PKC Advisory Consultant Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a standard resume for this company as per our institute placement cell norms.
For a consultant profile, they do look for a consistent academic performance, scholarships, Olympiads etc. So I did make sure to include all my academic achievements in my resume.

Round: Test
Experience: This was the first round and was conducted in October itself, well before the final placement process that begins only in December. The test had 20 questions. All the questions described a particular situation and 4 options describing solutions/implications of the situation were provided. The candidate was supposed to choose one of the 4 alternatives, which according to him, was the best possible answer. From what I recall, there wasn’t much calculation involved. Use of calculator was permitted.
Tips: Attempt all the questions. Be accurate.

Round: Guesstimate Interview
Experience: Around 23 students got shortlisted for the next round of selection process which was held in December.
This round was based on “guesstimate” problems. I was asked to calculate the total annual revenue of McDonalds in India. No other data was given. Use of calculator was not permitted. This interview lasted for about 10-15 minutes.
Some other candidate was asked to estimate the length of roads in Delhi. Another one was asked to calculate the number of road side ads/banners in Delhi.
Tips: Prepare for guesstimate problems and qualitative case analysis.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: Indus Insights is a new company. It had a team of only 6 people when it came for recruiting. Not much information was available on the internet. I did attend its pre-placement talk and that acted as the main source of information about the company and the profile offered.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a standard resume for this company as per our institute placement cell norms.
They were least interested in my resume. They cared more about your analytical skills rather than on your on campus activities.

Round: Test
Experience: The first round was the written test which had a few questions from data interpretation and some questions that were quite peculiar to the consulting sector as such. Only 24 students got shortlisted for the next round out of close to 350 applicants.
Tips: The cut off for the written test was very high. So ensuring accuracy and attempting all the questions is important.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The next round was the case study round. The case that I was presented with was to calculate the number of hoardings in a metropolitan city with the help of given data. I failed to qualify beyond this round.
Tips: One should prepare for “Guesstimate” type case interviews (where the interviewee is tried to estimate the final answer based on logical deduction and analysis of the given facts) for this company as they give very high emphasis to the performance in the case study interview round.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: Indus Insight is a start-up which uses quantitative analytics to give solution to real life problems encountered in business. The company was founded by an IITB alumnus. It is growing at a fast pace and the best source of information about them was the pre placement talk organised by them.

Round: Test
Tips: A general aptitude written test was there. It is a bit more difficult as compared to other screening tests.

Round: HR Interview
Tips: There were 4 rounds of interviews – 2 guesstimates, 1 HR and 1 case study round. They look at your approach to the guesstimate and not the final answer. They expect you to able to solve puzzles as well. The guesstimates are very important to solve. The case study round is pretty easy. PoRs aren’t really important.

General Tips: Caseinpoint and Case interview cracked will help too. Manage your slots well on the day. Apart from that studying in groups help more for placements.
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Test
Experience: The questions were very easy and they were crack-able even if you haven't prepared for CAT. However, a bit of preparation would only help.
Tips: Do CAT questions, if you want to. Aim for accuracy since the paper was very easy.
Duration: 50 minutes minutes
Total Questions: 35

Round: Guesstimate Interview
Experience: I have had thoroughly prepared for guesstimates and hence I was able to crack this easily. Initially I had proposed an inefficient way of estimation. The interviewer then asked me to find another way. This second way was easier than the first and hence we estimated the sale through the second methodology.
Tips: Practice a lot. As can be seen, the question is very vague in its current form. What do we mean by sale - revenue or quantity? What is the time period we are looking at - day or month or year? Asking these preliminary questions make you sound intelligent. Do not miss any opportunity to give an insight into the business. For example, there will be two types of vendors on Juhu Beach - permanent stalls and temporary stalls. Temporary stalls would vanish during monsoon time. Incorporating such simple factors shows your strong analytical skills. Try to leverage your insights in such situations. But, in the end, this will come only after enough practice. So, practice qualitatively. Try to arrive at the number from at least 4-5 different ways. Sit in a group. Think independently. Improve each other's idea.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It was a very basic question, which involved using common sense only. The interview was conversational and the interviewer kept imposing new conditions on the given profit v/s customer segment curve to check how can I think when there are multiple constraints in the problem.
Tips: Practice qualitatively, to hone your common sense. Sit in groups. Do multiple case studies. Analyze each and every case study thoroughly.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I was asked to analyze the customer care section of an e-commerce firm and was asked to write down the cost incurred by this section in a mathematical way. The idea was to identify all the factors that contribute to the cost and then look at the ways to reduce the cost.
It was a typical case interview and was conversational in nature. And, it went pretty smooth.
Tips: Practice qualitatively. Do case interviews. Analyze the same problem from multiple angles rather than solving more number of problems from only a single angle.

General Tips: 1. Get to know what is that the company is seeking.
2. Prepare for it.
Skill Tips: Practice for the specific interviews. That is it.
Skills: Common Sense
College Name: IIT BOMBAY
Motivation: 1. It was a start-up (founded in 2009). For me, it meant making meaningful contribution and learning a lot.
2. It was a management consulting firm- the sector that I was targeting.