Framing your experience, and the questions you will hear
Turning your background into consulting skills, a 30-second research pitch, and common fit questions.
Key takeaways
- Describe your past work in terms a client would care about: the problem, what you did, and the result, without the jargon of your field.
- Common mistakes: Long technical explanations.
- The question, in one plain sentence: "I studied why some batteries lose capacity faster than others."
- Why it matters: "Longer-lasting batteries make electric cars cheaper to own."
- What you did: "I tested 200 battery cells under different conditions and built a model to predict their decline."
Key idea
Describe your past work in terms a client would care about: the problem, what you did, and the result, without the jargon of your field.
Worked case
Framing an engineer's project for a consulting interview
The prompt
Starting description: "I was a process engineer at a refinery and worked on the hydrotreater unit optimization, including catalyst regeneration scheduling."
The structure
- Problem, what I did, result, in plain words
- The business problem
- What I did myself
- The result in money or time
Working it through
1. The business problem
"One unit at our refinery was stopping too often for maintenance, which cost production."
2. What I did
"I analyzed three years of maintenance data, found the stops were badly timed, and proposed a new schedule to the plant manager."
3. The result
"Unplanned stops fell by a third, adding about USD 4 million of output a year."
4. The link to consulting
"That is the part I enjoyed most: finding the real cause in data and persuading people to change. I want to do that across many businesses."
The recommendation
The new version has no jargon, shows your own actions, gives a result in money, and links to why you want consulting.
A 30-second research pitch for PhD candidates
- 1The question, in one plain sentence: "I studied why some batteries lose capacity faster than others."
- 2Why it matters: "Longer-lasting batteries make electric cars cheaper to own."
- 3What you did: "I tested 200 battery cells under different conditions and built a model to predict their decline."
- 4The result: "The model predicts battery life within 5 percent, and a manufacturer now uses it."
- 5The link: "I enjoy breaking a hard problem into testable parts, which is what consulting work is."
Fit questions you are likely to hear
- "Why consulting now, after X years in your field?"
- "Why are you leaving your current role?" Answer with what you are moving toward, not complaints.
- "How will you handle having a manager younger than you?"
- "Explain your research to me as if I were a client with no science background."
- "Which practice or industry would you want to work in, and why?"
- Plus the usual story questions on leadership, impact, drive, and handling setbacks.
Say your own 30-second pitch out loud: the problem, what you did, the result, and the link to consulting, without any jargon. Then reveal the checklist.
Long technical explanations. Criticizing your current employer. Implying consulting is a fallback. Claiming team results as your own. Using acronyms from your industry.
Which answer to "Why are you leaving your current role?" is strongest?
A partner asks you to explain your PhD research. What matters most?
How should you describe past work in a consulting interview?
Sources for this lesson (1)
- Recognized public explanations of case-interview concepts and frameworks
My notes on this lesson
0 of 5,000 characters. Saves automatically.
Try the 4 remaining checks and drills above to complete this lesson (0 of 4 done).
Spotted something wrong or out of date? Report a mistake. We check every report and correct the page.