Glossary

Consulting has its own vocabulary, and interviewers use it without stopping to explain. Each term below gets one plain definition and, where it helps, a small example. If an interviewer uses a word you do not know, asking what it means is always fine: it never costs you points.

Recruiting

• MBB: McKinsey, BCG and Bain, the three largest strategy consulting firms, often grouped together.
• Strategy firm: a consulting firm whose main work is advising leaders on decisions such as where to grow, what to cut or whether to buy a company.
• Business Analyst or Associate Consultant: the usual title for someone who joins a firm straight from an undergraduate degree.
• Associate or Consultant: the usual title for someone who joins after an MBA or another graduate degree.
• Experienced hire: someone who joins a firm after working elsewhere, usually hired on a rolling basis rather than in a campus cycle.
• Engagement Manager: the consultant who runs a project day to day; called a Project Leader at some firms. Engagement Managers often interview in the first round.
• Partner and Associate Partner: the senior leaders who own client relationships. They usually interview in the final round.
• Networking: meeting consultants before you apply, at events, coffee chats or through alumni, so that someone at the firm knows who you are.
• Coffee chat: a short, informal conversation with a consultant, usually 20 to 30 minutes, about their work and the firm.
• Referral: a consultant telling the recruiting team that your application is worth a close look.
• Online assessment: a timed test some firms use to screen applicants before interviews, such as McKinsey Solve or BCG Casey. Names and formats change, so check each firm.
• First round: usually two interviews, each a case plus personal questions, typically with Engagement Managers.
• Final round: two or three harder interviews, typically with Partners. Some firms call the final day a Superday.
• Case interview: an interview in which you work through a business problem out loud with the interviewer, from the question to a recommendation.
• Fit interview (personal or behavioral questions): the part of an interview about you: why consulting, why this firm, and stories from your own experience.
• PEI (Personal Experience Interview): McKinsey's version of the fit interview, which stays on one story for a long time and digs into exactly what you did.
• Candidate-led case: a case in which you decide where to go next once you have laid out your plan.
• Interviewer-led case: a case in which the interviewer asks a set series of questions and moves you between them.
• Summer internship: a paid summer at a firm, usually between the last two years of a degree or the two years of an MBA, which can end in a full-time offer.
• Return offer: a full-time offer made at the end of a summer internship.