How does one create social impact? By being on-the ground, living among the beneficiaries and understanding their problems first hand, in order to provide the best solutions. Subham Chirania did just that. An IIT Kanpur graduate, he started his career in the banking sector, but the itch to work upon the societal issues that had nagged him since childhood prompted him to give up his well-paying job, and join a non-profit, where he has worked on several initiatives around education.
Subham recently graduated from ISB and earned a place on the Dean’s list. This Fall he is joining McKinsey. In this blog, he shares his journey from the social sector to consulting
My Journey to MBA
I was born and raised in Jharkhand in a small town that sorely lacked basic public resources. I remember we would spend weeks without electricity and travel 200 miles to see a dentist. Due to lack of a high school, I moved to New Delhi after Class X. A big cultural shift – while I was mesmerized by the allure of Lutyen’s Delhi, I was also anguished by the disparity in availability of basic services and amenities across India. I had several questions but no avenue to seek answers.
It was only after 5 years that I got the opportunity to formally satiate my curiosity when I stumbled upon a fellowship that aligns young professionals with Members of Parliament on constituency development projects. By this time, I had completed my engineering from IIT Kanpur and spent a little over a year in the banking sector. The fellowship gave me the opportunity to interface with village leaders and public officials at the grassroots as I worked to transform a tribal village in Odisha into a Model Village across various spheres of life. At the end of the year, I had 3 takeaways:
1. scalability (how can I institute similar changes across 10,000 villages in a similar timeframe),
2. sustainability (will my interventions sustain once I leave the village),
3. good education is the key to most problems in India.
With this learning, I forayed into India’s education sector to understand things at a systemic level.
I spent the next three years in public and private settings within education working with MHRD, CBSE, and an early-stage ed-tech start-up. At MHRD, while I had the resources, political buy-in, and robust strategy, I found that managing scores of stakeholders and daily operations in a vast and diverse country such as India was challenging. On the other hand, at the start-up, I was expected to deliver high and quick growth with meagre resources while ensuring a positive culture in-house.
On multiple instances, this journey made me ponder about strengthening my business fundamentals. I felt the need for formal training to better understand, break, and solve a problem – right from building the right strategy to efficiently executing it while managing employees, customers, and internal finances. The tried and tested case-based learning method at B-school spanning industries and business functions was my best bet in this endeavour, and hence, I decided to join business school.
My Journey to McKinsey
At ISB, Consulting is the most sought-after career, and rightly so. The job allows you to apply your theoretical business learning across industries on a range of problems. It is fast-paced and helps build strong people-management skills. These offerings aligned with my objectives, and I chose consulting as a career option to further my problem-solving skills. I have outlined the steps to my journey into McKinsey, and the same is applicable to other top consulting firms.
- Resume-prep: There are 3 elements in the resume: academics, work experience, and extra-curriculars. Beyond grades, one needs to typically demonstrate the following 4 elements through the 3 sections of the resume: problem solving ability (critical thinking and feel for numbers), inclusive leadership (ability to run teams and deliver impact), drive (risk-taking ability and growth against adversity), and personal impact (ability to respond well to others’ needs). A desirable format for stating resume pointers is RAC – results, actions, context. It is important to get the resume vetted by associates within the firm, so do make sure you run your document by at least 2 – 3 folks before sending it out!
- Interview-prep: There are 2 parts to this prep – cases and PI.
b.1. Case practise: There are 2 critical aspects to case practise – what you practise and who you practise with. Some common case themes are helping a client with declining profit, market sizing, entry into a new market, revenue growth, cost optimization, M&A, and product pricing, among others. There is abundant material created by consulting clubs of IIMs and ISB to help you practise such cases. Please note that interviewers tend to ask cases from one of their ongoing projects which may not fit a pre-stated framework, and hence, it is important to practise unconventional cases as well. Do ensure that you practise in an environment – online or offline – that resembles the actual interview setting.
Beyond the technical nitty-gritties, it is crucial to find the right set of peers you practise cases with. You team members must be invested in each other’s growth and open to constructive feedback. Be flexible in choosing peers and try practising with new folks over time. Do not be bogged down by the number of cases others are practising – it is irrelevant and does not help.
Personal anecdote: After attempting a case given by a peer, I would solve the same case again on a white sheet at least once or twice to ascertain how I could have approached it better – this turned out to be very helpful! Over time, I shifted from focusing on quality over quantity of cases.
b.2: PI practise: Often the overlooked part of the interview prep, PI is equally important as cases and sets the rapport in any interview. Be sure to invest enough time in it starting at least 2 – 3 weeks ahead of the D-day.
- D-day prep: Interview prep is a great learning but could be an exhausting process as well. It is important that you are calm and confident for the D-day. Hence, be sure that you take breaks in case practise to avoid fatigue, assimilate learning on a timely basis, and set your diet and sleep cycle right.
- D-day: There are 2 rounds, each of 30 – 40 minutes. Kicked off with standard PI questions, the interview quickly moves to a case. While unusual, you may be asked more than one case in one round. Be sure that you are programmed to solve multiple cases on the go at a time when your interview is scheduled – early morning or late evening.
I would like to dissolve some of the myths around this process and the job role.
- People with high work experience cannot cut it through. Every recruit is hired at the same position irrespective of his/her past work experience – so the recruiter is keen to see whether you can work well with younger folks at the same designation or not.
- People from the social sector or technology background cannot make into consulting. Every resume is typically assessed across the 5 levers (including grades) stated in the resume section above – the industry/function does not create a disadvantage.
- High grades are synonymous to a shortlist. While it is true that good grades are used as a proxy to the candidate’s sincerity and consistency, it certainly does not guarantee a shortlist if the other 4 elements fall short of the screening manager’s expectations.
* Any views or statements expressed here are the author’s and not those of his employer