When I walked out of the room, I thought I did the interview well. But so did everyone else. As the saying goes, "If everybody is thinking alike then somebody isn't thinking". On hindsight, I think I did the interview rather poorly. No wonder I was not short listed for the next round. I was incoherent with my thoughts. I was disorganised in my thinking. And I did not complete the case.

This interviewer had come for the Career Counseling session on the campus a week ago. And I must admit that I was very impressed with his ideas about life and work. Maybe the pressure in front of him was too high. Forget the case, I couldn't even get my "Tell me about yourself" answer right. So its worthwhile to practice your basic answers. And as far as the case is concerned, I took the Top-down approach, which is rather disappointing, no out-of-the-box thinking and add to that a few calculation blunders. Here are some of the questions he asked me -

Tell me about yourself. How would you describe yourself in precisely 3 adjectives? How would your friends describe you in precisely 3 adjectives? What do you think, Zishaan, are the qualities/ traits of a leader.

After the 2 McK interviews, I learnt that a consultancy interview never goes wrong. And even if it does, you will never know about it. For most of us, our first chance of an interview is also the best chance that we get (although in my case I would consider my second company as my best chance). And missing the first/ best chance always hurts.

I took feedback from my second interviewer, and despite not having the evaluation sheets with him at the moment, he was very kind to tell me about my weak points. Feedback helps, ask for it! At the end of the day, I was not short listed for the next round. My attitude had been wrong. I never believed I could make it to McKinsey. But I had another firm the next day - the BCG. And this time I made up mind to give my best.

This interviewer was a 10-pointer from IITK. The key to doing well in his case was that I was asking a lot of questions. And I guess I was thinking aloud. He dropped a lot of hints, which I was careful to pick. Of course, the most important point was to get the case right. It was increase of profits from 15% to 18%

Although I could have been more creative in estimating the number of credit card users, the case went OK overall. Also, these interviews give you your best chance to know about the profession ahead. So when I was asked if I had any questions, I usually asked about two things - One, the trainings that I would get. And two, did the interviewer love his job and why?

This interviewer was one speaker! The PPT that he gave was, by any measure, the best of all companies. His questions came in fast. And if you were not concentrating, you would get intimidated quickly. He asked me -

Tell me about yourself. How did you become the OC? Tell me, why is your GPA not 9? Whats your greatest achievement? Whats your greatest regret? What turns you on? What are you best at?

This was one heck of an interview. The interviewer was swift with the questions. And she was very polite and warm. Her questions were very different in deed. They were kind of seeking insight into you and your mind. Actually, I was not aware that this was an interview ... probably my greatest blunder. After an initial question, I got a little disturbed and lost my concentration. I sat there almost dumb and was hardly present in the room. Sometimes you wish you could go back into time. The questions in the interview were something like this -

Tell me about yourself. What quality in a person would turn you off? How would you describe yourself in three words? How do you think would your friends describe you? Is there anybody that you are very close to? Are you always so silent a person? If you find that a client is also not initiating a talk, would you try to start a conversation? Do you dream, Zishaan? Are you a dreamer? What do you dream? Dont worry, I am not into interpreting dreams ;-). Tell me what did you dream last time? If you could be at a place at this point of time, where do you think you would be and what would you be doing? If you think you have hurt someone, and the other person does not know about it, would you still go to him/her and apologise? Are you a forgiving person? Would you like to be forgiven? Are you aware of the choice you are going to make? Do you think you know enough about the profession that you would take up at BCG?

I learnt a very important lesson from this interview. Do not drop your guard - You are always being evaluated. Evidently, there were no 'right' or 'wrong' answers - its only your presence that matters. After the offers were made, I did not/ could not take feedback from this interviewer.

Another interview! All of us were very low on energy physically. It had been a tiring day. This interview, I think, was more to evaluate if you understood the profession of consulting and were prepared for it. "Business Doctors - that's what we are", told me the interviewer.

Must tell you one interesting thing. In both, my first McK interview and my first BCG interview, I was asked a question as soon as I entered the room - "Is it too cold here? Should I switch off the AC?"

In McK, I said, "Go ahead, as you wish" although I didn't want the AC to be switched off. But in case of BCG, I said it wasn't necessary to switch it off. Later, I asked Pratibha if she was asked the same/similar question, and she said Yes. I wonder if this was part of their evaluation or was it just that they were trying to put you at ease! Whatever be the case, it was an interesting point to note ;-)

A point to be mentioned about the feedbacks - your interviewers are too polite to ever tell you that you did badly. They will always tell you that they were looking for certain things (analytical skills, creativity, drive, communication skills, and I guess leadership) but would never criticise you or point out directly where you went wrong. I feel that they have a very methodical way of giving feedback, which is sometimes, just too polite for us IITians ;-)

We were given a passage to read. It had some 6-7 characters and we had to rank them in the order of their goodness. Clearly, no answer was right or wrong. Our group did rather well in that it did not make a "fish market" of the discussion. All of us could reach a consensus, which was appreciated.

The session was 90 minutes. The first 45 minutes were a meeting to discuss the design of a monument of national significance and heritage. In the next 45 mins, we actually had to build what we had discussed using thermocol . Apart from team work, creativity etc. we also had to keep in mind the budget of the structure (the thermocol, pins and gum were very expensive!). At the end of 45 mins, our team managed to erect a building that looked something similar to what we had discussed.

One word - ENERGY

This interview was very different from any other interview I had so far. There were 3 people, all of them very senior in age, on the panel. Whereas I could refer the McK and BCG people by their first names, I would only use 'Sir' for the people sitting in front of me. It was a relaxed and slow affair ... more of a talk than a question answer session. My interview was scheduled for 20 mins. And when they asked me "Do you have anything to ask us", it stretched another 25 mins, making it almost 45 mins total. The essential difference, I feel, between a consultancy interview and an ITC interview is that, in McK/ BCG the emphasis was on my analytical and communication skills. Here the stress was on values and my willingness to learn.

After this interview, I was made an offer to join the company :-)