This is the first of a series of alumni interview spotlights that will profile graduates of the Consulting Training Program and their advice for actively recruiting Wesleyan students.
Consulting Pathways: Firstly, congratulations on getting an offer from Roland Berger! That’s absolutely amazing, and I am so glad for you! To start us off, I wanted to learn a little bit more about the application process. When did it begin/how long was it, and how did it transition into the interview process?
Gaelin Kingston: I submitted my application through the Roland Berger website in early September. The application was pretty straightforward, just a resume and cover letter. It was interesting because I did not get my first round interview invitation until about a month later (early October), in other processes I went through this “not hearing back” always meant that I was going to receive a rejection so I was actually surprised when I got the invite. There were only about 10 days between the invitation to interview and offer, between which I had two rounds of interviews.
Sarah Rizky Ardhani: I had a huge advantage from winning the Roland Berger Case for Cause in my sophomore spring. As one of the prizes, we were given three options as to when we’d like to have the interview/what position (Summer 2021 Intern, Summer 2022 Intern, or Full Time 2023). After choosing, I was told to email them back in the last week of September. I had my first round of interviews on October 14th and my second (and final) round on October 22nd. After the back-to-back email starting in September, it was a pretty quick process. Again, I wouldn’t know how it is for general applications.
CP: What was the interview process like? How did you prepare?
G. Kingston: The interview process was split into two rounds. The first round was a behavioral and case interview with a Consultant (~2 years experience). The case was a glorified market sizing question and the behavioral questions were fairly straightforward (no surprising questions, etc). This was followed later in the week by two final round interviews with more senior people in the firm. The first was a 45 minute behavioral interview and the second was a 45 minute case. The behavioral interview was similar to the first round, while the case was more involved because we had more time. Something that stood out to me about the cases was the extensiveness/detailedness of the prompts. They threw a lot of information at me which meant that I needed to tailor my frameworks even more than usual. Many avenues I would have wanted to explore were cut off due to the given information, so I ended up having fewer buckets than usual.
I split my preparation between the case and behavioral portions. For the case, I really started preparing last fall when I did the Consulting Pathways course. After completing this course I continued practicing cases but definitely at a slower pace (I had intended on doing one/week but ended up doing more like one per month :/ ). In the summer I started picking up again, and was doing about one per week consistently while also re-listening to the LOMs and practicing case openings and market sizing questions (because you can easily do this by yourself). I ramped this up in the early fall as I started receiving interviews and really dedicated a lot more time to it. In terms of my preparation for the behavioral portion, I pretty much just spent a lot of time thinking, writing, and responding to the most common questions (Mostly on the big three: “tell me about yourself?”, “why consulting?”, “why Roland Berger?”).
S. Rizky Ardhani: In my first round, I was interviewed by a Principal in the Chicago office. It was a 15-min fit and 30 min case. And my second round consisted of a 45-min fit with a Project Manager and a 45-min case with a Senior Partner based in Boston. To prepare for my fit interviews, I created a Google Doc filled with the most frequently asked questions (such as why consulting, etc.) and wrote in short bullet points of how I would answer said questions. To prepare for my case interviews, it all really comes down to practice. My friends and I always text each other to set up practices when we have the free time. Shoutout to Aldrean and Asa! <3. I also think the Consulting Pathway Training Program is a great way to start understanding the basics.
CP: How did you pitch yourself? What do you think made you stand out from other applicants?
G. Kingston: My pitch (both in the behavioral interviews and my cover letter) was centered around my background in competitive athletics (as a member of the men’s soccer team at Wes), and my skills in quantitative analysis/using data to solve problems (gained through a summer internship in a very data driven role at a financial services company and coursework in my majors). I emphasized both of these heavily in my response to the “tell me about yourself/walk me through your resume?” questions, and doubled down on them through the “why Roland Berger?” question (i.e. through explaining how the position at Roland Berger would meet my needs by allowing me to continue doing the things I enjoyed in college after it). I like to think that emphasizing these two aspects of my background made me stand out, but think that there were also other indicators that helped me. The main ones were a demonstrated interest in consulting on my resume (Introduction to Statistical Consulting, Consulting Pathways, and summer internship in consulting), record of academic performance (GPA), and passion/personability.
S. Rizky Ardhani: I honestly don’t know. I think it’s because I genuinely think RB is a great company, especially in their efforts on sustainability. And coincidentally (or not, not sure), my interviewers were all super passionate about sustainability. So, there was that connection?
CP: Application season is known to be pretty stressful. How did you stay resilient during this/when you weren’t getting interviews? Do you have any tips for others?
G. Kingston: The number one thing I did that helped me reduce stress was shifting my priorities. I relaxed the high standards I have for other areas of my life while I was going through the application season. Getting a job became my top priority, at or above my other major usage of time which was academics. This is not to say I skipped classes or didn’t turn assignments in, but I definitely did not put the same time and effort I have in past semesters. My rationale for this was that the minor decrease in GPA associated with the difference between an A- and a B+ was not going to have a huge impact on my ability to be successful in the future (especially given that it is my senior year and the places I was applying to would not see the current grades I was getting). This shift gave me more time to do the things I needed to reduce my stress level (exercise, eat, sleep, socialize, etc you get the idea). I think it is really important to be easy on yourself and avoid attaching your personal value to the outcome of any given application or interview.
CP: What made you decide to pick Roland Berger?
G. Kingston: A major factor driving my decision, in addition to the general/typical reasons one would want to go into the industry (skill acquisition, exposure to incredible people and companies, working on a team, etc…), was the sustainability related work Roland Berger does in the U.S. In the final round I was interviewed by a director in the Chicago office who is on the energy team. We talked about the work Roland Berger is doing to help companies transition to more green strategies, specifically in the automotive industry helping car companies make the switch from gas to electric cars, and in the energy industry imagining how companies can transition to cleaner forms of energy production. While I am coming in as a generalist and will be staffed on many different types of projects, I am excited that this type of work exists at Roland Berger as it strongly aligns with my personal interests.
S. Rizky Ardhani: The people seem so nice!! I’m also excited about their Internship program. We will have a buddy-buddy system (amongst the other interns) and a mentor-mentee system (with either a partner or a project manager). And like others, we were promised a very hands-on role in one of their projects. Very cool.
CP: What are you most excited about? Have you decided on where you are going to work (location)?
G. Kingston: I am most excited about diving into the cases I get assigned to and actually experiencing what it is like working as a consultant. It feels like I have been building up to this experience for a really long time and I cannot wait to jump into it. I am going to be in the Boston office, and am looking forward to meeting the people in the office who I will likely spending a lot of time with in the not so distant future.
S. Rizky Ardhani: Definitely hands-on experience with their projects! RB is very well-known to be experts in heavy industries, so I want to know what that looks like. Yes! Chicago! It is said to have the biggest intern class and to be established in automotives. I think cars are cool.
CP: Finally, any tips for your sophomore self (read: any underclassmen interested in consulting)?
G. Kingston:
- Invest regular time (~1 hour of focused thinking a week) into what you enjoy the most and spend time exploring those things.
- Submit applications to positions you are interested in as soon as you can, definitely don’t wait until the deadline to submit (unless you are seriously unprepared for the interview process).
- Use Handshake first (I found myself to be more successful when I applied through handshake)
- Manage your relationships with grace and invest time into them. I cannot emphasize enough how much I got from the conversations I had with current consultants.
- Don’t let math be the reason you don’t pass a case (I think Catherine will say this as well). I failed two cases because of math errors.
- Case with a regular cadence. If I could do it again I would have gotten on a more regular schedule.
- Set aside time to talk to people working in positions/industries you think you might be interested in. Try to have low stakes conversations with them to learn about their experience and whether you could see yourself doing it.
- Listen/act on the words of the people running CP. I got a lot of incredible advice from them and never regretted acting on it.
S. Rizky Ardhani: Don’t compare yourself to others, it’s okay to take it slow, and please get some sleep.
Want to talk to Gaelin and Sarah? Check out the alumni database to set up time to chat!
