Slalom Consulting Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: This part is frustrating; especially while getting reviews after you've made a draft. However, after heavy editing based on advice from seniors, it gave me a good head-start and confidence to move on to future preparation towards placements.
Tips: Management consulting shortlist is very strongly resume based. Hence the resume is the most crucial asset for getting a shortlist in the first place. When you know the success rate for getting shortlisted is less than 10%, you better make sure your resume makes the cut.

Detailed instructions and tips on how to make a good consulting resume can be found in many books(I referred to 'Killer Consulting Resumes' by Wetfeet which is good to get your basics); It is too extensive for me to elaborate here hence I will avoid the commonly available knowledge about peaks, focus, etc. 

Summarizing the most important aspect which according to me is - Make sure every bullet-ed point has three things - 'WHAT you did, WHY/HOW you did, and the RESULTS'. All 3 should be included in one single line of text in the most robust use of words making sure you convey these. Another extremely important step in making a resume is getting reviews from seniors and alumni in firms where you are applying. This part is irritating and frustrating at times because you will need multiple iterations till the resume is refined. The key is not to get affected while getting reviews from different people and stay as objective as possible - trust me, this is not that easy as it sounds, it gets demotivating when people are critiquing on what you did in your life and how should it be portrayed on paper. This process of getting comments will never stop even after multiple iterations because of difference in opinions among the reviewers; you need to stop when you have knowingly turned down several comments keeping your own perspective in mind till you are content with your resume.

Finally make sure you complete your resume well before deadlines to avoid blunders and dissatisfaction and make sure a printed copy looks aesthetically appealing.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: General format for all the case study rounds was: (1) Tell me about yourself : I had prepared a list of what I wanted to speak about and memorized the key points to present a 2 minute monologue. However, I very keenly made sure to strike a conversation on any part where the interviewer interrupted me out of interest to ensure it sounded more like a conversation between two colleagues rather than a speech by a candidate to an interviewer. (2) Case: Coming back to the case mentioned in the question above:I considered 3 factors:(1) Market size for each geography and their growth rates(2) Market capture from competition(3) Profit per unitInterviewer: Using 1 graph each and nothing else, represent all of the 3 factors mentionedI drew the 3 most relevant graphs that came to my mind for each of the 3 factors mentioned. (3) Questions for the interviewer: I used to generally ask the guys outside the interview room to give me a brief introduction of the interviewer before the interview started. I used to use that information to ask a question to the interviewer in this part of the interview hoping to strike a chord with him before leaving.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Ask objective of driver? – Higher returns

·        
Calc returns (profits) for each case as your driver and as a Meru cabs driverSalary 15000 per month + bonus of 1 month salary annually.

·        
Meru cabs: Aggregator (no cabs of their own)
Driver need to get his own car and register on Meru cabs.

·        
Cost on EMI: new car – 30000 p.m. Old car –
15000 p.m.

·        
Cost of maintainence of old car: Rs 1.5/km

·        
Meru promises 15 pickups of 20 km each day at Rs
30/km. There is an additional 50% driving distance which is not paid by client

·        
Cost of fuel = Rs 72/L. Mileage 12 kmpl

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I typically had never expected a case of this sort as it was too broad and undefined to give in an interview. However, it clearly looked like a case of organisational reconstruction and portfolio management. In the little time I had, I decided to give an idea of how I would proceed to solve such a case rather than really solve the case by using the BCG matrix. I clearly explained the matrix making sure I had conveyed that I knew what is actually was rather than just throwing jargon around.

I don't really know how the interviewer took my approach(as it was too text-bookish);he could neither object since it was an established case solving technique nor appreciate it as there was nothing creative in it.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Use costs and discuss – final problem was increased R&D costs for customization of various gears while adding new clients

Skills: Problem Solving, Pressure Handling, Communication , Logical Thinking, Hardwork, Presentation skills
College Name: IIT BOMBAY