recruitment on S Anand

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 14:39:01 +0000

Oh, wonderful! They’re keen to get in. Wise enough to take help. Honest enough not to be able to cover it up. Sounds like a good hire!

Winning the alphabetical race

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 06:48:58 +0000

Since my name (Anand) begins with “A”, I used to get called on fairly early at school. In attendance. Answering questions. Classroom exercises. Quizzes. Even the distribution of test results.

A few people later told me that it is good training, since I’d always be prepared. (Maybe. I’ve no idea.)

At IBM and IIMB, Ajit was the only one ahead of me, alphabetically. Then he went a step ahead and named his son Aadi. I thought that’s impossible to beat.

Today, we recruited Aabhas Bharadwaj. I checked on LinkedIn. I can’t find a single name on LinkedIn that’s ahead of his, alphabetically.

So, does he win the alphabetical race? Can you find one ahead of his?

Comments

RK 22 Nov 2023 8:58 pm: :-) Interesting observation! I know two women from 2 different states of India who are named Aabha
Jaspreet 8 Mar 2024 8:58 pm: Yes, Aabha was one of my friends in school! But, never thought of such knd of race…… interesting!

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 07:36:45 +0000

Dear Alumni 🙂,

A strategy consulting firm is looking for a senior person in advanced analytics at an associate partner level.

Ideally someone who has come from data scientist route but has developed into business minded.

If you’re interested or know anyone who is, please mail me at s.anand@gramener.com.

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 10:16:58 +0000

If you’re a seasoned developer that enjoys working with data, have good front-end skills, and are challenged by impossible deadlines, please drop me a note. I’d love to work with you at Gramener Mumbai.

Recruiting smart people

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:30:34 +0000

Recently, I have ended up giving bits of advice to people recruiting at start-ups, and a few patterns have emerged that are worth sharing.

Before I go ahead, I should warn you that I have no qualifications whatsoever. (All consulting advice should come with this caveat, perhaps!) You might be better off reading Joel Spolsky’s Smart and Get Things Done (read). I haven’t read it myself, but from what little I see of it, the thoughts seem similar.

The key is to realise that smart people are probably 10 times as productive. OK, that may be wrong. It probably originated with Fred Brooks, and has been debated to death. But it seems fairly well accepted that the best people contribute more than they are better paid. (The best guy is probably paid twice the average, but is worth more than twice the average guy.)

This isn’t because they do more work. It’s because they solve harder problems. You can get two people to do two people’s work. You can’t solve a problem twice as hard even with twenty people.

For a startup, the problem is acute. You don’t have the luxury of being able to manage a large number of people.

Since smart people typically work for a lot less than they’re probably worth, it’s a bargain to hire smart people. You pay them twice as much, and they’ll solve problems twenty others couldn’t solve.

The problem boils down to finding smart people and getting them on board.

Finding smart people

You need to go after the smart people. They won’t come to you. Many reasons. You’re not big enough. There aren’t that many of them. They’re not in the market that much (no one lets go of them anyway).

So that just demolishes the traditional recruitment model straight away. You don’t advertise for people and filter their resumes. You find the people you want and go after them.

The good thing is, smart people cluster. They tend to know other smart people, meet up with other smart people, read the same things as other smart people, etc. That gives some useful starting points.

Matt Biddulph talks about Algorithmic recruitment with Github. The premise is that smart programmers are at the centre of the social networks in their respective areas. Just go after them. I advised a friend similarly: to look for the network (or at least the smart people) that hang out on Stack Overflow for a given topic. Last year, when I was looking for a Django developer, I scoured the Infosys internal blogs for similar networks. (Found only a few, but it sure introduced me to a lot of really smart people that I didn’t know existed!)

Conferences are another place to look for them. I tend to periodically check out Upcoming and Meetup to see who’s taking part in what, go over, meet them, and see what they do. I find it a great way of figuring out who’re the experts in a field. (I once met one of the guys who wrote TiddlyWiki, and it was immediately obvious that he was in a different league from the others that day at the Javascript Meetup.)

You can go a step further. Since smart people cluster, they form networks, and control of that network is power. So why not organise those conferences? A lot of these smart people just need a place to hang out and learn from each other. I know the Javascript Meetup was struggling to find a place to meet. Pubs don’t give you the quiet atmosphere needed to learn from each other, and it’s certainly impossible to have a talk there. The folks at Hackspace have done this really well, renting a place and equipment for people to tinker with electronics.

That’s what smart people want, mostly: a nice quiet place, good company, and perhaps pizza. Skills Matter does this beautifully. They organise free workshops every now and then. The list of people that attend these is invaluable.

Getting them on board

Once you’ve spotted a smart person, what do you offer them?

Remember – they’re probably 10 times as productive. Money is quite likely to be worth offering. If that works, great. But if you’re a startup, you probably don’t have the money. You probably could offer a stake in the firm. That might work too.

But, to quote Dan Pink: “One of the most robust findings of social science is that incentives dull the mind and hamper creativity. Yet, businesses ignore it.” Some people aren’t motivated by money. You might get better results if you didn’t pay money than if you did. (Read this story on motivation by Peter Bregman.)

Suppose you said, “I have this problem… I’ve no idea how to solve it. Would you be able to help me?” Most smart people would probably help you. For free. The feel good feeling is worth more than the transaction cost of extracting payment from you.

Or you might be championing a worthy cause – anywhere from world hunger, rural poverty or cure for cancer down to organising a scout camp. The thing about this is they are intrinsically attractive. You probably just need to open up and say “This is what I’m doing, can you help?”

The flip side of it is loss of control. Jonty told me about how Hackspace London was run: “it’s as loosely organised as possible without falling apart”. You don’t manage these people like traditional organisations. You manage them like a community of volunteers. Like parents at a school day function. Like family at a wedding. You don’t pay them. You don’t order them around either.

Part of that is the flexibility of being a startup. You can afford that loss of control. Yes, you don’t have the money. No, not everyone’s working for money. (The planet as a whole is fairly well off. Smart people particularly so.) But you might offer something interesting. Just as long as you’re willing to let go of some control in your mind…

Comments

Peter 27 Feb 2010 8:45 pm: There is a difference between “smart” and “extroverted.” Extroverted people are the central hubs of networks. Smart people sometimes are, but sometimes aren’t. They do cluster – poaching from Google, or looking up recent graduate students from Sussman, Rivest, or whoever – seems like a reasonable strategy. Google takes this approach exclusively – find smart people, and poach them. Offering money is not bad. You won’t poach someone (except for a very young and naive someone) without offering money. The couple of posts are correct though – there is a difference between thinkers and doers. Some thinkers are necessary – they’ll take a problem, and make it 10x simpler and save you a wad of cash (and you probably won’t even notice, since the solution will be obvious). Or they’ll design the control systems for your antonymous airplane. You also need doers – people who can implement quickly. That’s often a different set of people. You also don’t want people too smart for your problems. They’ll get bored and won’t do a good job.
Khushnood Naqvi 23 Feb 2010 2:10 pm: Hi, Met somebody today, who was praising you very-very highly. So me also being an Infoscion once upon a time wanted to find out about you. So found this site/blog of yours. And must say your writing is also very good. You have mentioned about Joel Spolsky, and his writings. I also like them. I would also recommend reading what Paul Graham, Derek Sivers and Steve yegge have to say on Start-up culture/hiring etc. Regards, Khushnood PS: Would love to be in touch with you
Ravi Atluri 15 Feb 2010 6:18 pm: I would certainly agree on one thing - Some people aren’t just tempted by the money, they would prefer a machine with Quad-Processor, a graphics card and dual-monitors and then would come the money. ;)
Rajesh 8 Mar 2010 12:25 pm: Great piece, as ever. So, I am going to try to follow your advice. I have started this company called AIEEE.BE, and am struggling to develop good content. This is for a decent enough cause - to teach people Maths, Phsyics and Chemistry and might even give you the kicks. So, if you are interested in picking up some old Mathematics today, Physics today or Chemistry today and creating some good questions, please go for it. :) Under the extension of your hypothesis, if smart people indeed network together, then this blogsite could be one such place, so fellow commenters, you can also take the lead and chip in with good content. I would also like to believe that creating good content is intrinsically attractive :) And just to demonstrate that this is not a random request, I have given 3 questions below. One each in maths, physics and chemistry. The questions are of the type of Assertion and reason. In each of the three questions there are two statements. Statement 1 is an assertion, statement 2 is a reason. Mark answer choice 1 if the assertion is right, and the reason given is the right reason Mark answer choice 2 if the assertion is right, but the reason given is wrong Market answer choice 3 if the assertion and reason are right, but the reason is not the right explanation for the assertion Market answer choice 4 if the reason statement is right, but the assertion is wrong Mathematics: Assertion: If A-1, and A+1 are prime, A has to be a multiple of 3 Reason: Among n consecutive positive numbers, there will be at least one number that is a multiple of n Physics: Assertion: When driving under heavy rainy conditions, it is better to press the brake of a vehicle multiple times than to keep it pressed continuously. Pressing the brake a number of times brings the vehicle to a halt sooner Reason: Kinetic friction is greater than rotational friction, so pressing the brakes many times helps Chemistry: Assertion: CH3-CH=CH2 + HCl follows Anti Markonikov’s law when the reaction happens in the presence of peroxide Reason: In the presence of peroxide, electrophilic addition cannot take place and the end compound is formed via the free radical mechanism. Am hoping that “smart” people will respond by the hordes (am assuming that the emperor has no clothes hypothesis works). Cheers all,
Anantharaman Mani 24 Feb 2010 12:31 pm: The real difficulty is in defining “smart”, is it equal to higher IQ. IMHO skilled, interested, open and internally happy resource are far more productive and useful for the team than SMART-IQ resource. Extreme example to highlight my point : Throwing an Einstein for HTML development might not be very productive. I have built a very successful technology team from scratch, like you rightly said I had to “GO” to the talent. However the Goal wasn’t pure smartness, but the talent that will be genuinely excited about the opportunity and has necessary skill or capability to develop the skill. Don’t get me wrong, my resources are very bright but what made them part of the team and really productive was much more than just smartness!
Sanjeev Desai 20 Feb 2010 7:13 pm: Nice article. Very clear thoughts. My bit. One of the key factors of the employess of great start ups, is passion. Start ups should check the degree of passion candidate possesses for the subject in which the start up is working.
V ShivaKumar 17 May 2010 4:13 pm: Hi, Smart people are great to have on board, but you need to have sound internal control and a good organized flow of system. If they are allowed to be dealt with cash on day to day basis, the controls have be extremely good for the owner to check the reports periodically. Else the owner will be in trouble. They will move on, when even if they are not even slightly satisfied with the work or with the boss, even if you pay them well I do accept all the positive points mentioned by Anand in the above article. Jim collins also says about these things in his book “Good to Great”
Siddhartha 28 Feb 2010 5:48 am: Nice article. I would second Khushnood above in recommending the writings on the subject by Paul Graham, Derek Sivers and Steve Yegge. @Anantharaman: I find “resources” to be a very derogatory term for referring to employees. Maybe it’s just me.
Kevin Boulder 15 Feb 2010 12:41 pm: Extremely well written and quite practical too. One thought that I could add is, we need 2 kinds of smart people. One who can solve new problems (throw the problems as they arise) and the other who can quickly make it into an operational reality. “Thinkers” and “Doers” - if one may call them so. The latter kind are not dull in any stretch of definition of smartness -they see execution problems well in advance of these seemingly great thoughts and solve them to0; and that their skill sets are different. As the “thinkers” invent/create their set of imaginative and brilliant probabilities and choices to arrive at a plausible answers, the “doers” go through a creative (for them at least!) ways of sustaining the organization as these smart solutions are implemented. We need both kinds in a good dosage. Only a very few employees are either one of these kinds entirely. So again despite the two kinds, we are still looking for smart people in any of the categories - thinker/doer. Good thing is smart people of any kind do not get motivated by monetary incentive alone, but creative incentives will weigh heavily with them. With the command&control organizational paradigms losing its relevance, “hire smart people for a difficult but impacting business problem and let them loose (well almost) with a common theme/purpose binding them” could make star- ups successful (for that matter, any organization)!
Neutronstar 13 May 2010 8:34 pm: Actually, there is one more dimension here. Smart people take lesser time to solve problems. Anyway, since smart people do not necessarily do more work, productivity is unlikely to increase if most of the work is of average level difficulty.
NoOne Special 25 Dec 2010 7:58 am: The truely smart people/person will always move on. Only new problems or excitement can keep them. Whichever is your flavor or theirs. Recruiting Smart People is a good. Most of what I read is been written many times by many people. Not this one. Atleast I see new. Back to dullness. Thank you for something new, and sorry for my late response. bravo!, bravo!

Openings at Google

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 12:00:00 +0000

Job openings at Google on Google Base.

Comments

Gautam 30 Mar 2006 6:39 am: Yeah, naukri, Monster and Recruitment Management Systems need to spruce up their offerings

Impact of the US slowdown

Thu, 05 Apr 2001 12:00:00 +0000

With the US economy slowing down, the need for technology workers has dropped 44%. Those with H1-B visas, and body shoppers, are facing the brunt.

IIMB placements

Wed, 21 Feb 2001 12:00:00 +0000

A (almost) live update on IIM-B’s placements.

Boston Consulting Group Interview

Sat, 25 Nov 2000 12:00:00 +0000

First Round

On Saturday (25th November 2000), I dress up in my best suit (only suit, really), and find my way to the Green Park station for an interview with the Boston Consulting Group. Of course, being terribly conservative, I arrived an hour early, so it was time to walk around Green Park and have a look at the Buckingham Palace, while singing “I have confidence…” from Sound of Music. The walk did lift my spirits a bit. There was this tiny poodle that was busy licking a bulldog. The bulldog didn’t seem to mind, though it was large enough to eat up the poodle. Then the poodle’s owners picked it up, and walked away. The poodle was reluctant though. It just hadn’t finished licking the bulldog. After about 5 minutes, the bulldog (and owner), were about half-a-kilometer away, when the poodle was finally let down. Being the determined creature that it was, it ran ALL the way to the bulldog, and proceeded to lick. The bulldog, right through, was wearing a puzzled expression on its face, as if to say, “Are you sure you don’t want me to smack this little white fluff?”

At 10:15AM, I walked in to the BCG reception, and was led to the cafeteria. I was only carrying an umbrella (which I left at the reception), and some sheets of paper. There were to be 2 case interviews, each for 45 minutes. I was told that I’d be interviewed by Danai and Kim Wee. Danai (who’s from Bangkok) came along, and took me to a conference room. The interview begins.

Danai: “Hi Anand. Let me tell you a bit about how this interview is structured. We’ll begin by discussing your resume a bit. Then we’ll move on to a case, and finally, you can ask me any questions that you want. The reason we do a case interview is to test the candidate on 3 things: their enthusiasm for problem solving, their analytical skills, and communication ability. Let me begin by introducing myself. (Introduces himself in detail). Could you tell me a bit about yourself?”

Me: “Uh, sure. I studied at IITM. Nice place. Then I worked at IBM. Nice place too. Then I went to IIMB. Yet another nice place. Now I’m at LBS. Pretty nice. Uh…” At this point, I completely ran out of things to say. I mean, I’d been training for this and all that. But at the point, your mind just goes blank. So I said, “My hobbies include…” – and couldn’t think of a single hobby. My resume lists several, but the first thing that came to my mind was one that was NOT on it: “Acting.”

Danai latches on to this. “Wow, that’s interesting. So what would you like to be? Director? Actor?”

“Oh, acting itself. Writing the script too. One of my dreams is to be a film hero. " I actually said that. It had gotten to the point where I was desperate and willing to blabber anything to recover. “I like it because it involves a lot of communication and I’m good at communication.”

Danai neatly caught on. “Yeah, there’s a lot of communicating that you’ll have to do in consulting as well. Good. Tell me about (some point on my resume).” Then we discussed my resume a bit. Then we got to the case interview. Right through, Danai was taking notes on what I was saying – in fact, he wrote nearly 3-4 pages of what I said, as opposed to me who scribbled in half a sheet.

“I’m going to give you a cement company case, because I’ve worked in the cement industry.” Fine by me. “Our client is a global cement manufacturer, who operates in North America, Europe and Latin America. They buy some of their cement from other companies, and produce the rest. They are evaluating entry into Asia. Could you help them?”

Me: First, I’d like to know more about the company. Why are they buying cement from others?

Danai: They’re not all that good at manufacturing. I mean, they’re pretty good, but nothing extraordinary. Their main strength lies in marketing and logistics. They only have 50% of the capacity of their sales.

Me: OK. Why do they want to expand to Asia?

Danai: Why do you think?

Me: Several possibilities. Maybe they want growth, which they don’t have right now. Maybe there’s a one-off opportunity in Asia right now. Maybe there’s tremendous growth in Asia and they don’t want to miss out on it.

Danai: What could a one-off opportunity be, for example?

Me: Deregulation is a classic. Another is just a first mover advantage. Hmm… that’s all I can think of.

Danai: You’re quite right about all three. Their growth is slow. There is a window of opportunity in terms of regulation, and the company believes there is lot of potential in Asia. Let us take Thailand as a representative market and work on it, because I have worked there, and can give you answers to your questions. How should our client enter the Thailand market?

Me: Well, this is what I’m going to look at: the market in Thailand, the competitors in Thailand, the resources of the company (people, money and machines), and the regulatory environment (repatriation, licenses, etc). What can you tell me about these?

Danai: Let us assume that the company has the requisite resources, though that is a good point. The regulatory environment is also friendly and the clearances are easy. The market is dominated by 3 groups of buyers – government contractors (40% revenue), private contractors (30%) revenue, and a network of retail shops. There are a few large players in the market, the top 3 taking up 70% of the market.

Me: What are the parameters on the basis of which customers base their decision to buy?

Danai: It’s as follows (in decreasing order of preference)

Government contractors: Price, reliability of supply, relationship

Private contractors: Price, reliability of supply, brand name

Retailers: Brand name, reliability of supply, price

Me: OK, looks like price and reliability are pretty important. What is the competition like? Is it stiff? Are there price wars?

Danai: What causes price wars?

Me: Well… is there excess inventory?

Danai: Precisely. There’s a lot of excess inventory, and that has resulted in a price war.

Me: Are these companies inefficient?

Danai: In manufacturing? No. The whole world is pretty much the same in terms of efficiency. They are not that good in marketing and logistics though. But this constitutes only 10% of the costs.

Me: Right. The way it looks now, it seems crazy to enter a market that’s got high inventory and price wars. I mean, even if you cut the logistics cost by 50%, it’s still just a 5% reduction in a market that goes by price. No way. Looks very unattractive. But let’s not dismiss it. How about a joint venture?

Danai: Why would a company do a JV?

Me: We’ve got the marketing power. We’ve got the logistics capability. We can partner. We should just pick a company that’s going almost bankrupt, and tell them to sign up.

Danai: Would that suffice? What would they want from us?

Me: Well… access to international markets, I guess. So we can ship the excess inventory to neighbouring countries using our superior logistics.

Danai: Good. How would you go about such an exercise?

Me: (I explain how to pick a company, how to negotiate the contract, and so on.)

Danai: Fine. Do you have any questions for me?

Me: I want to teach part time. Can I do that? (Yes). Is it true that consultants are only rubber stamps of the CEOs? (No. Otherwise, we would’ve lost our reputation.) What does your day look like? (Go to office, have meetings with clients, have meetings with team, solve problems, travel a lot).

By then, it was time to meet Kim Wee, who was in the next room. The previous night I’d run through their website, and had found out a bit about Kim Wee, which I remembered. That kind of gave me some confidence, and I thought of a nice opening line like, “You look much better than in your photograph” or something like that. But when she started off, I realized I had no chance of getting a word in.

She began with, “Hello Anand. Nice to meet you. This will be the same format as Danai’s interview. I’ll quiz you on you resume, then we’ll do a case. Then you can ask me questions. Can you tell me about your experience at Lehman Brothers?”

This entire speech took 3 seconds or so. At least, that’s what it seemed like. Completely expressionless, and ununderstandably fast. My response was very coherent, though.

“Sorry?” (This was my most frequent phrase through the interview, followed by, “Huh?”)

“Can you tell me about your experience at Lehman Brothers?”

The meaning was obvious. So I said, “I never had a choice. The tyrannical placement rules at IIMB don’t give me any choice at all. So I was tied in chains and forcibly shipped to Tokyo for slave labour. I didn’t eat or sleep. Of course, I like that sort of a thing – even if you slave-drive me, I’ll be happy. But I want to have an influence on the world, and make it a better place to live in, which I can’t do from a bank. So I’ve decided to be the knight in shining armour (OK, consultant), and…”

She cuts me off with a monotonous, but quickfire, “What’ll you do in the future?”

Me: I’ll become a freelance consultant.

Kim: Why?

Me: That way, I can say no to a client if I want to, and still solve problems, which is what I like doing. Besides, there’s a visiting Prof at IIMB who’s doing that, and I’m kind-of using him as a …

Kim: What challenges will you face as a consultant?

Me: Huh?

Kim: What challenges will you face as a consultant?

Me: (a few ‘huh’s later) I hate telling CEOs what they want to hear. If they’ve made up their mind, I’ll tell them to shove it and walk away. In fact, I …

Kim: What is your most memorable accomplishment?

I was lost again. My prepared answer was the IBM India home page. But NOTHING came to my mind. After a few blank seconds, I figured I had to say something. So I said, “I shared reports at IIMB.” She stared, and I figured I had to elaborate. “I wrote great and wonderful reports. The Gods praised them, and ordered me to be fruitful and share. So I did. Then everybody started sharing.” (I was completely out of my senses by this time) “So now, there is a HUGE library of reports at IIMB. It’s going to be extended to all IIMs. Maybe all universities in the world. And it’s ALL my work. I’m terribly proud of it, etc. etc.” (OK, I didn’t say all that, but I came close.)

Kim, for the first time, not interrupting, and speaking relatively slowly, “There was a problem at NTU with this. The professors stole the reports and passed them as their own.”

Brilliant. All I could come up with was, “Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn’t considered that. I’ll let the students at IIMB know of this danger.”

Then we moved on to the case. “Our client is a food processor. One of their products is Cool Wave (or something like that). It’s a non-dessert cream topping, with 40% of the market share. They have excess capacity. Though the industry is growing at 6%, the sales of Cool Wave is flat. You have to find out why and give recommendations. Then you have to move on to other products.”

The interview went on for a gruelling half-hour. I can recall the details, but it’s too painful for that. Most of the time, I kept asking questions to which the answer was, “We don’t have that information right now. Maybe it could be this. Maybe it could be that.” Then we’d agree on something. After 5 minutes, I’d say something, and she’d come back with, “But how can you say that?”

“Because we agreed on this 5 minutes ago.”

“Well, we don’t have that information. Maybe it could be this. Maybe it could be that.”

Wonderful!

Finally, I did manage to piece together that the dominant competitors were pricing 15% lower, and the rest (fragmented) were pricing it 30% lower. The lower-income group was now able to afford the product. So the market was growing at the bottom, and since Cool Wave was a premium brand, they couldn’t capture that market share.

Me: One possibility is to reduce the price of Cool Wave. But that’s a bad idea (I give reasons). Another is to introduce another brand at the low end.

Kim: Anything else?

Me: (Struggle for 2 minutes. Then…) No idea.

Kim: Well, they could just sell the capacity to Wal-Mart or somebody, who could make their own-brand of the topping and sell it at the low-end.

Then I caught on to this idea, and began giving recommendations on how to do it and stuff like that. I was into my conclusion, “So they should ensure that the contract with Walmart does not appear hostile to their other retail customers…”

Kim: OK. Case is over. Do you have any questions for me?

Me: Sorry? The case is over?

Kim: Yes. Any questions?

Me: About the case?

Kim: No. Case is over. Any questions?

Me: (After about 10 seconds) Yeah. What is work like at BCG?

I don’t remember the answers. I don’t think I even heard them. They were too fast for me. Anyway, she ran me out of the building, and, as I picked up my umbrella from the reception, said that she’d let me know by Sunday evening if I got through.

I made my way to LBS, wondering if my chances were even 50-50.

Second Round

Anyway, I got through to the second round, to be interviewed by Marcus and Joon. Marcus asked me, quite casually, “This isn’t a case, really. It’s something I’ve been asking a lot of people and haven’t found a satisfactory answer to. Why is it that hotels charge you when you book a room and don’t turn up, but rental car companies don’t charge you if you book a car and don’t turn up?”

To cut a long story short, I really thought Marcus (who was a VP) was just casually interacting. So I just had a casual conversation with him, exploring some possibilites. I wasn’t getting anywhere, but I didn’t worry. I thought the point was to test how cool I was under uncertainty. Turned out to be a complete mistake. Anyway, after half an hour of pleasant conversation, Joon came over.

Joon said, “There’s an airline company that ships freight. It has passenger planes as well as freight planes, and uses both to ship. They have been losing money recently. Why do you think this is so?”

This proved as straight-forward case, and was over in 15 minutes or so. In fact, Joon volunteered most of the information himself. I was so thrilled that I left my umbrella in the office and walked off in the rain.

A couple of days later, Joon calls up from Kuala Lampur. “Hello Anand, this is Joon from BCG.”

My heart starts thumping. Is it a yes? Is it a no?

“We were very happy with your resume and your qualifications. However, we are very sorry to say that we are unable to take your application forward at this point.”

It’s a long distance phone call, so he had to pause for my response. Which was something like “(croak) Of course.”

“We are extremely sorry, but hope you had a good experience through the interviews.”

“(cough) Of course.” I was brain-dead by the time anyway.

“Would you like some feedback about your performance?”

“(glug) Yes, of course.”

“We felt that you did not have the analytical skills. When Marcus and I discussed, we felt that your interview did not have enough structure.”

By this time, I’d found my voice, so I managed to mutter something like, “Thank you very much, Mr. Ooi, I’m sure the feedback will be very useful. It was a pleasure interviewing with you. Bye.”

So there it is. Lack of structure. I’ve been told that before, of course. Got to work on it…

Comments

Sai 13 Nov 2006 7:46 pm: Anand, i commend you that you remember everthing that happened, especially the first interview. But i thought that you worked at BCG, so how come i see here that you did not get through?
EE 7 Dec 2006 6:58 pm: That was a very interesting story. I had a similar experience with McKinsey in one of their US offices recently - ding in the final round. I don’t have any business education though - Btech EE from IIT-B and now close the end of a PhD in ECE. I would love to talk to you about how to improve the “structure” - because that is one of the reasons why McKinsey did not like me in the end. If you are willing, please reply to this note.
Ap 2 Jan 2007 4:28 pm: Anand, Thanks for recounting your experiences interviewing with BCG. As someone who is interviewing with them for the first time - I would really appreciate any pointers on improving structure - I didn’t make some comparable firms because of this issue.
saurabh 29 Mar 2007 12:31 pm: This was motivating for me. The vagueness of selectors has always caused me a lot of pain. You bring it out quite succinctly and sardonically.
swethaN 25 Nov 2000 12:00 pm: Really interesting one.
Kaviraj Nair 25 Nov 2000 12:00 pm: Anand!! long time man…..i chanced on your website as I was searching for Viriboni varnam in google…(I am learning that in my class now!!)…..it took me to ur Carnatic page and I was thrilled to see your website flourishing with newer branches around!!……..and then browsed the site to read this write-up……..very hilarious……..!! anyways, how have u been? Best Kaviraj NAir
T.C.Srinivasan 14 Aug 2008 4:20 pm: thank you for giving insight of what consultant expects in a interview
Kyrylo 10 Nov 2008 9:26 am: Hi guys,

Occasionally, I ran on this post. First of all, thank you for the experience you shared!

You know, I want to submit my CV to BCG and even before having the interview I imagine the answer “lack of structure”. Thus, if you guys know how to work on this issue I would really appreciate your help.
ta23 5 Mar 2009 9:39 pm: Hi guys! I would like to recommend you to read some Plato’s stuff (philosophy). When you read his works, you will find that his statements (actually by Socrates) are not only brilliant as far as content is concerned, but you will discover that he structures them perfectly, utterly comprehensible and easy to pass to others (even though they are very complex matters).
- here is what I have found on the internet, but this seems for me as an easy-version how to tackle the problem, and I don not think that a 2day work can be efficient. Nevertheless worth mentioning. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080117190910AAzIXIl Good luck anywhere you go! T>A
Trang 3 Nov 2009 12:42 pm: I enjoyed reading this a lot, very useful. I had pleasant first round interviews and now about to have 2nd round (also final round I believe). Not sure if cases are gonna be harder and how I should be prepared (thats why I googled online for BCG interview tips haha) but your post is very helpful while entertaining. I’m sure you can make a good script writer ;)
kiran 11 Oct 2009 5:08 pm: hi dude .. tx .. i was just abt to apply for it now :) i thought i have to do my ground work ..
Tatiane 3 May 2010 1:45 am: Hey, Anand, thanks a lot for sharing your experience on the web. I’m preparing for my interview and it´s really to have this kind of information before it happens! Thanks a lot!
M. Rafik Sama 22 Dec 2009 1:10 pm: I am also working as Visiting Faculty of Strategic Management. Well tried. but I fail to understand where your concept were " Lack of structure”. Will you please put some light on it. so, it will be beneficial for me in my profession.
Amit 4 Sep 2010 6:29 pm: Hi All, am working with one of the big4 Chartered Accountant Firm in Mumbai as an Analyst in Mergers and Acquisition prior to that i was working in Treasury operations in J P Morgan Chase. can anyone here help me out to make it to BCG……
Sanghamitra 22 May 2010 10:21 am: Thanks Anand for sharing this. It really insightful…..and specially because I am right now working on “no structure” problem. Would be happy to hear of any suggestion if you have for me.
Vaidy 4 Dec 2010 5:46 am: Hi Anand, Good piece and thanks for sharing, I am on my way preparing for the interview and if I read between lines, the interviewer was more on the EFAS and IFAS with his discussion route leading to SFAS, well I hope to do well and will be in touch for some tips
Frank Castle 21 Nov 2011 11:05 am: Thanks for giving such wonderful ideas and suggestions. Plz keep writing on such interesting topics. Thanks for sharing this information.
Partha Srinivasan 9 Jun 2011 6:21 pm: Hi, your blog is very interesting and written in a satirical way.. :)…I looked up your linked in, so it appears you did make it to BCG eventually. Could you please publish that story ? Thanks, Partha.
Andre 18 Apr 2011 5:50 am: I just read your hole story. It is interesting and very well written. How old were you by that time ? Did you ever join a Consulting Company ? What are you doing nowadays ? Sorry to ask. I mean I have nothing to do with it except my own interest. I am a recently graduated engineer. Took 3 exams before they invited me for my first round of interview and this is next week at the BCG Office in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I want it so bad and I am putting so much effort on it that I can sorta guess how you felt getting that negative answer back. Hope you are doing good ! Thank you for sharing it I feel even more prepared right now. If you can answer me my email is listed.
S Anand 10 Jun 2011 1:55 pm: There wasn’t much to that, actually. This interview was at LBS during my exchange. I attended placements again at IIMB and got through :-)
calvin 14 Feb 2012 9:15 am: I will be interviewed as local specialist on thursday at BCG Jakarta, I found your post is very helpful. did you have phone interview though? I will be interviewed with someone from BCG India. I’m quite nervous because I’m a graduate from international relations, though I’m interested in economy and finance in general. I just hope I could pass the interview cases…
Riddhi Mohan 29 Feb 2012 7:31 pm: Very Informative and the way to come up that is even more interesting. Landed to your blog seeking something and found more than what i was looking upon. Thanks for sharing.
Sauarbh 14 May 2014 6:16 pm: Thanks for this,but still could not get,why lack of structure

McKinsey PPT

Thu, 19 Oct 2000 12:00:00 +0000

The McKinsey presentation was this evening at Lord’s. Yes, that’s the Lord’s Cricket Ground. So at 7PM, there was this huge crowd of people strolling over to the Nursery Pavillion, wondering why Lord’s had a square cricket pitch. Google and AskJeeves haven’t given me an answer yet.

McKinsey’s presentation had two high points. First, it was mercifully brief. The entire presentation was for 2 or 3 minutes, and all that this partner said was, “Hey, we love LBS. You know about us. So we’re all standing here, here, and here. Come over and talk to us.”

So we went over and talked. I mean, I hate networking, especially if I don’t have any questions to ask. But still, I’ve been instructed to collect visiting cards. So may as well. I walked over to a lady called Sacred, who told me what she was doing at the Business Technology office at London. Sounded like fun. Then I met this partner at the Kuala Lumpur office, called Alex Smith. He was wearing a terribly funny looking shirt, and I figured he just couldn’t be from McKinsey. But he was. So I asked him how he ended up in Kuala Lumpur? I guess it kindof embarassed him, because he started of with how his significant other was there, and that he moved there, and she moved to Paris, and how it was a long story, and let’s not get into it. Fine by me. Anyway, I spent the next half-hour just listening to him. It was a nice experience, and I walked away without bothering with a card.

I haven’t mentioned the other high point, though. Chocolates. The people at Lord’s handed out these HUGE balls of chocolate that was shaped like a cricket ball. I ate mine in a flash. When I was leaving, I found another on the floor. I mean, this is getting to be a habit. But this time, there were no qualms. The wrapper was on, and I hadn’t stepped on it. Sure was a feast that night!

Scanned Target magazine

Mon, 09 Oct 2000 12:00:00 +0000

I’ve scanned a couple of more pages of Target that have the job profile of the LBS graduating class of 2000 and the summer of MBA 2001. Incidentally, this magazine also publishes a complete list of who’s joined which company. Really neat idea, great for contacts.