New Executive Committee
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
We are confident that the new team will do a good job in carrying forward the Club's legacy and will also infuse new energy and ideas into the club. We hope that you all will be as supportive and encouraging to the new ex-co as you have been to us in the past one year.
Wishing good luck for future!
Best Regards,
Former Executive Committee
Club T-shirts Launched
Friday, November 20, 2009
Dear All,
As a part of our ongoing endeavors to take this club to the next level, it gives me great pleasure to announce the formal launch of
NUS MBA Consulting Club T-shirts
Special thanks to Hima, First Year Fulltime MBA student, who came up with the design and managed the logistics of this project.
i-Speak Session-19Oct09
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The first speaker to talk about his experiences was Arthur. Arthur was a consultant for Accenture in Canada and the US prior to his MBA. He has a dual degree in Engineering and Business and had joined Accenture as a fresh graduate. Arthur talked about his diverse experiences working for different clients across various industries, the kind of role he was expected to play, his career progression etc. Along with this, he also shared his insights about Accenture as a whole, their work culture, environment and importantly, their recruitment processes. 
what one expects in the US or other developed countries and that it might be difficult for non-Koreans to adjust to this. He talked about the importance of client satisfaction and forming long term relationships with one’s clients. 
The session ended with a round of questions to the speakers who addressed specific issues like training for consultants and the need and demand for MBA’s within their companies. They were then given small tokens of appreciation from the club for taking time out in their schedules to chat with us. As is the norm in NUS, the session was followed by snacks where the audience could interact with the speakers informally. Kudos to the organising team who did a great job with the arrangements and logistics. It was a good learning experience with lots of positive takeaways for the audience. i-Speak Session
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Talking to the Interns
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The MBA program at the NUS Business School is renowned for its practical approach towards academics. Like the leading business schools, NUS relies heavily on the case method to develop sound analytical, persuasive and business skills, and develop capability to deal with incomplete knowledge in the participants. But is that all it takes to make a successful career in the Strategy/Management consulting world? Who else could answer this better than the peers/seniors who have been exposed to this challenging world through internships and prior experience?The Consulting Club-Intern talk at NUS Business school was the first event to give the new entrants to the MBA program a good flavor of what it takes to make it to the demanding world of management consulting. Organized on the 15th Sep 2009, the event was an amazing success in terms of participation and the experiences shared by the students who have had opportunity to
work at the leading Management consulting firms. The list of firms included the who’s who is the consulting world namely, McKinsey, PricewaterHouse Coopers, E&Y, KPMG and IMaCS. The diverse background coupled to the colorful experiences of the participants made the session very interesting and useful. The attendees were an equally diverse and receptive bunch of medical practitioners, engineers, IT specialists, investment bankers, consultants and marketeers.The seniors shared their experiences that stretched from long drawn out preparations for the extensive interviewing with management consulting firms to actual experiences at work. They advised serious introspection and understanding oneself before plunging into the internship hunt. One must know one's passions and career goals. If one can answer these questions in advance, the ensuing confidence shall be a great help in the entire process.They emphasized that "practice" is the key to success in tackling management consulting interviews. In addition, they also underlined the importance of improving analytical, communication and networking skills to make it click at management consulting. Through real life experiences the seniors ensured that the ideas were communicated effectively and were of use to the attendees. The Q&A session, that followed, was a reflection of the interest and curiosity that the seniors had managed to unleash. The thought provoking replies and assurances to assist the new entrants ensured that the next few events of the consulting club are headed to be livelier and even more useful.
The discussions and Q&A continued to the delicious snacks waiting outside. This provided a nice opportunity to go one-on-one with the seniors and deliberate with them on specifics of ones career and path ahead.
We are sure that the participants and the attendees had a great time interacting and the events of the Consulting Club shall continue to be even more informative and useful. So, please be on the lookout for the next one.
- Michelle Sung and Karunesh Pandey
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Kick-Off '09
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The activities of the Consulting Club started this semester with the Club kick-off on 20th Aug 2009. And the response to this event was commendable, something that speaks volumes about the enthusiasm of the new batch.NUS consulting club plays a very important role in life of aspiring students: may it be by equipping the student body with resources to make informed decisions on consulting careers, providing tools necessary to build successful careers in consulting or by providing opportunities to promote extra-curricular excellence.
This session gave us a flavor of what the club is all about and how it can assist us in fulfilling our dreams of developing successful careers in this consulting industry.
The session started with a short presentation by Shipra, the current President of the club. She ran us through the history of the club, its objective, mode of operation, the various events held in the past etc.
She then took us through some of the more specific examples from events that were organised in the past one year, including career interest groups, interview preparation workshops, the new initiative called i-Speak, and the NUS MBA flagship event, Consultant Unplugged.
Shipra’s Presentation was followed by a presentation from Bani. She gave us insight on the recruitment process of different companies like McKinsey, BCG and A.T. Kearney etc.
Most of the discussion was centred around the kind of work consultants do in general with focus on
strategy firms. What is consulting? What kind of work the consulting firms do? How is a typical day in a consultant’s life? What is the usual work-life balance and the amount of travel involved? All these and many more such were effectively answered.A consultant’s typical day was also discussed and it was emphasized, that though consulting careers give one a great opportunity to constantly learn, innovate and challenge oneself, it’s a tough job at the end of the day and one needs to be geared always to succeed.
All in all, it was a great session, informative and comprehensive; and gave us good insights on both the club as well as the consulting industry; just the kick-off we had hoped to get!
-Payal Keswani
Class of 2011
Welcome!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Heart-felt Greetings!
As a club, we have, over the past years, achieved many successes, each time taking this club to the new levels of commitment and camaraderie.
As the President & a privileged member of this club, and one who has benefited tremendously in terms of the learnings imparted through the club & its initiatives; I hope that our new batch, comprising all the different cohorts, will work together as a team; and with its zeal and pro-active participation in all our activities, will take our endeavors and efforts to the next level; thereby setting new benchmarks for the club.
I also hope that all our existing members and alumni will continue to extend their support & encouragement to the new batch, as generously and unfailingly, as they have been to us in the past.
With these words, I once again extend my welcome to all our members and wish you all great successes in the months ahead.
Warm Regards,
Shipra Gupta
President
Friday, August 14, 2009
From Interview to Offer
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Govindan Sendhuran writes the Last part of his 3 part series on "Finding Jobs in the Consulting Industry"
[ For those who missed the earlier parts, here are the links to Part1 & Part 2 ]
From Interview to Offer
General Interview Preparation
The first thing to do when you get an interview call (and preferably you should start before that), is to find out everything you can about the firm’s interviews. This applies to pretty much every industry, not just consulting. The things to find include (but aren’t limited to):
- Format of the interviews: How long is it? How many will there be? Is it going to be case interview? Group discussion? Etc.
- What the firm/interviewers are looking for: Relevant experience, knowledge of finance, analytical skills, etc.
- Frequently asked questions: Tell me about a time when you lead a team? What are you strengths & weaknesses?, etc.
The best sources for this kind of information are people who have recently interviewed with the firm and the alumni/friends who work there. The recruiter can also be approached regarding the format of the interviews, and what the firm is looking for. But it would be inappropriate to ask about frequently asked questions.
This information will help you better prepare for the interview. Prior to the interview, you should prepare answers for the frequently asked questions. This will help you feel more relaxed in the actual interview. Additionally, if there is some special interview method used at the firm, you can get ready for that too.
Consulting Firm Interviews
Most top management consulting firms will have interviews that are a mix of behavioral interviews and case interviews. Each is used to assess different aspects of your candidature:
1. Behavioral Interviews: These are used to assess your experiences, attitudes, leadership skills and other relevant skills. Additionally these interviews check for fit with the firm.
To prepare for these, check with others who’ve interviewed with the firm recently, or alums who work at the firm, to get the inside scoop on the frequently asked question. Also, ensure that you prepare your answers to these questions beforehand and practice them with others.
2. Case Interviews: These are used to assess your analytical skills, your creativity, and your general business judgment.
The only way to prepare for this is to practice, practice, and practice some more, at least 50 – 100 cases before you interview. This means you have to start practicing long before you even get your interview call. Also practice with different people, practice with different types of cases (investments, market entry, operations, etc.) Quantity and variety are key! “Crack the Case” (www.mbacase.com), by David Ohrvall is the best resource I’ve seen for case interview practice. In my opinion it’s a MUST.
A few consulting firms will also use other methods to evaluate your candidature, including group discussions, presentation, etc. So make sure you investigate this before the interview.
The Actual Interview
Be confident and SMILE!
By the time you go for the interview, you should have prepared enough to be confident of getting the job. And if it helps, realize that the firm has invited you to interview because they think you are a good candidate. They already believe that you are smart enough and have the right background and experiences to succeed as a consultant!
Be relaxed and SMILE. When you are tensed up or nervous, your brain starts wasting mental cycles. You’re slower to respond, you’ll forget things, and you’ll do poorly, especially in the case interview. So relax, take a deep breath if you need and SMILE. Smiling can actually make you feel more relaxed! Smiling will also help you be more personable. If you’re stiff and don’t smile, it could harm your chances. Remember, consulting is hard work, and the interviewer is also looking for a new colleague who can be fun to work with through those long days. So relax, SMILE and be personable.
MBA Class of 2009
UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School
NUS Business School (exchange)
Consultant Unplugged 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
On March 19, 2009 at 2:30 am, as I finally flopped on my bed, and in the 2 seconds before I fell asleep, all I could remember were Srikanth's words, "Just make sure you hold Consultant Unplugged"
The day was Dec 6, 2008. I wasn’t even a month old as the Club President when at the annual ART dinner, one of our alumnus, Srikanth Sridharan caught hold of me and Srinivasa, our student council President, and told both of us that we must hold “Consultant Unplugged”. Our outgoing ex-co had said the same thing and it was already somewhere vaguely in my mind and hence, of course I agreed. I hadn't even planned the event calendar for the year and I was going home for a month. So I lodged it in the back of my head and promptly forgot about it. Back in January, I started planning 
the events, and thinking about Consultant Unplugged. After much deliberation and consultation, we, the club ex-co, decided on March end. We had 3 months to plan, but no idea what we were in for.
For the next 3 months, at painstaking pace we moved from one step to the next. Talking to people day and night, identifying possible speakers and going through all possible channels to invite other business schools, we were sending what seemed like a countless number of mails.
It is an NUS MBA flagship event and the smallest details mattered. 8 days for designing
the registration flyer, followed by faculty invitation cards, publicity email blasts, 5 different versions of the panel guides: each for a different target audience, numerous iterations of each version; every single word, logo and punctuation mark in every single document and e-mail was scrutinized by at least 5 independent pairs of eyes.
There were setbacks, failures and sacrifices. We had to give up looking for internships, going for recruitment talks and even studying for tests. I remember studying only a few hours before my mid term and of course I bombed in it. The last 20 days were the hardest to keep going. Except actually attending classes, we were doing nothing but planning the event. Endless trips to the programs office to finalize the logistics, recruiting volunteers, assigning escorts for outside teams & panelists, countdown reminder flyers, customized reminder emails, 25 versions of the banner, detailed volunteer plans with clear time lines and tasks, down to pasting chits at the points where volunteers were supposed to stand, 250 name tags to be prepared, checked and printed; audience question templates, Panelists introduction briefs, thank you notes and welcome speeches, emcee's scripts, I was exhausting all my writing skills as the team worked full steam. "Consultant Unplugged 2009" had become our lives; the atmosphere was frenzied.
On March 19 at 7:15 PM, as I finally sat down in one of the reserved seats with the volunteers and the rest of the team, and listened to the panelists speak for the next 90 minutes or so; the constant laughter and applause from the audience echoing in my ears, I knew that we had done it!
Appreciation mails have been pouring in since the event. We had created a lot of publicity before the event and its success increased the event's visibility manifold. The bar is now much higher for all future NUS MBA events, especially for "Consultant Unplugged 2010"
-Shipra Gupta
President - NUS MBA Consulting Club
Class of 2010
The NUS MBA Consulting Club
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Shipra Gupta, President - NUS MBA Consulting Club, writes for the IIM Calcutta Magazine, "The Joka-Strategist" ...
People pursue MBA programs for a variety of reasons: switching industries, climbing the next rung of the corporate ladder, taking a study break to go back to the joys of being a student and taking a sabbatical to figure out the next step in life; constitute a few of those. A large proportion of these categories of students explore consulting as a prospect career option. Add to this a large number of students who harbor an informed preference towards this field, and the result is almost half of every new batch that wants to consider a career in consulting. It is this very half that the NUS MBA Consulting Club aims to assist in their journey towards the career of their preference.
Being an entirely student-run body, our mission is to help our members get an insightful picture of the Consulting industry and make informed career related decisions. Working towards this purpose we organize various events of differing scale and magnitude throughout the year. These events can be classified as different points on a 3-dimensional plane; with the actual dimensions being: scale (small vs. large), subject (industry insights vs. career related) and speaker (internal vs. external).
i-Speak is an example of a series of small scale internal speaker events focusing on industry insights provided by students from within the batch who have extensive prior experience in the Consulting industry. These sessions provide an informal platform for students to share their concerns, experiences and opinions about the prevalent work culture, the specific processes, training programs, projects and skill sets.
Diametrically opposite to i-Speak is Consultant Unplugged. An annual NUS MBA Flagship event, it takes the form of a panel discussion between elite members of the Consulting industry in Singapore; with the actual subject of the discussion ranging widely from the panelists’ experiences to insights about the trends in the industry etc.
Between these 2 ends of the spectrum lie a whole plethora of events including talks by alumni on a wide range of topics; resume reviews, mock interview and case analysis sessions; periodic blog and website updates, career interest groups and fun consultant-meets to name a few. All these events serve specific purposes; so while resume reviews & mock interview sessions are intended to better equip our members in their internship/job hunts; fun-consultant meets are just an opportunity for members to let their hair down and de-stress.
As a club we try to attain the optimum balance between the various events, so that at the end of the program, our members feel better informed and equipped to build a career in the consulting industry, while ensuring that they relish the experience of having been a part of the program and a member of the club
-Shipra Gupta
President- NUS MBA Consulting Club
Class of 2010
[ Click Here for the Original Joka-Strategist Edition]
Getting the Interview Call
Friday, March 13, 2009
[ For those who missed the first part, here is the link ]
Getting the Interview Call
In my opinion, getting an interview call from a top tier consulting firm is probably the hardest part of getting the job for many people. If you have a 750 GMAT, great undergraduate GPA, and go to a high-ranked business school, it gets a bit easier, but still there is lot more involved. The way I see it, there are two ways to get the interview call, one is through the formal application process, and the other is through informal networking.
Formal Process: All the top consulting firms, and many smaller firms too, have a formal application process (normally online application). Most top firms look for four things in the application:
1. High undergraduate/graduate GPA
2. High GMAT Score (at least 700, preferably in the 750 range)
3. Reputed MBA program
4. ‘Killer’ Resume
Not having one of the first three mentioned above does not mean, you can’t get an interview call, it just gets much harder. So if you need to, re – write the GMAT. And put your GMAT score if it’s a good one on your resume.
Now on to the resume. Your resume has to highlight several important key characteristics:
1. Impact/Achievement
Eg. Each of your achievements/accomplishments needs to be clearly quantified. How much business did you generate? How much did you save? How big was the project, in $$ terms, were you responsible for?
2. Leadership Experiences
Eg. how did you work across cross-functional teams? In international teams? Etc.
“Shot down 3 enemy aircrafts in dogfights over Iraq”
“Directed documentary about robotic camel jockeys in the Middle East”
“Authored, ‘Running with the Buffalos’, book about the Colorado Men’s Cross Country Team”
-Sendhuran Govindan
MBA Class of 2009
UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School
NUS Business School (exchange)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Do you have the talent to make something boring look relevant and new once again? Are you fond of finding unique solutions to strategic problems? During this time of crisis where companies are more challenged to differentiate themselves, strategic brand consulting is becoming more and more in demand Find out more if you have what it takes to be the next up and coming brand consultant from: Shauna Li Roolvink. CEO, Brandhub
Consultant Unplugged 09
Please write to nusmbaconsultingclub@gmail.com if you'd like to attend
Sunday, February 22, 2009
First Step in getting a management consulting job?
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Second Year exchange student Govindan Sendhuran shares his strategy for finding jobs in the Consulting Industry....
First Step in getting a management consulting job?
Find the jobs that are out there!
The way I see it, there are basically 3 steps in getting a management consulting job.
1. Finding the jobs that are out there
2. Applying for the jobs you like and getting interview calls for those
3. Converting the interviews into offers
In this blog entry, I’ll discuss the first step, finding the jobs that are out there. Many people, when they think of management consulting, think it’s just McKinsey, BCG and Bain. However, there are many other firms as well. And in this economic climate, it’s important to cast your net wide. Below are three good references you can use to find other management consulting firms.
1. Wetfeet and Vault Guides to the Consulting Industry
This is a great start. Your university’s career management center will normally have hard copies or access to the soft copies of these. Theses guides usually have a list of top 50 consulting firms ranked in terms of reputation, functional area expertise, quality of work/life balance, etc.
http://www.vault.com/nr/consulting_rankings/consulting_rankings.jsp?consulting2009=2&ch_id=252
http://shop.wetfeet.com/Browse/Consulting-Careers/25-Top-Consulting-Firms.aspx
2. LinkedIn
Vault and Wetfeet will only get you information on the top 50 consulting firms. But what about the rest? The smaller boutique firms? There are thousands out there! LinkedIn is a great source for this. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account yet, get one now! It’s an essential tool for all MBAs!
If you browse “Management Consulting”, you will find thousands of results for management consulting firms across the world. Just click on the names to learn more and find if you are connected to any of the firms’ employees.
3. Google
And let’s not forget good ol’ trusty google. If you have a background in a particular industry, just google for consulting firms in those industries. It can be quite powerful, but you’d need to filter out the noise. Just searching “Management Consulting – Telecom”, lead me to the following firms:
a) Consequi Group:
http://www.consequi.com/pages/1/index.htm
http://www.greenwich-consulting.com/templates/home.php?NodId=57
http://www.teleconvergence.com/en/Strategic_Telecommunications_Marketing
d) Dao2:
http://www.dao2.com/
I suggest you create an excel file to store the information you collect about the companies. Be sure to capture, their names, their industry focus, their website address, recruiter contact, application process, and very importantly, the resume/application deadlines. This will allow you to plan your application process in order to give yourself enough time to prepare the applications and also to ensure you don’t miss any deadlines.
Sendhuran Govindan
MBA Class of 2009
UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School
NUS Business School (exchange)
Memoirs of a President
Sunday, February 1, 2009
When I started my MBA, I was not very sure of the career that I wanted to pursue post MBA, let alone stand for Consulting club President. My inspiration to contest elections for the post came from "Consultant Unplugged", an event which was organized by the club in September 2007 and had made everyone associated with it feel proud. This event made me realize that the consulting club had a lot of potential.
Before being chosen as the President I had a broad outline of what I wanted to achieve with the help of executive committee and club members. I should be candid in stating that when I was chosen, I did not imagine the amount of detailed planning and effort each event could involve. Even after sound planning, execution was filled with a number of challenges at times. Conducting events keeping in mind the timetable of students, MBA office & CSO events and schedules of external speakers; and yet ensuring a good attendance turned out to be a humongous task. I personally felt a lot of satisfaction with the successful execution of each event and appreciation received afterwards.
We started the season with a speaker session in which Mr.Torgeir Kruke the regional Director of CapGemini
We organized external speaker sessions where our alumni working in various top management consulting firms were called to share their experiences. Our alumni have been very supportive in sparing time from their hectic schedules and their encouragement made us all believe that with the right kind of preparation and attitude it isn't tough to get into top notch consulting firms like Mckinsey, BCG etc.
We had always felt that case practice was an area in which many people lagged and when they got interview calls from consulting firms, getting through the first few rounds could be a tough battle without gaining the required skills and practice. Keeping all these things in mind we tried and successfully organized two Case workshops -one done by the alumni and other done by an external professional. These events were time consuming and tiring but they were worth the effort.
Consultant Unplugged 2008 was one grand event that my team and I did try to organize but we could not make it happen due to numerous reasons that were beyond our control. We look forward to the next team to make it happen.
Apart from the events that I have stated above, consulting club tried to bring people together so that they could share their experiences and perspectives about management consulting in whatever ways they could(internships, past jobs, google group).
My experiences as the Club President have been very fulfilling. The responsibilities were challenging at times, but with the support of ex-co, faculty, MBA office and my batch mates I achieved success and I can say this because of the sincere appreciation that the club received from everyone.
I have full faith in the new team that is heading the club and I wish to see club rising to new heights and taking more initiatives to create a mark for itself and the school.
On behalf of Executive committee-2008
Former President, Consulting Club,
Isha Gupta
Saturday, January 31, 2009
