What does it take to become a consultant?

Before answering that, you need to ask yourself: Do I want to be a consultant?

Being a consultant is not an easy job, it’s not similar to other fields. It requires a lot of dedicated effort and the advice a consultant gives has a lot of weight in it. People who take services from a consultant expect them be right with their decisions and to help achieve the said goal. The amount of trust expected from a consultant is much more than any other job. So, make sure you’re prepared for it. Now back to our question: What does it take to become a consultant?

Prepare for campus interviews

Campus interview is the place where for 20–25 minutes interviewer judge you, so be at the top of your game as far as that case interview prep is concerned. You’ll get enough of this advice once you join but one thing that usually strikes an interviewer first is- Are you able to clearly articulate? You might be wrong which is fine and so have that mindset even when you go for a case interview.

Let me give you an example of my friend- In the first campus placement case interview, my friend got the interview wrong, he got the numbers associated with the case wrong and but somehow he was able to talk through it and the interviewer was like- Are you sure? Do you know this cannot be the market size for whatever industry you’re looking at in India? and he said “No I’m hundred percent sure in this” and then the interviewer pointed out what the mistake but so throughout but my friend was accepted. After joining he asked the interviewer you know I had done the case wrong, why did you take me? The interviewer said at least you were clear in your assumptions and when you actually get into the profession right you yourself alone are not going to win the battle it’s a team that that’s working with you. If you are able to get to the right answer then you’re doing justice to it and that’s fine and that’s the skill that you’re trying to demonstrate.

So do not get stressed in the interview. Different interviewers have different interviewing styles some might want to stress you some might be extremely candid but they are observing you. What usually works is be yourself. If you are in your natural self it will work beautifully for you so don’t try to force fit something into an interview construct at least for consulting.

How important are academics for a consulting placement?

Usually, companies have a threshold but it differs. Every company looks for spikes in the resume so at least some section has to stand out. Now you’ll hear enough myths like you have to be a national sports person or you have to be a winner of at least one Olympiads or you have to be from IIT or BITS but these are all wrong. But you have to ensure that you are meeting the basic criteria when academics are concerned so if your grades are extremely terrible then yes, it might be difficult but then usually that’s not the case.

What does a consultant do?

15 or 20 years ago consultants could do projects saying what is the market size of X of the said industry and it can be a two-month long project because consultants did not have access to so much data. There was not enough information in the market at that time but today you cannot usually you are not going to spend two months saying what is the market size and then tell. This will usually be a day one or day two answer, you come in with all this information. The profession also is changing quite a bit, you’ll find a lot of the organizations now having longer-term programs wherein the performance of the client gets linked with the work that you are doing. One thing great about consulting is the variety of projects that you get.

Today the companies value the speed that one brings in. The quality of analysis of course is non-negotiable, as a consultant you are expected to come in with the clear view and the good quality analysis so that is still required but the perseverance or the ability to drive things to a conclusion or impact it’s most looked out for now.

Now that you know what it takes to be a consultant you need to make sure you are ahead of everyone else. We at CrackAdmission help you to make your resume stand out. We are a group of ex-consultants from different industries so we know the insides that can help you with case study preparations.

Visit our site http://13.126.191.59/contact-us/ and book a Free Consultation to see if we’re a good fit for you.