The easiest place to stand out from other candidates in a consulting interview is NOT in the case.
It’s also NOT in the fit questions.
It’s not even in the 5-minute chit chat most consultants will have with you at the beginning.
Instead, it’s by the very end of the interview.
It’s at that moment when most interviewers say: “do you have any questions for me?”.
Let me play out two scenarios for you…
Imagine two candidates who did well, but weren’t outstanding in their consulting interviews.
Now imagine that the interviewer, by the end of their interview, tells each of them that they can ask a question or two:
“Okay, so great job in the case. We’re done, but we still have a few minutes – do you have any questions for me?”
RULE #1: DO ASK A QUESTION.
This is not optional.
If you don’t have any questions you’re SCREAMING that you don’t care, that you haven’t prepared and that you like to miss opportunities.
Alright, let’s see how these two candidates might answer:
Candidate 1: “Hmm, good question… Do I have any questions? Oh yeah, there’s one thing that’s not quite clear to me… How fast do people advance here? And how does the job change in each position?”
Candidate 2:
“Yes, I do have a question…
I was talking to [Consultant’s Name] and she mentioned that you measure performance in 5 dimensions here. She used examples such as problem solving, teamwork, etc.
I was wondering… Is any of those dimensions more important than others in my first year or my first few projects? I was also wondering how am I actually evaluated in that dimension.
The reason I want to know that is so I can come prepared to do well in it in case I get the job”.
From an interviewer’s standpoint, Candidate 1 seems like they don’t have a clue about what they’re doing. Candidate 2 seems like a rockstar.
I hope it’s not a hard point to grasp!
From a simple question you can see that one candidate is more informed, more interested and more insightful than the other.
The questions you make at the end are not be the most important part of the interview. Still, they play a critical role: they generate a feeling in your interviewer’s gut.
Depending on the questions you ask, this feeling could be that they’re making a good decision in giving you an offer or it could be the opposite…
The good news?
It doesn’t take much preparation to have a few great questions to your interviewers.
Also, these are questions you can adapt to use in any firm.
Preparing your questions for the end of the interview are by far the easiest way to differentiate yourself in a consulting interview.
In this guide you'll learn:
- The REAL reason why you should craft a great question to ask at the end of your interview (it goes way beyond what you think).
- The three principles for end-of-interview questions (99% of candidates don’t know about the most important of them).
- The best examples of questions to ask at the end of your consulting interview (and why they work).
- A proven step-by-step process to craft your own unique questions (and why this is better than using a pre-created question).
Let’s jump right in.
Why you should craft a great question to ask at the end of your interviews (and when not to ask it)
There are many reasons why you should have one or two great questions to ask at the end of your interview.
This is especially true when interviewing with the more competitive consulting firms such as McKinsey, BCG and Bain.
By asking a great question, you’re able to show you’re interested in the job.
You can also show that you did your homework and know more about the job AND the firm than the average candidate.
You can also show you’re capable of asking an insightful question in a “client-friendly” manner.
But these are all surface-level reasons.
They sound good and there is truth to them, but they don’t cut to the chase. There is a deeper reason…
The real reason to have a great question
There are many skills you need to be a good consultant. To mention a few:
- Problem-solving skills to break down complex problems into manageable parts
- Persuasion skills to convince your clients of executing on your recommendations
- Leadership skills to manage other consultants and client staff and achieve goals in a tight timeline
- The ability to get work done quickly and efficiently
Each step of the recruiting process of these firms is used to test one or more of these skills.
But some skills are not tested at all.
Consulting firms trust you’ll show those in your first year or two within the firm.
One of these skills is what consultants call “interviewing skills”.
Relax, what I mean by this is not your ability to do well in job interviews.
Instead, it’s your ability to interview clients and experts to get insightful information from them in a short amount of time.
It’s a difficult skill. It lies on the intersection of other skills, such as structuring, business sense, empathy and communicating well.
And it’s HARD for non-consultants to understand how important this skill is on the job.
Still, in most of the projects I did at McKinsey, interviewing clients and experts represented 50% of the time spent in the first two weeks.
(The other half was spent structuring the insights we got from these interviews and formulating hypotheses.)
What’s more important, someone who interviews clients well can 10X their output vs. someone who is merely average at this skill.
Why?
Well, they can capture insights from noticing slight nuances of how clients speak. And then they use these insights to ask even better questions in real time.
This is one reason why Partners spend a big chunk of their time interviewing clients.
You heard it right. While you’re doing analyses and your manager is structuring problems, partners spend their time interviewing clients.
So, this is the reason why these questions at the end of your interview are so important.
If you ask a great question at the end of your interview, and follow up with even better ones (more on that later), you give signals to your interviewer that you’re good at the tough skill of interviewing people.
A secondary reason
But there’s a secondary reason to craft a great question to end your interviews with too: it’s a quick win.
Most candidates spend hundreds of hours preparing (poorly) for cases. Most don’t spend a second preparing their questions for the end of the interview.
And all it takes is 15-30 minutes to have the best questions your interviewer will have ever heard.
Questions that will show you insight, your ability to listen, to connect with the interviewer. Questions that will help you have a great conversation with them.
I’ll be honest, this end-of-interview question will rarely change a decision to “ding” you because of poor performance.
But if your performance was “okay, not great”, it may be the thing that saves you and gets you to next round.
And if your performance was outstanding, these last 5 minutes of the case can still make a difference. It could be when you get to “connect” with your interviewer and that could earn you an advocate in the decision room.
When not to ask your question
In 95% of your interviews, the interviewer will be friendly and timely. They will give you the case and later ask you if you have any questions to ask.
But there is one scenario where you won’t want to ask your questions: when your interviewer is in a hurry.
You know it when you see it. They’re distracted during the case. They look tired and overwhelmed. And they’re constantly checking their email while you’re solving your case.
They might still ask you if you have any questions. But that doesn’t mean you should take it. This is an opportunity to show tact (a critical client-facing skill).
Here’s what I would say in this situation…
“You know, I did have a question about [TOPIC], but I see you’re in a hurry.
I know how tough these projects can get and that some phases are tougher than others. If you need to leave, I could send you my question via email and you can answer me whenever you have some room to breathe.”
The reason this works is:
- You show empathy by noticing the person’s situation and making them aware you respect their time.
- You also show self-respect. You’re not saying your question isn’t important at all or that you’re not interested. You’re saying they can answer you when they have the time.
- You also show you can take a one-time interaction and use it to create new opportunities to interact. This is a simple yet valuable social skill when interacting with clients. (I wouldn’t keep sending this person dozens of emails, though!)
Three principles for end-of-interview questions
Before writing this article, I looked online for “what questions to ask at the end of an interview”.
What did I find? A cascade of random tips that make sense at a surface level. Things like:
- Don’t ask questions you could easily find the answer online
- Make the questions personal
- Avoid “yes/no” questions
- Don’t ask questions on “touchy” topics (salaries, working hours, etc)
And while these tips make sense, they don’t dig into the “why”. They don’t go into the principles.
What’s worse, they miss out on the most important thing for end-of-interview questions.
(This is Principle #3, and it has nothing to do with the specific question you ask.)
Principle #1: Show insight (aka: show them you did the work)
This is the principle that most tips you find online relate to. You need to show insight through your question.
An insightful question is a question that is likely to find an insightful answer.
Let’s say you ask an interviewer what do they usually get for lunch.
That’s not a taboo subject. It’s also not a yes/no question. In fact, it is a very personal question about something you could not (easily) find online.
Yet, it’s still a terrible question.
Why? Because it’s not insightful. The answer doesn’t matter and it’s not worth yours or your interviewer’s 5 minutes.
If you want to find insight, look for a question at the intersection of what MATTERS , what is UNIQUE and what is NUANCED.
This is the type of question that will bring you most insight and that your interviewer will enjoy answering.
My definitions:
It MATTERS = The answer to it will make a difference in your life.
It is UNIQUE = You can’t find a good answer elsewhere.
It is NUANCED = There’s no black-and-white answer.
Principle #2: Active Listening
People love answering questions to people who actually listen!
In fact, between a candidate who actually listens and a candidate who has the best question but doesn’t care, I’d always go for the first.
Think about it for a minute… Your interviewer is likely to extrapolate everything you do in an interview as something you’d do with a client.
If you doesn’t seem to care about their answer, they will assume you’ll do the same when you ask a client a question.
However, if you’re attentive and receptive… If your body and face show that you’re listening… Well, that’s much better behavior than being dismissive and distracted.
It’s the kind of behavior that brings TRUST.
One of the books partners at McKinsey are required to read is “The Trusted Advisor”.
Need I say more to convince you important it is to be trustworthy?
And one way to do this at this point of the interview is to actually LISTEN to their answer.
My favorite way of doing this?
Ask a question you actually care about the answer!
Principle #3: Craft great follow-up questions
Let me tell you a secret about consulting: a good consultant NEVER asks a question, gets the answer and then moves on.
NEVER!
Consultants are trained and groomed from day 1 to ALWAYS ask follow-up questions.
The first answer someone gives you is the surface-level answer, they’ll teach you. You can only find insight when you ask something about that answer, and then once more.
So if you ask a question and are happy with their answer without digging deeper, your interviewer’s spidey-sense may warn them that you might not ready for consulting.
It’s an intuition thing. They might not even know why they feel that way.
You might still pass the interview, but it’s going to be in spite of that, not because of it.
So, say you ask Candidate’s 2 question from the beginning of the article:
Candidate 2:
“Yes, I do have a question.
I was talking to [Consultant’s Name] and she mentioned that you measure performance in 5 dimensions here. She used examples such as problem solving, teamwork, etc.
I was wondering… Is any of those dimensions more important than others in my first year or my first few projects? I was also wondering how am I actually evaluated in that dimension.
The reason I want to know that is so I can come prepared to do well in it in case I get the job”.
Now, suppose your interviewer says:
“In my opinion, the most important dimension for junior consultants is problem-solving.
The main way you’re actually evaluated in problem-solving early on is on your analytical skills.
Specifically, the manager and partners in your projects will be attentive to whether your models and analyses work or not and how fluent you are in creating them.”
You could them ask them follow-up questions like these:
- “I have always been pretty good at math at school and analytical work in other jobs that I had… Do you think there are some blind spots that prevent people like me to do well in this skill early on?”
- “How tough are the models I’d have to build here? I have never seen an actual consulting model and I’m curious about how complex and sophisticated they are.”
- “You know, if I get this job the usual timeline is that I’ll have a few months before joining. I was thinking of traveling for some of that time, but I was also considering to pick up some skills. Which do you think would be more useful for me to work here: learning basic VBA programming or learning database coding such as SQL?”
- “Why is it that analytical skills are the most important early on? It doesn’t surprise me that that’s the case since young consultants do most of the analytical work, but I wonder if there are other reasons for that as well.”
There’s nothing special about any of these follow-up questions.
Still, they show your interviewer that you’re interested, that you were actually listening and that you can dig deeper.
And just a reminder: while Principle #3 depends on you doing Principles #1 and #2 well, it is the most important principle of all.
Watch any good interviewer (Tim Ferriss, Charlie Rose, David Letterman) practicing their craft. You’ll see that what makes their interviews great is in large part their ability to ask good follow-up questions.
It’s not hard once you practice a bit.
Examples of best questions to ask at the end of a consulting interview
What’s better to understand how to ask these questions than to see the principles applied in real examples of questions?
I can’t show you the active listening part, but I can show you good questions, explain to you why they work and also show you good follow-up questions to them.
But first, two words of warning.
Word of warning #1: Don’t “steal” questions from this article.
As soon as I hit publish in this article, thousands of people will read it.
Interviewers might notice if candidates start asking questions straight from this article. If that happens, you’ll lose all your points as the questions aren’t unique anymore.
Instead, use these questions as inspirations to see how specific you can get. You can also use them as raw materials so you can adapt them and create your own. (I’ll show you how in the next section).
Word of warning #2: Great follow-up questions can’t be fully planned.
I’ll give suggestions of follow-up questions to each question example here. Yet, from first principles these cannot be great follow-up questions.
Think of them as examples so you can see how a good follow-up question looks like. For such a question to be great, however, it NEEDS to stem from the interviewer’s answer.
I recommend you to practice follow-up questions in your every day life. It’s an important skill for consultants.
You can do it when talking to people. Whenever someone tells you something, ask a question that digs deeper into something they said. “Why” questions work great!
(People might even say you became a better listener!)
Example question 1
“Who was the best BA/Associate that’s ever worked for you and what do you think were the things that made them that good? I’m asking this to get a sense of how to succeed here”.
Why it works:
This is the kind of question that shows that you can cut through the noise. It also shows that you’re interested in performing well in the job.
It’s an effective question. Instead of asking generic things about how to do well, you’re asking about the specific person that has performed the best they’ve ever seen.
You’re asking about REALITY. This doesn’t give your interviewer the easy way out of saying generic things that make a consultant good.
Also, I like it because it comes from a place of confidence without having a tone of arrogance. You’re assuming that you’ll get the job, but not arrogantly stating it.
Follow-up questions:
- “Do you think these things are things you can develop or are born with? Why?”
- “If I want to become as good as him, which of these things [that you mentioned] do you think I should focus on in my first project?”
Example question 2
“How did you pick your projects in the beginning of the career and how do you do it now? I’m trying to understand how much should I influence this once I’m working as a consultant and how to actually do it”.
Why it works:
This question shows you understand that staffing (which projects you take) is a critical lever in your career as a consultant. It shows you have done your homework.
It also gives the consultant that feeling that they’re like a mentor to you. This is the type of feeling that helps them root for you (and vouch for you) in the decision room.
And a little detail… Like in the previous example, instead of just asking the question here, I have also included the rationale behind the question. This is a slight trick to make it sound more insightful.
Follow-up questions:
- “I was thinking of trying to get into a project in [X industry/function] when I join because of [reason X]. Do you think that’d be a good option or would you suggest something else?”
- “What are some ways I can know if a project has these characteristics before joining it? Do you think there are some rules of thumb?”
Example question 3
“If you started over as a BA/Associate, what would you have done differently in your first project?
I hear the first project is really important to get your reputation down in the firm and get the best projects/work with the best people, so I want to really know what the best practices are.”
Why it works:
Just like the first question example, it shows your willingness to succeed.
Just like the second example, it shows you understand one of the important levers to your career as a consultant.
To go back to our first principle of a good question, this question is asks about something that MATTERS, that is UNIQUE and that is NUANCED.
Follow-up questions:
- “Do you think these are the same things that would make a manager/partner be impressed with me or can you see other pieces of the puzzle?”
- “What do you think is the best type of project for me to join as my first assuming I had the ability to choose?”
Example question 4
“I was talking to a friend who’s a consultant the other day about whether AI will ever do the work of a consultant. Our partial conclusion was that some parts of the job will and other won’t.
Does that make sense to you? What parts of the job do you think might be automatized by AI in the future and which ones do you think never will be?”
Why it works:
This one’s a little riskier. Your interviewer might not see how this is relevant and this may count against you. (It might be wise to be explicit about why this matters while asking the question).
However, what I like about it is that it shows great insight about the job and the fact that it has different parts.
Just to give you some concrete stuff… There’s much of the job (especially of more junior consultants) that could be feasibly automatized in the not so far future. Things like data collection, powerpoint formatting, and even whole analyses.
It’s a question that paints more of a “I’m intellectually curious” story than the “I want to succeed once I join” story that the previous questions imply.
I personally like it because it would give you the opportunity to hop into a high-level discussion of AI trends and the job itself.
Just be careful about the risk of sounding like a weirdo or not sounding relevant.
Follow-up questions:
I wouldn’t ask a follow-up question here. This question is more about getting their perspective than direct answers related to their experience.
Instead, I’d give my own perspective about something the interviewer said and let the conversation flow from here..
Example question 5:
“What do you enjoy the most working here and what do you dislike the most? I know the career is tough, so I wanted to get a fresh perspective”.
Why it works:
It shows interest in the profession and the firm, yet shows realism (knowing it’s not all perfect).
It also gets them to talk about themselves and their interests. This might give you opportunity to connect at a deeper level in case you find something in common.
Overall it’s a very friendly question, best used with open, friendly interviewers.
Follow-up questions:
- “Do you think it would be the same at other consulting firms? What’s different about here?”
- “Do you think [THING YOU DISLIKE] is inevitable or there’s something the firm could do to make it better?”
- “Wow, this [THING YOU LIKE] seems like something I’d love too. What are some ways you’ve found to get the most out of it here?”
Example question 6
“Have you ever been in a project that’s gone wrong? I wanted to know how things are like here when it’s not all going perfect.”
Why it works:
It’s an insightful question (it matters, is unique and nuanced) and it breaks the automatic “things are great here” speech.
In other words, it gives you the opportunity to have a REAL conversation with the interviewer.
The only risk is it’s a little negative in tone. (Although I think most interviewers would perceive it as a “grounded and mature” question).
Follow-up questions:
- “What would you have done differently in that situation now that you’ve learned from it?”
- “If I ever am in a project that goes like that, what are things that you think I should do as soon as I notice it?”
- “What do you think the firm could do so it didn’t happen again?”
Example question 7:
“I was wondering… [Firm you’re interviewing with] has achieved quite a lot so far, and consulting is a highly competitive business.
What do you think are the key things [Firm’s name] did right in the past that got them to this level of success?”
Why it works:
It’s a highly insightful questions if you position it right.
It’s more on the “intellectual curiosity” side of things, as it prompts a nuanced discussion about the business of the consulting firm itself.
If you play the follow-up questions well, you will sound as something between a curious consultant asking questions to an expert and a really smart candidate doing their due diligence to join the right firm.
In a sense it’s almost like you’ve inverted the table and are now interviewing the firm.
Follow-up questions:
- “Which of these things do you think the firm keeps doing well and which do you think are they not?”
- “Do you think [Factor X] is still relevant nowadays given [Trend Y]?”
- “What do you think are new things today that might transform consulting in the future?”
Example question 8
“How do you think [Specific VALUE of consulting firm] applies in practice and why do you think it makes a difference to clients and consultants?”
Why it works:
The best consulting firms are highly values/culture driven. They’ll live by and talk about their values all day long.
In your first day at McKinsey you’ll probably hear about “Professional Standards” half a dozen times. Same for “Results” at Bain and the “Strategic Perspective” at BCG.
Asking about these values in a specific way shows that you want to understand their firm beyond their marketing-speak. It also shows you don’t take narratives for granted without seeing evidence first.
Follow-up questions:
- “Have you ever seen the firm make a decision that affected its bottom line to uphold that value?”
- “When was the toughest situation you’ve seen this value being upheld?”
How to craft your own questions
As I mentioned, your question is only going to be better than others if you craft your own.
Sure, if you use one from the list above, you’ll do better than most candidates.
Still, you’ll never win against the person who was thoughtful about the question.
There’s a few reasons to it.
One is that if you create your own question, you’ll be more interested in the answer. You’ll do active listening better (and without forcing it). You’ll ask better follow-up questions (because they come from curiosity).
Another reason is that if you create your own question, it’s guaranteed to be unique.
You can make it even more unique by sparkling in anecdotes of people from their firm. People that you’ve talked to and with which you had conversations that prompted you to ask that question.
(Example: “I was talking to [Consultant’s Name] here from your office and he told me about a project where [Thing that surprised you happened]. Are things like that common here?”).
And hey, let’s not be cynical here. You’re also CURIOUS and have doubts and questions about consulting and the specific firm you’re interviewing with.
Through this article, I’ve focused on how to ask questions that will impress your interviewer, but let’s also satiate your curiosity!
The best way to do that is to craft your own questions. There are 5 steps to it, and it just takes you 20 minutes or so.
Step 1: Jot down on paper specific, real questions you have
You’re curious. You have questions about consulting or the firm. You don’t know yet if you can ask these questions or not.
No big deal. Put all your questions on paper.
Everything is game at this step, including “How many gazillion dollars will I make once I become a partner?”
Just make sure these are things that get your curiosity up. We’ll cut the list short later.
Step 2: Write down WHY you want to know each question
The best way to make a question insightful (Principle #1) is to have a reason for asking it.
Just by going through the rationale of the question with your interviewer , you immediately show that insight.
You show why the question MATTERS. You make it UNIQUE by giving unique context around it. And the context forces the interviewer to give NUANCE in their answer.
In this step, simply write down why you’re curious about each question.
Step 3: Try to phrase each one in an interviewer-friendly, insightful way
You shouldn’t ask a question if you can’t make it sound friendly to an interviewer as well as insightful.
I’ve already given you a framework for insightful. Make sure you add details that makes your question matter, unique and nuanced.
For interviewer-friendly, look at each phrasing and think what would YOU think of someone asking the question if you were the interviewer…
If the question is about salary, you might think they’re here just for the money.
If the question is about how many hours you’ll work, you might think they could be the kind of person who will leave at 5 (without turning in the work).
Don’t get me wrong… You can ask questions on these topics. But they need to be well phrased. Here’s an example:
“I’ve talked to [Consultant’s Name] and he told me most projects require consultants to work 60-70 hours per week. He also said there are situations where we’ll be working 80+ hours.
I’m up for the task when needed, but I was wondering… What do you guys do to maintain a reasonably healthy life when that type of situation happens?”
I don’t know about you, but I hear a centered, mature person when I hear that question phrased that way.
Step 4: Rank your questions
Give points from 1-10 to each question in three areas:
- How INSIGHTFUL the question is.
- How CURIOUS you are to know about it.
- How RISKY it is to ask that question.
You’ll want to ask questions that rank well (as phrased in Step #3) in all three areas.
Pick 3-4 questions so you can vary them from interviewer to interviewer. It works to always ask the same one in every interview, but it gets boring
Step 5: Craft potential follow-up questions
As I said earlier, great follow-up questions stem from your interviewer’s answer. Which means they can’t be completely planned beforehand.
Still, preparing a few questions that you could ask in different scenarios is a quick way to be more prepared. Much better than humming for 15 seconds during the interview while you try to come up with something.
So for each question you pick from the list, imagine possible answers the interviewer can give and create a follow-up question for each. You can do it like I did in the “example questions” in this article.
Summing up
You only have 5 or so minutes at the end of the interview to ask your interviewer a couple questions.
That sounds small, but it’s about 10% of your interview time.
And there is NOTHING in a consulting interview that is there as a time waster. Your interviewer will take into account everything that happens during your interview.
Some things are more formal (such as the case of the fit questions), but others will affect how interviewers feel about you.
This is the case of the questions you ask at the end of the interview.
Asking questions (and follow-up questions) like a real consultant will make them feel confident that you’re the right person.
This won’t substitute for your performance in the case or the fit parts of your interview, but it helps. It might nudge an indecisive interviewer to a positive side and even get you an advocate in the decision room.
In this article I tried to give you a full overview of exactly what makes a question great and how to create your own. Instead of just giving a list of questions to ask, I wanted to show you how to come up with questions yourself.
You know, the whole thing about teaching you how to fish, not giving you a fish.
If you’ve liked our approach to this, I think you’ll also love our free course on case interviews.
Just like this article, we’ll teach you everything from first principles (including how to create your own frameworks from scratch).
To get access to it now, just fill out your email in the box below and I’ll send you the link!