Pierian Services Associate Consultant Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: When I outlined that he could opt for a JV, an acquisition or an own set-up, he asked me to probe further into the JV idea. From there on, the case was about identifying specific metrics to ascertain the best JV route. It was a very spontaneous case discussion, and we covered a variety of opportunities, problems and solutions in and around the original problem statement.
Tips: Keep high energy through the interview. Feel confident and remember that, at the end of the day, an interview should most importantly be a good conversation.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I structured the problem in a very detailed manner. I asked relevant questions and took my time. I also got lucky that intuitively I managed to find the root cause of the problem, though it wasn’t expected out of the case. The rapport with the interviewer was good during and after the case.

Skills: Problem Solving Abilties, Case Analysis
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: nETWORKING session
Experience: In the activity, we were given fundaes by senior people about how the work would be, shared their experience working the company. In brief it was more or less like knowing about the company and their work at more closer level. This was in no way related to selection. We were given an opportunity to have a small chit chat with their senior people.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I was asked questions related to quantitative cases. Case studies using quantitative analysis contain elements of the empirical–analytical scientific approach.
Tips: Be good at your logical skills and communication skills.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: In the second round I was asked to answer conceptual cases. I felt this round was a bit more testing than the first round. But overall first two rounds are almost similar.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: In the 3rd round there was nothing asked about cases. I was asked questions like Why was I interested in joining this company, What are my long term goals and what are my short term goals. The questions were aimed at knowing about me and my level of commitment towards my future and the company.

General Tips: 1. Practice cases.
2. Watch videos on cases.
3. Choose electives and minors on technical side.
4. Good communication skills.
Skill Tips: 1. Practice cases.
2. Watch videos on cases.
3. Choose electives and minors on technical side.
Skills: Logical Skills, Communications skills
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: First 5 minutes is taken to analyse your resume and get a feel of you as a person.The problem will be given for you to analyse and it is very important that you style what you speak to carry forward a constructive discussion with the interviewers. They will look at how you apply your knowledge to build a solution.
Tips: The 2 important things that you need to keep in mind are as follows ï Breaking the problem down to the absolute basicï Following a systematic and structured way of solving the problems.It is important to get feedback post-interview and they (the interviewers) would be willing to let you know as well.Important to defend your resume well. Have bullet points ready to speak for 30-45 seconds on them. It should differentiate you from other candidates.

General Tips: Resume should have a narrative of life in insti. Listing your passions and skills. Lookout for spikes in resume. Distinguish your work from other people in institute. Attend resume making sessions to understand how to reflect them in resume. Contact seniors who have joined the company to go through resume and suggest changes. Good Leadership PoRs will be appreciated. Important to quantify achievements in resume as companies like to see spike/impact that you have created. November – Prep for Case interview in a rigorous manner
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Group Activity
Experience: I had an activity (networking session) before interview. However it was nothing related to selection process. we were given fundaes by senior people about how the work would be, shared their experience working the company. In brief it was more or less like knowing about the company and their work at more closer level. This was in no way related to selection. We were given an opportunity to have a small chit chat with their senior people.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I was asked questions related to quantitative cases. Case studies using quantitative analysis contain elements of the empirical analytical scientific approach.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I was asked to answer conceptual cases. I felt this round was a bit more testing than the first round. But overall fist two rounds are almost similar.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: There was nothing asked about cases. The questions were aimed at knowing about me and my level of commitment towards my future and the company.

Skill Tips: I practiced a lot of cases. I had a partner with me, and we used to sit together and practice cases. I spoke to some of the pass-out seniors. Even that helped me a lot. If you ask what helped me more while preparing for interview, having a partner and practicing cases with him helped me and him a lot. You can literally know many things when you speak to someone rather talking to a book. I had no prior intentions for core. I wrote all key points on paper, sticked them to my cupboard and used to go through them. I didn't refer any books or any material or anything. Anyway I had this non-core stuff already in my mind. I choose my minors and electives in the interest of the management side. I started practicing cases very early. I also watched many videos about the cases.
Skills: Logic, Communication
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The interview began with a quintessential -“Why don't you tell me something about
yourself?”, The case in round one was about potato chip manufacturing company. Didn't . really end up cracking the case/
Tips: You really need to be calm and only then will the analytical skills and creativity really show. But do not worry - the interviewer shall go out of his/her way to make you feel so.
Just be you and try to establish connecting with the interviewer. A smiling face comes in handy too.
Also, there is a lot of buildup on campus to the start of day zero- just remain calm during that time. It‟s easy to feel over pressurized, especially with all the short-lists coming in, but just relax. It‟s going to be fine.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case:The client is a large cement company with the highest market share. The second close player is cutting prices. To match the prices the client has also reduced its prices and is facing declining profits. The client has given us 3 weeks to solve the problem.
Structure:
I asked him about the dynamics of the industry. He explained that there is not much difference between the products as well as the cost structures of the company. This meant that even the competitor is losing money by the price war.
I suggested 2 alternatives to solve this: first involved analyzing the cost structure and trying to reduce costs. But the interviewer told me that the client has used all the cost efficiencies possible (this indicates that the interviewer does not want me to go deeper).
Second option that I suggested involved was the Game Theory approach. This involves indicating to the competitor that we will not reduce our prices even if he does so. This I suggested could be done by issuing some way of communication to the competitor. But he said that the competitor is not willing to talk. I could not think of what could be done so he suggested that the client should increase the prices. This will show to the competitor that the client is serious.
Then the interviewer said that after one week, the sales of the client had declined drastically and the competitor had not reduced its prices. This created a problem of inventory.
To solve this data was collected geographically and analyzed. It was found that some dealers had reduced the stocks of the clients cement. The clients did this as they expected the price increase to be temporary and thus wanted to postpone the purchase. I suggested increasing the prices again. This will signal to the dealers that the price increase is not temporary.
Finally he asked me to give some suggestions about the same. I suggested that the dealers should be given discounts based on the average volumes they generate every week and month. This will help in inventory planning. Secondly whenever the price is increased they should be increased all at once and any decrease should be spread over a larger period. This will not allow competitors and dealers to pre-empt the client.
Tips: Even though the ideas might sound outlandish, get them across, they will give you the benefit of thinking out of the box. Try to involve the interviewer in the case as much as possible, if he is interested he will point you out more and more in the right direction.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Started directly with the case. At the end of the case asked me about LBO (Leveraged buyout) and asked me to give an example in the Indian markets .
Case:I was travelling in a taxi when the driver asked me about switching his car and joining the radio cab service such as Meru. What is your advice?
Structure:
I said that we will compare the profits of the two methods and make our decisions based on that. I asked about the revenue and costs of the two and calculated the profit.
I proved that joining the radio cab was better. But the interviewer told me that was the wrong answer. He asked me to go back.
I took the current taxi and approached the different line items one by one. I suggested that if the driver installed an AC he will be able to charge more. But the interviewer asked me to suggest something else.
If the engine of the cab (which was currently diesel) could be replaced by CNG (the radio cab used CNG) the fuel cost reduced drastically making the current cab more profitable. I showed him the calculations.
Tips: Try to be receptive to the hints given by the interviewer in the process. They are extremely important to get to the solution quickly.

General Tips: Do not lose your calm even if you answer wrong.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Very basic scoping questions.1)Re-iterated the question. Confirmed the objective. 2)Asked him if this was attached to a mall. –He said forsimplicity purposes, let us assume it to be a standalone multiplex.
I told him that any multiplex would have mainly four sources of Revenues:1)Ticket Sales 2) Food and Beverages 3) Advertising 4) Parking Fees He askedme to ignore Parking fees and suggest ways to improve revenue for each of the other three categories.I started with Ticket Sales. Ticket Sales = Number of Tickets Sold/Show * Price * Number of shows. 1)Optimize show timings in such a way that more showscan be accommodated. This needs to be considered as a tradeoff to advertising and trailer timings.2)Pricing: Have a dynamic pricing strategy just like in airplanes. You charge each customer different based on the timing of purchase and supply demand equation.

Skill Tips: A very long PI session. Can’t say it was a PI, much like a conversation. The interviewer asked me about my work at Arvind Infrastructure. We discussed about my work for around 5-7 mins. This made me feel very comfortable and I was very much set for my case interview. He was extremely friendly and very good to talk to
Skills: Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Follow the basic Profit –Loss Framework. He asked me to just consider Revenues.Revenues of Retail Company Factors: 1) Number of Footfalls 2) Conversion Rate 3) Products Bought 4) Quantity 5) Price of each product 6) Repeat customers.He asked me to discuss strategies to improve all of the above factors.I don’t remember what I spoke for all factors, but wherever I was unable to think, he was giving me clues. Being from retail background, I was able to relate my experiences with many of the solutions suggested.We talked about availability of products: Asked him to keep safety stock. Forecasting needs to be much better, appropriate information needs to be passed to distributors.Talked aboutplanogram: this is how you display your products, shelf space etc.I discussed with him about the loyalty programs and COD model.The interview was long, but again much like a conversation. Was very much relaxes during the interview and the interviewer was also smiling which made me feel very comfortable
Tips: Knowing your background really helps. One can suggest innovative solutions to the interviewer. BCG was the only consulting shortlist I had and by this time, I was very much determined to get to a closure.

Skill Tips: Tell me about yourself. –When I reached my retail experience part, he said “I am very interested in consumer behavior. Letus do a case on a retail chain.”We also discussed a lot about my retail experience:1)He asked me what were the challenges I faced –I told him inventory management was the biggest problem. Did you use some tools to solve inventory issues?I said yes. Spoke about it for about 2-3 mins.2)Why retail?
Skills: Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Started with the basic Revenues –Costs = profit framework. He asked me to concentrate on revenues. I identified the sources of revenues 1) Consulting 2) Surgeries 3) Lab 4) Pharmacy. He nodded and asked me to move on. I asked him if there was a revenue dip in any of these services to which he replied these are all related and hence the dip is across all services. I asked him about the competition. I asked him whether the competition is offering similar services and how does it charge for its services as compared to the hospital in question. He said “Competition doesn’t specializes in heart surgeries like our hospital. However, it performs all services and their pricing structure is different.I asked him if they were pricing services lower than us to which he replied “no”. He wanted me to think on what could be different in terms of prices. I told him that the structure of pricing is different and hence the hospital may have one fixed fee whereas the competition may have a base fee plus additional charges. The price may come out to be the same but people may perceive it to be cheaper. He appreciated my answer and asked me if I would change the structure of the Hospital in question.I replied that I wouldn’t change the structure. The hospital has a very strong brand and has been following this pricing structure since ages. If it seemingly makes it lower, there is a possibility that patients may come to know about this and its brand may get tarnished. I wasn’t too happy with how I defended but I defended nonetheless.He asked me if I had any questions and I really didn’t have any questions for him. Too tired and nervous to think of anything. However, it is very important to prepare questions for interviewers.
Tips: 1)PI is extremely important. It helps you to develop connect with the interviewer. Also it adds to your confidence. Be genuine about your PI.2)Always keep smiling and be very confident. More than the solution, the interviewer should get good vibes during the interview. Even if you falter, admit that you do not know and you would like to understand from the interview how it needs to be done.3)Be humble.4)Do not ask your colleagues about how their interview experience went. It will just add to your worries and you may end up losing confidence.5)The interview should be more like a conversation.6)Sleep well the night before, do not wait for the schedule. Get up early and check the schedule. Do one case which you are most confident about the day of the interview.7)Again keep smiling.

Skills: Personality, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)