point which was about interacting with the program director of the US based client and how I managed to convinced him to increase the scope of the development, issues faced and what it took to convince him to approve the increase in man hours effort from 400 to 950.

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Few questions about my strengths and how I will handle the clients specifically when I am interacting with CXO level people followed. I was also asked why consulting and whether I would be comfortable travelling after marriage. Overall I had a very good interview.

Round 3 This round was taken by one of our alums. I was asked if I am nervous or excited. I said both and was asked to explain why so. (Good Ice Breaking 5 minutes). I was again asked the number of process I am running for (Other Shortlists!!!). A casual discussion followed like it must be tough running for different process in different parts of the campus. He was constantly picking up points from my CV and it was more or less work experience related interview. Questions like my greatest failure in life so far and my learning from it, why Accenture business consulting, strengths of Accenture etc. I was asked to compare between Accenture and (i) IBM (ii) Deloitte (iii) McKinsey and few other consulting companies. Why consulting figured again and my fit as a consultant was asked. I was also asked about my CGPA and relative position amongst PGP1 students. Questions like do you face difficulty studying after 45 months of work ex and how I adjusted, how I manage pressure here etc. followed. I asked three questions to him and a detailed discussion took place. Round 4 It was HR round which lasted for around 10 minutes. Questions like Why ABC, Consulting, my strengths, best and worst feedback received in my previous work ex were asked. I was asked about my expectation from ABC. Brief discussion about my POR and CGPA followed. Narration of the case Problem statement: interview (Please be as The case was about decreasing sales of Nano in Kolkata and descriptive as possible) adjoining areas. Case analysis: Initially we discussed if it was a normal trend in other parts of India or not. If there was any price increased by Nano or any changes with the design which might not have gone well with the consumers. We also spoke about impact of negative The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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publicity like engine failure and instances of fire breaking out in Nano. Marketing strategies of handling negative publicity was also discussed. But the maximum discussion happened around 2 points: 1) As Nano was mainly for people with 2 wheelers, I wanted to understand where the real issue was. Whether consumers are moving to 2.5-3 lakhs priced car like Alto and Zen (few others also) or people with 2 wheelers were not able to buy Nano. I asked about any trend whether any data regarding people willingness to buy Nano (Through Test Drives taken, visits to showrooms etc.) but not actually buying was there or not. After few minute of discussion, I was told that the main issue was people with 2 wheelers are not buying Nano. So the main issue was affordability. I recommended zero % interest rate for EMI for first 2 years of purchase and very minimal ROI after that. We also discussed about the bank Nano should partner with and then he filtered the question to 1 bank only. I opted for SBI as it has branches in adjoining remote areas of Kolkata and people there have higher trust in Govt. banks. 2) We also spoke about the Demand-Supply constraint. If there was any channel conflict. Brief interaction revealed that Nano had only 7 distributors in that part of region and this was a major problem and it should increase by 3-4. What do you think went right in this interview?

My case performance in the second round went pretty well. The interviewer complimented me about the analysis (though it may not look that impressive above). The structure and thorough conversation helped me sail through and I was told that I kept the interviewer interested and hooked throughout the case solving phase. After my third round I was also appreciated about my prior work experience and I was told “You had a quality work experience and I appreciate your practical approach of business understanding”.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

My first round didn’t go that well particularly the Airline question. I should have interacted more to understand various perspectives rather than being biased with current

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market situation (Like higher oil price and interest rates which was not applicable here) Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

1) Stay Cool because it will help you to interact freely and focus on various perspectives which is very important in the case 2) Display a lot of enthusiasm and don’t shy away from talking. Remember Consultant need to do a lot of talking. Just ensure you talk sense on that day. 3) Practise some cases before interviews. 4) Never think that you are out of race. Don’t judge yourself in the interview. Interviewer might give you chance to bounce back. 5) Higher Work Ex people particularly IT background can’ t get day zero shortlist is a myth

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Interview Experience 3 Company

Accenture Business Consulting

Name:

Mahesh

Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc. ) Personal interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)

NA First (of 3 rounds) Bpharm Work experience of 2 years 1. Tell me something about yourself? 2. Asked me about my role at previous workplace? 3. Why consulting? 4. How did you know Accenture? HR related questions were asked in the subsequent rounds

Narration of the case Problem statement: interview (Please be as A multination firm in oil and gas segment is looking at descriptive as possible) setting up a green field plant by collaborating with ONGC India. You being one of the directors chosen to work for this partnership what are the most important factors you would look at? Case analysis: I divided the decisions into HR , operations , finance and marketing related decisions. Since the venture was a new one I focussed on the organizational chart development and the role of director in selecting the right people for higher and middle management roles. I also talked about getting policies with regard to skill set of workers, policy on unions being in place. Talked about setting up a township and hiring a contractor for it as the location is likely to be in a remote area. Also focussed on retaining and hiring of talent. Marketing function decisions included pricing of product (based on cost estimates of sales force) and sales force for carrying out B2B activities. Discussion on operations was the most important one in this case. I talked about the role of The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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director in hiring a contractor and overlooking the subcontractors used. I also talked about the timelines of the project and suggested a milestone based approach with penalties to ensure that the work gets done. In addition to contract related equipment i focused on the equipment specification to match to the capacity expectations. Aggregate planning with scaling up was also suggested to make the factory operational and to sort out initial issues. I focused on the supply chain related issues to transport the end product to customers.(Suggested pipeline) Talked about the role of cost accountant in determining the price of the end product and also focussed on selecting an external auditor to oversee the accounting standards. Structure: Divided the case as per verticals in an organization

A guestimate on the number of streetlights in Lucknow was asked (He asked me to be very short in description and wanted me to use numbers at every step) I approached this by assuming Lucknow to be close to a rectangle in shape the dimensions being 20 x 15 Km. Then i assumed the main streets to be passing though lines joining the mid points. I assumed that these roads to be two laned and had the highest density of lights. The next part was about the streets branching out of these streets and i assumed lower density of lights here. Thus i got a series and added them up to get the number of lights. Other questions Guesstimate the number of travellers to Antartica Guesstimate the number of cab drivers in Dehli What do you think went right in this interview?

Got the structure. I was able to use the ques from the interviewer and could this helped in approaching the case better. After the discussion gave 3 points on which a director needs to focus

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

Should have organized the points in each vertical in order of their importance.

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Any tips for future Ask for clarifications to the interview if needed. Practice a batches on the basis of lot of cases with your peers. your experience Be clear about ‘Why ABC’?

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Boston Consulting Group

Interview Experience 4 Company

The Boston Consulting Group

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Name:

Abhir Bhomavat

Name of interviewer Principal and designation Round

First

Brief Profile :

BITS-Pilani Goa Campus (8.73 – Electronics and Instrumentation, Fresher with an internship at J.P. Morgan Investment Banking) Was a convener on the council during my under graduation. Institute rank 2nd at IIM-L in the first term with a GPA of 9.4

Personal interview questions

Narration of the case interview

1. Are you clear about your decision between IB and Consulting? 2. Why consulting 3. Why BCG? I had a well prepared answer for all these questions Problem statement: The client is a company that manufactures an interactive educational tool. It is basically something as big as a blackboard fitted in the classroom and has touch screen interactivity. What do you think is the scope of this product and what are the other things that the company can do in the field of education to increase its revenues (to 1000 Cr)? Case analysis: I first tried to understand the product properly. Q. Does the company make any other products? Ans: No Q. What is this particular product used for majorly? To teach what? Ans: English language I was trying to build a structure at this point when he interrupted me by asking me if I had understood the question. I felt he was trying to put a bit of stress. He then asked me to explore what all are the options that an educational tech company in India could explore.

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Q. Are we looking at only classroom services or online as well? Ans: Upto you what you want to look at I built a structure which split into Classroom learning and online learning. Then further split classroom learning into providing education material and products (like the one the client makes). In online I split it into videos and material. He was happy with this basic structure. He then asked me that the client was focusing on language needs of people. So he asked me to estimate the demand of the English language learners. He then asked me to estimate how many such are those who already have a source to learn and how many are wanting to but do not have a source and what should I target? I started with the metro population in India. Roughly 14mX4 = 56m. Then divided it by the age group. I dint plug in any figures. I just made the initial tree. I told him that I would plug in the figures later. Age group of 16 and less who are going to schools. He then asked me why I have not considered adults who want to learn English. Then I considered that as well. He then asked me why I have not taken into consideration those who do not know that they want to learn English. I didn’t understand what he meant, so I asked him to explain. He told me that a domestic maid is latent demand because she doesn’t know that she want to learn English (got kind of philosophical at this point) So he asked me to factor that in as well. He asked me how we can make them use an online medium when they do not have basic education in the first place. Summary: He helped me a lot with the case. Infact he gave me the 2 most important points of adult demand and latent demand. Overall I found the case to be very tough and ambiguous. He kept on asking me if I understood the question which made me lose confidence many times. What do you think went right in this interview?

I was passionate about the education industry like I had mentioned. I also was not put down by his comments of “have you understood my question”. He didn’t give me much time

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to think, but I still managed to build a structure with all the ambiguity in the problem. I feel he was judging the different ways in which I could think since it was a pretty open ended and highly unstructured case to start with. What do you think went wrong in this interview?

At first I didn’t understand why he was focusing on the demand of English language. I should have taken into consideration of adults as well. I was looking at only school children. I was very nervous since it was my first interview of the day and was also the very first for BCG in the morning. The interview was shorter than I anticipated.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Please make sure of what you say in the initial HR questions. I had mentioned that I liked teaching. That was the reason why picked out this case for me. So please make sure you can show the passion for a particular interest that you have mentioned. Be calm during the case. He will help you out for sure. It is important to be persistent and keep going at the problem.

Round Personal interview questions

Narration of the case interview

Second 1. Are you convinced about consulting vs. IB? 2. Why do you want to do consulting and not IB? 3. Tell me something different/interesting about yourself. 4. Have you worked on live projects? If so tell me one in which you used a completely different approach. Ans: I spoke about a project that I had done during an intern at a CSIR lab after my 2nd year of engg. It was highly technical and involved FEM in the field of Biophysics. He asked me what I did differently. I explained it to him in layman terms. He was very impressed with my answer. Problem statement: A financial services company (NBFC) that has entered India few years ago wants to know whether it should continue in India or not? Case analysis: Q. I asked him the relative position of the business viz-a-viz its peers. Ans: It is not very high. Somewhere around 6th. Q. What are the different businesses?

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Ans: Mutual funds – debt and equity, Asset management, etc. Equity fund is not performing as well as its competitors. Debt is on par Q. What is its target market? Ans: HNIs with income of INR 5Cr + I had made a brief structure earlier in which I had said that I would like to explore 3 things. The historical performance of the fund, Its competition, and the third thing was future growth in India. He gave me some details on the historic performance and all. He also told me about the competition. I was then asked to make a decision of whether to continue in India. I told him based on the future growth story they should remain in India. He wanted me to ask the growth rate of HNIs in India. He then gave me those figures. Q: He then asked me what all problems they could face. Ans: Very volatile equity markets, major source of HNI money is black so we can’t capture the entire growth in HNI. Competition could outdo us. If interest rates fall, investors would want to invest abroad. I gave a few more options that I can’t recall right now. Summary:

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience Round Personal interview questions

The case was very straight forward. Basic questions needed to be asked. I had expressed an interest in finance so I was given this case. He was very impressed with my HR questions. That gave me major confidence. The case was simple and need a proper structure initially which I provided. He was impressed with the option generation as well. I forgot to ask him the growth rate of our target market (HNIs). Prepare HR answers really well. My case was something which anybody would have cracked but the differentiating part was the HR answers. Third 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Why does consulting excite you?

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Narration of the case interview

Was well prepared for these. I had 2 cases in this interview. 1st case: Problem Statement: A taxi driver (black and yellow taxi) asked me if he should move to a radio cab in Delhi. Analysis: I was a simple case of cost-benefit. Split into revenues and cost. Cost split into fixed (maintenance and insurance) and variable (fuel) I asked him the km each car run in a day, the mileage, the cost per liter of diesel. Charge/km. Made the comparison and gave him the answer. He asked me what else I should consider. I told him that the taxi driver had more freedom owning his own cab. But in the radio cab he won’t have to worry about depreciation of the vehicle. I also told him that owning his taxi may be a matter of prestige for the driver. 2nd Case: Should a PE fund buyout Infosys? Case analysis: Q. I asked him what the private equity fund was looking at : Stake purchase or complete buyout? Ans. Complete buyout He asked me how a PE can gain out of buying Infosys. I told him that the PE would have board members and would provide guidance and expertise along with the funding support. Q. How long is the PE looking to invest in Infy? Ans. 5 years Q. what is rate of return that infy will give in 5 years Ans: 20%

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At this point he asked me will the PE be able to increase the profits of infy? I told him that we could better management and expertise from the PE end. He said that the PE would not be able to manage Infosys better that what it already was. Q. Will the PE be able to bring in new outside business? Ans: no Q. Will the PE be able to generate more than the expected 20% revenue for Infy? Ans. No At this point he told me think of it from an IB perspective. He told me that if infy can be bought for say Rs 100 and would be worth Rs 120 after 5 years, it’s not a big deal. The PE would not be interested in something like this. So why would a PE look to invest? I luckily had some prior knowledge of Infy (0 debt on its balance sheet and a hell lot of cash) So I told him that the entire source of funds was only equity. So the PE could buy the equity and then pay off dividends to it (since INFY was cash rich) or else raise debt for leverage. Q. Will the growth remain 20% even if I raise debt? Ans: yes So I told him that if INFY raises debt of Rs 100, Firm value would be roughly Rs 200 and growth would be 20% -> Rs 240. Therefore the PE would make 40 on its initial Rs 100 -> 40%. He was looking for a solution like: Buy it for Rs 100. Replace Rs 50 of equity by raising debt. And then sell it for Rs120 5 years later. So effective gain would be Rs 20 on Rs 50 which is still 40% Q. What is this mechanism called? Ans. Leveraging He spoke a bit about LBOs then. What do you think went right in this interview?

The extra information I had on Infosys was something he was very impressed with. He liked the fact that I was persistent in the PE case. I was thinking of different options. He led me to a solution.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

I didn’t get the hint of him leading me to an LBO based solution even though I knew what an LBO was. Be confident and be persistent. Keep on going at the case even if you are stuck

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Interview Experience 5 Company Name: Name of interviewer and designation Round Brief Profile : Personal interview questions Narration of the case interview

The Boston Consulting Group Arjun Bhaduri Arvind Pandey, Partner and Director First B.Sc (Economics Honors) from St. Xavier’s College No work experience 1. Why should BCG select you? This was a pressure question because everything I said seemed to displease him. I just tried to match my personality with BCG and that seemed to work for me. Problem statement: A cement manufacturer based out of East India has been seeing his prices in east India dip heavily in the past few months. Despite being the market leader, he seems to be unable to arrest the fall in prices. The aim as a consultant lies to raise the prices by 10% and find a strategy to make sure the prices do not fall so easily again. Case analysis: This was a very complex case with multiple problems and solutions with each having a different set of pros and cons. He wanted me to see the case from a simple demand and supply point of view. Structure: The supply was overshooting demand in the market as a result of the actions of competitors. So the issue was also to do with the distributors in the middle and how brand consciousness would come into the scene. The structure could be simplified to a 2*2 matrix with price elasticity of demand and brand consciousness on the axes. The issue could be then simplified on the basis of the quadrant in focus. Summary: Overall, the issue was embedded in being able to use game theory with the distributor and play prices up and down at regular intervals. Another strategy was to enter into forward contracts.

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What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Round

Calmness and common sense was the key.

Personal interview questions

1. General conversation for about 5 minutes? The interviewer was very calm and reassuring and that helped me build the conversation.

Narration of the case interview

Problem statement:

Was a little nervous at the beginning of the interviewing as a result of the complexity of the case. Second

A local taxi driver in Delhi wants to explore the possibility of signing a contract with a radio taxi service. Help him with his dilemma Case analysis: This was a case that really tested your ability to think far and wide because the math was simple but the underlying logic could have been missed very easily Structure: Used a simple revenue-cost structure for the pre and post radio taxi phase. Then tried to see if any of the key variables could be modified to come up with a different result. Summary: The case had two parts- one was the initial decision and the decision after changing a key variable. What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Round

Thought simple and picked up the cues very well. Failed to see the obvious solution the first time and needed a little pushing in the right direction. Third

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Personal interview questions

Narration of the case interview

1. Asked my questions about my tastes in food? 2. General discussion on football and tennis and we spoke about our favorite stars from each of them. More than anything else, this was an amazing conversation where I could speak without any fears and inhibitions. Problem statement: A life insurance company in Sri Lanka is losing out on market share. Where does the problem lie? Case analysis: The case was a test of structure to see if you could create one with all the levers enlisted. Structure: The market share could be seen as a function of number of policies sold and the revenue per policy. The discussion would then carry on the aspect of number of policies. The number of policies itself would be a function of a number of factors, out of which one of them was creating an issue. Summary: The toxic area was something to do with the insurance policy salesman and the entire structure had to be panned out so as to get to that

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Was highly energetic and logical in my approach. I rushed through the case in parts. Be calm, logical and energetic. That is all you need to impress the interviewer.

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Interview Experience 6 Company Name: Name of interviewer and designation Round Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc. ) Personal interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them) Narration of the case interview

The Boston Consulting Group Aman Bhatnagar Pranay Mehrotra, Partner & Director First IIT Delhi Electrical Engineering (B. Tech) Entrepreneur, 17 months 1. Started with discussion about Tintin, Herge, literary quizzing, went on to about yourself, gave his introduction and a chocolate, clarified on why it took so long to get to see me 2. Interested with Manchester United, talked about playing vs. watching football vs. gaming for a bit Problem statement: Client is a life insurance agency in Sri Lanka facing declining market share Case analysis: Market leader, no.2 and no. 3 growing in dominance, Market growing, they didn’t release a particular policy, don’t give enough incentives to their agents which other firms are capitalizing on, Structure: Broke it down into their business structure, understood how they operate, tried to find loopholes in each step Summary:

What do you think went right in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience Round

Was asked to stop after explaining the approach and asking two or three questions, BCG vs McKinsey took over, spirited discussion regarding pros, cons and discussion I had with Gautam Kumra at McK, after debates and stressing the people point, we called it a day. Confidence, at ease, conversational tone and mode Relating with the interviewer, leading the interview Take hints, explain approach. Second

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Name of interviewer and designation Personal interview questions Narration of the case interview

Arvind Pandey, Partner Talked about himself, food, asked about experience till now, outlined that we’ll start with a case and then move on to any doubts I have about BCG Problem statement: Leading cement manufacturer is facing declining profits; prices have halved in the last few months and facing decreasing prices further as well. Suggest emergency measures for next few weeks. Case analysis: Spoke about the business, market, the competition and how everyone else was coping. Talked about how the business worked; distribution and sales network, retailers and incentives and breakup in terms of branded, unbranded cement. Twist in the case, BCG says increase prices; profits fall by 12% more and take a hit. Now what? Structure: Value chain + market scenario, focused on issues like rising costs, raw material sourcing, manufacturing difficulties, expansion possibilities but were discounted. Went on to retailers and distribution and his eyes lit up, literally. Focused on region wise distribution, why there were discrepancies in individual dealers selling different quantities given same consumption patterns, focused on price prediction patterns and inventory holding practices by different retailers. Summary: Was stopped after this, talked about BCG, consulting as a career and how the partner found his calling, how BCG contributes in making real change in the world

What do you think went right in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Confidence, at ease, conversational tone and mode Relating with the interviewer, leading the interview I was informed later it was a stress interview. Since I got offers from both firms, seems best to be clear, calm and logical on the day and not let anything bog you down, least of all, the pressure and reputation.

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Interview Experience 7 Company Name: Name of interviewer and designation Round Brief Profile : Personal interview questions

Narration of the case interview

The Boston Consulting Group Mustafa Rangwala All interviewers were with partners First Did B.Tech in Electronics Engineering from VJTI. Worked in JP Morgan for 21 months Asked me why I wanted to join Consulting and not stay in finance as my CV was fin-oriented. Also asked I whether I would join McKinsey or BCG (Be ready with the answer to the last question as it is going to be asked). Problem statement: The client is a financial services company. It has started a wealth management business five years earlier. The business is not performing nicely. Should the company keep on making on investments in this or exit. Structure:

What do you think went right in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

First asked about the industry. The industry was growing but the company was losing share. This meant that the problem was with the company. Structured to find about the revenue and cost structures of the industry and the firm in particular. Tried to gather as much background information on this as possible. Talked about training the employees, any new adverse regulations, competitor offerings, etc. In short covered a lot of different angles. Finally he asked me to give 10 recommendations to solve the problem. This was difficult as we had barely discussed the case for 10 minutes. Took 5 minutes to write down my suggestions. Structured my answer in three areas: Customers, employees and business improvement. Gave 3-4 suggestions in each bucket. I was able to give 10 recommendations which required a lot of idea generation Idea generation requires a lot of practice. Make sure you do abstract cases which involve idea generation. Also have questions for the interviewer ready for at least 3 rounds of the process.

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Interview Experience 8 Company

The Boston Consulting Group

Name:

Vinay Doshi

Round

First

Brief Profile :

UG : Shri Ram College Of Commerce (2011) Stream: Economics Work-ex: 0 months

Personal interview questions

Just a little chat about where you’re from, what you like doing and stuff. Of course, it began with the quintessential -“Why don't you tell me something about yourself?” Well, the simple approach I took to answering this question each time was to link the major points on my cv and answer “Why you for BCG?” I do not think speaking about only one particular instance or event is a very good idea, unless of course, the interviewer himself/herself probes the area

Narration of the case interview

Problem statement: About a potato chip manufacturing company

What do you think went Well I didn’t really end up “cracking the case” as well i could right in this interview? have. That was really a big negative I thought. But i hindsight, the fact that i got an offer only affirm that there is no such thing as “cracking the case”- they only judge your approach to problem solving, and as you very well know there is no one correct solution What do you think went I really made a connect with the interviewer I felt. Let him do wrong in this interview? more of the talking bit as i sat listening. It really helps, because in the end, the interviewer will inevitably end up dropping those crucial hints that shall help you reach a conclusion. Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

You really need to be calm and only then will the analytical skills and creativity really show. But do not worry - the interviewer shall go out of his/her way to make you feel so.

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Just be you and try to establish connecting with the interviewer. A smiling face comes in handy too. Also, there is a lot of buildup on campus to the start of day zero- just remain calm during that time. It’s easy to feel over pressurized, especially with all the short-lists coming in, but just relax. It’s going to be fine. Round

Second

Personal interview questions

1. Although the partner did not ask me any questions specifically, I started talking to him about his day, job and used this as an opportunity to highlight the points in my work experience which I wanted to share (remember they will not always ask you everything and do ensure that you connect it wherever possible)

Narration of the case interview

Problem statement: The client is a large cement company with the highest market share. The second close player is cutting prices. To match the prices the client has also reduced its prices and is facing declining profits. The client has given us 3 weeks to solve the problem. Structure: I asked him about the dynamics of the industry. He explained that there is not much difference between the products as well as the cost structures of the company. This meant that even the competitor is losing money by the price war. I suggested 2 alternatives to solve this: first involved analysing the cost structure and trying to reduce costs. But the interviewer told me that the client has used all the cost efficiencies possible (this indicates that the interviewer does not want me to go deeper). Second option that I suggested involved was the Game Theory approach. This involves indicating to the competitor that we will not reduce our prices even if he does so. This I suggested could be done by issuing some way of communication to the competitor. But he said that the competitor is not willing to talk.

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I could not think of what could be done so he suggested that the client should increase the prices. This will show to the competitor that the client is serious. Then the interviewer said that after one week, the sales of the client had declined drastically and the competitor had not reduced its prices. This created a problem of inventory. To solve this data was collected geographically and analyzed. It was found that some dealers had reduced the stocks of the clients cement. The clients did this as they expected the price increase to be temporary and thus wanted to postpone the purchase. I suggested increasing the prices again. This will signal to the dealers that the price increase is not temporary. Finally he asked me to give some suggestions about the same. I suggested that the dealers should be given discounts based on the average volumes they generate every week and month. This will help in inventory planning. Secondly whenever the price is increased they should be increased all at once and any decrease should be spread over a larger period. This will not allow competitors and dealers to pre-empt the client. What do you think went I was able to get the fact that the problem related to Game right in this interview? Theory. What do you think went The case had only one solution but I could not exactly pinpoint wrong in this interview? that Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Even though the ideas might sound outlandish, get them across, they will give you the benefit of thinking out of the box. Try to involve the interviewer in the case as much as possible, if he is interested he will point you out more and more in the right direction.

Round

Third

Personal interview questions

Started directly with the case. At the end of the case asked me about LBO (Leveraged buyout) and asked me to give an example in the Indian markets

Narration of the case interview

Problem statement:

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I was travelling in a taxi when the driver asked me about switching his car and joining the radio cab service such as Meru. What is your advice? Structure: I said that we will compare the profits of the two methods and make our decisions based on that. I asked about the revenue and costs of the two and calculated the profit. I proved that joining the radio cab was better. But the interviewer told me that was the wrong answer. He asked me to go back. I took the current taxi and approached the different line items one by one. I suggested that if the driver installed an AC he will be able to charge more. But the interviewer asked me to suggest something else. If the engine of the cab (which was currently diesel) could be replaced by CNG (the radio cab used CNG) the fuel cost reduced drastically making the current cab more profitable. I showed him the calculations. What do you think went I was able to get to the required answer. right in this interview? What do you think went He expected me to get to the answer much quicker. wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Try to be receptive to the hints given by the interviewer in the process. They are extremely important to get to the solution quickly.

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KPMG

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Interview Experience 9 Company Name: Round Brief Profile : Personal interview questions

Narration of the case interview

KPMG Abhishek Mani Tripathi 3 rounds of case interviews NIT Trichy, ECE, 2years Analog Devices 1. Why Consulting? 2. Why KPMG? What are your expectations from the internship programme? 3. What would you do for conflict resolution 4. Questions for the interviewer Problem statement: Round 1: A company which has a market share of 60% saw reduction in its revenue for last 3 years due to intense price competition. Competitors are reducing prices and the company is not able to compete since cost of production is higher than prices quoted by competitors. Machinery employed for production is old and labor costs have been rising over years. Customers have been very loyal to the product. Round 2: A multinational insurance company wants to enter into Indian market. They offer life insurance, general insurance and fire and damage insurance. Company has been offering insurance in its parent country through online mode. Round 3: A company wants to set up an automobile manufacturing unit in India. Do a cost-benefit analysis for the company. I was not allowed to ask questions in this round. I tried to analyse this case taking into account factors like location, government regulations, market size, availability of labour, transportation etc. ( Time limit : 3 minutes ) Case analysis: First case : I proposed that since machinery has not been replaced since years, quality of products has degraded. Secondly, competitors have reduced their prices by outsourcing it to countries like China.

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Second case :

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Analyse it by separating life insurance, general insurance and fire and damage insurance. Give inputs on mode of delivery (online mode is not very feasible in Indian scenario). Also, take into account role of brokers and agents in case of fire and damage insurance. I was able to provide solutions to first 2 cases and the interviewers looked satisfied but couldn’t do well in third case Was not able to provide a good solution to third case First of all read complete case carefully. Ask questions and try to get as much information as possible. Communicate your answers to interviewers and keep them involved.

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Interview Experience 10 Company Name: Round Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc. ) Personal interview questions

Narration of the case interview

KPMG Rashik Gupta There were 4 rounds and each round followed a similar pattern – HR questions followed by a case BITS-Pilani, Chemical Engineering, 8 months at ZS Associates 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Do you know about the work that KPMG does 3. Experience at IIM Lucknow 4. Describe the project that you did at ZS Associates – This question was followed by many questions about my project 5. Short-term and long-term goals 6. Personal goals in life The only thing they were looking was how you structure your analysis and your line of thinking. They were not looking for any detailed analysis and in all the cases I was stopped after I had discussed my overall approach. Case 1: Problem statement: Samsung has come up to you with a business proposition i.e. they want to start an insurance company for electronic goods. How will you help them? Case Analysis: The only thing they were looking was how you structure your analysis and your line of thinking. I started with asking questions about the new business model to extract some information like target customers,, how is the value proposition different from a warranty, how much can Samsung expect to charge its customers for insurance. My first step was to analyze the business model and establish the financial feasibility. This was followed by target customers – who are the target customers and are they sufficient to justify investment and why will they be interested in our product. Third step was to deal with operational issues of providing this product. Case 2: Problem statement:

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A foreign bank wants to open its branch in India. They have hired you as a consultant. How will you approach this? Case Analysis: My first step was to inquire about the bank. So I asked them about their current scale of operations, countries where they are operating, their market share and reputation among clients. I then explored what are the different areas of banking where the bank can start its operations and based on the answers to above questions, narrowed down on 1 area. Next step was to deal with operational issues, how they will start operations. I focused on 2 questions in this: 1. Who will be the customers immediately after starting? 2. How will be getting those customers and build trustworthy relationship with them? After an approach was finalized to start operations, I also briefly discussed how they will proceed in short term to expand their business in India. Case 3: Problem statement: You want to open a petrol pump. Proceed. Case Analysis: In this case, my questions were not answered and I was told that it is your business, make necessary assumptions. So I took up 3-4 options like highways, a busy market in a city and similar other options. Then I followed a guesstimate approach for calculating the demand in these locations. Comparison of demand or revenues with investment gave me the best possible option for the petrol pump. Case 4: Here they followed a slightly different approach. Before the case, I was told that no questions will be allowed. I have to make necessary assumptions by myself and I have 5 minutes to present my ideas and they won’t allow me to complete if I am not done in 5 minutes. Problem statement:

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A US car manufacturer wants to setup a plant in India. You are hired as a consultant. Help them. Case Analysis: I started with stating my assumptions to make sure that all of us are working in the same framework. My assumptions were: 1. They already export their cars to India: This helped me to simplify my case as now I am aware of my target customers and what is my position in the market. Also I know how my product is viewed in Indian market. 2. It is amongst the biggest car manufacturers of US: This simplified the problem of establishing trust among customers as the company was a big brand name and enjoyed a good position in the market. So I started with the reasons of investing in India. Possible reason can be increase in demand and lost sales because imports are not able to meet demand or increase in competition and therefore for reducing costs, I have to operate in India rather than import my cars. I stated all the possible reasons and assumed one reason to be the valid one for further analysis. Let’s say the reason is increase in competition. So we have decided that the motive of investing in India is to reduce costs. Now next step was to decide on a location that will help me in this regard. So I looked at 2 possibilities for this. 1. My customers are uniformly spread throughout India. In this case, my only concern about the location will be investment costs i.e. cost of land, cost of setting up a plant etc. and the tax rebate that I will get from state government. 2. I have most of my customers located in a particular area. In this case, I must strike a balance between above mentioned investment costs and my logistics costs i.e. plant must be located close to my biggest market. Since the reason for investing in India is increased competition, my last step was to analyze how I will use my cost savings to deal with competition. I analyzed pros and cons of different options mentioned below: 1. Increase my marketing budget to attract customers 2. Decrease prices by passing on the savings in manufacturing to customers The Consulting & Strategy Club, IIM Lucknow

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Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

3. A mix of both the strategies Case analysis is very important. Make sure that you prepare a structure and show them the structure of analysis before starting.

McKinsey & Co.

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Interview Experience 11 Company Name: Name of interviewer and designation Round Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Personal interview questions

Narration of the case interview What do you think went right in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience Round Name of interviewer and designation Personal interview questions

McKinsey & Co. Aman Bhatnagar Rajat Dhawan, Partner First IIT Delhi Electrical Engineering (B. Tech) Entrepreneur, 17 months 1. About yourself – one of my interests is TED talks, talked about the model of TED, how it works, qualities I talked about resonated with consulting, led the interview from there on, asked about mood on campus, preferred recruiter, dream jobs 2. Consulting fits, where do you see yourself in McKinsey, your career goals, 10-15 years down the line? 3. Talking about the AIR 147 in IIT-JEE, coaching institutes, and then questions to him Problem statement: NA – No case Confidence, at ease, conversational tone and mode Relating with the interviewer, leading the interview Relax. Be yourself. Talk like you would to a senior colleague at a swanky restaurant when it’s his treat. Second Gautam Kumra, Senior Partner 1. About yourself – about TED talks, structure of TED, about my venture, how it started up, how it evolved, current state, future plans 2. Told him about a question Rajat asked, discussed about that for a bit, and then he asked about other offers, shortlists, interest in finance etc. 3. Questions about BCG vs McKinsey, detailed discussion on Collaborative team spirit, Evaluation patterns, presence in almost all sectors where other firms are next to absent e.g. Healthcare, Impact in terms of setting up organizations like the ISB, PHFI, dealing in a scale which others could never hope to achieve, always being the innovators, the trailblazers as well as facts about compensation.

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Narration of the case interview What do you think went right in this interview?

Problem statement: NA – No case Confidence, at ease, conversational tone and mode Relating with the interviewer, leading the interview

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Interview Experience 12 Company Name: Name of interviewer and designation Round Brief Profile : Personal interview questions

Narration of the case interview

Mckinsey & Co Tejas Choudhari Mr. Sikka, Associate Partner 1st Round BTech(IT) from VJTI, Mumbai Fresher 1. Tell me about yourself. I had practiced this answer many times so was able to say it fluently and perfectly 2. Asked questions about my entrepreneurial venture and what was my role in it. Current situation of the venture and future prospects. General questions, nothing specific 3. Some questions on my cricket career during school and college Problem statement: As he was talking to me about cricket, he started talking about how we could estimate cricket ball sales in the country for one year. Basically, I was given a guesstimate first up. Case analysis:

What do you think went right in this interview?

First, I confirmed whether he was talking about leather cricket ball. Thereafter, I started talking about where a cricket ball will be used and who will buy a cricket ball. At each juncture, I kept on checking with Mr. Sikka so as I’m not deviating from the solution. Then I told him that I would estimate sales of cricket balls for Mumbai and then extrapolate it to the whole country. I calculated number of matches played in one day by estimating number of grounds in Mumbai (having played on most of the grounds, it was easy for me). Then I separated one day matches and 20-20 matches as one day match requires 2 balls and 20-20 requires 4 balls(As two 20-20 matches are possible on a single pitch in one day). Also, considering that each ground hosts practice session 2 times a day and this will also contribute towards the sales. Then he stopped me and said fine. He did not go into depth of the guesstimate as it could have got complicated with other parts of the country to be considered for contribution towards the sales of cricket balls. I was able to connect with the interviewer. I asked him questions on which we spoke for 15 minutes and he seemed interested.

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What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

No idea as such. I guess he needed something more from the guesstimate. More number crunching could have helped. Please practice your cases as well as guesstimates. Also, know your CV in and out. Always connect with the interviewer.

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Interview Experience 13 Company Name: Name of interviewer and designation Round

McKinsey & Co. Amit Deshpande Rajat Bhargava

Personal interview questions

We started the interview by talking about the video conferencing facilities in IIM L, since there was a VC setup in the interview room. We talked about it for a while and then we started the interview. He asked the most standard question: tell me something about yourself. I gave him a long and descriptive answer since he wasn’t engaging me much. We ended up talking about badminton since both of us were badminton players. Since I am passionate about badminton, he asked me to estimate the no. of badminton courts in India. I started off by dividing India into rural and urban areas, and confirmed with him that I can ignore the rural areas for this guesstimation. I divided the urban areas further into tier 1 and tier 2 cities, and started with Mumbai as an average for tier 1 cities. The rest of the case was pretty straightforward, since I took an average number of people per badminton court and multiplied it by the population. I took a percentage of the number in case of tier 2 cities to arrive at the total number. Structure was good. I clarified key assumptions with the interviewer before proceeding.

Narration of the case interview

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience Round Name of interviewer and designation Personal interview questions

First

I overestimated the total number the first time, but corrected the number after a reality check. Draw out an MECE structure before starting analysis of the case. Reality checks are essential. Second Amit Kheda The interviewer was extremely informal. He was talking how weird the interview process is these days, as compared to the process in his days. We talked about how big the interview room was and how difficult it is to focus while sitting in a comfy couch! He didn’t ask me any personal questions since he said he had already been through my CV a million times.

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Narration of the case interview

The case was about a fertilizer manufacturing company based out of the US which was receiving complaints regarding its poor customer service. I started by asking details about the company, its operations, its customers, the competitors and the market in general (barriers, trends etc.). After the initial questions, I realized that the problem was in the supply of fertilizers to the customers (which were 5 major distributors across the US). So, I broke down the case into the supply value chain, i.e., raw materials (procurement and transportation), manufacturing process and inventory handling. This led me to the problem which was their inventory handling methods. Specifically, the demand estimation was way off; they estimated demand on an annual basis and it was a word-ofmouth contract with the customers. Besides, despite geographical variations within the US, the demand was estimated by one sales team centrally. This was the key issue and I got to it pretty quickly. The pace of the interview was very fast and the interviewer did not let me talk for long periods of time; basically he was testing me on my speed of option generation. I thought I did pretty well and suggested seasonal demand estimation based on geography and that the contracts with customers should be on paper.

What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Round

Good case overall. I got the structure right which helped me arrive at the solution fast.

Name of interviewer and designation Personal interview questions

Gautam Kumra

Narration of the case interview

Nothing really. However, I really had to think on my toes because the interviewer was constantly interrupting me and trying to disturb my thought process. Third

Very serious interview. He was completely straight-faced right from the word goes. Immediately asked me to tell him something about myself. After hearing me out, he asked me to tell him something about my work experience at the Bain Capability Centre. This part went pretty well. He didn’t really give me a case. He asked me which sector I followed in India, to which I replied the retail sector. We then entered into a discussion into the retail sector in India. I had very little sector knowledge and retail was my best bet. SO after giving him some facts that I had read, he asked me what a retail company think should about while entering the Indian market, i.e., the key success factors. I told him that we

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should consider the target customer segment, the product offerings, the retail format and the locations. The interview was pretty OK till this point. However, then he started getting into details. He asked me what a company should do to compete with the huge unorganized sector, and wasn’t convinced with my answer. I knew that I’d blown it. Finally he ended the case and asked me if I had any other shortlists before I left. What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

HR answers. Everything else. Sector knowledge let me down. Please prepare one sector thoroughly, not just facts, but to have a business opinion about it.

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Interview Experience 14 Company

McKinsey & Co

Name:

Srinath Nagarajan

Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc. )

Gautam Kumra, Partner

Personal interview questions

1. Tell me about yourself – Had a 1 minute intro prepared highlighting specific aspects about myself that I wanted to bring to his notice 2. Tell me what you did in CRISIL – I explained that I was engaged in assigning Credit Ratings to Corporates under Basel II Regulations 3. How would you go about Rating a Company, lets say Bharti Airtel Because it was Bharti Airtel I had to give an answer tailored to what the approach would be for a Telecom company would be. While answering I was conscious of 2 things – One, that I have a clear structure to my answers and Two, tried to keep it as simple and jargon free as possible. 3.1 (An Offshoot from something I had mentioned in the earlier answer) What are the ratios that you would look at? Here I mentioned the financial ratios that I would look at stating specifically why I would look at each ratio. He probed me on a few ratios here and there. The intention appeared to be more to check my articulation of a financial concept. Eg: What is a Current Ratio? I explained the formula. However I did not stop there. I went on to explain that it was used to assess the liquidity position of the company. Then I went on to explain to the logic behind the usage of the ratio – Simply put, it tells us if there is likely to be sufficient inflows of funds over the next one year to meet the maturing payment obligations. So a current ratio of less than one means the company has more to pay than what is coming in, a liquidity problem

First Chartered Accountant, BCom(Hons) from SRCC, Delhi University. Prior work ex as a Tax Consultant with Ernst & Young, a Visiting Faculty at St Josephs Colleger, Bangalore and then as a Ratings Analyst with CRISIL Ratings

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(Based on the approving nods that I was getting, I felt he liked those portions of my answer where I endeavored to de-jargonize or simplify complex concepts) 4. So Tell me, how would you increase the revenues of Bharti Airtel That was my case, it had begun. However, at that point I thought it was just an extension of my previous discussion and I started rambling. One sentence in, I realized that this was my case to solve and I wasn’t doing any of the things had rehearsed - probing questions/ 2 minute time out etc. In fact I did not even pick up the pen and the paper. I will discuss the case in the next session, but what I learnt is that the case can come at you un announced just be alert enough to grab it and not ramble on Narration of the case interview

Problem statement: How do you increase the revenues of Bharti Airtel Case analysis: Preliminary questions - We all know Bharti Airtel and the services it offered quite well – So there was no need to ask preliminary questions. Also, since I wasn’t aware that I was doing a case I did not have the opportunity to ask preliminary questions. Structure: The Structure that I used was fairly simple – Increase in Revenues can in Existing markets or through expansion in new markets. I explored the existing markets first. Here increase in revenues could occur through increased market penetration, increased usage of basic services among current users or increased usage of Value added services among existing customers. He asked me a couple of questions on how these things can be done and I gave him some off the cuff answers. For the New markets, I suggested that the company could look at inorganic expansion through acquisitions or through establishment of Greenfield operations in new markets with high market potential. The entire case was more like an informal chat. There were a few follow up questions on some of the options I had

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generated. The case did not last very long – about 10 minutes at the max. What do you think went right in this interview?

I thought the pre-case portion of my interview went of really well. I was on top of all the points I had mentioned in the CV, so any discussion on my past experiences especially work ex went well. The thing I felt worked for me the most was my ability to describe the entire rating process without using complex financial jargons and my ability to explain things from a layman’s perspective

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

I did not do the case analysis particularly well. I did not use the pen and paper. This meant that I was generating options thinking on my feet rather than providing carefully considered alternatives. This to a very large extent inhibited my creativity and did not give me enough opportunity to demonstrate my structuring skills.

Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Know your Resume well. At no point in the interview should you ramble on. All answers must be natural (ie, must not appear rehearsed), brief, structured and to the point. Retaining composure through the interview is critical. Mistakes may happen during the interview, but it is important to pick you up and keep at it. People rarely have perfect interviews where everything has gone right and interviewers don’t expect it either.

Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)

Second

Personal interview questions

5. Tell me about yourself – Had a 1 minute intro prepared highlighting specific aspects about myself that I wanted to bring to his notice 6. You have mentioned that you sing on a Band in Bangalore, what do you do here exactly? I explained the kind of music that we played and where we performed. I also explained the future plans that we have. I think he liked the fact that it was not something of the past and that I had a vision for the band in future also 7. How do you manage singing on the band, now that you are in IIM Lucknow

Chartered Accountant, Bcom (Hons) from SRCC, Delhi University. Prior work ex as a Tax Consultant with Ernst & Young, a Visiting Faculty at St Josephs Colleger, Bangalore and then as a Ratings Analyst with CRISIL Ratings

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I mentioned how we exchange tracks over the internet and how we perform and do studio recordings when I visit during the breaks 8. All right Srinath, let’s start with a case shall we? I nodded and we moved on to the case Narration of the case interview

Problem statement: I am the manufacturer of Tata Nano. While setting up the plant I expected to have sales of around 5 lac Nanos per annum, but now the number is way below that. Can you help me find out why Case analysis: Preliminary questions – Since it was Tata Nano, lot of the background questions were not required. I clarified whether the problem was a lack of bookings that they received. He agreed. Structure: The Structure that I used was not the best but it did get me to the problem. I started off by saying the lack of bookings could be on account of 3 reasons – One, a lack of awareness of the product among the target customers (Marketing problem), Two, Being aware of the product but not being able to place a booking (Distribution problem) or a Three, being aware of the product yet not interested in the product (I called this the product problem). He asked me to ignore the first 2 (he did not seem highly impressed) and explore the 3rd the product problem. Here I again broke it up in to 2 further branches – Problems that the Car has by itself (Internal factors) and problems in the external environment mainly competition, etc. I deep delved in to the Internal factors. Of the internal problems I mentioned, he agreed that the negative publicity from the steering wheel catching fire was an issue and comfort factor was another issue. As and when he acknowledged a problem, I made a separate note of it. Eventually when he asked me to explore the external factors, I used these points to do a quick summary of the key takeaways up to that point In the external problem, I divided it into competition from other cars and two wheelers. I asked a few questions here trying to pick up a clue or 2 of how to proceed from there but he just refused to shell out any information. At this point he also took out his Blackberry and acted uncooperative. I

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went on to analyze for myself that given that the price of the next cheapest car was over a lakh higher than this car the issue lay more with the 2 wheelers. I went on to list factors why people would prefer 2 wheelers to a Tata Nano. Of the factors I listed, he acknowledged that the high running costs and availability of easy financing options seemed like the distinguishing factors. He said I seemed to have arrived at the problem, He now asked me to tell me how he could provide financing options for the Nano. This I felt was like a guess estimate problem. I said I would work backward to solve the problem. This is how I solved it – I said the average Nano target customer would earn Rs 10000 per month (he had given me that number in an earlier discussion, he liked the fact that I had noted it down and was using it again) I said, given the average savings rate of the country is at 35%-40% (this is from the RBI website I think). That meant a saving of about Rs 4,000 per month. No one would be comfortable giving up their entire saving, so if we considered 50% of this, the customer will be willing to pay an EMI of 2000 per month. The company would want to complete the financing within a period of 4 years cause after that the car may be worthless in case of repossession. So this meant roughly a down payment of 20,000 followed by 4 years of EMI of 2000 pm approximately (I took his approval on all of the numbers I used, so he was comfortable with this number). Summary: I began to summarize all my recommendations to that point but he stopped me saying that I didn’t have to absolutely nail the case. What do you think went right in this interview?

My explanation of the stuff related to music on my CV really worked for me. I tend to get a little excited when I speak of my music and that must have come across as genuine to him. This I know because when I met him at the end of the day, he remembered my band’s name which showed that I had piqued his interest on that topic.

What do you think went wrong in this interview?

In my attempt to keep the structure exhaustive I dwelled in to a lot of aspects that may not have been required. He seemed unimpressed by my suggestions of it being a marketing/ distribution problem. Then again that may have been a put on reaction merely to unsettle me.

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Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

The most important thing to nail a consult interview is composure and confidence. With this in place, half the job is done. In all HR answers it is important to show genuineness. No answer must come across as fabricated.

Interview Experience 15 Company

McKinsey

Name:

Nirjhar Varshney

Name of interviewer and designation Round (First/Second/third) Brief Profile : (Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.) Personal interview questions

Anuj Agarwal, Engagement Manager

Narration of the case interview

Problem statement: A company bidding for contracts of Metro construction is stagnating in a industry with growth rate of 15%? Figure out a way for them to double their revenue in next 3 years?

First BTech, IIT delhi Fresher 1. Tell me something about yourself? 2. Sharing same IITD and IIML background he asked my observations about similarities and differences among 2 institutes?

Case analysis: Got the working model of the firm. The bidding model. Eventually came to revelation that they are not winning bids in last 2 years. Structure: Analyzed bidding structure ( COST + MARGIN). Broke into typical cost analysis and identified different cost heads. Required to provide innovative solutions for decreasing cost.

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What do you think went right in this interview? What do you think went wrong in this interview? Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience

Got the initial structure of industry right. Asked information about an unknown industry before starting to solve it. Unable to provide innovative ideas in end. Practice a lot of cases with diverse people to open your analytical approach.

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