Die Atmosphäre im Münchner Simon Kucher Büro war mehr als angenehm. Für das Interview musste ich im Vorhinein zwei Essays vorbereiten, welche im Interview nicht durchgelesen wurden, allerdings als Basis für den anfänglichen Teil des Interviews dienten.
Ich hatte zwei Interviews wobei beide gleich aufgebaut waren: Am Anfang gab es die typischen CV Fragen (Warum Simon Kucher? Warum Beratung?...) Danach kam es auch relativ schnell zum Case. Diese waren auf einem recht einfachen Niveau gehalten, wobei der mathematische Anteil relativ hoch war. Mit genügend Vorbereitung waren diese allerdings leicht zu meistern.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Warum Simon Kucher? Welche Ursachen kann es geben, dass der Umsatz steigt, der Gewinn aber sinkt?
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Simon-Kucher (San Francisco, CA) in May 2016
Interview
30 min Case interview+10 min resume
The interviewer directly started the case. The interviewer was very nice person.
The case is about pricing, cost and revenue.
Then she went through my resume and asked about my experience. Why did I decide to join SKP? Why consulting?
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Simon-Kucher (Boston, MA) in May 2016
Interview
I was a recent PhD interviewing for their life sciences division. Overall, the experience was extremely positive.
Process: Online resume submission > after a few days, 20-min call with HR > 1 hr call on case+fit > 1 hr call on case+fit > 3 X 1:1 case+fit (1 consultant, 1 senior consultant and a partner) + lunch on-site + 15-min math test (GRE/SAT style: easy).
Turnaround/communication: < 24 hour each step of the way once interviews started and very responsive overall
Impression: everyone was kind, friendly and enthusiastic about work/company: business is doing very well and it's evident. All the consultants who interviewed me were extremely friendly and approachable. I actually got convinced more and more along the way that this would be a fantastic place for me, based on my positive interactions. I did find the partner to be slightly harder to approach and he cut to the chase with the interview, but he was still kind, patient and open and the Q&A at the end was very interesting.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Fit:
Why consulting? Why SKP?
Tell me more about the case competition you did
What would be your strengths and weaknesses in this role?
What is your investment philosophy?
Cases:
It's in between interviewer-led and interviewee-led in style, and the content itself was really varied and creative (they are really trying to test if you can think on your feet) also in more depth, and none of the cases would quite fit into the cookie-cutter framework/cases that you see in the casebooks. The case from the partner involved using his computer to do a small excel exercise, and it threw me off a little bit just because of the awkward set-up.