Consultant Interview Philosophy

Learn more about our interview philosophy, and what to expect during the interview process for a consultant position.

Monitor's consultant interviews are based on the premise that we can better ascertain skills, capabilities and 'fit' with our culture and values by asking candidates to demonstrate these things, rather than tell us about them. Many firms interview by asking candidates to answer questions about how they might do something; we ask them to do it. For example, rather than asking you how you would handle a difficult client situation, we ask you to demonstrate your interpersonal capabilities through a role play exercise. Rather than asking you to tell us how you would approach a business problem, we ask you to do analysis and make specific recommendations on a business problem in a case interview.

In general, we are looking for candidates to demonstrate three key characteristics through our interview process: capabilities, capacity to learn, and commitment.

Capabilities: Our interviewers test capabilities in both analytic and interpersonal domains to ascertain whether or not candidates meet the standards necessary to be effective consultants.
Capacity to Learn: While your existing capabilities are obviously important, your capacity to learn new skills quickly is equally, if not more, important. We look for evidence of a candidate's ability to take feedback, learn from it, and integrate it into their perspectives and solutions.
Commitment: Interest in and passion for the kind of business problems our clients face and the kind of opportunities and culture that define Monitor is something that we take very seriously. Consulting is a challenging and exciting field; we want to hire consultants who will thrive in this environment and contribute to our community.

Consultant Interview Process

While our interview philosophy and the characteristics we look for are consistent across our entire firm, our actual consultant interview process varies a little by region or even sometimes by candidate. Our goal is to get the best information on a candidate before making a decision, and different circumstances may dictate a different approach in order to achieve this goal. However, there are a number of core components of our process which you will likely encounter throughout your interviews. These core components and their objectives are:

Conversational Interview (also known as the “Fit Interview”)
Our process always includes one or more conversational interviews where we attempt to assess a candidate's fit with our values and community. Rather than focusing on what a candidate's resume indicates he or she has accomplished, our conversational interviews focus on understanding the candidate as a person by learning about his or her values, characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses.

Individual Business Case Interview
Our process will include one or more individual business case interviews which are designed to gain an understanding of a candidate's analytical capabilities. Candidates are required to spend fifteen minutes reading a written business case and preparing to discuss answers to a series of questions with the interviewer. These cases are 2-3 pages of written text and are accompanied by 4-6 data exhibits which contain information that will help the candidate conduct analysis and formulate responses to the case questions. In the business case interview, we are looking for candidates to demonstrate qualities such as logical thought, quantitative and qualitative analytical skills, an ability to make sound assumptions, and effective use of case data to develop defensible answers and recommendations.

Please note that it is not necessary to have an academic background in business in order to be successful in the business case interview. We are looking for candidates who have outstanding analytical capabilities; we have consistently found that candidates from all academic and experiential backgrounds can be successful in the case interview.

Group Business Case Exercise
In the final round of the interview process, candidates will be asked to participate in a group business case exercise. In this exercise, we bring together 3-6 candidates who each spend thirty minutes reading background information on a business scenario. Each candidate is then given an additional thirty minutes to spend working through an individual business problem which contains specific questions to be answered. Candidates read their individual problem, perform any analysis necessary to answer the questions, and then take turns facilitating a discussion about their own problem with the group. Successful candidates not only present their own findings and integrate the input from other group members, but also actively participate in the discussion of others' problems.

Two Monitor consultants observe as each candidate takes turn leading the discussion about his or her problem. The observers are looking for demonstration of strong analytical capabilities and effective facilitation and interaction skills. It is important to note that this is not a competitive exercise, but rather a collaborative one.

Role Play Interview
Candidates may participate in a role play interview. Typically, this interview consists of watching two video clips that depict challenging client interactions. The interviewer asks the candidate to diagnose the situation that he or she observed and may ask him or her to suggest next steps or to role play related scenarios. The goal of this interview is to evaluate candidates' interpersonal skills and ability to interact effectively in challenging situations.

Feedback Interview
The interview process is often concluded with a feedback session where the interviewer will provide the candidate with feedback on the previous interviews. The intent is to provide helpful feedback on performance as well as to open a dialogue with the candidate about his or her reactions to the feedback and to the recruiting process in general. Feedback and continual learning are an extremely important part of Monitor's culture and value system, and we look to hire people who are reflective about their own experiences and open to learning from them .

This interview is also sometimes used to collect further data on specific skills or characteristics that may not have been fully or robustly tested in prior interviews. For example, if the interviewer feels that he or she does not have enough data on a candidate's analytical capabilities to make a sound judgment, then this interview might be used to further test these capabilities by giving the candidate another business case.

In order to help you better prepare for your Monitor interviews, please request details on specific interview processes from the Recruiting Coordinator who arranges your interviews. Here's how to apply.