Talking like a management consultant is a good way to impress your interviewer during the case interview. However, many candidates make that dreadful mistake of using cliche’d jargons they find on the Internet – if you do that, the interviewer will perceive you as naive, at best.
How do you which terms consultants actually use in their workplace, then? To answer that question, I’ve wrote a little “dictionary” for the terms that we consultants use on the field.
Consulting content terminology dictionary – MConsultingPrep
This comprehensive dictionary is useful for:
- Aspiring consultants looking to implicitly show their “consulting-like” background on resumes or in case interviews.
- First-year consultants looking to immediately improve “professionalism” and improve consulting writing style on reports, emails, etc.
- First-year consultants looking to immediately improve “professionalism” and improve consulting writing style on reports, emails, etc.
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For now, here’s a few examples from MConsultingPrep’s Consulting Content Terminology Dictionary.
| Term | Definition | Example of typical consulting writing |
|---|---|---|
| Ad hoc | Non-structure | Let’s turn this ad hoc process into a structured and efficient one. |
| Deliverables | End products of consulting projects | Our deliverables for this workstream include the master strategy and detailed implementation plan for the cement segment in the next 10 years. |
| End-to-end | Comprehensive; complete | The supervisors should manage and construct projects in an end-to-end manner. |
| Footprint | Significant and powerful presence in something | The firm has expanded its footprint in the real estate and social infrastructure construction in synergy with the urban development business. |
| Function | E.g: HR, Finance, Operation, Strategy, etc. | IT systems are vulnerable while HR and Finance functions also show gaps. |
| In line | About the same | This steel plant performance is in line with market average but room for improvement exists. |
| Initiatives | Actions | ABC could pursue performance improvement initiatives to further strengthen hydro power generation’s contribution to the Holding. |
| Leverage | Taking advantage of | Apple should leverage its strong brand name. |
| Levers | Ways to improve things | There are three levers to boost sales conversion rate at branches. |
| Market perspective | Market understanding | The first phase in our project is to get a big-picture of market perspective. |
| Milestones | Mini goals | The company passed the £6 million milestone this year. |
| Restructuring | Significantly and massively changing something | The board guided three-year Human Capital Transformation Plan including restructuring divisions and alignment to business strategy. |
| Root cause | Bottleneck that causes the problem | The root cause of the problem lies in the poor construction of the bridge. |
| Strategy | Where to play; What to play; How to play | The client should develop a holistic urban development strategy to become the developer-of-choice for large-scale urban development projects. |
| Turnaround | Bringing something from the slums to the surface | ABC cement is facing serious financial challenges and the chance for a turnaround is small. |
Merely speaking like a consultant is not enough to pass case interviews – you need to absolutely master the core fundamentals as well as the tips and techniques!
Here’s a “crash course” to help you do just that – from principles of consulting problem-solving, to case interview formats, along with dozens of tips and tricks, all in one free guide!
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