Batch of 2014
Branch: MSc Economics and B.E. Mechanical Engineering
What are your current roles and responsibilities at BCG and what made you choose your career path?
I am a Senior Associate at BCG. We serve our clients across industries in multiple contexts. Work is extremely varied and enriching – keeps us on our toes and keeps us satisfied about helping our clients create value. On a day to day basis, Consulting allows you to call upon nearly all the skill sets that you have touched upon during formal education or developed during the course of life. The system is buzzing with people who bring in extremely diverse competencies and personalities; the way it all comes together to create magic is spectacular to watch.
The work can be broken down into three fragments primarily – 1) conversations and groundwork to identify the problems and hypothesize, 2) deep dives and data analysis to test the hypothesis and identify the solution, and 3) synthesis, contextualization and implementation. Moving through these stages tests your quantitative, interpersonal, logical and communication abilities to varying degrees at different points in time.
My interest in Consulting was sparked during a case competition at my first year Quark (BITS Pilani Goa campus Techfest). I did not have any formal training in Management or Economics back then. Approaching the problem on a first principles basis and communicating our thoughts in a simple, logical fashion to win the competition was very satisfying. Doing this for a living seemed like an exciting proposition! The interest got solidified and nurtured further during my time at ISB and the various case competitions that I took on over the years. The experience of working in this space has been everything that I had hoped for and more.
What is a day in your life like?
The day varies considerably depending on the nature of the project, but every day will typically involve multiple conversations, reading, writing, data analysis, brainstorming and synthesis. I try to plan my day around client and team availability – focusing the conversations and presentations during those hours and using the rest of the time for my own reading and analysis.
Consulting requires you to work with a great deal of independence, and the freedom to plan your day according to your working styles and rhythms is very satisfying. In pre-Covid times, Monday morning and Friday evening travel to the client office was also a regular fixture of the week. I, personally, enjoyed the fact that over a period of a few months, you aren’t just a visitor in town anymore, but feel a certain sense of belonging to the place like a resident would. Through my early morning runs and the local cuisine, I slowly develop a sense of intimacy with the place that remains a fond memory in addition to all the exciting work that we get to do.
Working remotely has been very nice too. Over the past few months, staying at home and spending time with the family has been excellent. Our organization and the clients have all adapted to the new paradigm extremely well and work has been chugging along as smooth as ever. The teams I have worked with are also extremely mindful of the importance of staying connected even though we don’t meet each other; weekly informal catch-ups with the group are always something to look forward to.
How can students shape their profile while in college for entering into a consulting career?
The wonderful thing about Consulting is that there is no set template that you need to fit in order to show relevance to the role. Your background, work experience, and accomplishments could be from any domain – as long as you are able to establish your drive, industriousness and intellectual curiosity, you are good to go. This, of course, is just my view – I have not been involved in any recruitment activities myself.
Putting this into perspective for a college student, I think it’s important to maintain good grades – again, I wouldn’t put a number to it, but if you think about it, academics is your full time job during college, and if you haven’t performed particularly well, that would require some explaining. Besides, being able to maintain good grades requires discipline and rigour more than anything else – attributes that are priceless in Consulting, in my opinion.
Additionally, it is also helpful to show excellence in any field of your choosing – be it sport, music, writing, research, social work or entrepreneurship. In Consulting, people spend a lot of time with each other, and it is nice to be surrounded by folks who have interest areas beyond work. Being able to manage additional pursuits during college also shows an ability to manage time. Club and department leadership positions are also a great way to showcase interpersonal ability that is pivotal to our work in Consulting.
While there are many things that I have mentioned here, I wouldn’t go about this like a checklist. College is an excellent time to explore yourself and discover what your interests are. The extracurriculars should not become a burden, but an avenue for you to express yourself and unwind. If you remain true to yourself and devote time to areas that genuinely interest you, the energy that you harness from doing what you love will fuel your pursuits in every domain and become instrumental in achieving your goals.
What was your experience while preparing for and applying to ISB?
I applied to ISB in the second semester of my pre-final year through the Young Leaders Programme. It’s a fantastic avenue by the school that lets you secure your admission while you’re still in college and devote the next two years to making the most of your job, rather than being forced to balance admission prep along with it.
If my memory serves me right, the first round required a video essay and a resume. The final application needed a GMAT score, two essays and two recommendations. The wonderful thing about the admission process at ISB is that you are not seen as a set of numbers – there is genuine effort that goes into understanding whether you are the right fit for the program, and vice versa, at that point in time.
I prepared for GMAT during the summer break before my PS2 using Kaplan and the Official guide, and crafted my essays over a period of 4-6 weeks thinking deeply about myself and what is it that I wanted to do. The process of reflecting upon my past and my goals was very enriching, and applicants should devote sufficient time to this exercise to come up with an essay that tells their story like no one else can.
The interview was very genial and conversational in nature. ISB, as per my understanding, accepts you to the program because of your strengths and despite your weakness – which is a very open minded and appreciative way of looking at people and what they can offer. There is not even a hint of a stress interview. The two panelists just wanted to get to know me a little better and confirm my conviction with respect to the things that I had mentioned in the essays. A few technical questions were geared towards testing my strength in Economics, as I had published a few papers by then. All in all, it was a very uplifting and pleasurable exercise – and a great precursor to how invigorating the year at ISB was going to be.
How did you prepare for getting your jobs and internships? What's your take on engineers as consultants and entering consulting right after college?
My year long internship at JPMorgan was through BITS Pilani’s Practice School program. I thoroughly enjoyed my work over there. It’s an extremely vibrant workplace and I was happy that I could go on to join them full time after completing the internship through a pre-placement offer. I also had my admission offer from ISB by then. The prospect of spending two more years at JPMorgan learning how such a large organization works and watching how they combine innovation with solidity was very exciting.
The placement process at ISB for Consulting firms is a well-structured and well-oiled mechanism. Companies start engaging with students fairly early in the year, offering guidance on resume writing and coaching you through your preparation once you have been shortlisted. While preparing the resume, brevity and clarity are imperative and it is important to highlight the impact of the work that you have done. Interviews are primarily case based. Books such as Case in Point and the ISB Casebook are a great starting point, but there is no substitute to simulating the case interview experience through mock interviews with your classmates.
The school is extremely supportive throughout the process and offers multiple rounds of connect with alumni for resume review and interview prep – but it's also important that you take the initiative to reach out to alumni in your target companies for a perspective on how your story can best be projected to meet the specific needs of any role. My cohort at Mohali was also a pillar of strength, standing by each other at every step of the way, whether it’s for mock interviews, group discussion prep or just to pick me up when the going got tough.
A lot of what I have mentioned about ISB can be adopted by students preparing for Consulting interviews in engineering colleges as well. The process is not very different as far as I understand. Should engineering students consider Consulting as a career right after college? Absolutely. Consulting is an excellent first job. These are fine institutions that have immense belief in investing in their people. The learning and confidence that you derive from your time in Consulting will significantly elevate your abilities as a professional. Besides, with the growing impetus on technology in every domain, engineers are more relevant in Consulting that they have ever been.
Disclaimer: The points given above are the views and steps taken by the individual. They are not fixed steps and guideline to base your college upon. Our hope is to inspire students so they can take the necessary steps here after. We hope you like it!
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