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Our Consulting Career Community is up and running thanks to you, our amazing students. We kicked off the semester with a half day intensive case interview workshop led by a Bentley alumnus and PwC Strategy& Consultant. Our speaker provided an insider look at the consulting industry and shared insights about how each firm approaches strategy, financial and operations projects. He commented that the strategy world is changing from human effort to machine effort and how firms like IBM Watson Analytics will impact future business. For example, the entire capability of IBM can look at digital patient engagement from application to analytics. Imagine the potential of taking on app development, strategy, coding, and marketing to come up with full solution delivered with people from around the world. He then challenged students with a business scenario: “Apple calls and says we are launching a new apple watch. What market should we enter? What is market size? How much $ will it allow you to generate? You pick the product. How many will likely buy in first year, second year? How much $ will we make? Create 3 slides. You have one hour.” Undaunted, student teams developed powerful presentations and handled sophisticated Q&A with ease. Way to go, Falcons! In the end, the case method typically boils down to three types of cases: 1) market sizing, 2) profitability, and 3) market-entry. Attendees worked through each type of case and reported back that they now feel much more prepared to ace the case. To learn more about case interviews, I encourage you to check out http://casequestions.com/.
At our second Consulting Career Community, we were joined by a Vice President from EY Parthenon who shared his insights on the consulting career path from Associate to Partner and outlined typical engagements in his firm. He also talked about the differences and similarities between Advisory and Strategy roles. A typical day for an analyst on his team might involve conducting desk research, writing a survey, or building a database. Strong Excel, PowerPoint, Tableau and SPSS skills are a must. Our guest also emphasized the importance of strong writing and communication competencies, along with hunger, motivation, and willingness to learn in an apprenticeship model. What’s a candidate to do if the firm does not recruit on campus? Three words: network, network, network. We discussed creative strategies to balance persistence without being a pain. Looking for more tips on how to perform this delicate balance? Come see us in Career Services!
The next Consulting Career Community is with Huron Consulting on October 28th in LaCava 298A from 11:00-12:30. Register today on BentleyLink and hope to see you there!
