Recruitment trips | Consulting: Siena Harlin ’24, Deloitte

What does the recruitment process look like in your industry?

At SOM, recruitment of consultants begins two or three weeks in September. Applications go out around early November, and most people know if they have interviews by early December. This process consists of two main stages: networking and preparation for the interview. When it comes to networking, it’s a two-way street between companies hiring and recruiting students. Companies are starting this process with organized on-campus and virtual events such as information sessions, small group dinners, and even office visits. As a student recruiter, you meet people at these events and then engage in coffee chats to learn more about their work and ask specific questions you may have. This process helps companies learn more about you and help you understand whether you could be happy doing what you want to do at a particular company.

Networking will get your foot in the door, but of course you need to do well in interviews to get the job. At SOM, we prepare for this by practicing interviewing and behavioral interviewing throughout the semester. “Casing” is the classic method of a consulting interview: it is a structured thought exercise in which a live interviewer presents a business problem that needs to be solved out loud in about 20-30 minutes. This tests your logical reasoning, communication skills and performance under pressure.

By February, most people know where they will be interning, although smaller companies may decide later in the year. Summer internships often, but not always, turn into full-time jobs. I interned at Deloitte last summer and found out I had been offered a comeback during the last week of my internship.

Which SOM classes best prepared you for your current role?

As an industry changer – I worked in the nonprofit sector – I knew nothing about topics like accounting or competitive strategy, so all the foundational courses were helpful. What I found most interesting and applicable in many of my cases were classes with clients, during which I learned useful frameworks such as the “four P’s” of marketing: product, price, placement and promotion. The Workforce class turned out to be very relevant to my job because I worked in human capital consulting during my internship. SOM has a lot of great electives that will help you in your counseling, but you won’t be able to take advantage of them until your sophomore year.