How I got my Big 4 Consulting Job (Prep + Process)

In my senior year of college, I was clear that I wanted a Strategy Consulting career. I gravitated towards the variety of work, breadth of exposure across businesses, and career growth opportunities. However, in the cut throat world of entry-level strategy consulting recruitment, my eleventh hour case interview prep didn’t suffice. I was rejected in the last round at McKinsey–big heartbreak at the time.

Nonetheless, I landed myself a Summer Associate position at a boutique consulting firm in New York City. I enjoyed the work, but couldn’t take it up full-time because I ended up moving to the Netherlands. The move to the Netherlands was challenging. It made me give up the network I had diligently built for myself over nearly six years in the US. Without connections and fluency in the Dutch language, I couldn’t immediately break into Strategy Consulting.

So, I decided to get some industry experience instead and worked in financial services for a little over three years. My roles within the financial services provided me with time to explore different types of consulting. They also gave me the experience required to understand the nuances of different types of consulting. My time in industry also helped me discover my strengths at work and subject expertise I wanted to focus on in my career.

Had it not been for my financial services experience, I wouldn’t have realized that in the short-term at least, I preferred Big 4 Consulting over Strategy Consulting.

What’s the difference between Strategy and Big 4 Consulting?

Strategy Consulting typically consists of advising the highest-level of a company on highest-level strategic decisions for e.g. business transformation strategy. Strategy consultants, therefore, tend to work with the C-suite of a firm and attempt to usually answer the “What should I do?” question for their clients.

Strategy consulting projects generally don’t last longer than a couple of months. This enables Strategy Consultants to work on a variety of projects in a short-time. While this creates a variety in experience, it also impedes Strategy Consultants from specializing sooner in their career.

Big 4 Consulting offers a wider scope of services predominantly focused on operational implementation for e.g. regulatory change management. Consultants at Big 4 usually work with the middle-management across multiple areas of a client’s business and help answer the “How should I do it?” question.

Big 4 Consulting projects tend to last longer, allowing consultants to build deeper client relationships and specialize in certain areas much quickly. The projects are also usually staffed with multi-disciplinary teams because the Big 4, unlike Strategy Consulting firms, have audit, tax, and other business services all under one umbrella.

What prep work did I do?

The path into Big 4 Consulting was never a straight line. I sent in countless job applications and many a times didn’t even receive an email acknowledging my application. Other times, companies sent me rejections without tangible explanations. A couple of times, I received job offers that I did not accept due to lack of compatibility between the offered career growth trajectory and my own career ambitions.

This job search process required time, focus, effort, and patience. The rejections weren’t futile because they compelled me to send an even better application next time. Some things that I think made me a better candidate over time are:

• Learning Dutch because consulting firms prefer you have at least some basic understanding to integrate, particularly in client offices
• Acquiring skills that would be beneficial in a consulting role for e.g. project management and stakeholder management
• Gaining a professional diploma better recognized in the Netherlands compared to my American liberal arts college degree
• Nurturing relationships with people I met at networking events and cold-messaging consultants on LinkedIn to learn more about their work

What was my Big 4 recruitment process like?

I found the Senior Consultant job posting on LinkedIn and applied on the firm’s website. After submitting my application, I found the Recruiter assigned to the role I had applied for and one of the Senior Managers in the team I had applied for on LinkedIn. I sent them concise messages about my interest in the role and team, and why I would be a good fit.

Within a week, I received responses to my LinkedIn messages and the firm invited me to take an online assessment that consisted of numerical, verbal, logical, and psychological sections. It wasn’t very difficult, but I don’t recall it being a piece of cake either.

After I passed the assessment, the firm invited me for a first interview with a Senior Manager on the team and an HR Manager. This was about 75 minutes long and split into both behavioral and technical questions that focused on my previous work experience and the team’s core work. Before leaving the office, I left hand-written thank you cards for both my interviewers at the reception.

I received great feedback on my first interview from the Recruiter on call. She also simultaneously invited me to a second interview with a Partner and a different Senior Manager. This conversation, too, was a mix of both behavioral and technical questions. Overall, it was more laid back and shorter than the first one. Again, before leaving the office, I left hand-written thank you cards for both my interviewers at the reception.

A few days after the second interview, the firm extended me an offer. While I was extremely grateful, it wasn’t what I expected in terms of rank. So I communicated my expectation in a professional and polite manner over email. We had some back and forth. Through it all, I maintained my ask and provided concrete supporting evidence.

Consequently, I was invited for another meeting with a Director I hadn’t met in previous interviews. We had an intense but productive discussion, and I was able to influence him to give me the rank I wanted. Hallelujah!

Next came the offer in post and rest is history!

Tips for the Big 4 Consulting recruitment process

I didn’t enter the Big 4 Consulting recruitment process fresh out of undergrad, so the following tips are more from the experience of an ‘experienced hire’ rather than a ‘homegrown consultant.’

• Familiarize yourself with the breadth of work Big 4 firms do. They provide audit, consulting, tax, deals advisory, and many other services.
• Understand how Big 4 Consulting firms are different from Management / Strategy Consulting firms.
• If you know someone inside the firm you’re applying to, request an employee referral. This significantly increases the chances of your application getting noticed.
• Introduce yourself to the recruiter and / or hiring manager on LinkedIn. A Big 4 firm employs about 200,000 to 300,000 people and receives a ton of applications for every job posting. Expressing your interest in a message addressed directly to someone with hiring powers is the second best option you have to employee referral. It also demonstrates that you are keen and resourceful!
• Research the team you’re applying for. A Big 4 Consulting firm offers a breadth of services. It’s important that you’re able to demonstrate your understanding of and interest in the niche of the team you are applying for. You should be able to do this through a combination of the job description and LinkedIn browsing.
• Network inside the firm. Don’t feel afraid to cold message someone on LinkedIn. You can politely request either an informational phone interview or to send a couple of your questions over email for them to respond in their own time. I’ve always responded when strangers have kindly reached out to me on LinkedIn. One person I helped after they cold-messaged me recently even ended up getting an offer!
• Learn your resume inside out and be prepared to explain every bullet listed on it in a thoughtful way. STAR method is great to break it down!
• Big 4 Consulting firms publish a lot of thought leadership material on different topics. If you can, find and read thought leadership material published by the team you’re interviewing with. Brownie points if you can plug the piece in a meaningful way during your interview!
• Come prepared with good questions! Happy to do another blog post on good questions to ask in a Big 4 interview if there is interest.

Hope you’re able to find something useful in my experience and tips! Always open to answering any questions you may have–leave them in the comments–and have a great week ahead!

If you enjoyed this post, also check out my other popular career posts like Cheers to Five Years, How to Research Companies in Your Job Search, and How I Found my Career Mentors.

Disclaimer: This blog post is a reflection of my personal recruitment experience. Opinions expressed are mine alone. Recruitment processes can be different based on many factors, including team and location, so when applying be mindful of those differences.