Questions to Ask Consultants When Networking
Questions to ask consultants when networking, whether that is a coffee chat, a call arranged over LinkedIn or ten minutes at a consulting info session. A student or career changer working out what to ask a consultant about their job can use them at any firm, from McKinsey to a Big Four practice to a twenty-person boutique. They start with easy openers and move through the work, the firm, careers and recruiting to how to close. The note under each says what to listen for, how to follow it up, or when to hold the question back for a private conversation. They are written for someone who wants to ask about consulting as a career, not for a client who is hiring a consultant.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Openers
Why did you choose consulting over the other jobs you were considering?
Why ask it
The alternatives they name, whether banking, a graduate scheme, a startup or staying in a lab, show what they were trading off. Listen for whether the reason still holds now that they are in the job, because interviewers will ask for your own version of this answer.
What made you pick your firm over the others you looked at?
Why ask it
Firms describe themselves in much the same words, so what helps is the thing that tipped it for one person: the office, a manager they met at an event, the kind of client, or simply the offer that arrived first. If it was their only offer, that is useful too, and a good moment to ask what they have found since joining.
What did last week actually look like for you?
Why ask it
Asking about a typical week gets an averaged answer. Asking about last week gets Tuesday's client workshop, the model that broke, and the flight they nearly missed. Those details are what you will use later to decide whether you want the job.
What kinds of projects have you been staffed on this year?
Why ask it
You hear what the office is selling at the moment, which may be cost work or due diligence when the website leads with strategy and growth. If one type of project is what draws you to the firm, ask how many people in their intake got to do it in the first year.
What do you like most about the job, and what do you like least?
Why ask it
Asking for both in one breath makes the second half easier to answer honestly. The dislikes that matter are the structural ones, such as unpredictable evenings or never seeing a recommendation carried out, because those will not change with the project.
What were you doing before consulting, and how did you get in?
Why ask it
The answer shows which routes into the firm are real: campus recruiting, an experienced hire from industry, a move after a master's or an MBA, a transfer from another office. If they came in a way you cannot copy, their advice on applying needs translating before you use it, and it is fair to ask who they know that took your route.
What surprised you in your first six months?
Why ask it
Surprises are less rehearsed than anything said about strengths and weaknesses. You may hear that more of the job is managing the client than solving the problem, or that most of the analysis never reaches the final deck. Whatever it is, ask whether it was a welcome surprise.
Which project are you proudest of so far, and what was your part in it?
Why ask it
People light up on this one, which helps ten minutes into a chat that has gone flat. The second half keeps it concrete: you hear what someone at their level really did, whether that was building the model, running the client interviews or holding a workstream together.
How involved are you in recruiting for the firm?
Why ask it
Worth asking at a firm presentation or career fair, where you rarely know who you have been handed to. Someone on the firm's recruiting team for your school may read applications or pass names along, while a consultant drafted in for the evening can often speak more freely about the job. Each is useful, for different questions.
Which office and practice are you based in?
Why ask it
The first thing to settle at an info session, where a name badge rarely says. Somebody from another city can describe the job but not the intake you would join, and a specialist in one practice may know little about staffing in the general pool, so the answer tells you which of your other questions to spend on them.
The work
What does a first-year analyst own on a project?
Why ask it
Listen for the difference between tasks and ownership. Cleaning data, writing up interviews and producing slides are tasks, and a workstream with its own client contact is ownership. Which one they describe says a lot about how their firm uses its juniors, so ask how long it took them to get there.
How does staffing work: do you choose, or are you assigned?
Why ask it
The honest answer is usually a mix of a staffing manager, your availability, and who already knows you. Ask what someone in their first year can realistically influence, because that is the difference between building a specialism and taking whatever is open.
How much are you travelling now, and how has that changed since you joined?
Why ask it
Travel differs by office, practice and client, and it has changed a good deal in recent years, so older accounts mislead. Ask about nights away in a normal month and not about the policy, and ask what happens when a client wants the team on site anyway.
What time does your working day usually end, and what decides that?
Why ask it
Hours questions land better when they ask for a fact instead of a verdict on work-life balance. The second half is the informative part: a late night that comes from a client deadline is a different thing from one that comes from a manager who reviews slides at ten in the evening.
How much of your week is spent with the client, and how much with your own team?
Why ask it
The split varies by firm, by project type and by seniority, so ask about their last two projects and not the general rule. If client contact is what draws you to consulting, find out how long it takes before a junior is in the room and speaking.
Have you specialised in an industry or function yet, and was that your choice?
Why ask it
Some firms keep juniors general for years and others sort people into a practice from the first day. Neither is better, but one of them will suit you, and you also learn whether the interest you plan to describe in your application is something the firm can act on.
What happens when you are between projects?
Why ask it
Most firms have a name for unstaffed time, the beach or the bench, and their own attitude to it: a rest in some offices, proposals and internal work in others, and a worry if it runs long. Ask how long their last gap was and how they got staffed again.
What did you have to get good at fastest when you started?
Why ask it
Expect something unglamorous: building a clean spreadsheet, writing a slide title that states the point, taking notes a manager can use. That is a short list of things you can practise before you arrive, and naming one in an interview shows you know what the first year involves.
How have AI tools changed what junior consultants do at your firm?
Why ask it
This differs from firm to firm and from one month to the next, so treat it as a question about their own desk: which tools they may use, on what kind of material, and which tasks have shrunk. You also find out which skills a new joiner is still expected to do by hand.
What is the hardest part of the job that does not show from the outside?
Why ask it
The hours and the travel are the parts everyone has heard about. What comes up here is quieter: being new every few months, having work rewritten the night before a meeting, never quite switching off on a Sunday. Follow up on how they cope with it, not only on what it is.
Can you walk us through one project from the first day to the last?
Why ask it
Made for the question time at a consulting info session: one speaker can answer it in two minutes and the whole room gets something concrete. Listen for how the problem arrived, who was on the team, what the junior people produced and what the client did at the end, then pick up one of those details when you speak to them alone afterwards.
The firm
How is your office different from the firm's reputation?
Why ask it
The feel of an office owes a lot to its partners and to the clients it serves, so the firm's name tells you less than you might expect about the people you would sit with. Ask what a transfer from another office would notice in their first month.
How would you describe the culture to a friend outside the firm?
Why ask it
Asked about culture directly, almost everyone says smart, driven and collegial. Framing it as what they would tell a friend tends to produce a real description, including the bit of humour or impatience that tells you what the team room is like late on a Thursday.
How are you reviewed, and who decides your rating?
Why ask it
Follow up on how often it happens, who writes it, and whether ratings are fitted to a curve. Where people are ranked against their own intake, it tends to show in how freely they help each other, and no recruiting presentation covers that.
Who struggles here who looked strong on paper?
Why ask it
The answers tend to be specific and learnable: not asking for help, polishing work for too long before showing it, going quiet in a bad week. Keep it to patterns and away from named colleagues, and notice which of the habits is yours.
What is happening at the firm right now that is not in the recruiting materials?
Why ask it
A hiring slowdown, a practice being wound down, a large client leaving, a change to office attendance: news like this is usually common knowledge inside the firm, and it affects whether the job you are chasing looks the same in a year. Ask it one to one, and treat a careful answer as an answer.
How much of what you know came from formal training, and how much from a manager correcting your work?
Why ask it
Large firms tend to put new joiners through a structured programme, and plenty of consultants will still tell you they learned the job on their first two projects. The thing to listen for is whether their managers took time to explain a correction or simply redid the slide.
Who looks out for you at the firm, and were they assigned or did you find them?
Why ask it
Assigned mentors and counsellors are common, and their usefulness is uneven. If your contact found their real sponsor by working for them, ask how that began, because it is the pattern you would need to repeat.
What does the firm do when a project is wearing a team down?
Why ask it
Policies on protected evenings and time off between projects are easy to find. This asks what happened the last time a team was plainly exhausted: did a partner step in, did the scope move, or did everyone just get through it. A specific story is worth more than the policy.
How many people in your starting class came from a background like mine?
Why ask it
Useful if you studied something other than business or economics, come from a school the firm does not visit, or are moving from another career. A count, even a rough one, is more honest than hearing that the firm values varied backgrounds, and they may know someone you should talk to next.
Careers
What does it take to move up from your level, and how long does it usually take?
Why ask it
Promotion timelines tend to be fairly standard within a firm, so the interesting part is what holds people back a cycle. Notice whether the bar is described in terms you could act on, such as running a workstream alone, or in terms nobody can pin down.
What do the juniors that managers want back on their teams do differently?
Why ask it
A plainer way of asking what makes a good consultant. Where managers can request people, being asked for by name is how a junior gets a say in staffing, so the answer is usually a set of habits you could copy: replying quickly, checking your own numbers, raising a problem while there is still time to fix it.
How has the job changed for you as you have moved up?
Why ask it
One for anybody past their first promotion. The shift people tend to describe is from doing the analysis to checking someone else's, and later to managing the client and selling the next piece of work. Ask which stage they liked best, because the title you are aiming at may not be the job you would enjoy.
Does the firm support business school or further study, and do people come back afterwards?
Why ask it
Sponsorship, leave of absence and return arrangements differ by firm, country and intake year, so ask how it works in their office now and whether they know anyone who has used it. Ask too how many of those people came back, since a scheme few return from is a different offer from one most do.
How long do you expect to stay, and what would decide it?
Why ask it
Leaving after a few years is common in consulting, so this is less forward than it would be in most jobs, though it belongs in a one to one chat and not in front of their colleagues. The second half tells you most: a promotion, a particular role outside, or the point where the travel stops being worth it.
Where do people from your office go when they leave?
Why ask it
Exit options are part of why many people join, and the realistic list can be narrower and more local than the one passed around online. Keep it to people at their own level in the last year or two: which industries, which kinds of role, and whether the firm helped or merely did not stand in the way.
If you were starting your career now, would you still go into consulting?
Why ask it
A question about the industry more than the firm, and better put to someone a few years in. A yes with conditions is the common reply, and the conditions are the content: the right office, a certain kind of manager, a plan for when to leave. Ask what has changed about consulting since they joined that feeds their answer.
What do you wish someone had told you before your first day?
Why ask it
The answers are usually small and practical: say when you are stuck, ask what a slide is for before you build it, book the holiday. Small is the point. Advice at this scale is advice you can use, and it shows what the first months really felt like.
Recruiting
What does the recruiting timeline look like for your office this year?
Why ask it
Deadlines, the number of rounds and whether interviews are held in person change from year to year and are not always clear on the website. A consultant may not know every date, but they can usually say when their office reads applications and who to ask for the rest.
After a session like this one, how does the firm want candidates to follow up?
Why ask it
Safe to ask with the whole room listening, since everybody there wants the answer. Some firms point you to a recruiter's inbox, some to an online form, and some want nothing until applications open, so do what this one says even where general advice says otherwise.
What other events is the firm running for candidates this season, and how do people get onto the list?
Why ask it
An info session is often the open event, with case workshops, office visits or small dinners behind it that may be by invitation. How those invitations are decided varies by firm and by school, so ask how it works for yours and whether tonight's sign-in sheet plays any part.
Roughly how many people is your office hoping to hire this cycle?
Why ask it
Presenters tend to expect this one, and a range or 'about the same as last year' is a real answer. Treat any figure as that person's guess, because hiring plans move with the market, and ask whether the number covers interns, graduates and experienced hires together.
Does the firm keep a record of who candidates have spoken to, and does it affect who gets an interview?
Why ask it
Some firms log every candidate contact and some keep nothing, and practice can differ by school or office. It is a fair thing to ask, and it settles whether to spread your effort across many short chats or put it into two or three people who might speak up for you.
What is the firm looking for in a candidate that a resume does not show?
Why ask it
The published list of qualities reads much the same from firm to firm, so ask for the version they have seen from inside: what the people in their intake had in common, or what gets said about a candidate once an interview day is over. Then ask where in the process each quality is tested, which tells you what to practise.
Which office should I apply to, and how much does that choice matter?
Why ask it
Office choice can shape the industries you work in, how competitive the intake is and whether you can move later. Give your honest reasons for a city and ask whether they would convince a recruiter there, since why that location is a question you should expect to be asked.
What should my answer to 'why this firm' include that most applicants leave out?
Why ask it
Every applicant mentions the people and the range of work. Someone inside can tell you what is true of this firm and not of its neighbours: how it staffs, what clients come to it for, how the office is run. One detail from this conversation, used with their permission, beats a paragraph from the website.
How did you prepare for case interviews, and what would you skip if you did it again?
Why ask it
Ask how many live practice cases they did and who with, which is easier to copy than a reading list. The 'skip' half saves you time: ask in particular whether memorising frameworks paid off for them, or whether those hours would have gone further doing the sums out loud with a partner.
What do candidates get wrong in the case interview that is obvious from your side?
Why ask it
Only for someone who has interviewed candidates, so check that first. Interviewers tend to carry a short list, such as unstated assumptions, unchecked maths or a framework forced onto the wrong question, and hearing which one costs candidates most at their firm tells you where to spend your practice.
What is the fit interview testing that the case does not?
Why ask it
It is easy to pour every hour into cases and treat the personal questions as a warm-up, so ask how much weight they carry at this firm. Find out which stories its interviewers tend to request, such as leading a group, changing someone's mind or recovering from a mistake, and how much detail they expect.
If my resume crossed your desk, what would make you set it aside?
Why ask it
Asking what would get it rejected makes it easier for them to be blunt than asking for feedback does. Save it for a one to one chat where you can put the page in front of them, and expect something concrete: results with no numbers, an unexplained gap, a story that does not add up.
Looking back at your own application, what do you think tipped it?
Why ask it
People rarely know for certain, and their guess is still instructive. It might be one line on the resume, a person who vouched for them or a case that went unusually well, and each points you towards a different use of the next few weeks.
In my position, would you apply this cycle or wait a year?
Why ask it
Give them the facts first: your year, your grades or current role, how many practice cases you have done. Some firms limit how soon a rejected candidate can reapply, and the rule varies, so check how it works at theirs before assuming an early attempt costs nothing.
How do experienced hires get in, and at what level do they usually start?
Why ask it
Skip this if you are applying from campus. If you are already working, it matters more than anything about the analyst programme: whether your years count towards level, whether the route is through a practice or the general pool, and who inside the firm makes that call.
How are interns judged for a return offer?
Why ask it
The criteria are usually less mysterious than interns fear: a reliable piece of work, being easy to have on the team, asking for feedback and visibly using it. If they know what share of a recent intern group came back, that is worth hearing, and if they do not, leave it there.
Closing
What part of this job would you do even if the pay were ordinary?
Why ask it
A good closing question because it ends on something they enjoy talking about, and the answer is unusually revealing. If someone can only name the exit options and the money, you have learned something worth acting on.
Is there a question I should have asked you and did not?
Why ask it
It hands the last few minutes to them, and people often use it to say the thing they were too polite to volunteer. If they point to a topic you already covered, the conversation was thorough. If it is something new, write it down before anything else.
Is there anyone else in the firm you would suggest I speak to?
Why ask it
Ask this before you ask for a referral. It is a smaller favour, it tests whether the conversation went well, and a warm introduction to a second person is often more useful than a referral from someone who has just met you.
Would you be comfortable referring me, and what would you need from me to do it?
Why ask it
Ask plainly, only after a real conversation, and in a way that leaves them room to say no. What a referral involves differs by firm, so ask what theirs asks of the person referring, then send your resume, a three-line summary and the deadline in one message so the work on their side is small.
May I send you a short update when I apply?
Why ask it
Permission given now turns a later email from an interruption into something they are expecting. Keep the promise small, a few lines when you apply and again when you hear back, and you will have a reason to write that is not another request.
How to use these questions when networking with consultants
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Setting it up
Ask for fifteen minutes, not thirty
A short request is easier to say yes to, and a good conversation can run over if they want it to. Say who you are, what you are exploring, and one specific reason you wrote to that person and not to anyone else at the firm.
Prefer people one to four years ahead of you
They remember recruiting, they still do the work you would do, and their time is easier to get than a partner's. Save the senior conversations for after you understand the basics of the job.
Do the homework that is public
Never spend the call asking what the firm does or what an office serves. Read what is published, then ask about the parts that are not, which is everything to do with staffing, review, and how work really lands. The more that has been written about a firm, the more this matters: with McKinsey consultants, say, the questions worth asking begin where the public record stops.
Choose a handful, not the whole list
Nobody gets through a list this long in one conversation, and trying to turns a chat into a survey. Take one or two Openers, three or four from the section you most need, and one from Closing. Use a different mix with the next person, so that by the end of a season of consulting networking you have heard an answer to most of it.
During the conversation
The aim is a conversation the other person enjoys and remembers, not a checklist run at speed:
- Ask about their experience rather than the firm's positioning. People answer the first easily and read from a script for the second.
- Follow up once on the same answer before moving on. One follow up is the difference between a chat and an interrogation.
- Have a two-line introduction of your own ready. Most chats begin with them asking about you, and a clear answer buys the goodwill your harder questions will need.
- Keep to time. Offer to stop at the fifteen minute mark and let them decide to continue.
- Jot down a word or two if you need to and write the rest up as soon as you leave. A head bent over a notebook slows the other person down.
At a consulting info session or recruiting event
- You may get three minutes with a consultant while four other candidates listen. Ask one question from Openers or The work that the whole group can use, and keep anything about your own resume for a one to one conversation.
- Hours, exits and what the firm is not saying in public are better raised on a private call, where a truthful answer has no audience.
- Do not ask for a referral at the event. Ask whether you may follow up, then do it within a couple of days, while they can still put a face to your name.
- Before you leave the building, write down each person's name, office and one thing they said. Your follow-up note depends on it.
Afterwards
- Send a short thank you within a day that references one specific thing they said, not the conversation in general.
- If they offered an introduction, make it easy: send a forwardable paragraph about yourself so they only have to press send.
- If you apply, tell them, and tell them again when you hear back, including when the news is a rejection.
- Keep one running list of the people you have met, with the date and the firm. By the tenth conversation you will not remember who said what.
- Do not ask the same person for a referral twice in one cycle. Once is a favour, twice is a burden.