Job Hunting in the UK: LBS MiM, Consulting, and Coffee Chats

Updated 2026/10/16

I invited my high school classmate Andrew to talk about applying to the London Business School MiM, job hunting abroad, and how to get into and work in management consulting. This article has been edited and reordered by topic, so it is shorter than the video above. You can watch the full recording of the session on YouTube.

Andrew’s background

• Management consultant, Arthur D. Little London office
• Master in Management (MiM), London Business School
• BSc in Management, King’s College London
• Offers from several well-known firms, including Amazon, UBS, and Arthur D. Little
• Landed a Roland Berger offer in Dubai from abroad

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Hi everyone! Thanks for coming, and thanks to Jason for hosting this. I won’t claim to have any special insight today. I just want to share what I’ve experienced over the past few years, and I’m glad to have the chance to talk through some of your questions. A quick intro: I’m Andrew. I did my undergrad at King’s College London, then earned a Master in Management at LBS (London Business School), graduating in 2023. I now work in London at Arthur D. Little, a strategy consulting firm with more than 40 offices worldwide and over a hundred years of history. My team mainly does strategy work, and we cover a wide range of industries and consulting areas.

Let me introduce myself quickly too, since some of you signed up through Accupass and may not know the Jason Career brand. I run an Instagram account and a podcast, I write a blog, and I founded offerland.cc, a one-stop platform for studying abroad. As for my background: I was admitted to Columbia’s MBA before I graduated from college, and I’ve worked in venture capital, startups, and consulting.

Andrew and I went to high school together. He rarely gets back to Taiwan, so while he was here I invited him to record two podcast episodes. They’re already edited and should come out in a week or two, so follow the podcast if you’re interested. We went into a lot of detail there, including management consulting and job hunting abroad. Today we’ll mostly keep it conversational.

Job hunting abroad

When you started your master’s, what did the UK recruiting timeline look like? For example, when did you start sending CVs and when did you start preparing for interviews?

You mean the UK? The two markets I know best are the UK and the Middle East. I don’t know Greater China as well, so I’ll mostly talk about the UK.

In the UK, whether you’re going for a master’s or have already finished one, the most important thing is to understand the recruiting calendar. Every industry has its own timeline for opening applications, and many have a first and second wave each year. So the most important thing is knowing when each part of the game happens.

Once you know the timing, it’s easy to plan your own preparation and map out the year ahead.

How do you find out each industry’s recruiting timeline? The most direct way is to talk to alumni who already work in that industry or just joined it, or to reach people through your own network. They can tell you how the game works.

From what I saw, banking still starts earliest in the UK. The big BBs (bulge bracket investment banks) open recruiting first, and by around July, August, or September most people have already applied.

After the graduate schemes at these banks, or the most competitive ones, comes consulting. In recent years UK consulting firms have been recruiting earlier, because they know the investment banks grab strong candidates early.

The year before mine it wasn’t so extreme yet, but starting in my year, a huge number of firms opened recruiting in September and closed it by early October.

If you’re heading over for a master’s, it’s really important to start preparing before you arrive. When you first land in the UK, you have to sort out your accommodation and go through a lot of school admin. You won’t have much time to gather every company’s recruiting timeline.

So the most useful homework you can do is to research most of your target companies and their recruiting timelines before you get to the UK. Then you’ll know exactly when to send your CV and roughly when interviews will happen.

Take consulting in my year: recruiting opened in September, first rounds ran in October and November, and if you advanced it could drag on to December or January. Interviewing can easily take half a year. Admin in the UK is mostly slow, and big companies don’t always move quickly either; many take two or three months. So your interviews may well run into the following year, and the whole job search can stretch to a full year.

Corporate graduate schemes are often very competitive. Banks and other large financial institutions open in August, September, or October and usually close in December. Big tech firms like Amazon close their schemes at various points between November and February.

My advice is to apply to these graduate schemes as soon as you’re ready, not right before the deadline. Some companies review on a rolling basis and others only after the deadline, and not every company says which. Applying when you’re ready also spreads out your preparation effort as much as possible.

The ideal situation is to have interviews come one at a time, not two or three in the same week. As you build up interview experience, you’ll get better, and by January or February your interviews will go more smoothly and the offers will start coming. It builds up over time.

So we usually don’t expect an offer from the first interview. As long as you keep getting interviews, keep doing coffee chats and talking to people, and keep moving toward your goal, you have a real chance of getting an offer by February or March.

The main thing in the UK job search is to understand the timing and start applying early.

If you only go to the UK for a master’s, is it hard to find a job and stay? Visas seem to be getting less friendly.

Let me take the visa part first. It is getting less friendly. You may have seen the news that the threshold for the skilled worker visa has been raised. We don’t know yet what will happen to the PSW (Post-Study Work visa). For now it doesn’t look much affected, and most people still get two years of PSW after a master’s.

The rules say it will be reviewed and granted more strictly, but nobody knows yet what that will look like. If you’re going this year or next year, the impact shouldn’t be big, and there will still be jobs. As I said, a UK master’s is only one year, so the single most important thing is to have your CV and cover letter templates ready while you’re still in Taiwan, and to know when you need to apply.

Many classmates and friends of mine who started late ended up scrambling and anxious. By the time they realized “I need to start job hunting now,” many of the positions were already gone. If you start applying in December or January and only get your first interview then, you’re just beginning to build UK interview experience, and you’re a bit behind.

You should start applying and building experience early because this is a long fight. Every interview you get is experience you keep and a safety net for you. When a great interview or the next opportunity comes along, you’ll be ready to take it. Starting early is the one thing that decides it.

It is a challenge, but the good thing about the PSW is that you can stay in the UK for two years whether or not you’ve found a job. So I think the UK job market is still relatively friendly, with plenty of opportunities. It depends on how flexible you’re willing to be. Some people only want a job in one particular industry, or they have certain expectations of themselves, so it comes down to whether you can be open to different kinds of jobs.

The UK has no shortage of jobs. It comes down to what you’re willing to accept.

So would you recommend starting on your CV, and even your cover letter, as soon as you get your admission offer?

Definitely. I think the best order is this: once you have the offer and know you’re going to study there, start doing coffee chats. Talk to people from the school, or friends and alumni who studied in that market, and slowly build your network so you understand how the local job market works and how to play the game.

I think that’s the most useful step, and it helps you figure out what to do next. For example, if you’re planning to study in the UK, you can contact me privately and we can set up some coffee chats. We can talk about the industry you want to apply to and what your concrete next steps should be.

Overall, if you finish the coffee chats, prepare your CV and cover letter, and build your company list (target industries, target companies, application links, timeline), I think you’re already ahead of 99% of the people going to the UK for a master’s. You’ve got a head start.

All of these are must-dos, and I strongly recommend getting them done before you arrive in the UK.

If the goal is management consulting, should you wait for offers from schools like Manchester or Edinburgh?

Here’s a more specific question. Someone already has an MSBA offer from Warwick and asks whether you’d recommend waiting for Manchester or Edinburgh. Warwick only gives one month to reply. The Edinburgh application is in, but Manchester is held up by one IELTS sub-score. If they wait, they’ll definitely miss Warwick’s reply deadline.

So if the goal is management consulting, would you say it’s worth waiting for offers from schools like Manchester or Edinburgh?

First, congratulations! A Warwick BA offer is a really good one, so be happy and celebrate a bit. I’ve always thought choosing a school or program means weighing many things together. A master’s is only one year, and it’s a great experience, maybe a once-in-a-lifetime chance to live abroad. Many different factors shape how much you get out of it.

The first is the job search: you have a goal, so which school or program will make it easier to reach? That’s the first consideration. But other factors matter too, such as location. If you’re somewhere convenient, it’s easy to travel to other cities and countries. Personally, I think that’s the biggest advantage of studying in the UK or Europe.

There may also be a budget limit, or the subject of the program. I’m not sure whether this person also applied to business analytics at Edinburgh and Manchester. So I think the best way to decide is to weigh all of these together: location, experience, alumni connections, career, and budget.

Location also matters for a consulting job search. In the UK, the school’s name carries a lot of weight when you apply to consulting firms. Connections matter too. Warwick’s business school, for example, has many alumni working in the same field, so it’s easier to set up coffee chats and to find alumni who can tell you what to do. Manchester and Edinburgh are farther from London. If you want to focus on consulting in London, Warwick or King’s may have a geographic advantage. All of this is worth thinking through.

If you pick King’s, you can also meet people from many other London schools, including Imperial, LSE, LBS, and UCL. You’ll find plenty of like-minded people to share information and work hard alongside. Personally, school name and location are the two most important factors for me, and the others can come later.

That said, as you mentioned, King’s, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Warwick are all good schools worth attending. If you go back to Asia or leave the UK, the differences may not matter much. It depends on how you rank these factors.

If your English isn’t strong, how do you improve it and compete at work?

There are two questions on Slido about English. The first asks what your English level was when you went to the UK and how to prepare for IELTS. The second asks how to improve weak English, and how to compete at work if your English isn’t good.

First, your English will definitely improve much faster once you’re in the UK. A few things help. For the job search, the best and most helpful way to improve is through interviews themselves, or coffee chats. Over time you get used to the format and work out how to run a coffee chat so it’s comfortable for you and gets you closer to your goal. But when I started, I treated every coffee chat as a 30-minute interview. At the end of each one, I’d ask: does your company have referrals, and if so, would you be willing to refer me? That makes those 30 minutes critical, because your performance decides whether they’ll refer you. So I think coffee chats and interviews are the fastest way to improve your job-search English. Every day you introduce yourself and repeat the same answers: why I want to go into this industry, why I’m interested in your company, what I’d like to learn about your company. You internalize all of it until it becomes something you’re used to saying, and you actually enjoy telling your story.

If you don’t have any coffee chats or interviews lined up for a while, another direct option is to book a 30-minute weekly catch-up with your lecturers and professors. You can do this with lots of different professors. It guarantees you time speaking English almost every day, and serious English at that, because the topics you discuss are serious and fairly formal. So I think your teachers at school are also a very good resource.

On the more casual side, join clubs: ones related to your interests, or ones related to your career direction. If you want to go into consulting, join your school’s consulting club. In London I used to run a consulting club organized jointly by several schools, called London Schools Teaching Consulting. Your own school, and the UK job market as a whole, has a lot of these student clubs. Join one and do a project or two, and you’ll get plenty of chances to speak English and to present. Sports clubs and clubs for your hobbies also make it easy to mix with people from other countries. The point is to create chances for yourself to speak English. In my case, I did it on purpose: I made myself book 30 minutes with my lecturers, and I made myself do coffee chats. I deliberately forced myself into situations where I had to speak English. I think that’s what matters, because time goes by fast. If you don’t plan your time and your exposure on purpose, the year can slip away before you notice.

Do you adjust your CV for different industries and countries? How?

You didn’t only apply to consulting. You also applied to finance, with an offer from UBS, and to tech, with an offer from Amazon. You even applied in other countries, like the Middle East, where you got an offer in Dubai. When you apply to different industries or countries, do you change your CV? And if so, how?

Let me start with countries. Each country writes CVs a little differently. I know Greater China and the UK do it differently, for example, so you need to learn how each country does it. The Middle East and London aren’t very different, though. The fastest way to get a usable template is to start from the template of the best business schools in that country. For the US, that’s the M7. For the UK, you can use LBS, and for Europe, look at INSEAD or HEC Paris. Use one to build your own CV in that format, then find one or two alumni to review it. At that point your CV is basically in good shape.

How do you take your CV from 99% to 100%?

Show it to more people. By more people I mean people working in the industry you want to join. They’ll give you more industry-specific advice, and that takes it from 99% to 100%. Getting from 0 to 99% is simpler: the most efficient way is to build it from a template, then have one or two people who really know that country’s market review it. After that there won’t be any big problems.

As for changing my CV by industry, I adjust the experience section. I keep a three-page CV as my master file, a Word document with every experience written out in full. When I apply to a company or a specific industry, I decide which experiences to include and cut it down to a one-page CV for that company. I don’t rewrite the whole thing, because that takes a lot of time. For business roles across these companies and industries, the skill set they want to see isn’t that different. You can’t change your past background or internships anyway; you did what you did.

Fine-tuning some of the wording is worth doing, but weigh it against your time. It does take time, so whether you tweak the wording on your CV depends on whether you have the time. The most important thing, I think, is the cover letter. People disagree on this. Many will tell you nobody reads cover letters anymore and everyone just looks at the CV.

The UK recruiting timeline you mentioned: is that for full-time jobs, or did you apply for internships too?

For internships, it again depends on the industry. In the UK, finance has a very strong culture of starting with a summer internship and fighting for a return offer. Those internships open earlier than the timeline I just described; you may need to apply by July or August. I applied for internships too, depending on the company. If, during coffee chats or while scrolling LinkedIn, I noticed “hey, everyone here got in through an internship,” that suggested the conversion rate at that firm was high. Then I’d think maybe I should just apply for the internship there.

Here’s an example. I got some internship offers in the UK, including one from a consulting firm, not the one I work at now. When that firm came to my school to recruit, I learned something extremely important. I was chatting with the HR person. They weren’t hiring interns at the event, only full-time. I asked what the intern interview process looked like and what the full-time process looked like, and it turned out the full-time process had twice as many rounds: six rounds for full-time and only three for interns. So I didn’t even need to think about it. I applied for the internship, because my chances of getting an internship there were far higher than getting a full-time job. This story applies to every industry and company, because deciding between an internship and a full-time role comes down to a few factors:

First, how likely interns at this company or industry are to convert to full-time. Second, how much harder it is to get in as a full-timer than as an intern. Third, when the internship happens and whether it overlaps with your other full-time applications. Say you already have a full-time offer from another company starting in September. You could do another internship in July and August, then decide whether you prefer that company or the full-time job you accepted. So the third factor is how you allocate your time.

If you think through these three factors, you’ll know whether to apply for a full-time role or an internship. A quick note on timing for other roles and industries: the timeline I described earlier was for full-time consulting. Consulting internships usually open a little later, by one or two months, and the window stays open a bit longer. But in the UK market, timing in every industry shifts from year to year. The most reliable approach is to build your own company list and check each company’s website every week to see whether applications have opened. That way you stay on top of your timeline. Internships are less predictable.

Which channels did you use to find jobs in the UK?

The biggest one is still LinkedIn. I was on LinkedIn literally every single day. Building a good LinkedIn profile and working from there is, I think, the most practical and efficient approach.

For finding openings, there are lots of channels. The first is the company’s own website, because that’s where a vacancy gets posted first. Then there’s LinkedIn, including LinkedIn Jobs, and your school’s career portal. I basically searched on those three. I didn’t use the general job boards, because for me they had too much noise: too many different kinds of jobs, and I was never sure what the companies or roles actually involved.

So I focused on my school, LinkedIn, and the companies’ own websites.

As for the last part of the question, there are a huge number of consulting firms in the UK. Basically every consulting firm you can think of has a London office, from MBB to Tier 2, Tier 3, and boutique consulting firms. The UK has a lot of boutiques, each with its own industry focus and its own type of consulting work.

If you need it, contact me afterward and I can put together a list of consulting firms. There really are a lot of them, though, so searching on LinkedIn will turn up plenty too.

Which roles did you apply for at UBS and Amazon?

At Amazon I applied for product management, and the role I was offered was a graduate product manager position. At UBS, my summer internship was in a very large division called GCRG (Governance, Compliance, and Regulations), which handles governance and regulatory management. The return offer I later received was in a department called credit risk.

Like other big financial institutions, UBS has huge divisions split into very fine sub-teams. So two companies may use the same internal team name for work that’s actually quite different. My work at UBS was mostly middle office, with some front-office elements, but it wasn’t a pure front-office job.

I wasn’t especially looking for a job at UBS. I happened to see an opening and applied. I already had my current consulting offer by then, so I applied to UBS to have something to do over the summer.

As I mentioned, preparing for consulting interviews and preparing for finance interviews are two completely different things. If you’re choosing between finance and consulting, go by your interests and your background. My situation isn’t very common. I was lucky to land a role that didn’t need much specialist finance background. But if you want a front-office role, such as IBD (Investment Banking Division), wealth management, or sales and trading, you usually need very specialized preparation, and you have to follow their application calendar.

Cover letters

From my own experience, especially in the London and Dubai markets, I think the cover letter matters a lot. At the companies where I didn’t tailor it, didn’t network, and just sent in a generic cover letter, I didn’t get interviews. Where I did tailor it, my success rate was very high. So what does tailoring a cover letter mean? The goal I set for myself was this: before applying to any company, I’d have coffee chats with two alumni there. Two is enough. More is probably a waste of time, and fewer may not give you a broad enough picture. I find two a good, time-efficient number.

After talking with those two alumni, the two people at that company, you put their names in your cover letter. Something like: “After speaking with Andrew and Jason in the XX department, I understand that your department does [what they do], which resonates strongly with my background.” You keep dropping these in: I spoke with this person, so I learned this; I read this piece of yours, so I know what you’re working on. Everything is backed by evidence. Writing a cover letter like that takes a while, because you need the coffee chats and you need to do a bit of your own research. I spent quite a lot of time on cover letters, and I think it was worth it.

At least I could say I’d done everything I could. If I tailored my cover letter and still didn’t get in, I knew that maybe we just weren’t a fit, or I wasn’t at that level yet. But if I hadn’t even tailored the cover letter and got rejected, I’d wonder whether I’d put in enough effort and whether I could have done more to get the interview. So a tailored cover letter also helps your mindset. If you’ve tailored it and put in that much work and still don’t get an interview, your conscience is clear. It’s the market, not you.

Coffee chats

So to sum up: whether you’re applying to schools abroad or looking for a job abroad, the core of it is coffee chats. You really need to talk to lots of alumni and get their inside view and insights before you can write a cover letter or an application essay that’s worth reading. Right? I think so.

Yes. But that’s my personal view, because I find it the most efficient method. It shows you most directly how the game works and how you should plan your preparation. Whether it’s necessary probably varies from person to person. For me, it’s simply something within my control, something I can do.

What I mainly want is to know I did my part. I put in the effort; I don’t worry about the outcome, but I need to have put in the effort. And for me, the way to do that is coffee chats. I find them the most efficient. Whether they’re necessary depends on your goals and how you plan and allocate your time. I agree that in your year abroad there are plenty of other important things: your studies, finding a girlfriend or a partner, traveling, enjoying your clubs, enjoying the place you’re living. There are so many things you might care about.

If you decide you don’t need to do this much, that’s completely fine. But if you want a job, or you’re applying to schools, I think coffee chats are the most efficient way.

A quick question first. When you have coffee chats with alumni, are they usually online or in person?

At first I really enjoyed in-person ones, because I could actually see the person and build a real connection. But virtual coffee chats are the most efficient, since you just find a spot and talk for 30 minutes. It depends on where you both are. If you’re willing to travel to them and the chat matters a great deal to you, in person is fine. But if you have lots of coffee chats to do, running around all over the place is exhausting.

So I decide between in person and virtual based on how important the chat is to me and what my schedule looks like that day. When someone asks me for a coffee chat, I don’t mind doing it virtually, and I’m sure lots of people feel the same.

Many of my coffee chats were virtual. So don’t assume virtual is a bad thing. Even a phone call is fine. Don’t worry that the format will come across as rude, or about what the other person prefers. The simplest thing is to ask them what they prefer, and they’ll tell you.

There’s another good question about coffee chats. Someone says they’re a bit shy and their conversations can fall flat. They’d like to know how to politely get the information they want in a coffee chat: are there any techniques, and how do you keep the conversation moving?

The craft of the coffee chat

Coffee chats are a real skill. After enough of them you’ll definitely find your own style and a comfortable way to ask for what you want to know. How do you get started? I think there are some techniques.

When I started, if I felt a coffee chat needed preparation, I’d spend time on it, even 30 minutes, to list the questions I wanted to ask and plan how to steer the conversation back on track. The other person may get excited and share a lot, and then you realize the topic has drifted, so your next question needs to bring them back to what you wanted to ask.

As a general split of the 30 minutes: start by introducing yourself, explaining why you wanted to chat with them, why you want to apply, and what your background is. Then ask about them. Once you’ve covered your background, after about five minutes, you can move on to their view of the industry. I’m talking here about job-search coffee chats.

In a job-search coffee chat, spend the first 10 minutes learning why they chose the industry and what they see as its pros and cons. In the next 10 minutes, move on to the pros and cons of the company or their team, as they see them, plus recent trends they want to pursue and their team’s specific goals. Those goals and future plans can all go into your cover letter.

In the third 10 minutes you can talk about their application tips: what their process was like, which interviews they went through, what the interviews covered, and whether they have any advice now. Then, at the very end, you tactfully say you’d like to understand whether referrals carry weight at their company. It’s a smart way to ask, because you’re only asking whether referrals matter there. If they’re willing to refer you, they’ll say, “Yes, I’m happy to refer you.” If they say referrals don’t matter, or they don’t know, don’t dwell on it. Either they don’t want to refer you or referrals really don’t matter, so just move on to the next person. You won’t feel too bad, because nobody will tell you straight out that they don’t want to refer you. It also gives the other person an easy way out.

As for how to ask politely for the information you want, that’s a tricky one. I think the answer is to show your passion. First, smile. I’d call that a must.

Then, right at the start of the coffee chat, take the initiative and say, “Let me introduce myself first.” After your introduction, mention your plans, whether that’s applying to the industry or your strong interest in their company. Show them your enthusiasm.

Next, don’t just ask, “Oh, what are the pros & cons,” or what their job is. Say something like: “I had this experience at such-and-such place, I read this book, or I read this about your company, and I learned about your company’s future goals, so I’d like to hear what you think about that, or what your own experience has been.” Try to make your questions longer. Longer questions show the other person you’ve prepared.

Let me think what else. Those are the main things for coffee chats. Mostly, prepare and make your questions longer. The way to do that is simply to write your questions out first. Once they’re written down, you’ll know exactly how to ask them. And keep the referral point in mind.

How do you prepare before a coffee chat?

I usually spend only about 15 minutes taking a quick look at the company’s org structure. At minimum I want to know which team this person is on and what they’re responsible for. Then I check how they relate to the program I’m about to apply to, or whether they’re actually in that program.

I also look up the company’s recent big topics or its history. Very basic information is enough. You don’t need to read their financial reports or even their news, because that takes too much time. Fifteen to 20 minutes is enough to show you’ve done your homework and know what the company does. At the very least, know what the industry does. If you’re applying to consulting, you should be able to use some consulting terms, like asking about their staffing model, or the specific terms they use for relocation or for clients.

What else do I prepare? I might also check whether anyone around them on the team interests me. For example, which school they came from and which team, and who I could ask them to introduce me to. If I know they’re from, say, LBS, I’ll ask, “Could you introduce me to one or two people working at such-and-such company or team?”

They’re usually quite willing. My most successful coffee chat was with an alum working in the Middle East who was incredibly friendly. Through him I was introduced to five to ten of his friends in Middle East consulting, all at different firms. It came from one very direct question. I asked, “Do you have any friends I could talk to as well?” He said, “Sure, which firms?” I listed a lot of firms, and he found me one or two people at each. Sometimes one connection opens up a whole lot of others. So don’t be shy, and don’t overthink asking. Speaking for myself, I’ll help with whatever I’m asked and do my best to deliver on what I promise. So don’t be shy about asking for what you need.

If you can’t find anyone for a coffee chat, the best thing is to come to me or to Jason. I’m sure we’ll both be happy to help by connecting you with people we know, so you can gradually build your network. We also posted Andrew’s LinkedIn and Instagram in the Zoom chat, so scroll up to find them.

The consulting job search and insights

What are the stages of the consulting recruiting process, and roughly which months does it run?

As for stages, the first is the application, usually a CV or cover letter, or both, plus a referral if you have one. The second is the first-round interview. The most traditional format is one hour with a fit interview and a case interview, usually with a Q&A. The fit part asks why you want to work in consulting, why this firm, and about your past leadership or internship experience, or whatever else they want to ask.

That’s followed by a 30 to 35 minute case interview and then 10 minutes of Q&A. That’s round one. At more traditional consulting firms, round two follows the same pattern, fit plus case. A round may include two separate one-hour interviews, one fit and one case, so you could meet two interviewers.

More and more consulting firms are going for innovation and variety, and they’ve started designing interview formats I honestly can’t make sense of. Some do two rounds in one day: two interviews in the morning, two in the afternoon, and a result the same day. Others leave a gap of a month or two before the final round. Or the final round isn’t fit plus case at all. It might be one case plus a 30-minute presentation, a 30-minute group presentation, and a 30-minute conversation with a principal or partner.

More firms are moving toward longer and more varied interview processes, but at bottom, preparing well for case and fit is still the most reliable approach.

I want to move from FMCG into consulting, which may be a big gap. Do I need an MBA from abroad to qualify? (I didn’t graduate from National Taiwan University; my degree is from one of the mid-tier national universities.)

So what profile do consulting firms look for? When they hire experienced people as experienced hires, what bar do they set?

Right. As you said, there are two ways into consulting or professional services: entry level and experienced hire. I don’t know how many years you’ve worked in FMCG or how senior you are now, but it comes down to whether you start at entry level or come in as an experienced hire. And as we know, many people use an MBA as their way into consulting, because it’s the most effective and convenient credential. With an MBA, especially from a good school, you won’t doubt yourself as much, and getting into consulting becomes very achievable. That’s why so many people who want to get into consulting go for an MBA: it helps them change careers.

If you want to start at entry level, you don’t necessarily need an MBA; other master’s degrees can work too. It depends on where you are in your career and whether you start at entry level or as an experienced hire. If you go the experienced-hire route from FMCG, you absolutely need to talk to people working at the firms you want to join. Talk to their managers, principals, or partners and find out whether your background matches the people they want to hire. Many consulting firms do work on FMCG cases, and many are willing to hire a strong industry expert from FMCG. But it depends on what that firm and that office need. Experienced hiring is hard to predict, and I’m not at that stage myself, so I can’t say too much. But I think that’s the biggest difference between experienced hire and entry level: you really need to ask first, or just try applying, and use coffee chats to check whether there’s headcount. If it really doesn’t work out, an MBA is a good door-opener for consulting. MBA graduates mostly go into three industries, and consulting is a big one: roughly 30 to 40 percent of MBA graduates go into consulting.

How do you get into consulting with no experience at all? What courses should you take at school, and do firms prefer students from certain majors?

First, I really think consulting has no restrictions on industry background or major. Of course, if you studied business you’ll be more familiar with how to solve a case and more comfortable using the jargon. But that only helps you perform better in interviews. It’s never a hard rule that only people with a certain background can get into consulting.

Having no experience, or no consulting experience, isn’t a big problem. Consulting looks at transferable skills, not skills that only exist in consulting. Of course, one or two consulting internships go a long way toward explaining why you’re motivated to join. But not having them is definitely not a “hard no,” and it’s far from impossible.

Because consulting doesn’t require a particular major, your school’s name probably matters more than the courses you took. Concretely, preparing for consulting comes down to two things: building your network through coffee chats, and preparing for interviews. Do those two well, and even if you don’t end up in consulting, you’ll get a very good offer, because those skills transfer and are worth a lot.

I’ve read quite a few consulting job descriptions, and they don’t restrict majors much. People with science and engineering backgrounds are very welcome too, because each firm has different strengths and serves clients in different industries, so they need different people. I think it’s quite diverse. The only requirement you might see is “MBA preferred.” Do you think consulting firms prefer to hire MBA students?

It depends on what stage of your career you’re at, because MBAs and entry-level candidates apply differently. We applied at entry level, the first rung, whatever the firm calls it. Some call it associate consultant, some associate, some business analyst. The title varies by firm, but we were fresh graduates applying at entry level.

MBA students usually have work experience, so they start at a higher level and apply for different positions. MBA programs are also usually two years, so many students apply for summer jobs after the first year and compete for a return offer in their second year. That’s different from one-year master’s students, who usually go straight for a full-time role starting the following year.

Andrew also had an offer from Roland Berger in Dubai, a pretty big-name offer. Why did you choose your current UK firm in the end? Is it more of a niche consulting firm?

Wow, it’s hard to fully explain that choice. But it’s the same as choosing where to study: the decision came from weighing many factors together. I chose this firm for a few reasons.

First, we have an office in Taipei, and the Singapore office is quite big. If I ever want to or get the chance, I might be able to relocate to Asia. My family is here after all, so I’d like to have that kind of global mobility. Our global reach was one of the biggest reasons I chose this firm.

Also, the UK team I’m on now focuses on strategy. It’s been around for years and the partners are very experienced. I know I can learn a lot from them, and the projects are the kind I want to do. There’s not much to criticize about the work itself.

This next point may vary from person to person, but I think in consulting it’s better to get exposure in a big market first than to start in a small one. Different regions give different exposure. The Middle East, for example, has more government projects; most of the work is government related. So it depends on whether government projects fit your future plans or your current interests.

In London you work more with private companies, or on projects with a small government element, but mostly with a mix of industries and clients. The exposure is more mature, and so are the problems. In the Middle East or other developing markets, consulting projects often involve building something from scratch, so the actual work is somewhat different, and that affects your career plans three to five years out.

If you don’t plan to stay in consulting forever, the projects you work on and the industries you’re exposed to now will shape the options you have later. So think carefully about whether your current exposure fits your future plans. Good exposure in this market can make it much easier to move to other markets later.

On the other hand, if you start in a smaller market, will it be harder to move to a bigger one later? You have to weigh all of this: the work itself, your future opportunities, and how mature the market is.

Case interview questions

What types of questions come up in a case interview, and which ones do they start with?

We both think the Crafting Cases website is a great course for case interview prep. It’s free, and it’ll take you seven days at most to get through. After finishing the free Crafting Cases course, you’ll basically understand what a case interview looks like and which areas you need to prepare, and it reflects real case interviews very accurately. So I’d recommend going through it once. It also has paid courses, if you feel you need extra practice in those areas.

Crafting Cases will tell you what a case interview covers and how to prepare. Let me share how we prepared, or what we found most effective. There are three stages:

Stage one is going through Crafting Cases.

Stage two is your first 15 cases. We think you only need one to three case coaches you know very well to do mock interviews with you. You need to be sure each of them knows how to do a case properly: they’ve already landed an offer, they’re much further along in their prep than you, or they already work in the industry. Do your first 15 cases with these one to three coaches to build your own system: your SOPs, the moves and responses you need to hit in every case. The first 15 cases lay your foundation and make sure you know how to do a case, which is the 0 to 90% part I mentioned earlier.

Only after that should you diversify your case partners. Why? To get input from more people, refine your answers and your thinking, learn from how others answer and reason, and broaden and mature your own approach. That’s what diversifying means for cases after the first 15. How many case partners you take on depends on your schedule. In general, the more experienced partners the better, and the more varied the better.

So in short: don’t diversify for the first 15, then diversify for the next 15. Once you’ve done Crafting Cases, you’ll know how to get started and how to do a case. I’ve also put the Crafting Cases link in the chat.

What logic or sequence do you usually follow to solve a case? Is there a universal method?

I think this comes down to your fundamentals. Just answer well. Eventually you’ll find that for any industry or any question, you have your own SOP and concepts. I don’t insist on reaching a particular answer or applying a particular framework. I don’t set rules like that, but you’ll know you’re doing what a case interview requires.

For example, asking good clarifying questions, or knowing how to drive and lead a case. Your first 15 cases gradually build these. Nobody says this way of doing a case is right and that way is wrong. But there are fundamentals, and people who know cases can tell at a glance whether you’ve practiced. You absolutely have to make that clear: I’ve practiced cases. If my thinking differs from yours, it’s simply a different view, not a lack of depth from never practicing. So once you’ve reached a solid base, you don’t need to force yourself into a specific framework or a specific depth of answer. What matters more is being at ease while you think: confident and fluent in your responses.

While you’re thinking, can you give every answer as structured points, and can you explain the reason behind each one? That probably matters more than forcing a framework or hitting a particular answer.

How do you approach a market sizing question? Are there other good resources for preparing?

I collected this question before the session started. You’ve already shared one good resource, Crafting Cases. Market sizing may be something you were doing six months or a year ago. It’s a little embarrassing to explain market sizing in front of so many people, but I can go over it briefly.

Crafting Cases has a module on market sizing called “estimation.” Why estimation? Because you aren’t always sizing a market. Sometimes you’re estimating something else, like foot traffic, and revenue is an estimation too. Take a look at that module; it explains things well.

As for how to analyze it, I’ll repeat the main point from Crafting Cases. When the interviewer asks you to size a market or estimate revenue somewhere, or anything else, you need to come up with a key equation in your head right away, like A plus B, A times C, or A divided by B. You need two key buckets.

Once you’ve confirmed what the interviewer is asking, you say, “OK, I think I’ll use bucket A times bucket B to get the answer we want.” Then, “If you don’t mind, I may take some time.” Before you think through how to estimate the details, give them your core equation. That way you know whether they agree with your approach, and you avoid listing out a ton of steps only to hear, “OK, I don’t want you to calculate it this way.”

So I think producing a core equation right after the question is very important. It’s something you have to come up with immediately and tell them. You won’t have much time to think about details, but you should at least give them a rough idea.

The other main point: with market sizing, before you do anything, clarify clearly with them. “What exactly are we sizing? Which year? Which month, or which week or day? What time unit are we using as the base? What currency? Which market? Is there a geographic area they want us to focus on?” Double-check. If they give you a specific product, confirm what that product is. How much do we sell? What other details about this product do they want to know?

After they ask a question, always clarify these details. Data points, like how much you can sell for, how many people live in the city, or how many are in a certain age group, can be discussed with them later. But at the very start you must clarify: “What exactly am I sizing?”

Those are my three main points. If you’d like to do a mock market sizing with me, let me know; I’m very happy to. I won’t take up any more of everyone’s time.

How do you solve a case interview?

I’d recommend looking at Crafting Cases. The way I solve cases is what Crafting Cases taught me. In a case interview, they give you a problem. First, you clarify what the problem is.

If it’s a typical strategy case, you need to understand: what is this company’s business model? What’s its past experience? Why does it have this problem now? Has it done this before? For example, if it’s entering a market, I’d want to know whether it has any previous operations or experience in that market that I could leverage.

The third question is whether, beyond this problem, there are other goals we want to achieve. Those are the three questions I ask.

After hearing the problem, I move to the first step, which I call brainstorming. I draw a framework on paper with the buckets I need to address. Each bucket holds the questions I need to answer, and this structure helps me organize my thinking.

In a case interview, every answer should take the form of a tree. I first pick a main category, break it down into smaller factors, and then ask a few specific questions for each factor to get the information I need.

Next come more specific questions. These might include chart analysis or math problems. For example, they might give you revenue and cost data and ask you to calculate the return on investment or the profit over the next five years. These questions vary by case.

After one or two of these questions, you reach the conclusion stage, where you give your recommendation. State the recommendation first, then explain your reasons one, two, three, then discuss possible risks, and finally suggest next steps. The whole thing is a structured answer: one-two-three, A-B-C.

Overall, my logic for case interviews is that whatever the question, I break it down in a tree structure and give an organized answer.

Inside consulting: what the work is like

What would you most like to share about working in consulting? What are the pros and cons?

A lot of what we’ve discussed so far is about the consulting job search, which is pretty heavy. Let’s take a lighter topic. You’re in consulting now, you’ve passed probation, and you’re in the happy phase of being a permanent employee. After six months to a year on the job, is there anything you’d especially like to share about how consultants work or what the work involves? What are the pros and cons?

My biggest takeaway is that consulting is pretty much what you’d imagine. The consulting people describe in coffee chats is basically what the job is, and it’s a lot like doing cases. Consulting just takes the cases from your interviews and stretches them into projects lasting a few months.

I find it a lot of fun, because each project has a different topic and direction, so at least I’m not repeating the same work day after day. I think a lot depends on team culture. If your team is energetic and respects everyone’s development, consulting offers a lot of room to explore. You can also enjoy life, because you can plan your own time reasonably as long as you get the work done.

As for pros and cons, everything I just said is a pro. Another pro is that you have more exit options later, because you’re exposed to so many industries. If you’re still figuring things out, you’ll have plenty of chances to find what really interests you. Consulting is a professional service and a client-facing industry, so you easily build important skills: presenting, making good slides, using Excel, doing solid market research and forming your own views, and reporting your ideas to your boss in a structured way.

You pick up these skills easily in the day-to-day job, and they’ll help with whatever work you go into later, because it’s a people-centered job. You get more and more comfortable expressing your ideas.

Another big pro is that you may get many chances to travel abroad and work with colleagues and clients from different countries, which is a great cultural experience.

That’s most of the pros, so now the cons. Some people feel consulting exposes you to so many industries that you don’t specialize, which depends on whether you already have your own interests and a clear direction. Some find the hours long and the pressure fairly high, but that depends on how you handle pressure. Plenty of other jobs have more pressure and longer hours than consulting, so it varies from person to person.

Another con is that you sometimes can’t control your time very well. On an intense project, you may have to give up other plans in your life. That depends a lot on the project and the firm’s culture. If the culture is that an intense project is followed by a more chill one, so you get breathing room during the year, it stops being a con. You can have very intense work, enough time to recover, and then the next intense stretch feels rewarding.

That’s about it. One more possible con depends on whether you enjoy being around people. Not everyone is used to interacting with all their colleagues and working in a team every day. But in consulting, teamwork happens daily. Every day you discuss with colleagues how to do something, how to design a deck, how to design a particular slide.

So if you enjoy working with people and being part of a team, consulting is a plus. If you’re used to working alone, it may be a con.

Does consulting really open doors to every industry? Why?

On consulting career paths: many people know consulting offers lots of exit opportunities and the flexibility to move into all kinds of industries and roles. From what you’ve seen, is that true? And why can you move into so many different roles after a few years in consulting?

It’s true, but there’s a catch. It really depends on the project experience you build up during those years. If you keep building experience in the same industry, moving into that industry later is relatively easy, because you can make a strong case: “I already understand your industry and what you do.”

But if you only build experience in that one industry, you may reach the point where it’s the only industry you can move into. So it depends on when you find the industry you want to focus on and build up the matching projects.

Where you can move really depends on the type of projects you do. If your work is heavy on financial modeling, like due diligence or other finance-related projects, you’ll have chances to move into finance or investment firms later. If you’re doing work for corporates, you’ll probably have more chances to move into corporate roles.

So it comes down to how you design your future career and which projects you choose now. That’s why people say consulting exits are flexible: you can shape your experience over those years and aim for where you want to go next. There aren’t big limits. Doing consulting doesn’t mean you can only move to certain places.

How can someone without a business background prepare for or apply to business school or business jobs? Do you know people from non-business backgrounds who made the switch?

Lots of them, especially at business school. If you’re set on studying at a business school, you’ll meet people from all sorts of backgrounds.

Back to the question: business schools are full of people from different backgrounds. My classmates included doctors, lawyers, engineers, and data analysts. They came to study because they wanted business knowledge or wanted to work in business.

So if you don’t have a business background and want to apply to business school, look at how friendly the program is to non-business students. Some schools’ MiM programs are designed specifically for non-business students, while some finance programs may require a background in economics or math.

In the end it depends on how open the program is to non-business students and how it’s designed. Generally, a Master in Management is the best entry point for students without a business background, because it’s the most open to them.

To answer the question directly: lots of my friends from non-business backgrounds made the switch, so there’s really no need to worry.

In UK consulting today, what’s the mix of Asians and people of other ethnicities and nationalities?

It depends on the size of the firm. Smaller firms may not be as diverse, with more locals or white employees. But big firms, whether MBB (McKinsey, Bain, BCG) or tier 2, hire a lot of international staff, especially Asians, because so many very strong students from Hong Kong and Singapore also want to go into consulting. So they’ve taken on many very capable Asians, including many from China.

So I think diversity in consulting keeps improving. More and more firms are moving in that direction and paying more attention to ethnic diversity. I hope that answers your question.

Are there data analyst roles in consulting?

Yes, lots of them. More and more consulting firms are setting up their own data teams, because many companies now need data consulting. McKinsey has QuantumBlack, BCG has BCG Gamma, and my own firm has Digital Problem Solving. Basically every big consulting firm now has a data team and wants applicants with a data background.

Someone like me without data skills has no chance of joining a data team; I can only go to the strategy team. If you have a data background, such as data analysis or BA (business analytics), you can join a data team. It’s a very good way into consulting. If you have a data background, you can apply specifically for these data team roles.

These data teams also solve problems for clients. They just focus on data, solving data-related problems or innovation problems. The work may be different, but it’s still consulting. For applicants with a data background, it’s a good way to improve their chances of getting in.

DIY applications and tips for applying to the LBS MiM

Why did you choose the LBS MiM over other business master’s degrees or an MBA?

OK, let’s start with Topic 1. We’ll begin with your earlier experience, studying abroad and job hunting overseas. Andrew did his MiM at LBS (London Business School), and during that time he sent out a lot of applications and built up a lot of job-search experience.

Let’s start our first question with the LBS MiM program. Can you tell us why you chose the LBS MiM over other business master’s degrees or an MBA?

Sure. I decided to apply for a master’s in my last year of college, because I felt an extra year would help me prepare better for the job search: interviews, CV, cover letter, networking, and enough time for coffee chats. So the idea of doing a master’s grew out of my final year.

I mainly applied in the UK, plus some schools in the US, Singapore, and Hong Kong. LBS was always first on my list.

There were a few reasons. First, I did my undergrad in the UK, so I knew the UK and London job markets fairly well. The connections I made in college are now people working in the industry. In terms of connections and market knowledge, staying in London meant less time adjusting to how local recruiting works and learning how the game is played. That let me make full use of LBS’s resources to take the next step. Also, LBS is in London, and its brand recognition and placement results are very good. That was the first reason LBS was my top choice.

Second, I felt my personality matched LBS’s culture, which is very networking-based, and I got along well with several friends who were LBS alumni. LBS isn’t really an academic school; we don’t have to study much. Mostly we go to events, hang out and travel abroad with the MBA students, run clubs together, and go to career fairs and all kinds of other events. LBS is a great community.

If you like connecting with people, or you think you’d enjoy that kind of environment, LBS will suit you very well.

The last point is a personal belief: for a master’s, the school’s name matters more than the specific program. For the jobs I wanted, whether in finance or management consulting, the school name, in my experience, mattered more than exactly what I studied. The name opens doors. It’s the most direct reason people look at your CV and agree to a coffee chat.

Since the name mattered more than the program, I didn’t mind much whether the MiM gave me enough specialist knowledge or skills. I’d already studied management in undergrad, so the MiM curriculum overlapped heavily with my college courses. I didn’t choose LBS to learn subject knowledge. I chose it for its name, location, market, and culture taken together, and I felt it was the best fit for me.

Both your degrees are in business management, a fairly general field. Besides consulting, you also applied to finance and tech. Did you run into difficulties, or feel like a jack of all trades and master of none?

What I’d always been preparing for was consulting applications. So I didn’t have the deep technical knowledge of classmates who focused on finance, and I didn’t prepare as thoroughly as they did. I’d always been preparing for consulting interviews, so most of my prep time went into case and fit.

That’s why I think the best thing about preparing for consulting interviews is how much they overlap with corporate graduate schemes. In the Amazon interviews and other companies’ assessment centers, for example, I ran into lots of case exercises.

Most interview formats and topics grow out of case and fit, whether it’s motivational questions, behavioral questions, or the case itself. More and more companies use the same format and content in their interviews, so my interview process became relatively easy.

Preparing for consulting interviews helped me get used to the interview setting and present myself more naturally. I learned how to interview, and those skills transfer very well.

Finance would be a different story, though. Generally, consulting prep helps you most on a parallel track: corporate roles at big companies, whether FMCG, big tech, or other graduate schemes.

LSE and UCL both offer fairly academic economics programs. Does the choice make a difference for the job search?

The next study-abroad question: LSE and UCL both have fairly academic economics programs, so does it make a difference for job hunting, and how would you choose? I assume this person has offers from both. Purely in terms of the programs, both schools’ economics departments are excellent and among the very best in the UK. It’s a really hard choice, I have to admit. It’s a very, very hard question.

Purely for the job search, LSE has an edge over UCL for business careers. LSE’s graduate employment record is very strong, so being an LSE alum carries some brand advantage. Economics may lean academic, and I didn’t study economics myself, so it may depend on whether the focus of the economics program fits your goals. On employment alone, I’d say LSE does slightly better than UCL, though UCL does very well too. So my answer would probably be LSE, because its brand is slightly stronger in business. But there really isn’t much difference, and economics isn’t my area, so I don’t want to make a casual recommendation.

Tips for DIY study-abroad applications?

You applied to quite a few countries (the UK, the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, and others) and to a lot of programs, and you presumably did it all yourself. Do you have any tips or tricks to share?

First, just like applying for jobs, you need to understand how each school plays the game. The most direct way is to talk to the school’s alumni and find out what the school and the program care about. Every school, and even every department, has the kind of student it wants. It may not be spelled out online, but once you can tailor your application materials to a program, you’ll know clearly which department to apply to at which school, and which school or department isn’t right for your background. The way to find out is to talk to alumni. So the most important thing is to understand each school’s and each department’s rules and how the game is played.

Second, I wouldn’t call it a tip. From my own experience, I don’t know how much pressure, time, and workload each of you has while applying. But I think you should spread your time fairly evenly. Find out the application timelines for each country and school, see whether you can pace out each application, prepare each school’s application properly, and submit on time. Time allocation matters a lot, because at any stage of life you’re juggling many different pressures and tasks, and applying for a master’s takes up a lot of time.

So once your exams are done, whether IELTS, GMAT, GRE, or TOEFL, you definitely need to think about how to allocate your time. Time allocation taught me some important lessons back then.

Third, as I said earlier, learn how you rank the factors that matter to you: which one matters most. That helps you make the decisions that follow. Those are my three main points.

This may have come up in Jason’s articles before. I think applying for a master’s has two sides. One is your hard stats, like your GPA and your GRE or GMAT scores. Those are fixed facts you can’t change. But the soft side, like your internships, how you build your CV, how you write your application materials, which schools you choose, your personality, your past experience, and whether you fit the school’s culture, is still within our power to change.

So don’t forget the soft side. It could be one coffee chat, one networking event, a slightly longer internship, or an internship you once left off your CV. Ask yourself whether you should add that experience back to your CV to improve your chances at a particular school. I’d say spending more time shaping your application materials to fit the school is the more important part.

Since everyone has already done their best on the hard stats, we work on the soft side. I want to echo this, because I don’t hear people talk about it much. Before and during your applications, you need to gradually build your personal brand and figure out where your strengths and highlights are. That’s how you build a complete package, so your application materials are consistent and strong. Exactly. Applying to and choosing a school is a two-way process. Don’t think it’s only the school choosing you; you’re choosing the school too. Which schools you apply to should be a decision you’ve thought through. All of that needs considering, because you’re choosing as well.

The LBS MiM interview: when you interview an applicant, what qualities are you looking for, and what do you want to learn from the interview?

Like many MBA programs, the LBS MiM invites graduates back to serve as interviewers, and Andrew is now an LBS MiM interviewer. So if you apply to the LBS MiM, you might meet him? Yes, though more likely you’d meet one of my Taiwanese classmates. My market is London, so I probably won’t interview Taiwanese applicants. At least, I haven’t interviewed any so far. The assignment is fairly random, but you could get me.

That’s a rare perspective, so I’d like to ask: as an interviewer, what qualities do you look for when interviewing an applicant to the program? What do you want to learn from the interview, and what would get them admitted?

First, I should say that I’m not speaking as an LBS interviewer. I’m speaking in general terms, as an alum, about what I’d tell you. Let me explain the LBS interview process first:

In round one you submit your application. If you pass the document review, you receive an interview invitation and do a 60-minute interview with an alum or an LBS admissions officer. After the interview, round two ends and you get your result.

Today happens to be when LBS sends out this year’s second-round interview invitations. After you interview with an alum, the report the alum writes about you goes back to the admissions office, which then does another very thorough evaluation.

So I think the LBS application process is very rigorous and well structured. As interviewers, the report we write for the school is a very long form, and we have to describe the applicant in great detail. The final result isn’t a simple yes or no; it’s a very detailed evaluation. That’s just an overview of the process.

Speaking as an alum, I think LBS has very clear traits it looks for and clear admissions goals. First, there are a few boxes to tick: traits we want to see, personalities we think will fit LBS’s culture very well. People like that do very well, enjoy their year at LBS, and stay that way for decades afterward. They enjoy networking and being part of the community, using the community and giving back to it. So the first trait is that you enjoy networking and think about how you’ll contribute back to the community. The other part is whether you already know LBS has this culture. For example, you’ve contacted alumni, you have an alumni recommendation, a relative is an alum, or you’ve attended LBS events. All of these show you understand LBS’s networking culture and are willing to take part in the community.

Second, your career plan. Career is a top priority for everyone at LBS. People choose different careers, but everyone knows clearly which resources they’ll use once they’re at LBS, which events they’ll attend, who they’ll network with, and what preparation they need to reach their career goal. As an alum deciding whether to recommend an applicant, what my friends and I think about is how likely your current preparation, your timeline, how far along you are, and your past experience are to get you to your goal. If we think you have a very good chance, we’ll strongly support you joining the LBS community. You’ll get the resources you want, you know clearly which resources you want, and you can bring useful experience to share with the community.

Third, your leadership and team skills. This means your club experience and teamwork, which everyone has to some degree. What matters is how you work in a team, whether you can show what you learned and the value those experiences gave you, and whether you can get that across in your application materials.

Fourth, the hard stats I mentioned, like your GPA, your undergraduate school, and your GMAT or GRE score. These are black and white, and most applicants are about the same, so they probably won’t be what makes you stand out. But everyone has to meet the bar.

Fifth, the diversity of your background. This includes whether you’ve worked, interned, or studied abroad, whether you’ve volunteered overseas, and whether you care about diversity yourself. For example, if you’re part of the LGBTQ+ community, an activist on those issues, or an activist for a particular public or social cause, that greatly adds to your diversity mindset. LBS values this a lot.

Finally, these five points largely describe the traits of someone who would really enjoy LBS and its community. Got it.

So after the interview you write a long report explaining why you think the applicant is or isn’t a fit? After my last interview, it took me three hours to write the report, because I wrote it in a lot of detail.

Thank-you notes after the interview

Do you think a thank-you note after the interview helps? Before or after, it’s good to keep a good relationship with your interviewer, because they’re an alum, not a professional interviewer. Interviewing isn’t part of their day job. So before and after the interview, it’s great to connect on LinkedIn, say hello, or tell them you’re looking forward to the interview on a given day.

Always send a thank-you note after the interview. If I didn’t get one, I’d be a bit puzzled. It wouldn’t count against you, but a thank-you note, especially a well-written one, earns points. Even if those points don’t change the result, that’s fine. It’s a relationship the two of you have built, the bond of a former interviewee and interviewer, and it brings you closer. There’s no harm in keeping that connection.

GMAT 700, GPA 4.0, humanities major at a top university, officer of a consulting club, an internship at a multinational, and about 50 credits of business coursework. Does this profile look promising to you? Does it meet the bar for the LBS MiM?

Absolutely, 100%. First, a GMAT 700 is more than enough. As for GPA, I’m not sure whether Taiwanese GPAs are out of 4.3 or calculated some other way, but I’m sure 4.1 out of 4.3 is a good GPA.

Generally the logic is that the GMAT makes up for a weak GPA, or if your GMAT is lower, your GPA needs to be higher. Here both scores look strong enough, so I don’t think there’s much to worry about.

As for the rest, what you majored in within the humanities doesn’t matter. The consulting club and the multinational internship show you already know what you want to pursue, and you have enough experience to back up your motivation. So I don’t think you need to worry at all.

But before anyone applies to LBS, there’s one important thing: talk to alumni. I’d encourage you to get a few alumni recommendations before you submit. That’s the most effective way to make sure you get an interview. An alumni recommendation shows whether you fit LBS’s culture. If an alum is willing to recommend you, they’re vouching for your personality and profile, and alumni are LBS’s most important asset.

So try to find a few alumni and ask them to write you a recommendation. OK?

Another reminder: there’s no limit on LBS alumni recommendations. Each applicant can have 100 people write one, so if you really find 100, you’re in for sure. In practice not many people do that. Most get one to three, and that already greatly improves your chances of getting an interview or an offer.

So basically, this person should set up their LinkedIn profile right away, polish it, and then gradually start connecting with LBS alumni.

Yes, or get to know one or two alumni first and ask them to introduce you to others. Personally, I’d want to see someone who wants to get into LBS putting effort into their LinkedIn, because LinkedIn matters a lot. If your LinkedIn is well built, I’d feel you’ve prepared thoroughly and are a good fit for LBS, because we use LinkedIn every day.

So in a way, it tells me whether you’re ready for LBS, or ready to job hunt in the London market.

If your grades weren’t great, can work experience get you into LBS?

Before you answer, I want to check: besides the MiM, the LBS business school also has an MBA, right?

OK, so LBS programs fall into two broad categories: Early Careers, and programs for people with work experience. Early Careers has three programs: the MiM (Master in Management), the MFA (Master in Financial Analysis), and the MAM (Master in Analytics and Management). All three are for students with less than two years of work experience.

For students with more than two years of experience, there’s the MBA and the Master in Finance. So the split is between those with work experience and those without. The MBA corresponds to the MiM, and the MiF (Master in Finance) corresponds to the MFA. That shows the split between Management, Finance, and Analytics.

As for whether work experience can make up for weak grades, it depends on how many years you have. With more than two years, apply for the MBA. With less than two, apply for Early Careers.

As I said earlier, if your grades aren’t high, a strong enough GMAT or GRE score can generally make up for it. But schools have their own standards for hard stats, so it’s hard to say a given GPA will definitely get you in or definitely keep you out. I’d still encourage you to strengthen your profile as much as you can and apply.

With low grades, it also depends on which school you went to, because that matters to LBS too. LBS puts quite a lot of weight on an applicant’s undergraduate background. So it’s a holistic evaluation.

We don’t really know how the school weighs hard stats. Some people with low GMAT or GRE scores got into LBS, some with low grades got in, and some with very high GMAT or GRE scores were rejected.

So it really is a holistic evaluation. OK.

To apply for a master’s at King’s, Manchester, Edinburgh, Warwick, or above in the UK, is internship experience essential?

No. It depends on the school and on your major. Some programs are aimed at students whose backgrounds aren’t built on internships, and for them internships aren’t weighted much; GPA and test scores matter more. So my answer is that it’s not always essential, but internship experience is definitely a plus.

Most people will have one or two internships anyway. They don’t have to be in your field of study. What matters is showing that you made an effort to gain experience and build skills, whether teamwork, a feel for numbers, or practical work skills like data analysis, Excel, and PowerPoint.