The MECE Muse Unplugged Podcast - Empowering Go-Getters on Their Journey to Greatness

Quick Wins interview with Sammi, a seasoned top 10 consulting firm campus recruiter specifically focused on hiring first-year analysts. This is the 3rd installment of our Welcome Back to Campus series, specifically focused on undergraduate and graduate students seeking to begin a consulting career. In this episode, Sammi helps demystify the recruiting process and provides insights on the process from a recruiter’s perspective.

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For this episode, we will be doing a segment that I call Quick Wins. It’s actually the campus edition. If this is your first time tuning in, Quick Wins is where we have an opportunity to connect with an individual discussing products, services, ideas, anything related to helping people along their journey as a consultant, and helping them with their toolkit. For this episode, I actually get a chance to connect with Sammi. Sammi is a campus recruiter, specifically focused on hiring and selecting consulting candidates. I can’t wait to share the interview with you. This is episode 18, it’s our third installment of our Welcome Back to Campus series. We’ve got one more but excited to have conversation. I think you’re going to find it extremely helpful, particularly if you’re in the throes of a consulting interview or starting to go through the recruitment season at this time.

Before we pivot, two things I want to highlight with this episode. It’s the timing we are in at this moment. I sit in the US where I’m in North America. I know I have go getters listening to this show across the world, which is phenomenal. I want to send out my prayers and thoughts with all of the people that’s been recently affected by a lot of the hurricanes and the earthquake. Across, up, and down the North American landscape, we’ve had a lot of really, really tragedies happening. At the same time with tragedies I’ve definitely seen demonstrations of human resilience, and people coming together, which is great.

I wanted to shout-out the people in Texas, Florida, and all of the Caribbean Islands that were affected. Most recently it was the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, St. Martin, Anguilla, St. Croix, Dominica, Barbuda, Cuba, Turks and Caicos. I know Haiti was affected a bit. There was the earthquake in Mexico. I wanted to shout out all of people out there, I definitely keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Go-getters, if you know someone that’s been affected, please reach out to them. If you know that someone may have had family, go ahead and check in on them.

I would also recommend during this time, we walk together, really check out helping, if it’s monetarily or if you can give it’s a great time to be able to donate, because people are really going to be rebuilding their lives and they need a lot of stuff. I wanted to mention, I know there’s the American Red Cross, there’s the Catholic Charities Organization, Salvation Army is pretty great. Both were not only for financial donations, but also for if you’ve got clothes, or you got different household types of products, things that people are going to need to rebuild their lives, now go getters is really the time to do so. Please check them out. Also be wary there are, with these types of times, unfortunately some people take advantage. You want to be leery and make sure that you are giving, but you’re giving to credible organization. Definitely take heed to that. That was one thing I wanted to mention, just where we are right now in the world to really put my thoughts out for people affected.

Interview with Sammi

I’m super psyched to introduce and welcome Sammi to the show. Thank you for taking time to join us on The MECE Muse Unplugged. How are you doing?

I’m great, Christie. Thanks so much for having me. It’s my first podcast so I’m excited to be a part of it.

Crossroads interview (the Intern edition) with Briana, a senior at Seton Hall University who recently completed 2 years of internships that ultimately resulted in her obtaining a full time consulting job offer this summer.  In this second episode of our Welcome Back to Campus series, Briana shares her journey as well as techniques she used to successfully be invited to intern two years in a row at one of the world’s top firms and then ultimately landed a full time job offer.

In today’s career dilemma, Briana and I also give career advice to an intern that doesn’t receive a full-time job offer at the end of a summer internship.  I provide additional thoughts to consider at the end of the episode in a quick MECE Mentoring Moment on how to land and maximize a consulting internship experience.

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This is episode seventeen, our second edition of the Welcome Back to Campus series. Super excited to have a conversation about internships to offer. For what we’re going to do, we’re going to kick off the episode with a crossroads interview. For those that are new to the show, crossroads are when we have an opportunity to connect with a person that’s going in or out of consulting, and we talk a little bit about their journey and where they’re headed. We had a chance to connect with Briana. She’s currently finishing up her last year at Seton Hall University. She did a two-year internship that ultimately landed to her getting a full time offer, which is awesome. On crossroads, she’s going to talk about her journey and some of the tips and techniques that she used to first secure the internship, be invited back for a second year, that which ultimately led to her offer.

We’ll get a chance to connect with Briana. We’ll also have an opportunity in career dilemma. I had a chance to talk with an intern that did not get an offer extended. We want to give a little bit of guidance, so Briana and I are going to talk a little bit about what that person should consider moving forward. Lastly, we’re also going to do a MECE Mentoring Moment. I want to give some round out, some additional thoughts based on the conversation that Briana and I have and give you ideas and tips on what you should consider not only to secure an internship, but also what are really the things that matter in an internship. Sometimes there’s different perceptions out there. I want to talk a little bit about that and really figure out how to prepare for internships. With that, let’s get started.

Interview with Briana

Thank you, Briana, for taking the time to join us. How are you doing?

Doing good. I’m so excited. This is my first podcast ever, so I was a little bit nervous at first, but definitely excited to be giving some advice and sharing my story.

If you’re being interviewed for our podcast, you’re a go-getter, so nothing to be nervous about. Before we get started with interview, if you want to take a moment to introduce yourself to the go-getters of The MECE Muse Unplugged.

I’m going into my senior year, attending Seton Hall University. I’m majoring in accounting and information systems. I’m also doing a dual degree, so I’ll be getting a master’s in professional accounting. I interned last summer at one of the Big Four and I was fortunate enough to be offered another internship this past summer, and then at the end of that summer I was lucky enough to get a full time offer, so I’m super excited to start that at the end of college, and good to have something secured in. That’s a little bit about my work experience. I had two summer internships pretty much, and basically finishing my last year of school.

Congratulations on getting your offer. How did you feel the moment that you got it? Did they give you hints that you were going to get the offer, or did they leave in you in the dark?

Quick Wins interview with Destin Whitehurst, co-founder of consultinginterviewcoach.com kicks off the Welcome Back to Campus series.  Destin shares his own career journey as a former consultant while providing insights and ideas on how consulting candidates can take their interview performance to the next level, and how to best leverage mock case interviews.

Listen to the Episode Here:

On this episode, we will be doing a segment that I call Quick Wins. If this is your first time tuning in, Quick Wins is where I have an opportunity to connect with an individual to discuss either products, services, or ideas that are helpful for a consulting tool kit. This is episode sixteen, it actually kicks off our very first Welcome Back to Campus episode. I’m super excited to have this conversation with my undergraduate and graduate go-getters out there. We’re going to share the interview that I did with Destin Whitehurst. Destin is a Co-Founder of ConsultingInterviewCoach.com. He’s also a former consultant and an author. He did his undergrad at Notre Dame and his grad MBA at the McCombs Business School at University of Texas, Austin.

In this episode, we really get a chance to talk through some ideas. For those that are interested in a consulting career, getting prepared for the case interview seems to be an area of challenge. Destin spends his days pretty much speaking to hundreds and hundreds of candidates such as yourself. He shares a little bit more insight that you’ll find extremely helpful. At the end of our interview, I’ll provide a MECE mentoring moment. I want to round out some additional thoughts on case interview prep and some other things you should consider.

Interview with Destin Whitehurst

Destin, thank you for taking time to join us on The MECE Muse Unplugged. How are you doing?

I’m doing very well. Thank you for having me.

Could you take a moment to introduce yourself to the go-getters of the MECE Muse Unplugged?

I’m Destin Whitehurst, the Founder of ConsultingInterviewCoach.com. Previously, I was with a Big Four consulting firm and focused on life sciences strategy. When I went to get my MBA, I started this company, which we’ve now had going on three years.

I’ve heard so many great things about your company and know several people that use your services. I’m excited that we’re going to get a chance to talk to you. Destin, maybe you can share with the go-getters a little bit about your journey in consulting. How were you exposed to the profession and what were some of the factors that influenced your thinking in going into consulting?

I had an unusual early exposure to consulting. I had an aunt and an uncle that worked at two of the MBB firms. From an early age, I had an interest in the type of work they’re doing, seeing them travel and hearing stories about their client interaction. Then I did my undergrad at Notre Dame where there’s a pretty large group of students focused on consulting. That solidified my interest in the industry, especially taking a few strategy-oriented classes. When I received the offer from the firm that I was with, I was excited to join. Life sciences was the predominant area. I quickly transitioned from life sciences to mergers and acquisitions, which was to me just fascinating that you can go so deep into one area or so broad. A lot of the candidates that come to us, one of their reasons for getting into consulting is all the industry and business challenges you can face. You can also deep dive as well, which I did during my career.

You actually mentioned the life sciences or M&A. Did you know that those are the areas that you wanted to focus on?

Special edition of The MECE Muse Unplugged to kick off September’s Welcome Back to Campus Series,  an episode designed to provide college students an orientation to the podcast show.

Christie shares highlights of upcoming episodes for the next month, all covering topics undergraduate or graduate college students interested in consulting would find valuable. Episode topics include interview case preparation, from internships to a full-time consulting offer, mindset of a recruiter, and college admissions coaching services.

Listen to the Episode Here:

This episode is special. I’m going to dub it my Welcome Back to Campus Series. We’re going to highlight specific shows and talk about topics that are helpful for all of my undergrad and graduate go- getters out there. For all of my go-getters that are in school, you may have been coming back from your vacations, internships, maybe hung out at home during all summer, why don’t you get up to speed with our podcast show? I wanted to make sure that you are aware of this invaluable resource that was created. 

I created the podcast show specifically with all of my college go-getters in mind, thinking about going into consulting, and trying to figure out what that specifically means. I talk a lot on the show to people that are new to consulting, that are starting their career, or experienced hires wanting to go back into a different career and that’s consulting either as a freelancer or joining a firm. I cover a lot of different targeted listeners. For this episode is focused on my college go-getter, give you an orientation to what we’re doing here, and how you can get connected. I’m going to highlight three things. One, is to get you acclimated with a couple of episodes. You should it check out while you are getting acclimated to what we are offering. Two, I wanted to discuss the MECE Mentoring Moment. That was a new segment that we introduced in the show. Three, I wanted it to preview what’s to come. We’ve got five episodes that are on their way. I’ll talk about the first three.

 Let’s get started with getting acclimated to this show. If this is your first time listening, I highly suggest you check out episode one. I laid out the framework and the foundation of my story in consulting and what got me started on this path. I then shared a little bit about what I call the MECE Muse story. I shared that in episode two. Episodes one and two were a ground-setting context information to share. You can go from there and fast forward. 

If you want to get CliffsNotes of all the episodes I’ve done to date, I highly recommend you check out episode ten. In episode ten, I highlight all the episodes we’ve done and previewed a couple that we were going to be doing. For our first set of episodes to kick off the back to school campus, there are two of them we’ve already done. I’m going to highlight episode six where we got a chance to connect with Xuan. She is a recent PhD student, has just graduated, and looking to get into consulting. She shared a little bit of her journey.

“If understood it correctly, we all share some basic proficiency in terms of being able to structure a problem, being able to solve it, but what truly takes candidate from good to outstanding is the ability to be innovative,

AMA (Ask Me Anything) interview where Ed, a senior manager and former bank examiner, shares his career journey and experiences as a consultant in the bank regulatory space. During this episode, Christie and Ed give mentoring advice to a consultant that is seeking career guidance to create more of a work-life balance so that he could pursue his passion and hobby of being an amateur musician.

In this special Crossroads interview, Michaela shares her recruitment preparation strategy that resulted in her landing a coveted consulting role. Christie provides career advice towards launching a successful career in consulting.

Christie answers an email from a fan that admits they are having performance issues after being promoted to the Manager level.

In this episode, Christie interviews Ron, a former consulting colleague with the brand of a rockstar. Ron discusses a myriad of topics, shares stories of his career journey, managing resistance, the differences in federal vs commercial consulting, how to choose between becoming an independent consultant, working at mid-tier boutique, or for a large Big 4 consulting firm. Christie and Ron also gives advice to a newbie consultant facing peer pressure drinking on his engagement.

Christie answers an email from a fan that hates his first consulting project and is seeking career advice on how to find other engagements.

In this Quick Wins interview, Luis Vasquez of Mightyintrovert.com shares how he learned to maximize his introversion with a 90%+ success rate of selling new business projects. He offers his proven sales method through an online course, helping introverts discover how to enhance their ability to influence and strengthen client relationships in a way that is authentic to themselves.