The First Job

Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is to paint a picture of how the placements look like at IITK. The views presented are my personal experiences and opinions.

It is a chilly night, the first in December. Everything has been building up to this moment: all the anticipation and all the preparation for this day. Looking around, you will find that everyone is suited up in black or blue. But you could see clearly on each of those faces that they are stressed. It feels like that black blazer is covering up the real timid, self-conscious and scared person underneath. It is a high-stakes game. People prepare day and night for that one moment. It is the night when your destiny is decided. Careers might change in just a couple of hours. A life-changing opportunity could come your way, completely altering your financial situation and that of your loved ones. In just a few short minutes, you can go from feeling overwhelmed to overwhelmed with joy. You can also be unlucky. You can get dragged on for a couple of days without even knowing how and where things are going wrong.

The situation is tense. Every now and then, you see people nervous. Worried about their future. Many times you see people dejected. Cursing themselves after crumbling under the pressure of the interview. Sometimes you could also see numb eyes. There are many things at stake and a lot to win. A lot to lose. Placements are the truest depiction of life. It teaches you a lot. It moulds you as a person. It exposes your weaknesses and shows you your strength. It teaches you the importance of preparation and the value of excellence. Still, at the same time, it also reminds you of the importance of luck. This year, I got to witness the placement season firsthand. So let me first describe my journey.

INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE

I interned with ITC Limited during the summer season. I spent a few months in Bangalore working in the Foods Business Division of ITC in the chocolate category. Yes! You heard it right; I worked in a chocolate factory for two months. Every day at 4 pm, I used to get to eat luxury chocolates for free. No wonder I had put on weight during those two months. I was also away from home and campus for the first time. It was tough initially, but it became super fun towards the end. More about this in a separate blog. As it turned out, I lost interest in my internship towards the end for various reasons. I had made good friends, so I wanted to have more fun; I did not enjoy working in a factory where there were no people my age, and I had decided where I wanted to get my first job.

As it turned out, I did not receive a PPO from ITC as a result of candid communication with my mentor following a long workday. As a result, I needed to prepare for the placement season. Even before my internship started, I was sure I would target consulting during the placement season. I had built the profile for it, and I knew all the pros and cons of it.

WHY CONSULTING?

Here is why I chose consulting as a career choice. These are completely honest reasons (not the ones I told in the interviews, of course).

• Firstly, confusion. When you do not know what you want to do, the best thing is to postpone attaching yourself to any particular sector. I did not know which sector I belonged to, so the sector-agnostic nature of the job was beautiful.
• Second, there’s the tag. When interacting with people outside of campus, I realised that tags are essential. Getting into IIT is important because it adds the title “IITian” to your name. Similarly, joining an MBB adds a tag next to your name, which is extremely valuable.

• Thirdly, the seniors. I’ve always enjoyed tackling difficult tasks. Things that only a few people are capable of. MBB is only open to a select few. It is a very competitive field. Consider putting yourself in my shoes for a moment. Anirudh Ojha, Vasundhara Rakesh, Nikunj Kothari, Tushar Goswami, Vatsalya Tandon, and Yash Maheshwari were among those who entered the consulting industry in Y17. I knew a few of them personally and had heard much about them. It blew my mind when I stalked these people on LinkedIn. There must be a reason why they all joined consulting.
• Lastly, I was pushed away from tech when I did not get a tech internship during the internship season. I would have worked my ass off converting it into a PPO if I had. So it was a significant bit of luck.

PS: I’d seen suits, and consulting seemed a lot like Harvey Specter’s job.

QUANT V/S CONSULTING

I did have doubts about choosing between quant and consulting. When a job pays in crores, preferring another job over it always raises doubts. Ultimately, I came to the logical conclusion that apart from my love for money, nothing in the job matched my profile or my long-term goals. It was more challenging than it seems now. I had to think for days before making this choice. In retrospect, it was the correct decision.

THE TWIST

The big story this year was that the three big consulting firms, Mckinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company, referred to collectively as MBB, decided to hire through the SPO rather than the President’s Office. It was significant because, unlike previous years, the final offers would now be made only on the first of December, rather than in September. I knew it was going to be a long race to the finish line, and I was prepared for it.

THE MCKINSEY MASTERPLAN

Mckinsey and Company, the oldest and most reputed of the MBB was the first release the shortlists. I had always expected myself to be shortlisted. When the shortlist came out, I was distraught to not find my name in the list. It humbled me. I was very high on confidence till then, maybe even a little bit overconfident. Although it lowered my confidence, it did make me realise that the process was not going to be as easy as I had expected. I learnt that life can always throw curveballs at you and you should always be ready for it.

But let us for a moment appreciate the intelligence behind this move. It was genius. They rolled out offers to 7 candidates within two weeks after shortlisting. To avoid any action by SPO, they gave verbal confirmations, which means that officially no one could take any action. Their giving offers to one of the Overall Placement Coordinators made things simpler. However, a partner was giving verbal confirmation, meaning that every 20-21-year-old kid would be convinced about its credibility. They got the candidates they wanted quickly without breaking a sweat. They did it on the correct campus because the SPO is totally student-run here, meaning that if you give the offer to one of the Overall Placement Coordinators, BCG and Bain cannot do shit. They did it correctly and put their reputation to the best use. They knew that people having Mckinsey offers would stop prepping for BCG and Bain, which automatically reduces the risk of them taking other offers. It was a very well-thought-out strategy. These are the kinds of strategies that make me love consulting.

THE PREPARATION MONTHS

Once I was shortlisted, I knew the BCG and Bain rounds would be relatively easy. I prepared thoroughly, solved numerous cases, and put myself in the best possible mental state prior to the hotel visits where the preliminary rounds were held. A break during the exams and a pleasant trip to Roorkee helped me distract myself from the monotonous preparation. It allowed me to be fresh and ready when it counted. I was never overly concerned with the preparation. Consulting preparation is very relaxed. If you solve and analyze a couple of cases every day for 45 days, you will be as good as any other candidate on the planet. I wasted a lot of time last semester because consulting preparation isn’t difficult. I did nothing extracurricular, and my academic performance was also mediocre.

I was prepared when we were taken to Lucknow for a BCG lunch. I went through two rounds. Both went off without a hitch. The last round went so well that I knew I’d nailed it the moment it was over. During the Bain outing in Gurgaon, my meeting with Bain Associate Partner did not go as planned. That was the reason I chose BCG over Bain. I continued to prepare after the rounds. On the D day, I was prepared to give a few more rounds. I was also preparing my backup plan. Aside from BCG and Bain, I had been considered for positions at Arthur D. Little and Alvarez Marsal. I had also begun quant preparations near the end, just in case I needed a backup. Graviton and WorldQuant both had me on their shortlists. Aside from these, I was also considered for Apple. I felt pretty at ease with 7 shortlists in the 1.1 slot.

BCG SOFT OFFER

Consulting firms will go to any length to ensure they get the candidates they want. Most of them make soft offers before final interviews to gain the candidate’s preference. A soft offer is essentially a guarantee that you will receive the real offer if you prefer that company over others.

There were still ten days until the big day. Along with consulting, I was preparing for quant. The pressure was increasing. I had just gotten out of bed one evening when I received the call about the soft offer. I was overjoyed. All of the stress and tension vanished in a matter of minutes. I finally had an offer in hand. I paused my preparations. The only real question was whether or not I should prepare for Bain interviews. I also got a call from Bain a few days before the big day. However, it was not a soft offer. It simply meant that I had a good chance. But I had already decided to join BCG at that point. So BCG it was!

TIPS AND TRICKS

I can go into a lot of detail about how to prepare for consulting but I am not going to. Here are the most important tips:

• Practice a lot. The more you practice, the more confident you get. I solved 100+ cases and spectated/interviewed 80+ cases. Each case and each person’s solution teaches you something new. You will never be perfect; hence you will never stop learning.
• The approach is more important than the solution. A clearly communicated and correct approach is more important to the interviewer than the final answer.
• Do not be shy about solving cases with seniors. I solved around 20 cases with seniors. When I say, seniors mean all those who know about case prep and not just the company-assigned buddies. Feel free to contact anyone and request to solve a case. The worst they could say is no.
• Think out of the box. It is challenging to take a step back and think about the case from an external point of view. The more you practice this, the more insights and observations you can make about the case.
• Take regular breaks. Solving ten cases in a day will never help. It is not advisable to solve more than two cases per day. Your brain will become saturated numerous times. Take a few days off and then return to it.
• Solve cases with a wide variety of people. Feedback often gets repetitive. Find people outside campus who are preparing for consulting.
• Solve one book entirely instead of solving only simpler cases of different books.
• Buddies can be dumb. My buddy from Arthur D. Little was super dumb. So don’t get disheartened.
• Nail the cases with your senior buddies. Their feedback is precious while creating the hotlist.
• Make a list of all the questions that MBB partners asked your seniors during the selection process. I also reached out to my juniors who had received internship offers from BCG and Bain. The cases will be repeated numerous times. Doing this for consulting is as important as completing the past 40-year papers for JEE advanced.
• HR questions and resume preparation are equally crucial as case preparation.
• Enjoy the process. I loved solving cases, and you should enjoy it too.

MY DAY ONE

On the first day, I was pretty relaxed. I had already accepted BCG’s soft offer. The only thing that remained was a formal interview with the partner. My interview began when the clock struck 12 a.m. It was more of a conversation about my internship than an interview. After a few questions here and there, it was over in 20 minutes. I thought I’d get another round, but that wasn’t the case. I was informed right away that I had received the offer. That was the end of it. That was my first day.

THE REAL DAY ONE

Although it was pretty simple for me, it was not the case for most others. With a recession around the corner, many big companies were laying off their employees like crazy. So naturally, the placements were going to be affected due to this. Some of the best companies that hired many students in the 1.1 slot did not even show up this year, like Microsoft, Google and Goldman Sachs. Some good companies, like Alphagrep, backed out at the very last moment. Many companies came to the campus and left without hiring a single student. The number of offers given per company was also generally lower. Even in consulting, the total number of offers was significantly lesser at 13 than 17 last year. Although Mckinsey gave 7 offers, BCG and Bain gave 1 and 5, respectively, less than 4 and 12 last year.

THE TRAP

Each slot lasts for around 7 hours. The trap is that even if you have been shortlisted by ten companies in a given slot, you can interview for only three of them. This means that people have to choose which of the three companies to interview it. Generally, people pick the top three companies and interview there. Now, if one is unlucky and does not make the cut in any of those three companies, the person is doomed. It is because, despite shortlists, the person could only interview in some other companies in the same slot. Add to it the physical and mental fatigue because of continuous interviews. Even the best and the most confident people can become miserable if stuck in this trap. Millions of thoughts storm through the person’s mind as they experience a persistent feelings of disappointment, rejection, sadness and self-doubt. You could feel they are stuck and tired. The drooping shoulders and the stress on the forehead is as visible as they possibly could be. You want to help them out, but there is only so much you can do. There is only so much in your control. A few more hours later, even people around start feeling slightly restless. Some moments cheer up everyone, but the happiness soon fades away as the fear and tension of the following interview set in, overpowering the laughter.

THE BLESSING

Having friends is like a blessing when you’re in a hopeless situation and need a reason to keep going. Friendships are strengthened by placements. I’ve witnessed a large group of a person’s friends waiting outside an interview room to offer moral support while he gives interviews inside. Interview scheduling becomes more crucial in the later time slots, and you’ll require your friends to help you out.

THE BLISS

Sooner or later, everyone gets an offer. It is a moment of bliss. The tension is gone. You can finally remove that blue blazer which has been a heavy burden. You can finally cry. You can finally call your parents and tell them it is all sorted now. You can hug your friends who went through the entire journey and felt the same emotions alongside you. Some of them might be crying even if you are not. You can finally get some sleep. You finally have your “first job”.

People are not paid what they're worth: they're paid what they're able to negotiate.