Good Questions to Ask in a Consulting Coffee Chat
Good questions to ask in a consulting coffee chat or informational interview, whether that is a campus recruiting event, a call with an alum, twenty minutes with someone at the firm you want, or a conversation you asked for while still deciding if consulting is for you. They run from easy openers through the work, staffing and hours, promotion and exits, and how firms differ, to recruiting advice and the two requests to end on.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Openers
What drew you to consulting, and has that held up?
Why ask it
The second half is what keeps this from being a recruiting answer. Someone who says the learning curve held up but the travel did not is telling you where the trade lands after a couple of years.
Why did you choose this firm over the others you were considering?
Why ask it
They made this choice with roughly the information you have today, which makes it the closest thing to your own decision you will hear. Ask which of their reasons still looks right from the inside and which one they would weigh differently now.
What does a typical week look like for you right now?
Why ask it
Ask about right now, because a consultant's week belongs to whatever project they are on. If they are between projects and doing internal work, ask about the last week they spent with a client instead, since that is the week you would be signing up for.
What are you working on at the moment, as much as you can say?
Why ask it
Client confidentiality means they will speak in categories, and the categories are the useful part: cost cutting or growth, building slides or building models, at the client's site or from home. Follow with what their own piece of the project is, which says more about a junior's day than the project's title does.
What's the best project you've been on, and what made it good?
Why ask it
Listen to the reason more than the project: a manager who taught them, a client who acted on the work, a small team. Then ask how much of that was luck, which leads naturally into how staffing works.
What surprised you most about the job once you started?
Why ask it
Common answers are about how the job is built: the rounds of internal review before anything reaches a client, how much of the work is writing, how early they were put in front of senior people. Whatever they name is the gap between the recruiting pitch and the job.
What were you doing before this, and how much of it do you still use?
Why ask it
You will have read their profile, so the second half is the real question. An engineer who has never been staffed on anything technical is telling you how little a background steers the work at this firm, which matters if you are counting on yours.
How did you first find out what consultants actually do all day?
Why ask it
A natural start to an informational interview, since they once sat where you are. Whatever made the job clear to them, whether an internship, a friend at a firm or a case workshop, is usually something you can go and do too.
The Work
What kinds of clients and industries do you spend most of your time on?
Why ask it
An office can lean on one sector or a handful of big clients far more than the firm's website suggests. If that is the case here, your first couple of years will probably look the same, so ask how people get onto anything else.
What did you spend your days doing on your very first project?
Why ask it
Asking about their own first project gets tasks instead of a role description: the interview notes, the spreadsheet nobody else wanted, the one page they were finally allowed to present. Titles differ between firms, so the task list is what lets you compare.
Who is on your team at the moment, and who do you actually spend the day with?
Why ask it
The team named on the proposal and the team in the room are not the same thing. For most juniors the day belongs to one manager and a peer or two, and that small group sets how much you learn and how late you stay. Ask how often the partner is around.
How much access do junior people get to partners and to the client's decision-makers?
Why ask it
The abstract version always gets a generous answer. Ask when they last presented something to a client themselves, and how far into the job that first happened.
Do you prefer short projects or long ones, and which do you mostly get?
Why ask it
Short work means a new industry every couple of months and a steep start each time. Long work means you find out whether your advice survived contact with the client. The distance between what they prefer and what they are given says something about how much the firm listens.
Do clients tend to act on the work, and do you get to see what happens afterward?
Why ask it
Handing over a recommendation and never learning whether anything changed wears on some people. Teams that stay through implementation answer this very differently from pure strategy teams, so the reply also shows which kind of work the office does.
What's the hardest project you've had, and what made it hard?
Why ask it
Set this beside their best project. A difficult client is part of the job anywhere. If the trouble was a manager or a staffing decision, that belongs to the firm, and you can ask what anyone did about it.
Which part of the job still does not come easily to you?
Why ask it
Put this way it is about them and not about consulting in general, and the replies are more human: pushing back on a client, writing a tight summary late at night, managing upward. Whatever they name is something the firm expects people to grow into.
How would you explain the difference between strategy, operations and implementation work to someone still choosing?
Why ask it
Consulting is several jobs under one name, and the labels mean different things at different firms. Find out which kind fills most of their year and what sort of person they have seen prefer each, so you know which postings to read closely.
Who do you think this job is a poor fit for?
Why ask it
People find this easier to answer than who the job suits, and it helps more when you have not decided yet. If the description sounds like you, ask what a colleague like that went on to do and whether they were glad of the years here.
Staffing and Hours
How much say do you have in what you get staffed on?
Why ask it
Some firms describe staffing as an internal market and others as an assignment, and the day-to-day difference is large. Ask who actually decides, whether you can turn a project down, and what turning one down costs you.
When a project ends, what do you do until the next one starts?
Why ask it
Some firms call it the beach and some the bench, and it can mean training, proposal work or anxious waiting. Notice the tone as much as the facts, because it shows whether a gap is treated as rest or as a mark against you.
How much are you traveling these days, and is that typical for your office?
Why ask it
Travel depends on the office, the sector and the client, so one person's answer needs the second half to mean anything. Get it in nights away, because some travel can mean four nights a week or two days a month.
What do the hours look like in a heavy week compared with a light one?
Why ask it
An average describes no actual week. The range is more useful: a team where a bad week means midnights and a good one ends at six is a different job from one that is steadily long. Ask how often the heavy kind comes around.
Who sets the pace on a project: the partner, the manager, or the client?
Why ask it
Hours often come down to one person's habits. If that person is the manager, your life changes from project to project, so follow up by asking whether juniors have a safe way to say a pace is not working.
Is there anything you protect each week, and does the team respect it?
Why ask it
Work-life balance asked head-on gets a slogan, and this version gets an example. Someone who names a Thursday dinner or a morning run and says it mostly survives is describing a team with norms. Someone who laughs has answered too.
How often is your team in the same room, whether at the client or in the office?
Why ask it
Rules on office days differ by firm and office and keep changing, so ask what this team does and not what the firm announced. For a new joiner the stake is learning: the craft is harder to pick up from people you rarely sit beside.
Has the job become easier or harder to fit around the rest of your life as you've moved up?
Why ask it
Worth asking anyone past their first promotion. Some will say they gained control of their calendar, others that selling work brought a different kind of pressure. Skip it with a first-year, who can only guess.
Growth
What do the people who do well in their first year here have in common?
Why ask it
The stock reply is curiosity and hard work, so ask for a person: someone a year ahead of them who is thriving, and what that person does that others do not. Then ask what trips new joiners up, which is the same question from the other side and often gets the franker answer.
How do you get feedback here: formal reviews, end-of-project debriefs, or a comment in the taxi?
Why ask it
Three options make it easy to pick the true one. If real feedback arrives only at the formal review, however often this firm holds one, a new joiner can spend months off track without knowing it.
What does someone have to do to move from your level to the next one?
Why ask it
See whether they can name the criteria. Specific skills and a rough timeline suggest a process people understand, while a vague answer about visibility means you would need to learn the unwritten rules early. Timelines differ by firm, so ask what is normal there.
Who has been most useful to your career here, and how did that relationship start?
Why ask it
Many firms assign a mentor or adviser on paper. Hearing whether the person who mattered was that one, or a manager from an early project, tells you if support here is arranged for you or something you have to go and find.
What was training like when you started, and what did you have to pick up on the job?
Why ask it
Formal training is easy to read about on the firm's site, so steer toward the second half. Ask for one thing they could not do on day one and who showed them how.
Which skills have you built here that you'd have struggled to build somewhere else?
Why ask it
Structuring a messy problem and presenting to senior people come up a lot. The follow-up worth having is what the job has not taught them, and some consultants will say they have never run anything or stayed to see a decision through.
Can people build a specialty here, or does staffing push you to stay generalist?
Why ask it
Firms handle this differently, and some ask you to pick a practice once you reach a certain level. Ask when the choice came for them and whether it was theirs, because a specialty changes both the projects you get and how employers outside the firm read your experience.
What happens to someone here who is good at the job but slow to be promoted?
Why ask it
This is the up-or-out question asked through a person instead of a policy. Not every firm runs a strict version, so listen for what really happened to a colleague: a longer runway, a move to a specialist track, or a quiet word about leaving. Leave it out of a chat with a recruiter.
Have people you know taken time out for business school, a secondment or a move abroad?
Why ask it
The terms of sponsorship and leave vary by firm, office and year, so the details belong to recruiting. What a consultant can give you is the mood around it: whether going away is seen as an investment the firm wants back or as a polite exit.
Where do people go when they leave, and do they stay in touch?
Why ask it
Where people land shows what a few years here are worth to other employers: client companies, startups, investors, graduate school. Ask about people who left from their own level, not the famous alumni, and whether any of them have come back.
The Firm
In practice, what's different about this firm and the one across the street?
Why ask it
Every firm claims better people and a better culture. Push gently for something structural, like project length, team size or how early you own a workstream, since those are differences you would feel in the first month.
If you were choosing again between a big firm, a boutique and an in-house strategy team, how would you weigh them?
Why ask it
This compares kinds of employer and not firm names, so it suits a conversation early in your search. Most consultants have friends in each, and what those friends' weeks and training look like is better evidence than any ranking.
How would you describe the culture in your office, beyond smart, hard-working people?
Why ask it
Ruling out the two stock adjectives forces a real description. The useful replies are small and concrete: people who eat lunch together, a manager who sends juniors home, an office that only socializes at official events.
How did you end up in this office, and how much does the office you join shape the job?
Why ask it
Office preference can be a quick choice on an application form that goes on to decide your clients, your sector and your travel. Ask how transferring later works at this firm, because the rules differ and it is not always quick.
Do people feel like teammates or competitors when review season comes around?
Why ask it
Both can be true of the same firm, and naming review season is what brings it out. How people are compared differs by firm, so ask how it works here: whether colleagues at the same level are ranked against each other, and whether that changes who shares what.
What's it like here for people who didn't come in through the usual recruiting pipeline?
Why ask it
Good to ask if you are an experienced hire, a career changer or from a school the firm does not visit, and they can answer from what they have seen. If the honest reply is that it takes longer to be trusted, you know what to prepare for.
What do people get involved in at the firm outside client work?
Why ask it
Recruiting teams, pro bono projects, affinity groups and internal research all count. Find out whether that effort is recognized at review time or simply stacked on top of a full client load.
Where is the office growing right now, and what is slowing down?
Why ask it
What clients are buying decides where new joiners get staffed, whatever preferences they wrote down. A manager or partner can answer this properly, while a first-year mostly knows what their own team is selling. If they mention new tools changing the junior work, ask what analysts now spend less time on.
What do you enjoy most about the job now that the novelty has worn off?
Why ask it
Without the last clause you get a line about clever colleagues and variety. With it you are asking what is still good two or three years in, and a specific reply, such as a client who now calls them directly, shows you what staying looks like.
If you could change one thing about how the firm runs, what would it be?
Why ask it
It asks for a fix and not a complaint, which makes it safe to answer in a cafe near the office. The size of the wish is the signal: a better expenses system comes from a contented person, a different staffing model does not.
Would you join again, knowing what you know now?
Why ask it
Hold it until the end of the chat so it does not color everything before it. The word will almost always be yes, so pay attention to how quickly it comes and what gets attached to it.
Recruiting and Next Steps
If I'm not yet sure consulting is for me, how would you find out before applying?
Why ask it
Fair to ask in an informational interview, where nobody expects you to have decided. The helpful replies are things you can do this term: a case competition, a student consulting project, a talk with someone who left after two years.
Coming from my background, which way in would you choose: applying now, an experienced-hire role, or business school first?
Why ask it
Routes in differ by firm and country, so treat the reply as one person's map and check with recruiting how it works at the firms you want. It is worth asking whether they know anyone who took the route they recommend and how that person's first year went.
What do you think got you the offer?
Why ask it
People rarely know for certain, and the guess still helps. If they credit the case, ask how they practiced. If they credit a conversation like this one, you have learned how much weight the firm puts on who speaks up for a candidate.
What kind of case practice helped you most, and what was wasted effort?
Why ask it
Interview formats change and differ between firms, so check the current one with recruiting. What this person can give you is a ranking of live practice with a partner, mental math drills and casebooks, plus how many weeks they needed, which tells you whether your own timeline is realistic.
When you meet candidates, what makes one stick in your mind afterward?
Why ask it
Consultants who help with recruiting meet a lot of applicants in a season and remember few. What they recall is usually small, such as a sharp question or a clear reason for wanting this office, and you can bring exactly that to your next conversation.
How much do chats like this one count in recruiting here?
Why ask it
Some firms record every contact with a candidate and others ignore them, and a consultant will usually just tell you. Ask it lightly and late in the chat. If notes do get passed along, every later conversation with the firm is part of your application and worth preparing for like one.
Looking at my resume, what would you expect an interviewer here to push on?
Why ask it
Only ask if they have seen your resume or you can sum it up in a sentence. A weak grade, a degree far from business or a short stint somewhere can all be explained, and knowing which one draws attention lets you prepare the explanation.
What should I be doing between now and the application deadline?
Why ask it
Dates differ by firm, office and school, so look those up yourself and use this question for priorities. A helpful reply puts things in order: more case practice, one more conversation with the office, a tighter resume. Do the first one and mention it in your thank-you.
What do summer interns actually work on here, and what earns a return offer?
Why ask it
Worth asking only if an internship is your way in. Programs differ by firm and office, so ask about interns they have worked beside: whether they were given a real piece of a project, who wrote their review, and what the ones who came back had done.
What do you wish you had known when you were where I am now?
Why ask it
It hands them the choice of topic, and what they pick shows what mattered: starting case practice earlier, talking to more than one office, not ruling a firm out on reputation. If the reply stays general, ask what they got wrong about the firm before they joined.
Who else would you suggest I talk to, and may I mention your name?
Why ask it
Ask for a type of person, such as someone a year in or someone in the practice you care about, and a name comes more easily. The second half matters because a message that opens with a colleague's name tends to get a reply.
Would it be all right if I emailed you a question or two as I get closer to interviews?
Why ask it
A small, bounded request is easy to agree to. Spend it once and well, for example to check your read on the office before a final round, since a trickle of minor messages wears goodwill thin.
Making the Most of a Consulting Coffee Chat
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the Chat
- 1Look up their path: undergraduate degree, previous employer, how long at each level. That tells you which questions they can actually answer, since a first-year analyst cannot describe promotion to partner.
- 2If this is an informational interview you requested yourself, say in the request what you are trying to decide and how long you need. A consultant who knows you are still weighing the field answers differently from one who assumes you have already applied.
- 3Pick five questions, not fifteen. Twenty minutes with follow-ups holds about five: one opener, three from the groups you care most about, and one closer is a workable shape.
- 4Decide what you are optimizing for before you walk in: hours, sector exposure, exit options, or location. Otherwise you will nod along at everything.
- 5Do not ask anything the firm's careers page answers. Spending the slot on office locations or interview format signals you did not prepare.
- 6Leave pay out of it. Salary is a question for the recruiter or the offer stage, and a consultant asked about it over coffee has no comfortable way to answer.
Matching Questions to the Person
- Someone one or two years in is best on the openers, the work and the hours. They also remember their own case preparation clearly, so the recruiting questions land well.
- A manager or principal is the person for feedback, promotion and what makes a candidate memorable. They have written reviews and sat in the meetings where decisions get made.
- With a partner, keep to clients, where the practice is heading and what they look for in new joiners. They are years away from the entry-level week, and questions about hours tend to land badly.
- With a recruiter, ask about process and dates. Take anything about slow promotion or people leaving to a consultant instead.
- At a group event you may get one question. Choose one whose answer helps everyone listening, and keep anything about your own resume for a one-to-one conversation.
During the Conversation
- Follow up once on every answer. The second answer is where the useful detail lives, and most people never ask for it.
- Give the awkward questions an escape route: is that typical, or was it just that project? People answer more honestly when they are not being asked to indict their employer.
- Keep your own story to about two minutes unless they ask for more. This is not the interview, though what you say may be passed along.
- Notice what they will not say. A deflected question about hours or staffing is itself information.
- Watch the clock for them. If you asked for twenty minutes, say so at twenty and let them choose to keep going.
After the Chat
- Write down three specifics within the hour, while you still remember which firm said what. After four chats they blur completely.
- Send a short thank-you the same day that mentions one thing they said. A note that could have gone to anyone reads that way.
- Talk to people at two levels, ideally a recent joiner and someone who has been there long enough to see a slow year. Their answers about hours and staffing will differ.
- If they offered to answer follow-ups, take them up on it once, with a real question and not a check-in.