Consulting Questions | Get selected to a consulting firm

Why do we need consulting?

Consultants can provide expertise and an objective eye to help guide a business, with different consultants specialising in various industries and areas, including strategy and management, operations, human resources, finances, funding opportunities, IT, and sales and marketing.

Consulting firms provide feedback and actionable strategies to companies to improve their efficiency or solve complex problems in a specific area, such as advertising and technology. 

Company executives are often the ones who hire consultants to give them advice specific to their industry and organisational needs.

How do I prepare for big 4 aptitude test?

Aptitude test is your first Impression on the firm, so make sure it will be good. Aptitude test consist of the following 

1. Verbal ability section
2. Logical reasoning examinations 
3. Numerical evaluations
4. Data interpretation 

So, take any basic book (say, R.S agarwal) and try to solve the relevant questions.

What are good consultation questions?

1. Consulting frameworks such as MECE
2. Accounting-based questions: cost accounting, income statements and balance sheets, cash flow statements etc.
3. Mental maths problems to check your strength in arithmetics
4. General knowledge about the things around you to solve Market sizing problems.

How do you solve consulting questions?

1. Practice with real case examples: Consulting firms often use cases based on real business problems. Practice solving cases from different industries, such as retail, healthcare, or finance, as well as cases that focus on different aspects of a business, like operations, marketing or strategy.
2. Learn the framework: A framework is a structured approach to solving a case. Several frameworks can be used to solve a case, such as the “market-sizing” or “MECE” framework. It’s important to become familiar with different frameworks and understand when to use them.
3. Brush up on your math: Case interviews often involve mathematical calculations, so it’s important to be comfortable with basic math concepts and calculations.

Market sizing vs. Case interview questions 

Market sizing questions are used to assess a candidate’s maths skills, and their ability to logically solve problems without any provided data.

Example of market sizing: Apple’s thinking of entering the wearables market. What’s the potential market size of that?

A case interview simulates the conditions of a real consulting project so that your interviewer can evaluate how you would perform on the job. Case interviews usually start with a broad question or statement that provides context on the business, then the case will evolve with a series of additional questions or considerations.

Example of a case interview: How would you help a Domino's restaurant recover from a sharp profitability decline?

Create MECE categories of analyses:

To solve the above type of consulting questions you can follow the MECE framework of consulting.

MECE stands for “Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive”. In simpler terms: no gaps in your analyses (categories cover the whole problem) and no overlaps (each category is fully distinct from the others). 

What are the 5 C's of consultation?

Contact, Communicate, Core Questions, Collaborate, and Close the Loop

What are the 4 types of consultation?

1. Client-centred case consultation.
2. Consultee-centred case consultation.
3. The program centred on administrative consultation.
4. Consultee-centred administrative consultation.

Other types of consulting include:

Operations consulting: These consultants help organizations improve their operations by identifying inefficiencies and implementing best practices.

Technology consulting: Consultants help organizations select, implement, and manage technology solutions to support their business goals.

How do I prepare for consulting?

Review case types

After the fit portion of the interview, most consulting interviews include a case study. It's important to prepare and practice the case study portion so you can perform well. Consulting cases can vary depending on the industry and company, but common types of case studies include:

1. Joining a new market
2. Creating a new product or design
3. Advising on growth or pricing strategies
4. Launching a new business
5. Increasing profits by raising sales or lowering costs

It may be helpful to practice each type of case study and plan a structure by thinking of a general response for each type.

What do consultants do day to day?

The daily work of a management consultant includes gathering data and insights (through research, surveys, and interviews), running analyses, making PowerPoint presentations, and pitching solutions to clients. The job involves a lot of travelling, and long hours are the norm.

What is the Big 4 in consulting as of 2023?

The term “Big 4” refers to the 4 largest professional services firms by revenue: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Deloitte), KPMG International (KPMG), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and Ernst & Young (EY).

Companies like TCS, Infosys and Accenture have also started to provide consulting.

Why is consulting the best?

An additional reason you might want to go into consulting is that it's a safe bet. You might not know what you want to do after university or an MBA. 

Consulting is a safe way to figure out what career is right for you by trying out different industries, roles and locations.

You are sure to grow by leaps and bounds while you consult as you are constantly exposed to different clients, industries, business practices and experiences. 

Consulting projects usually only last a few months at a company and then you move on to the next giving you exposure to many different industries and methodologies.