Berkeley M.E.T. Professional Development Resources Composed by Imani Salazar-Nahle

1. Consulting Recruiting 101
Berkeley M.E.T. Professional Development Resources
Composed by Imani Salazar-Nahle

2. Agenda
1. Introduction
1. Industry Overview
1. Recruitment Process Overview
1. Behavioral Interview Tips
1. Acing the Case Interview

3. Year: Senior
Major(s): Business Administration
Professional Interests: Consulting (Nonprofit & Private
Equity)
Work Experience:
● Bain & Co. (Consulting - Private Equity Group)
● KPMG (Audit, Tax and Advisory)
● West Ventures (Startup Consulting)
● Quip for Salesforce (Tech Sales)
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/imani-salazar-nahle
Email: imanisalazarnahle@berkeley.edu
Introduction – About Imani

4. Industry Overview

5. What is Consulting?
High-Level Overview
Consultants provide expert opinions, analysis and recommendations to organizations and
individuals based on their comprehensive research and data analysis.
Hours
Consultants typically
work anywhere
between 50 and 80
hours a week
Salary Work Style
Highly collaborative
and client-facing;
typically involves
traveling to clients
Annual base pay for
recent graduates
ranges from 80k-100k
Consulting is such a broad profession that there is no one-size-fits all job description. There are a
plethora of different verticals that exist within consulting which allow consultants to develop a
diverse and multifaceted skill set as well as expertise in several industries/spaces.

6. Types of Consulting Firms
6
Strategy Consulting Non-Strategy Consulting
Economic Consulting
Vertical/Functional Area-Specific
Nonprofit Consulting
Consulting clients within a specific industry or defined space
Consulting corporations and government entities regarding the
intersection of economics, business, and law.
Digital Consulting

7. Recruitment Process Overview

8. Freshman Fall – Sophomore Spring:
• Keep your cumulative GPA ~3.8
• Beef up your resume with internships and leadership positions
Sophomore Spring – Sophomore Summer:
• Start looking into resources for case interviews (Case Interview Secrets, LOMS)
• Start crafting your story of “why consulting”
• Start polishing up your resume and curating firm-specific cover letters
Sophomore Summer – Junior Fall:
• Find casing buddies who you trust will give helpful & honest feedback (ideally 1-2 incoming senior(s), and 1-2 incoming junior(s))
• Create a recruiting spreadsheet to keep track of deadlines
• Sophomore Summer: Commit 3-5 hours/week or 2-3 cases/week (more to frontload)
• Junior Fall: Commit 8-10 hours/week or 4-5 cases/week (outside of info sessions & networking)
Junior Fall:
• Earliest interview: Mid-September
• 75% of interviews: Late September – Early November
• Late interviews: Altman Vilandrie, ZS Associates, Internal Strategy Groups
• Offers typically extended October – November
Recruitment Timeline
Internship and interview timeline – preparing for Junior year recruiting

9. On-campus resources
Increase on-campus involvement to beef up resume and establish a network
Consulting clubs
● Student-run consulting clubs
begin recruitment at the start
of every semester and offer
real client work experience
(information published on
Facebook/Instagram + Sproul
tabling)
● Haas-affiliated student groups
and consulting-specific
opportunities (information
found on their website)
Haas-sponsored events
and classes
● Attend career fairs or other
Haas-organized events for
direct access to recruiters
● HBSA-hosted professional
development and mentorship
opportunities
● Consulting-focused Haas
classes (i.e. UGBA 179) offer
insight into the recruiting
process and holistic job
experience
UC Berkeley Externships
● Cal Career Fair offers an
externship program allowing
current students to shadow
alumni working in their field
● Externships span anywhere
from 1 day to 1 week,
depending on the position
● Applications open in
November and externships
occur during Winter break

10. • Number of consulting internship spots for juniors
• Each firm accepts on avg. 2-4 interns; 8 firms (approx.) x 3 interns = 24 spots!
• Importance of Info session
• Put your name down, and listen to the presentation IF you haven’t done your research
• Importance of Networking/Coffee Chats
• 50/50 chance of getting your foot in the door; mostly merit-based
• Very minimal downside: use it to your advantage for crafting “why x firm” stories
• Chat with the right folks: Associate Consultant/Business Analyst/Analyst usually, with
connections (i.e. M.E.T. alumni or other org-affiliated alumni)
• Alternatives to strategy consulting
• Internal strategy groups within F500 firms
• Other types of consulting i.e. area-specific, economic, non-profit
• Startup strategy consulting (i.e. Venture studios - similar to due diligence work)
• Financial strategy, Investment banking or private equity (i.e. due diligence work)
Additional Recruiting Facts

11. Behavioral Interview
Tips

12. Career
Interest/
favorite class/
project
X Factor
Why
Berkeley ?
Why
Engineering
& Business
Hometown
Frame Up Your Why = Elevator Pitch
In my free time,
I like to _____.
Hometown
provides a
geographic touch
point for the listener
and establishes
common ground
Everyone has a
connection to
Cal; hearing about
why you chose the
school establishes
relatability

13. Preparing Your Answers
● Create a google doc of common behavioral interview questions and type out your answers
to each question. This will help you build your “library” of possible experiences to bring up for
each question or similar question you are asked, minimizing your thinking time.
○ Common behavioral questions:
■ Tell me about a time when you influenced or persuaded a group.
■ What is your relationship-building style?
■ What are some goals that you’ve set for yourself that you were successful in
meeting?
■ Tell me about a time when you made a mistake.
■ Tell me about a time when you worked on a team.
■ Tell me about a challenge you faced at work. How did you handle it?
■ Tell me about a time when you showed leadership in the face of adversity.
● Craft your story! The first thing you’ll likely be asked is: “Tell me about yourself.” Practice your
“elevator pitch” that breaks down your story in an interesting and efficient way.
○ Consider any general themes you’ve faced throughout your professional, academic and
personal life – what makes you YOU?

14. Acing the Case Interview

15. What is a case?
• A business issue/problem company is facing in a few sentences
• Takes about 25 minutes; has limited data which is usually provided if asked for
• Approach to solution is more important than the final solution
There are two common case interview methods for strategy consulting:
• ‘Go with the flow’ cases (typical of most firms) –You will determine which areas to
explore and lead the discussion, i.e. drive the case
• Command and control (typical of McKinsey) –Interviewer guides the discussion and case
has heavy brainstorming components and quantitative work
• *Non-strategy consulting interviews (i.e. economic consulting) may also include technical
questions as they pertain to the specific vertical (i.e. regression or DCF analysis)
Common Case Types
• Profitability
• Market Entry
• Acquisition
• Organization
• Industry Analysis (incl. non-
profit)
• Market sizing
• Capacity Expansion (incl. outsourcing)
• Investments
Intro to Casing

16. Case Prep Resources
Casebooks/Online Cases
● Case interview strategy and
overview books (i.e. Victor
Chang’s Case in Point)
● Case books from business
schools (i.e. Wharton case
books from various years)
● Online interactive cases (i.e.
McKinsey practice cases on
their website)
Casing Buddies
● Practice, practice, practice!!
Case more when you’re closer
to the interview (~5+ case
prep sessions per week)
● Help others case as a way to
get a feel for what it’s like in
the interviewer’s shoes
● Go through different types of
cases as you practice (i.e.
market sizing vs profitability
cases)
Info sessions/Webinars
● Some firms and organizations
host online forums where
professionals will walk
through a case and how to
employ casing strategies
● Career center or other school-
hosted professional events
featuring consulting firms
● Firm-hosted infosessions
during the recruitment process

17. Cracking the Question
1. Set up your framework
- As the interviewer reads
the case prompt, take
notes
- Repeat the main
points back to them
to check for
understanding
- Clarify any info you may
have missed or any
outstanding questions
you have
- Don’t be afraid to
ask questions!
- Prioritize information
- Assess what
information is most
relevant to the
context of the case
and what isn’t
2. Develop your answer
- Take time to organize and
process
- Right after the prompt is
read and you’ve checked
for understanding, ask for
a few minutes to organize
your thoughts
- Double check any
calculations! Accuracy >
Speed
- Structure your info
- Organize relevant
information into “buckets”
to compartmentalize
- Walk your interviewer through
your thinking
- Your interviewer is
emulating a client role.
They should understand
your approach.
3. Deliver your conclusion
- There is no correct answer to some
questions
- Rather than looking for
accuracy, interviewers
sometimes seek to assess
your confidence in your
approach
- Be investigative!
- As you walk through your
methodology, try to think
about what pieces of info
might be missing
- Sense-check your answers
before making a decision
- Conclude your case
- Take a few seconds to
structure your synthesized
approach
- Always tie your conclusion
back to the primary focus

18. Walking Through the Case
Client Background:
You’re having lunch with an old friend from university, and she’s looking for some business advice. She is thinking of opening a coffee shop in
Cambridge, England, a large university city an hour and a half away from London. She sees potential in this business but wants your help in
determining whether opening a coffee shop is a good idea. What do you think?
1. Restate Question
- Repeat and check information conveyed
through the prompt
- Take time to think:
- Ask yourself questions as you structure
1. How big is the opportunity?
2. How much does it cost to open the
coffee shop?
3. What is the shop’s go-to-market
strategy?
2. Structure your framework
Source: Bain & Co. practice case (Coffee Shop Co.)

19. Walking Through the Case
Your friend loves your framework. She is especially interested in figuring out the size of the market to
estimate how many cups of coffee she can sell. For now, she wants to focus on Cambridge residents
alone. How do you estimate the size of the market?
3. Market Sizing - Top Down Approach
● 100,000 people live in Cambridge
○ *80% are adults = 80,000 people
○ *50% of adults are coffee drinkers = 40,000 people
○ *1 cup of coffee per person per day = 40,000 cups of coffee per day
○ *50% of coffee made and consumed at home = 20,000 cups of coffee per day bought at
coffee shops
○ *~350 days per year= 7,000,000 cups of coffee per year
Total market size is 7,000,000 cups of coffee per year
*Interviewee estimate (not given)

20. Walking Through the Case
Now that you have the market size, your friend wants to gain a better understanding of how much
coffee she would need to sell to break even in her first year.
How much coffee does she need to sell to break even in the first year?
Here is some additional information:
Price per coffee = £3
Cost to open shop = £245,610
Cost to run shop each year = £163,740
Cost per cup of coffee = £1
4. Break Even Point Calculation
Breakeven:
(Price * Quantity) - (Fixed Costs + Variable Costs) = £0
Profit = £0
Revenue - Costs = £0
3Q - (245,610+163,740+Q) = 0
Q = 204,675 cups to breakeven

21. Walking Through the Case
1. Set up your framework and restate known info
Estimated market size
~7,000,000 coffee cups per year
Estimated first year fixed costs:
£409,350
Estimated number of coffee
sales needed to breakeven:
~204,675 cups
2. Make recommendation
Based on your analysis, your friend should open the coffee shop since there are 7,000,000 cups sold and
the break-even point is 204,675 cups, which is 3% of the market share, breaking even is achievable.
3. Discuss next steps | Questions to consider with recommendation
- What is the investment timeline? Can we recover first year fixed costs?
- What is Coffee Co’s go-to-market strategy?
- How will the organization differentiate itself among its competitors?
- Is there a dominant player that will make it difficult to win market share?
- Is the market full of smaller competitors that Coffee Co could beat?

22. Crafting a MECE Framework
MECE = mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive
Idea 1 Idea 2
Ideas are mutually
exclusive and have
no overlap
Idea 1 Idea 2 Idea 3
Ideas are collectively
exhaustive and leave no
whitespace opportunity
When structuring and bucketing given information/your ideas, you should ensure all points are both mutually exclusive
and collectively exhaustive. No one idea should resemble another and all ideas should consider all possibilities.

23. MECE Framework Examples
This framework shows a clear distinction between the products and services categories → mutually exclusive
All qualifying items are listed out in each category, leaving nothing out of the list → collectively exhaustive

24. MECE Framework Examples
Profitability framework clearly distinguishes between revenue and cost categories → mutually exclusive
Each category is shown exactly as the total components they are made up of → collectively exhaustive

25. Good luck! :)