Job Reqs/ Topics Strong analytical skills

Leadership
Teamwork
Someone you admire
Strengths (2)
Weaknesses/Failures
Ethical dilemma
Difficult team member
Multi-Tasking/Pressure
Initiative
Intellect
Strategy
Random
Excellent verbal and written Project management experience
communications
Leadership and ability to influence History of drive and personal impact
others
 Business
Statistics

Week
Week
Sample Questions
Multi-Tasking
Questions Leadership Initiative Teamwork

Describe a time when

you had to complete
Describe a time when
multiple projects in a
your initiative made the What role(s) do you
short time period. How do you define
difference in achieving typically find yourself
How did you meet leadership?
a personal or group playing in a team?
your deadlines while
goal.
maintaining quality
work?

Describe a time when

Do you have a system Describe a time when Do you like to work
you took the initiative
for managing your your leadership made independently or as
to create or improve
time? a difference. part of a group?
something.

Being that we are a

Describe a time when
Describe a situation small firm; we need
you worked on a
Describe a time when when you had to people who can 'hit the
dysfunctional team.
you had to work under provide negative ground running.'
What did you do to get
high pressure. feedback to a team Convince me that you
the team on track to
member or co-worker. have experience in
reach its goal?
such an environment.

What is the most

difficult (work-related) Describe a time when
How would your
decision you have ever your leadership was Tell me about a time
classmates or co-
made? What challenged. How did when you went "above
workers describe you?
happened? What did you respond to it? and beyond" during
you learn? your work?
Tell me about a time
Discuss a situation
when you set a Describe a time when
where you had to
challenging goal for you had a conflict with
persuade someone to
yourself; what did you a team member. How
agree with your point of
do about it and what did you resolve it?
view.
was the result?
Tell me about a
mistake you made in Tell me about a time What types of people
the past that you do not where you set a goal, frustrate you?
regret? but had to revise it.
Tell me about a time Describe an instance
when you had an when you helped a
impact on a person or colleague implement
an organization? their idea or initiative?

Tell me about a time

Tell me about a time when someone on your
you developed / team was
coached people underperforming.
around you? What did you do about
it and what happened?

How would you rank

yourself in relation to
your peers?
How did you handle a
team of diverse
people?
Tell me about a time
you needed to
convince someone?
Tell me about a time
when someone
disagreed with you?
Tell me about a time
you led a team that
was off track. What did
you do to get them
back on?
Strengths Weakness Intellect Ethics

Describe a time when

you had to learn
Tell me about a time
What is your greatest What is your most something that was
you faced an ethical
achievement to date? significant weakness? difficult for you. How
dilemma.
did you approach
learning it?

Discuss a project What do you think is

Tell me a time when
What are your greatest which best more important,
you failed at
strengths? demonstrates your intelligence or hard
something.
analytical skills. work?

Tell me about a time

What is the biggest
Why should we hire when you had to Who do you admire?
mistake you have
you? analyze or interpret Why?
made?
financial information.

What makes you Tell me about a time

Tell me about a time
different from the What is your biggest you took an unpopular
you used analysis to
other candidates I'll disappointment in life? stance and what you
solve a problem?
see today? did?
Strategy Random

Give an example of a If you were sitting in my

time when you seat; and I was sitting
developed a strategy in yours; why would I
and executed it. NOT hire you?

How do you generally Who do you admire the

make decisions? most and why?

Describe a time when You have a lot less

you had to make a business experience
decision without than other candidates.
complete information. Why should I hire you?

How did you Say you're on the

influence a person president's council of
(senior management) economic advisors;
to get through your what advice would you
agenda? give him right now?

If you were the head of

Tell me about a time
your old company,
you encountered an
what would you do
ambiguous situation?
differently?

Describe a time when

you challenged or What makes you
changed the status unique?
quo.
 If your friends were to
Tell me about a time
use 3 words to
you had too much / too
describe you, what
little data?
would they be?

What do you think it

takes to succeed at my
firm?
Personal Impact
Going through the resume, tell me about X or Y
Tell me about a time when you demonstrated exceptional leadership
examples of success rather than failure
Solved analytical problem is not a good example
McKinsey % weightage

Leading others 22%

Managing a team conflict Pitch perfect

Managing a personal conflict 21%

Influencing others How to value the intangible

Overcoming challenges Stakeholder mayhem

Other 7%

Leadership Abilities Entreprenuerial Drive

Experience leading 30 volunteers at an Convincing the director at my practice to

all-girls shelter home while let me own the creation of financial and
volunteering at an education based technical response to an open tender
NGO released by a german

Experience leading the pilot for

Discover- a project aimed at improving
emotional health and motivation levels
of MAD's students, at the shelter home
and then driving national rollout across
6 cities
Leading a flagship team of 5 practitioners
to create POCs and POVs of Deloitte's big
data and analytics capabilities for senior
partners at the firm
Sample Questions 20-SECOND HEADLINE
Tell me about a time you led a team
through a difficult challenge
Tell me about a time you worked in a
team and had to manage a conflict
Tell me about a time you had a
disagreement with a colleague / your
boss
Tell me about a time you changed the
mind of a group of people / an
individual
Tell me about a challenge you had to
push yourself
Includes hard to
questions overcome
such as "Why
consulting?", or "Why this firm?"

Problem Solving Skills Personal Impact

Designed proprietary framework to
value intangible benefits of R&D
activities; secured projects with two
major clients in technology sector
amounting to deal worth $500K
Mentoring an demotivated student for 2
years and ultimately helping her achieve her
goal of joining law school, helping her then
secure an internship with Amnesty
International

Experience leading an organizational Leading a team of 4 Rossers as a part of

restructuring project at the client Detroit R&B Initative to help a detroit based
headquarters and handling conflicting science center improve volunteer sourcing,
incentives for multiple stakeholders retention, and engagement
3 MINUTE SYNOPSIS
C-L-A-R
BUCKET TITLE HEADLINE

Experience leading 30 volunteers

Leadership First ever leadership at an all-girls shelter home while
Abiltities experience volunteering at an education
based NGO
 Experience leading the pilot for
Discover- a project aimed at
Leadership Focus on things that improving emotional health and
motivation levels of MAD's
Abiltities matter students, at the shelter home and
then driving national rollout
across 6 cities

Convincing the director at my

practice to let me own the
Entreprenuerial Pitch perfect creation of financial and technical
Drive response to an open tender
released by a german

Leading a flagship team of 5

practitioners to create POCs and
Entreprenuerial A different Point of POVs of Deloitte's big data and
Drive View analytics capabilities for senior
partners at the firm

Designed proprietary framework

to value intangible benefits of
Problem Solving How to value the R&D activities; secured projects
Skills intangible with two major clients in
technology sector amounting to
deal worth $500K
 Experience leading an
organizational restructuring
Problem Solving Stakeholder mayhem project at the client headquarters
Skills and handling conflicting
incentives for multiple
stakeholders

Mentoring an demotivated
student for 2 years and ultimately
Mentoring for growth helping her achieve her goal of
Personal Impact joining law school, helping her
then secure an internship with
Amnesty International

Leading a team of 4 Rossers as a

part of Detroit R&B Initative to
help a detroit based science
Personal Impact Science is fun! center improve volunteer
sourcing, retention, and
engagement

So basically I am an electrical engineering by training, but at the moment I am a first year MBA student at Ross. I hav
in technology consulting with Deloitte, and the subsequent two working in strategy consulting with a boutique con
my work-ex, I realized pretty early on that consulting is the career for me, as it allows to apply my quantitative skills
business understanding, all tied together with a significant amount of people skills and relationship management, w
consulting
CONTEXT ACTION

Asked a mentor to observe the zero hour

meetings I ran with volunteers. Mentor
observed:
1. lack of confidence when I said something
2. No timeboxing, people spoke without
agenda, and dominated the room
3. No sense of shared purpose among the
At 22, 6 years volunteering at MAD, volunteers, more focussed on satisfying
was asked to lead 30 volunteers to individual goals and egos
deliver after school curriculum at the
all girls shelter home. Had to ensure I started to attend other zero hours as well and
consistent curiculum delivery, in line noticed how they ran it. Everybody had agenda
with org's goals of focussing on set before the meetings, and each speaker had
experiential learning and set time to speak.
understanding the core context
behind a concept. Many volunteers Sent out regular cadence, created templates for
were older and more experience, lot lesson plans, and asked teachers to submit
of them came from education and plans on thursday, so that I could send back to
believed in more conventional them with comments on Friday. To ensure
teaching methods. Intially it was hard everybody submitted plans, i created a folder
to time box meetings and maintain with everybody's class and names to ensure
focus on goals. Louder, more group based accountability. Sent weekly
confident voices dominated the updates, praising good lesson plans that aligned
meeting, and other volunteers started to the stated goals of experience learning and
to avoid them altogether. Loss of clearing of basic concepts. To ensure that
motivation in volunteers, but most experienced voices felt validated, I heard them
importantly kids. 1 student who had out and incorporated suggestions, giving credit
made tremendous progress over the 6 where it was due
years felt she wasn't good at studies
because she wasn't performing well in
class. This led me to relook approach

Realized importance of mental health
and motivation levels to retain and
engage students. Approached
leadership outlining a program called
Discover, almost a business case,
where we would focus on 2 broad
topics- experiential learning linked to real time, while identifying course correction
clear career paths, and emotional
health.
Identified stakeholders, got initial buy in,
defined volunteer need, and all other
requirements, got a go ahead to drive the
program as a pilot at an all girls shelter home,
leading a cohort of 25 volunteers to deliver
impact for 56 children. Strong program
management, feedback gathering from key
stakeholders, i was able to compile learnings in
avenues. I built out the program with the
leadership while the pilot was being executed.

Just joined zinnov as an associate cons Had 2 weeks to submit both tech and financial pro

BTA, project work was data warehousing and BI, used KM to learn about hyposthesis based consulting and buillding
moment I am a first year MBA student at Ross. I have 4 years of work experience, the first two years
working in strategy consulting with a boutique consulting firm called Zinnov. So as is evident from
r for me, as it allows to apply my quantitative skills from my undergrad while developing a strong
t of people skills and relationship management, which was one of the major drivers that led me to
consulting
RESULT LEARNING

Constant flow of lesson

plans, quality kept
increasing

Gained more respect as a

leader when my inputs on
the plans were seen as
valuable and actionable

Children became more It is very important to

engaged and attendance establish consistent and
improved by 100%. All clear communication
children attended classes guidleines from get go
or showed interest in
making up in case they No matter the nature of
missed the work, structure is
vital to ensure people
Was asked to continue to are meeting their
lead due to excellent personal and
feedback from shelter professional goals
authority by year end and
improved performance of Important to understand
students at school underlying incentives
that drives certain
behaviours and tailor
your approach towards
solving problems based
on that
 The project was highly
succesfful but came with a
set of learnings. Firstly, we
weren;'t equipped to
provide complete
emotional support, and our
interventions couldn't scale
at a larger level. However,
the second part which
focussed on experiential
learning and skill building
aligned to identified
interests was very
succesful, with all students
going through the program
identifying clear career
goals and setting targets for
themselves towards
acheiving it. since we had
built out the model in real
time, we could roll it out
for the next academic year
for the southern region- 6
cities, 400 volunteers, 20
fellows, 400 children.
immense success and soon
had a national roll out

And I was asked to drive the Learning-- always build out a strong quant justification for any hypothesis, establish cred

osthesis based consulting and buillding story boarding skills. Started to take intiative within the team to put togther technical fin
any hypothesis, establish credibility from get go and seek help when you stumble.

m to put togther technical findings in concise and impactful presentations. My manager was working with a SM on building big
with a SM on building big data and analytics use cases for a healthcare client, asked me to help him put together a POC docum
put together a POC document. The client really liked our idea and wanted a more detailed proposal that I worked on, eventually
hat I worked on, eventually we got the project. Eventually I was approached by few more senior managers to build out similar P
nagers to build out similar POCs and POVs, and I suggested putting together a team so that could distribute the work lead. The S
ribute the work lead. The SM at my practice liked the idea and asked me to lead the intiative. I formed a team of talented new h
d a team of talented new hires from college and organized weekly trainings on story boarding and design thinking as well as big
esign thinking as well as big data and analytics use cases. The team became the go to team for any powerpoint and proposal bui
werpoint and proposal building work and eventually grew to 12 practitioners