After finishing her first semester as an MBA student at Georgia Tech (Scheller) Grace Stewart recently was able to land an MBA Management Consulting internship through the management consulting recruiting process. While the virtual interview process proved to be challenging, Grace was ultimately able to land an offer from Bain. During our interview, Grace spoke about the interview process, how she was able to be successful, and her advice to other MBA students interviewing for internships.
MBASchooled: What was the virtual recruiting process like for you?
The virtual recruiting process was really smooth for me, but exhausting. I was able to talk to a lot of companies from different geographic areas that I might not have been able to before, but there were also times where I felt over-scheduled in terms of keeping up with various recruiting events.
MBASchooled: What did you like about it? What were some of the challenging parts with it?
It was so much easier to have a quick conversation with people. You can just pick up the phone/Zoom and chat for 15-30 minutes without any additional travel time or extra costs for recruiting. On the flip side, Zoom fatigue is real and you have to be careful about over-scheduling back-to-back meetings.
MBASchooled: How did you end up at the company where you accepted an offer?
A combination of on-campus recruiting, diversity conferences, and a ton of networking. I knew from the time I applied to business school that I wanted to work for Bain, so I was pretty focused on recruiting with them. I first interacted with Bain during the Forte conference over the summer, and engaged with them through their ExperienceBain programming as well. Throughout the fall I stayed in touch with the connections I had made so that when they came on campus to do an info session, I already had formed relationships with people at the office. I think that went a long way toward my receiving an invitation to interview.
MBASchooled: What was your most difficult interview, and what was hard about it?
I had a (non-consulting) company set up a first-round interview that they described as being a 30-minute behavioral. There were a few behavioral questions, but the rest of it was a mini-case. I was really thrown and bombed the interview.
MBASchooled: Even though you did not get to meet companies in person, did you feel like you got to know them well? If so, what were the most helpful methods you used to do this?
Absolutely. I think it’s critical to be really intentional about recruiting when everything is virtual. The companies where I received offers were the ones where I made it a priority to network with people, set up coffee chats, and follow up after info sessions.
MBASchooled: How did you prepare? What were the most effective ways to prepare?
If you know you want to recruit consulting, don’t wait until the last minute to start doing case prep. I was coming from a non-traditional background so I knew I might need to do more cases than other people to feel comfortable. I leaned really heavily on my classmates, not only for case prep but also for industry insights, interview feedback, and emotional support.
MBASchooled: What did you learn from the interviewing process?
Everything is different this year with the virtual format. It’s so important to be flexible and adaptable to any hiccups that happen along the way from things being remote.
MBASchooled: What advice do you have for others who are trying to navigate the virtual recruiting process?
In general, I wish more people talked about the mental stamina it takes to go through recruiting, especially for consulting. It’s really easy to wrap your whole identity up in the outcome of an interview, or get down on yourself when you have a terrible case. Prepare as much as you can ahead of time so that you can set yourself up for success, but at the end of the day there’s so much that’s out of our hands during recruiting. Try to find places during interviews where you can enjoy the process — and remember that whether you get a job or not says nothing about who you are as a person