Fit Feedback

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Fit Interview Workshops

J-P Martins Associate Director Consulting Careers November 2010

MBA Consulting Curriculum 2010-11: Continued Feedback

+Contents

  Summary

  New Consulting Careers event – the Fit Interview Workshop   1 hour interactive presentation (group of 20) on personal brand and fit

interviews   90 minute 5 person breakouts with CS/consulting facilitators practising

answers to fit questions   30 minute wrap up presentation on lessons, cover letters, and next steps

  Quantitative survey results   Collected and processed within one working day of the event   Using Survey Monkey and Career Central’s email facility

  Comments attached to quantitative survey questions, plus two qualitative questions   What should we do differently?   What should we keep the same?

+Summary

  The event was excellently received   100% of respondents would recommend the Consulting Careers Fit Interview Workshop

  Many excellent comments were made, highlighting (to me) that resourcing, DPO scheduling and communication are our challenges

  As we knew, the main value comes from the practice in breakout groups, and students wanted much more of this. We could not accommodate more due to resource constraints

  Clashes with other events kept many away (my inference) and forced others to make unreasonable choices

  Some students remain unaware of the Consulting Curriculum and how the events fit together, and of the role of Consulting Careers team vs their own work in preparing for interviews

  As with case interviews/problem solving, some students still want lots more examples and detail – I believe they are missing the point

+Quantitative survey data

+Fit Interview Workshop: all would recommend it strongly

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

The format and content of the workshop were excellent

The presenters and facilitators were engaging and informative

The event was well organised - logistics and venue were appropriate

I would strongly recommend this event to next year's first year MBA students

1

0

1

0

25

18

16

17

9

17

18

18

Disagree Strongly Disagree Agree Agree Strongly

Response rate: 35/67 (52%)

+Comments

+Comments: Fit Interview Workshop

  Should be stronger emphasis on practice

  Examples of different good answers would be really useful

  Somehow the many 1-on-1 5 minute sessions did not go really well. I also missed clarity whether the response to the Tell Me About Yourself question should be more like a super-polished ‘bomb’ or more conversational, engaging, and humble presentation of oneself

  The individual break outs had too many people. 1:3 ratio of facilitator and interviewer would have been better

  Overall excellent, but last 30 minute session was unnecessary

  General presentation and especially the break in sessions were priceless

  Pretty redundant information, stuff we should know already

  Short, informative and precise presentation. Really enjoyed the hands-on interview workshop!

  Kim provided feedback in a very helping way

  All presenters were excellent - insightful and extremely constructive

  Gavin was an excellent presenter who combined relevant theory with useful practical insights

Format and Content Presenter and Panellists

+Comments: Fit Interview Workshop (contd.)

  It was very uncomfortable that many events happened the same day - Energy Conference, Asset Management Conference, and both Consulting and Industry fit interview sessions. Would be good to avoid such clashes in the future

  It provided us valuable opportunities to practice, and to meet other students who are interested in getting into consulting

  The experiences of real consultants were very helpful

  The session was fantastic - definitely the best Career Services session I've attended so far (of the consulting and industry ones)

Organisation – venue and logistics General

+Fit Interview Workshop: What should we do differently?

  More time for group work will be better

  Preserve some more time for fit interview exercise   It would be great if more time could be allocated

to the event, especially to the practice session. Probably an extra 30 minutes for this session would be enough

  More time to practise

  Slightly shorter start session and move to the break-out, which was very effective

  …or alternatively spent more time practising the questions (as opposed to the presentation)

  Consider extending the duration of the session. The content was extremely useful but it would have been good to offer additional time to address more than one fit question per person in the break-out interview groups

  I realise resources are tight but always better if groups are smaller. Most value came from personal feedback from facilitator, so groups of 2 or 3 rather than 6 would give more opportunity for individuals to practise their answers to questions

  …or alternatively spent more time practicing the questions (as opposed to the presentation)

  Consider extending the duration of the session. The content was extremely useful but it would have been good to offer additional time to address more than one fit question per person in the break-out interview groups

  More practice   More real examples

  If possible, reduce the candidate, facilitator ratio

  Smaller groups in breakout room to allow more questions per person

  Smaller groups in the breakout sessions   If possible, reduce the candidate, facilitator ratio

  The break-out sessions were exceptionally useful, but a little short. You could shorten the introductory lecture -- that would give you time to have longer break-outs

  I would spend more time in the break-out rooms and less time in the lecture theatre. This would allow more time to practise interview questions

Overwhelming view: More practice in smaller breakouts

+Fit Interview Workshop: What should we do differently? (contd.)

  You should either distribute more elaborated instructions for what we need to prepare - instructions were very general and preparation time limited - the result was that many people came underprepared. I think there was also a missing part in the workshop - we were taught all about personal branding, and then went to practice the answers we prepared prior to that. giving an hour to refine your answers according to what we heard, before practicing, would have been helpful

  Also, to ensure preparation of students I would require to submit filled in forms with strengths, brand etc

  It would be better if good examples for "Tell me about yourself" and competency questions could be provided before the workshop

  Question bank to be shared before the session

More/improved prework More example answers, demonstrations

  Examples of different good answers   Demonstration of a good fit interview

  Some good examples (both in written form and delivered by presenters) of Tell Me About Yourself would be very useful

  A 15 minute mock interview can be shown   Maybe give more examples and more

specific tips   In addition to providing feedback on our

answers to mock interview questions, it would be helpful to provide sample answers that illustrate how best to approach and answer typical fit interview questions

  Maybe adding some quick real examples for the points being discussed in the first session would help clarify the concepts and the thinking process required


  …Secondly, it would be great to include more guidance re a framework for the C.A.R. / R.A.C. model - eg. the extent to which each of these points should be addressed in a concise, well-phrased answer and a suggested format for each. Thirdly, cover letters could be addressed in more detail. I understand that this is intended to be covered by Career Services without a sector focus in the new year, but it would be great to get a consulting-specific view point on this as the bar is often set higher for consulting cover letters than for say industry ones. Also, the timing of recruiting in January means that it would make more sense for cover letters to be addressed in more detail prior to the Christmas break

  It would be really useful to identify (if there are any) different important aspects for each of the top tier firms

  More concrete general information about each consulting firm

  I would incorporate more specific advices on how to differentiate ourselves

  More information about the different consulting firms other than Bain, BCG and McK

  More concrete, tangible cover letter tips and more samples

More detail Less detail

  The content of the initial session was good but could have been condensed

  The final 30 minute segment could have been cut entirely

  Presentations have limited value given the general nature of the information provided


  Overall very good

  n/a

  It´s ok

  .

  n/a

  n/a

  n/a

  We should start concentrating more on cases

  Fit preperation is good, but again, case interview could definitely be prioritized a little more

-  Same respondent!

Seven respondents wouldn’t change anything…

…and one wanted a different workshop altogether

+Fit Interview Workshop: What should we keep the same?

  The 5:1 session was time very well spent

  Practice part was great, and so the opening lecture

  …and the practice session were very useful

  Practice

  Practice sessions were extremely helpful

  Split groups into rooms

  Keep the small group session on ‘tell me about yourself’ and competency-based interview questions

  The break out to practice helps tremendously

  Strongly recommend increasing the 'practice' parts interview questions

  Breakout groups

  Interactive/Group sessions

  Interview practice!

  The break-out sessions

  Smaller groups were awesome

  Small group break-out sessions with facilitators

  Break-outs were good

  Breakout sessions but fewer in each breakout

  5:1 session

  The breakout sessions were excellent

  Break in sessions, Q&A

  The practice questions (more of it)

  Continue to invite MBA alumni at consultancies

Breakout practice sessions definitely the most popular

+Fit Interview Workshop: What should we keep the same?

  Pre-work

  Content was good, and will be very useful come interview time

  The pre-work sent out was concise and very relevant to the workshop itself.

  It´s a good format

  Everything else - great work guys

  Overall it's good

  Overall structure with practice in the middle was good

  Structure, content

  Pretty much all of it

Prework is working well Overall, many like it

Initial presentation also worked

  The presentation with the exercises

  Group lesson & quick exercises

  Introduction