Landing a job as a consultant at Slalom a modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology and business transformation, is no easy feat. The interview process is rigorous, designed to assess your problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and overall fit within Slalom’s innovative culture.
This comprehensive guide will walk you through what to expect during the Slalom consulting interview process and provide sample answers to the most commonly asked interview questions
Overview of the Slalom Consultant Interview Process
The Slalom interview process typically consists of three to five rounds, including:
- Screening interview with a recruiter
- Case interviews assessing analytical and problem-solving skills
- Behavioral and technical interviews evaluating experience, communication abilities, and cultural fit
- Panel interviews with multiple interviewers
The exact structure varies based on the applicant’s background and the specific consulting role However, the key competencies evaluated across all Slalom consultant interviews include
- Analytical thinking: Using data and logical reasoning to solve problems
- Communication: Explaining ideas clearly and persuasively
- Leadership: Managing teams and projects effectively
- Technical skills: Expertise in relevant domains like IT, engineering, etc.
- Cultural fit: Embodying Slalom’s core values of teamwork, innovation, and client focus
Preparation is vital to stand out in this rigorous selection process. Let’s look at some of the most common Slalom consulting interview questions and how to ace them.
Slalom Experience and Background Questions
Slalom interviewers typically start by probing your previous work experiences and assessing how suitable you are for the consulting role. Some sample questions include:
Q: Tell me about your work experience.
A: Highlight work experiences that align with the consulting role. Emphasize analytical projects, team collaborations, and client engagements. Quantify your achievements and impact.
Q: Tell me about a recent project you managed or participated in. Discuss deliverables and your role.
A: Pick a relevant project and discuss the objectives, your specific contributions, challenges faced, and results achieved. Emphasize analytical and problem-solving skills applied.
Q: How does your experience align with this consulting role?
A: Connect your past work experiences directly to the requirements of the role at Slalom. Highlight relevant hard and soft skills gained that make you a strong candidate.
Slalom Case Interview Questions
Case interviews are a crucial aspect of consulting recruitment. Slalom interviewers will present you with a business challenge and assess your problem-solving process. Some examples include:
Q: Our client is a retail pharmacy chain seeing declining revenues. What would you recommend?
A: Use a structured approach like the pyramid principle to frame the issue, dive into potential causes using data provided, identify solutions and recommendations. Demonstrate analytical thinking.
Q: A tech company wants to expand from only consumer sales to also selling to businesses. How should they approach this?
A: Use frameworks like MECE to structure your thinking. Identify challenges in B2B sales and propose solutions drawing on your knowledge of tech and sales strategies.
Q: Our client requires a new distribution strategy. How would you approach this case?
A: Outline an approach focused on analyzing their current distribution model, identifying inefficiencies, leveraging data to propose optimizations, and developing an implementation roadmap.
Slalom Behavioral Interview Questions
Behavioral questions aim to assess your soft skills and fit for the consulting role. Some examples include:
Q: Tell me about a time you successfully influenced a team to adopt one of your proposed solutions.
A: Share a relevant example highlighting your communication skills in persuading team members and aligning them towards a common goal.
Q: Describe a situation where you had to adapt your consulting approach/recommendations mid-project due to changing client needs.
A: Discuss an example that demonstrates your flexibility, creative thinking and focus on delivering client value.
Q: Tell me about a time you faced a conflict while working on a consulting project. How did you handle it?
A: Share an example that highlights conflict resolution ability, empathy, and focus on win-win solutions.
Slalom Technical Interview Questions
For consulting roles requiring specialized technical skills, you may receive technical interview questions. Some examples:
Q: Explain how you would design a REST API for an e-commerce platform.
A: Outline considerations for security, scalability, endpoints, request methods, status codes, etc. based on REST API best practices.
Q: How would you go about optimizing the performance of a client’s MySQL database?
A: Discuss database performance tuning techniques like indexing, query optimization, using benchmarking tools, improving infrastructure, etc.
Q: Name some key principles you would follow when architecting a cloud-based system.
A: Discuss principles like scalability, high availability, stateless services, managed services over servers, security, standards compliance, etc.
Tips for Acing Your Slalom Consultant Interview
Here are some top tips for standing out in your Slalom consulting interview:
- Practice extensively with Slalom case interviews, technical questions, and behavioral questions
- Research Slalom – understand their core values, consulting approach, and types of projects
- Review your experiences – identify relevant anecdotes that align with Slalom’s competencies
- Explain your thinking clearly and structure your responses using frameworks
- Act professionally – showcase your leadership, collaboration skills, and passion
With rigorous preparation using this guide, you’ll be equipped to impress your Slalom interviewers and land your dream consulting job. Best of luck!
Slalom Written Case Interview
In addition to traditional case interviews, you may be asked to do a written case interview. As a take-home assignment, you will be given a packet of materials and asked to analyze them in order to come up with a suggestion. You’ll then create slides to present to your interviewers in the following interview round.
This type of case interview is different from the ones you’ll usually have in person, but the strategies and approaches are very much the same. Follow these eight steps to nail your written case interview.
1. Understand the business problem and objective
The first step in completing a written case interview is to understand what the objective is. What is the primary business question you are trying to answer with the data and information provided?.
2. Read the list of major questions
In some written case interviews, you will be given a list of three to four important questions that you need to answer. Read through these questions first since these will be the questions that you will want to prioritize.
You can skip this step and go to the next one if the written case interview is more open-ended and doesn’t give you a list of key questions.
3. Skim the materials
Next, flip through the information packet that is provided to see what information is available. Identify what data you have and what data you do not have.
The goal in this step is not to read and analyze every slide. That would take too much time. Instead, look at what information is out there. This will help you decide what to read and think about first.
4. Create a framework
You should make a basic framework to help guide your analysis before you start reading and thinking about the information in the slides in more depth. If you are given a list of important questions or slide templates that are already filled out, this is a good place to start building your framework.
If not, use the information in the packet to come up with three to four important questions you need to answer or look into.
5. Read and analyze the material
Afterwards, read and analyze the information that is relevant to each area of your framework. As you begin answering questions and drawing insights, make sure to write a one or two sentence summary. This will make it easier to decide on a recommendation later.
6. Decide on a recommendation
Go over the list of important things you learned from answering all the main questions in your framework. Decide on what recommendation these findings collectively support.
Remember that there is typically no right or wrong recommendation. As long as your recommendation is supported by data and evidence, you will be in great shape.
7. Create your slides
Once you have a recommendation, it is time to start filling in your slides. You should use the following structure when creating your slides:
- Slide 1: Give your suggestion and three reasons why it’s a good idea.
- Slide 2: Give your first reason and the facts that back it up.
- Slide 3: Give your second reason and the facts that back it up.
- Slide 4: Give your third reason and the facts that back it up.
- Slide 5: Summarize everything that you’ve covered so far
- Slide 6: Propose potential next steps
8. Prepare for potential questions
If you have any time remaining, brainstorm potential questions the interviewer may ask you during your presentation. They may want to know how you performed your analysis or how you reached your conclusions.
Preparing for these potential questions will help your presentation go much more smoothly. You will also feel much more confident while presenting.
For a full guide on written case interviews, check out our consulting written case interview step-by-step guide.
Slalom Case Interview Examples
Below, we’ve compiled a list of case interview questions that you may see in a Slalom consulting interview. With these case interview examples, you should have a good idea of the types of businesses and industries you might see in your next interview.
Case Example #1: How would you help a community bank institution become a digital leader in the community banking space?.
Case Example #2: How would you develop an artificial intelligence / machine learning strategy to help a home mortgage loan provider automate the loan application and approval process?.
Case Example #3: What considerations do you need to consider in rolling out a COVID rapid antigen screening program throughout Canada?.
Case Example #4: How can a non-profit food bank use data and technology to better deliver meals to the homeless?.
Case Example #5: How can a customer relationship management (CRM) tool such as Salesforce be used to improve fundraising campaigns for a non-profit youth mentorship organization?.
For more practice, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases.
Consultant Interview Questions with Answers
FAQ
Is it hard to get hired at Slalom?
Why work for Slalom Consulting?
Is Slalom Consulting a good company?
What is a Slalom Consulting interview?
Slalom consulting interviews consist of case interviews and behavioral or fit interview questions. There are typically between three to five rounds of interviews that you will need to go through in order to receive a consulting job offer from Slalom.
How do I prepare for a Slalom Consulting interview?
Below are a few tips as you prepare for your Slalom Consulting interview. 1. Go Through the Slalom Website. Read about their culture as well as employee stories and the case studies. This will provide you with insight into the teams, culture, and the type of work they do. 2. Think about Your Values and How They Would Fit into the Firm.
What questions does slalom ask?
A common question Slalom asks and wants to test is whether you believe you will fit with their culture. 3. Prepare and Practice 5– 6 stories to Use in Behavioral/fit Interviews Using the A STAR (E) Framework.
How long does the Slalom Consulting interview process take?
Typically, the Slalom Consulting interview process takes 3 – 4 weeks from the time you submit your application to the time you receive your decision. Over this time, there are 3 – 5 rounds of interviews as follows: Each of these interviews is conducted separately and candidates usually hear back on outcomes within a week.
