Challenging! Summary: The interview process will test you on the skills set you will need to have to work as consultant. Even if you are not from the field of consultancy, you can successfully go through this process. This interview is so far the most challenging I had to do. I wish you the best of luck! My background: I am a scientist, got a PhD degree in cell therapies and business training (economics, finance, marketing, communication, leadership, etc.). I worked academia (1 year) and the industry (4 years), where I did a lot of project management, problem solving, data analysis, literature readings, etc. The interview process, relevant feedback and advices: 1- Online application: I always add a cover letter to my application explaining why I want to join the company and what skills I can bring to the team. Most importantly I make it personal and tailored to the offer and the company. 2- Phone call with the recruiter for 20 min (approx. 3 weeks after the previous step). It is a first contact call. The recruiter will ask you general questions to understand who you are, what are your professional objectives, and know more about your personality. 3- In-person interview lasting for 4 hours (approx. 3 weeks after the previous step). There is the CHALLENGE. You start with an hour of competency test. Completely random questions will be asked, no way you can prepare on the content of this test. My guess is that the interviewers want to evaluate your sense of logic and your brain power. I would recommend to work on your problem solving skills (as scientist, I was all right), basic mental calculation, and understanding of a business (fixed costs, variable costs, notion of supply and demand, impact of the competition in a business field - you do not need to be an expert but understand these notions). Then, you will do a presentation on a topic given 7 days before. The question ask information about a disease and the instructions can be quite general. I think the interviewers wants to see what is your approach to answer a question on a topic you have no prior knowledge on, how do you structure your presentation, how do you search information, and how confident do you feel on what you learnt (questions). I will not lie, I spent 3 long days to prepare it... During the presentation the interviewers will stop you to ask questions (as for a lab meeting), some questions require more advanced knowledge to judge on how well prepared you are. Last test, you have an hour to analyze a paper. As scientist, I did not prepare for that as it is part of my job. I was not expecting the paper to be from a clinical study, (Vs the preclinical study I am used to read) and on a completely different field that I had zero knowledge of. You have 8 - 9 questions to answer about the paper. My advice is, do not panic… time management is the key. 4- A 3 hours writing task (approx. 1 week after the previous step). You will be emailed a task with several long documents (>100 pages) and you will be given 3 hours to complete the task. This task was really challenging! I had the chance to have guessed what mine would be based the interview pattern, so I had time to prepare a little bit. My interview was different that the one you will have so… I cannot provide insight here.

1. Brief telephone interview with a recruiter 2. 4 hour interview made up of 4 sections (interview, presentation, assessment, chat with colleagues in the team). It was very awkward and difficult, felt patronized the entire time so my advice is to be confident in your answers as it's easy to feel intimidated. Interview questions were a mix, both competency, strength, experience, and market case study questions also. Mid-presentation, I was consistently interrupted with questions and conversations that were due to be talked about in the next slides so I felt very disorientated and as mentioned, intimidated. They were aware that I had no experience but asked very industry-specific questions that I was unable to answer having not had the perfect background. I didn't receive any feedback even though I messaged the recruiter several times, after being told a week later, I even messaged the manager of the recruiter who told me she wasn't in charge of the outcomes and for me to message the recruiter so no response. A whole month later I was emailed by the recruiter telling me that they chose someone else (which I was told a month before anyway) with NO feedback.