All consulting firms are set up differently, but broadly, the roles in consulting can be classified into 4 groups:

Especially in the large firms (MBB), these roles are well-defined. In smaller firms, they may not exist in the same way, or they may overlap. For example, there might not be any dedicated researchers, so the consulting team will do much more googling on their own. In addition, the distinction between consultant and specialist may not be so clear either. And there may be less support from the back office (e.g., McKinsey has dedicated staff around the world to brush up PowerPoint slides for the project teams at any time of the day).

The responsibilities, salary bands, and the application processes differ substantially between these types of roles. At Case Interview Hub, we focus on the classic consulting roles. While role profiles have become more diverse in recent years, the classic consulting roles will always be the backbone of the business. When we describe the job, and the case interview process, this is what we're talking about. To give a bit of context, see the overview below. Given our experience at McKinsey, it's quite heavily influenced by the wording and the role description there. 

The paths into a classic consulting role at any large, international firm are typically quite straightforward. 

The vast majority of people are hired directly out of school (or at least within 3 years from graduation) – so right after an undergrad or postgraduate degree (e.g., MBA, PhD). It's also quite common to have interns at consulting firms who, upon receiving a favorable review for their internship performance, can secure a full-time offer to join the firm after graduation. Below you see an indicative split of a typical cohort of new joiners at MBB firms. Of course, depending on the specific region these numbers can and will deviate. 

Large, international consulting firms prefer hiring fresh graduates for two main reasons. Firstly, young people are typically unattached, and still hungry (i.e., higher readiness to travel and to work late). And secondly, but much more importantly, they come with fewer biases and can be more easily molded in the firms practices. 

A much smaller number of people will go into consulting as experienced hires. They may join at almost any level, but they need to have an outstanding career trajectory up until their current role, and bring something that the consulting firm needs. That may be specialized knowledge, or even their own clients. Experienced hires that don't have a business background will typically be younger and only join at the lower levels. Experienced hires at higher levels (or even at partner level) are typically accomplished executives (or simply partners from other consulting firms who are switching over). 

Most new joiners will have a business background, but especially the top firms will hire irrespective of specialty (e.g., business, engineering, law, humanities). They can look at raw talent and will develop their people internally. On the other hand, smaller firms with less developed support networks prefer people that are immediately operational (e.g., already have an understanding of accounting and finance, already have decent  PowerPoint and Excel skills). 

To join a classic consulting role right out of schools, firms will look at a particular set of qualities that are typically well-aligned with what you need to succeed on the job. It's not an exact science but here are a number of attributes that you'll hear frequently and why they are important:

Intelligence: You'll be responsible for analyses that clients pay a lot of money for and you need to have the intellectual horsepower to handle that. Also, you need to immerse yourself in new topics extremely quickly.

Ambition: As a consultant you can actually create lasting positive impact for your client. The intrinsic motivation to do that, and the willingness to go the extra mile is a major prerequisite to do that.  

Perseverance: You'll be in challenging situations frequently, and you need the fortitude to execute a project diligently, even if its tough. Don't just phone it in, uphold your highest standards.

Professionalism: You'll be confronted with clients that are not happy seeing you, but you should always maintain a high degree of professionalism. Your outputs should reflect utmost care for client needs.

Structured thinking: You'll soon be swamped with work and competing priorities. It's your job to get on top of things and manage your time, your work, and later in your career also your team. 

People skills: You'll need people (clients and coworkers) to collaborate with you - people you typically have no formal authority over. You need to be empathetic to their needs and motivations in order to convince them. 

These and quite a few more are important attributes of a successful consultant. That's why consulting companies have tailored their entire hiring process around testing these qualities. Where they recruit from, how they are judging applications, and how they're conducting interviews (e.g., case interviews, fit interviews) – it's all a way of filtering out the candidates who best embody the qualities they're looking for. For this reason, the better you understand the job of a consultant (maybe even at a particular firm), the more intuitively you'll understand how to perform well in the hiring process. 

Unlike in other jobs, consulting firms often aren't hiring for specific positions. For the generalist consulting roles, they'll try and hire the best of the best in any given year. While it sounds like a 100% merit-based process, business cycles will not go unnoticed in the industry - even at the top consulting firms. So they may increase or decrease their hiring targets by raising or lowering the bar slightly (which affects the edge cases). But overall, the criteria are quite stable, and if you show a strong performance across the entire process, you can join any large consulting firm in any given year, and in any geography. 

Obviously, you can apply at any firm online. But if you are at a target school and have the chance to take part in on-campus recruiting, take advantage of it. You'll still apply online, but you may have direct access to a contact person (a school alumnus now working in consulting, a dedicated HR person). Combine that with campus events and workshops, and you may have an easier time in securing an interview. 

At some firms you can apply at any time, others may have application windows or a set number of application deadlines throughout the year. What you need to apply depends on the firm, but may contain a CV, a cover letter, references, or report cards. The CV is by far the most important element. McKinsey, for example, only requires a CV for initial screening, everything else is optional. 

The way most consulting firms hire is not too different from any other hiring process. Yes, there may be deviations in one step or another, but the basic process is always the same. 

The process starts with an online application as described above. The CV is by far the most important element. Once the application is submitted, it will be screened by recruiters in an HR function. The result of this screening is either a direct turn-down, or an invitation to proceed with the process.

The next step differs significantly across firms and may not exist at all. Some companies may put candidates through additional interview elements. These are used as additional screeners before inviting candidates to an interview day. The interview days are time-consuming and expensive, for candidates and consulting firms. Therefore, firms try and whittle it down to the most promising candidates. In this phase, firms may ask candidates to take part in an aptitude test (currently done by Bain, previously also at McKinsey with the McKinsey PST). It may also be a kind of game (e.g., McKinsey's Problem Solving Game, or BCG's chatbot case interview). Or it may be an interview with an HR rep (the actual interviews on interview day will be done by consultants only). This step is typically not the toughest, but its important for candidates to avoid a complete screw-up. Simply passing the bar is enough.

Once these first steps have been successfully completed, we have the main part of the hiring process: the interview days. It's a series of interviews across multiple rounds, either all in one day or across multiple days (a few weeks apart). It depends on the firm, the level you're joining at, and maybe even the individual office, but the process is always similar. There's typically a first round of interviews with 2 or 3 interviews back-to-back. After that, the interviewers will convene and assess the candidate. The two possible outcomes following this assessment: a turn-down or an invitation to the next round of interviews (for junior roles and interns, 2 or 3 interviews may already be the complete process at many firms). The next round of interviews is typically already the final round, and may be at a later date. Here the candidate will have 1 or 2 more interviews with more senior interviewers. So all in all, its entirely possible that a candidate must pass 5 interviews to secure an offer, so you need to be prepared for an exhausting process. Also, it's hard to pass if your case interview game is not strong. You may be lucky once, but there's no way to pass a series of interviews if you're ill-prepared. 

If all the interview rounds were passed successfully, the candidate is extended an offer, possibly even on interview day. Typically, the candidate has some leeway in choosing an exact starting date and may start up to a year later. 

The interview day and individual interview rounds consist of a series of individual interviews. Again, these may look slightly different across firms, but a prototypical interview will look as follows: 

The interview lasts about an hour and has 4 phases.

The first phase is an introduction. Here the goal is to establish rapport with the interviewer and to get to know each other a bit. Maybe the interviewer notices something interesting on the candidate's CV, or maybe a shared hobby sparks a little conversation. It's important for candidates to get into a conversational mode, their social skills are on display. If the candidate leaves a bad impression here, the interviewer will already picture the candidate in awkward interactions with clients. So while this part may not be explicitly judged, it does count. If you hit it off well, the rest of the interview experience may go much more smoothly, and the interviewers may be more willing to help you (even if just unconsciously, but they'll want you to succeed). As in all parts of life, first impressions matter. 

Then we're moving into the main part of the interview. An important component of this is the personal fit section. The interviewer wants to assess the candidates motivations and personal qualities. Some firms may still employ classic HR questions, such as "What's your biggest weakness?", or "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?". But most firms will use more 'behavioral' questions. They'll ask how the candidate would react in a hypothetical situation. And even more frequently, they'll ask for a specific situation from the candidate's past, such as "Tell me about a time when you managed a challenging leadership task", or "Tell me about a past conflict with a coworker and how you resolved it". Firms have come to realize that the best predictor for future behavior is past behavior. So they're increasingly relying on stories and past experiences of candidates. So it's important that candidates also prepare this part well, since it contributes significantly to the overall assessment. Learn how to do that here. 

Now we've arrived at the heart of any consulting interview: the case interview. Here the candidate is asked to solve a hypothetical business problem. It's essentially a compressed consulting project that would take an entire team a couple of weeks or months, into a 30 minute conversation. Oftentimes its an actual project that the interviewer was part of. In this 'gamified' part of the interview, the candidate takes the role of an actual consultant. By structuring information, probing, asking questions, analyzing data, and developing ideas, the candidate has to come up with a recommendation for the hypothetical client. The interviewer will provide the candidate with information throughout the case and may interject with questions. It's less about coming up with the right solution in the end, and more about the candidate's process of addressing the problem. Such a case interview combines hard skills (e.g., quantitative analyses) and soft skills (e.g., clear communication), and can be an intense experience. It's crucial for candidates to prepare diligently for it. Even the best students won't ace it right out of the gate. So you need deliberate practice. Learn more about case interviews and how you can succeed here. 

The last part of a consulting interview is are the candidate's questions. Here, candidates have the opportunity to ask the interviewer questions, typically about the consulting job. Don't dismiss this section. Ideally, candidates have interesting questions that are actually relevant. No administrative questions, no HR question, and nothing that you can easily find on the company website. At most firms, you will also be presented with the CV of your interviewer prior to the interview. Make the most out of the time between the interviewers and have a read through your interviewers CV. Having a few good questions ready which the interviewer can answer by sharing his or her personal experience is great. It shows that the candidate is actually interested in the job, and not just there for the paycheck. Not having any questions may be perceived as a lack of interest or enthusiasm. Last impressions stay, so it's good to end on a high note. 

Once again, has to be noted that this is just the most classic type of interview. There can be deviations, even in MBB interviews. For example, it's possible that the case and the personal fit part are completely separated, in two different interviews.