11. All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy (Part 3)

For all of you who would like to know what the life of a consultant is like, I would like to recommend you to read The McKinsey Way. 

The link I provided shows you the outline of the book. This book is very nice to read because the author has good sense of humor. If you have a leisure time, please take a look at the book.

Right, let's continue where we left off last week. Market-sizing questions are also known as mini-case studies. They serve to test your quick calculation ability, analytical thinking, business acumen in making assumptions, and also your communication skills in describing your though process and making summary. These questions can be quite nasty because you are expected to give a sensible solution given minimal data. These questions are very popular and often asked during interview process with management consulting firms and also other top firms such as Google.

Here are some examples of market sizing question

1. How many laptops/personal computers are being used in Singapore today?
2. How many people are there at Changi Airport on Saturday 1 p.m.?
3. How many airplanes are there in the sky of London right now?
4. How many newspapers are sold in Indonesia every Monday?  

These questions are insane, aren't they? Well, believe it or not, sometimes consultants are asked this kind of questions too by their client, for example, demand forecast of their new products. Remember these questions are not asking for exact number. They just want some sensible number because the interviewers also do not know the exact number ! Let me answer the first question for an example.

How many laptops/personal computers are being used in Singapore today?

1. We can start by estimating the size of Singapore population, say 5 millions.
2. Next, we make an assumption about about average household size to calculate the number of households in Singapore, say 4 people per household, so we have 5 mill / 4 = 1.25 million households.
3. We continue by estimating the number of computers used  in each household. Given today's technology advancement, let's say it is 3 computers per household (1 for parents and 1 each for the children)
4. So we have about 3 x 1.25 = 3.75 millions of laptops/personal computers used in Singapore today.

Next, we have case interview. The case presented to you is usually a business situation where the hypothetical client is facing a difficult problem with the company/product/competitors or is thinking of a new opportunity to explore and asks you to help address some of the issues. The case can be a problem, a situation, a riddle, an example of a real client situation (based on the interviewer's experience) or a contrived scenario. It is an exercise for the firms to test your analytical thinking and to examine how well you can handle problem-solving questions. At the same time, it is also a great opportunity for you to determine whether consulting is right for you. If you do not enjoy problem solving then the likelihood that you will enjoy consulting is very small.

The interviewer does not expect you to give the right answer. They are looking at the method you use to derive your answer, the questions you raise, the assumptions you make, the issues you identify, the areas of exploration you prioritize, the frameworks you use, the creativity involved, the logical solution you recommend, and the confidence and poise you present.

As usual, let me give you an example of a case which involves profitability framework. Imagine that you are now a management consultant. Your client's company has made losses over the past 2 years and you are hired to fix this problem. The interviewer stops here and then look at your eyes. That's all the information s/he has for you at the moment.

Since you have studied Introduction to Economics, you know that

Profit = Total Revenue - Total Cost

Since the company is making losses, you know it means that revenues have been declining and/or the costs have been rising. So, you ask the interviewer what happened to the company's revenues and costs over the past 2 years. He tells you that both revenues and costs have been rising. Now, mathematically, it means costs increase more than revenues does. Before you start recommending the firm to fire their unproductive labors, you suddenly remember that

Total Cost = Fixed Cost + Variable Cost

You proceed to ask, what happened to both components and then the interviewer tells you that the variable cost has not changed much since the past 5 years but there has been a sudden surge in fixed cost. I am not going to continue any further, but you should get the idea what the interviewer is trying to get from you using case interview.

There are still lots of other cases which involve more sophisticated frameworks such as the Porter's Five Forces, Kotler's Four P's, Value Chain Analysis, BCG Matrix etc. I am not sure whether you learn those in UOL 107 Introduction to Business Management. But don't you think it is fun to learn what those MBA students learn at business school? In fact, I suggest all of you regardless of what degree you are studying to take part in practising case interviews if someone ever set up a consulting club in your school. Not only your business acumen will be sharpened but also your communication skills will be improved. 

"Yes! That sounds very interesting but where can we get more information about case interviews and the business frameworks ?" For starters, you can try www.caseinterview.com . The registration is free !

If you are getting serious, then you may want to take a look at this book.

Consulting club is very common in business schools. But it does not mean that you cannot set up one eventhough you are not studying at a business school. Gather your friends who have similar interests especially those students who study BSc. Business or Mathematics or Economics or Management related degrees. In addition, you may want to give some cold calls to consulting firms, ask them to make presentations or even conduct case interviews in your school. 

Next week, I will give some ideas to some of you who want to set up a Finance/Investment Society and probably wrap up this series. 

Have a nice weekend ! 

10. All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy (Part 2)

Alright, lets pick up where we left off in previous blog post, shall we ?

Many students sign up to be members of any club or society just for the sake of getting discount for the events organised by that club or society. This is a reasonable and logical action since by joining two or three events, you will get back your membership fees from the discounts. But, do you actually realise that at the same time, all these members are actually being "used" by the top management of the club ? That is, for the sake of their CVs to show their Leadership and Initiative skills which I will refer as L and I from now on.

So, if you want to demonstrate that you have L and I then one way to show that is to be a founder and also president of a club. But please do not set up any Tom, Dick and Harry club, set a club or society that will fit your story of why you want to work in a particular industry. For example, if you want to work in finance industry, then set a Investment or Finance club/society. If you want to work in business or consulting industry, then set up a business consulting society. If you want to be maths teacher/lecturer, then set up a Maths and Stats society.

Like what Spiderman says, "With great power, comes greater responsibility", being a founder and/or president of a club or society is not an easy task. You must have a clear agenda of what your club/society is going to do. For example, if you are going to set up a Maths and Stats society, you can recruit second and/or third year students to conduct homework help session every week for maths and stats 1 and 2 and also the new linear algebra and calculus.You can ask maths lecturers in the institution you are studying at to explain the application of mathematics in real life. You can also teach less mathematically inclined people to think analytically and effectively using quizzes or puzzles.

Let me side-track a bit. Those of you who want to join banks' treasury department, you will often get a brain-teaser questions and you have to answer them very quick. Here are few real questions which I had been asked before in interviews.

1) Count how many Xs are there.

        X     X     X
    X X     X     X
X X X     X     X X
X X X X X     X X
X X X X X X X X

There are many smart ways of solving this, one way of doing it is sort them into  4 + 3 x 8 (see the picture below)

        X      X     X           

    X X     X     X

X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X

Now, you may think 3 + 4 + 5 + 2 + 5 + 1 + 5 + 3 is also a trivial sum, but this way of thinking is wrong. When the problem gets more complicated, the trivial sum gets longer and longer and hence inefficient.

2) Today is July 23 2011 and it is Friday. What day is 2152 days after today ?

This question also tests your analytical thinking. The information July 23 2011 is irrelevant, some people may think it involves leap year in your calculation. We know that given today is Friday, every 7 day after today is still Friday. So, what we need to find is the remainder of 2152 divided by 7 (in Abstract Mathematics, we call this 2152 modulus 7). We can write 2152 = 2100 + 49 + 3 which is equal to 7 x 307 + 3. So, the remainder is 3. 3 days after Friday is Monday.

3) If you look at a clock now and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands?

An idiot would immediately say 0 degree. The distance between any two hours is 360 degrees/12 hours = 30 degrees. At 3:15,  the minute hand will point at 3 and the hour hand will move towards 4 by 15 minutes / 60 minutes = 0.25 of the distance between 3 and 4. So,  0.25 x 30 degrees = 7.5 degrees.

The 3 questions above are asked during face to face interview. However, before that you may have to sit through lots of quantitative questions (by SHL, Kennexa, etc). The quantitative test usually require you to answer 20 questions within 15 minutes, that is, less than a minute for each question.

"What about Business Consulting Club ? What kind of agenda does the club have ?" There are lots of interesting activities you can organise if you are going to set up a consulting club. Let me share with you a bit about the interview process with management consulting firms. Some firms like McKinsey and Oliver Wyman require candidates to sit through GMAT-like questions before face to face interview while others immediately invite you for face to face interview. They are going to ask about your interest, why management consulting and then followed by market-sizing question and case interview which I will cover more in details next week if not sooner.

I am trying to hold this "All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy" series as long as possible while gathering comments from 50 people on my previous blog post. Do not worry, I will still continue blogging even though I do not get those 50 comments. I can use some generic CV to illustrate my points at the end of this series.

Have a nice weekend !

9. All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy (Part 1)

During my undergraduate studies, I only joined few societies during my first year. Starting second year, lessons getting tough and tougher and I spent most of my time studying in library. Little did I know how important joining sports/students club or societies was until I started writing my CV in my third year. I struggled a lot as I did not have any interesting story to describe my initiative, leadership and teamwork skills and even worst, my interest in finance.

Let me show you what my CV looked like back then.

Yes ! I heard you, it's horrible ! Even the present-I would not hire the past-me based on the CV for the following reasons:

1. The font-size for his name is bloody small, I definite won't remember his name if I have to glance through lots of CV.
2. Look at the white spaces between his details and his Career Objective, this guy definitely did not know how utilize resource fully - very inefficient.
3. Career objective ? What is that ? and what the hell did he write there? Junior Analyst ? That is a rank in a hierarchy ! I think this guy had no idea what he wanted to do.
4. Look at his education details. BSc. Mathematics and Economics.. major in Mathematics and Economics, thanks for the info Captain Obvious !
5. What is that SIM PEARLS ? The name is fancy.. Hm.. so what if you have completed that programme ? Does that mean you have excellent communication skill ? Leadership skill ? I don't think so...
6. "An active member of SIM - YEN bla bla as project manager and marketing executive bla bla" So what did he do ? Did he contribute something to the project?
7. Typing 63 words per minute ? He said he wanted to be junior analyst something and then he wanted to be a typist..
8. Of course we use powerpoint for presentation and word for document creation, thanks again Captain Obvious !

I can still come up with lots of insults toward the past-me's CV but I think you should get my point. 

The funny thing is that, after I came back from London and looked at my friends (also UOL graduates)' CV, they still have the same format and lousiness. Now, I understand why that is the case. The reason is that we did not have decent training in job search. Most CV examples that you find on internet are crappy. The CV writing seminar that we attended was crappy too. Everyone has a lousy CV and hence we do not know what a good one looks like. This is not really a surprise because writing a good CV is quite difficult.

The moral of this story is that I do not want you guys to repeat the same mistake that I did. Start planning your "story" so that you can land on your dream job easily after you graduate. Start writing your CV as soon as possible, do not wait until year 3 because you will need it to apply for internship during year 1 and 2. If you are UOL student and studying under an institution, chances are that your institution does not have good career service which is understandable because, honestly, only top schools that invest a lot in their careers service since that's what most students are after aside from schools' reputation. Anyway, do not worry, I will share you what I have learned so far from LSE Careers Service.

Let's get back to post "Regret Always Come Late". That job vacancy that I posted was one of many vacancies that I often found on the LSE careers service website. Those requirements are common and expected from fresh graduates who want to work for any decent company.

Since you have studying very hard and smart and also have taken my study tips seriously, let's assume that you are going to graduate with First Class Honours (aren't you ?). So, we can tick out point one and let's move on to point two. 

Imagine you are a recruitment manager and you have 2 CVs in front of you. One candidate claims that he has excellent initiative, leadership, and teamwork skills and another one shows those qualities through her extracurricular activities, which one do you believe? Clearly actions speak louder than words.

I used to think that student clubs and societies were waste of time. Students should spend most of their time studying in the library rather than organising stupid events and competitions. Well, what can I say ? I was young and naive back then.

If you are working and studying part time then do not worry because your prospective employer will not ask you about this "silly" stuff. However, if you are studying full time with an institution, then it is important that you join some student clubs or societies because you need those extra curricular activities to fill in your CV later on (in fact you will need this too when you are applying for scholarships that require you to be all-round). Don't be an anti-social student who go home straight away after lectures.

So, how can you demonstrate those so-called desired qualities through your extra curricular activities ? We will find that out next week !

Now, you should know that blogging is not easy. I do hope that my blog benefits lots of people. There are about 50 visits to this blog everyday and I want to make sure it's 50 people not just 2 freak visiting my blog 25 times a day. This is what I am going to do. I have a friend who is an LSE undergraduate and she got a summer internship with Goldman Sachs. It was very difficult for me to ask for her CV but then I got it in the end. In fact, I promised her that I will not share her CV with ANYONE! Now, I will probably break that promise (she is not going to find out anyway since GS is screwing her 20 hours everyday). In the end of "All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy" series, I will post her CV as model for all of you to follow PROVIDED that I get 50 comments from 50 different people on this blog post, saying "Hell yeah! Please share her CV with us !"

Do not cheat by posting more than 1 comment, because I can see your IP address ! See you next week (hopefully) !

8. For The Love of Money

So have you guys decided whether you want to be an investment banker or management consultant ? I hope you guys did go to each of the companies' website that I listed in previous post and find out about their businesses. Kudos to those who went to their careers section and start looking at the job descriptions. Anyway, in case you have not decided yet, maybe the following videos can help you to make a decision.

Right ! I just re-read my last blog post and I promised to tell you guys how to break into those industries with UOL degrees. Well, I must be out of my mind when I typed that because these industries mostly recruit directly from top schools (and unfortunately UOL degrees are less branded than those from top schools). Don't worry yet! You can still work in those industries but probably not directly after you graduate. 

If you are interested in IB, you can start by joining boutique investment / asset management firms or even the Big 4 (PwC, E&Y, KPMG, Deloitte) corporate finance related advisory, then build up relevant experiences and most importantly, networking ! If you are interested in management consulting, your best bet is to get internships and then hopefully full time offer from the firm you work for. I will (hopefully) cover about how to do that in detail later.

I still have lots of things to share with you all but I am extremely busy at the moment. However, I will not leave you guys with nothing to read this week. So, for all of you who are interested in IB, let me direct you to this wonderful website called Mergers and Inquisitions which tells you how to break into investment banking industry (it also tells you a bit about private equity industry) but note that the author of that blog is based in US so the context may not directly be applicable to Asia  (still it is worth reading). 

On the other hand, if you are into management consulting and want to find out more about this industry, this website called Management Consulted is worth reading (again note that the author of that blog is based in US, so the context may not be directly applicable in Asia). 

Next week, I will start covering about what you (UOL students) should do during your undergraduate studies other than studying, studying and studying.

Have a nice weekend !