Manu Malhotra_BLP036_Consulting_03Jan’12

As always I woke up early in the morning saying to myself – ‘I choose to make this the happiest day of my life’. Thank you Nithya Shanti for this beautiful thought that I chant daily once I get up in the morning.

The day was special and big in many ways. Mercer Interview was lined up, consulting skills class was on the calendar and the big fish – ‘Mckinsey preliminary interview’ was scheduled in the evening. It was all in all, an action packed day.

Morning circle kicked off at 9:00 am sharp. We had two special guests- an international student from MIP Italy named Faustino and the team from Mercer. Consulting skills class began and the very first topic of discussion gave me insight about the - Overriding question! What is it that we first intend to do as we meet the client? We define the context! Simple isn’t it. But handful of us actually figured it out. But at least all of us now know! I learnt that we define the context. We define the state of departure, the state of arrival and how we assess the movement from the point of departure to point of arrival. How would we measure that we have achieved what we were set out to achieve.

I moved out of the class in some time to appear for the Mercer interview with Mr. Muninder Anand. It was a five minute interview. The three questions that I was supposed to answer, I had them very well prepared. It is hard to actually figure out the learning from that interaction as it was more of one way communication. One definite take-away that I can draw is, it is extremely important to be good at 1 minute/2 minute interesting small talks. They help in engaging the client and in that process the more effective you are, the better impression you leave. Interview was followed up by a Group activity. The basic learning form it was, we should be quick to think on our feet and generate out of box ideas. Moreover, building a rapport within the team within no time is also of utmost importance.

The second half of the day was pretty interesting. Financial plan of Soil for new campus was given to us and we had to analyse the case. One key learning from it was, it is equally important to understand the practical applications & implications of the concepts of accounts and corporate finance that I have studied. I have already started working on it. I thank Anil sir, my classmates and Gaurav sir for making me realise it. I will leave no stone unturned to become a role model in accounts & corporate finance.