Entering the Consulting World

Placement Diaries: Episode 1

Embark on a journey through the placement diaries with Vivek Yadav, an Associate Consultant at EY and DTU '22 alum. With a knack for technology consulting in the financial realm and a passion for innovation, Vivek's story offers insights into the world of placements, emerging technologies, and career aspirations. Join us as we unravel Vivek's experiences, motivations, and aspirations in the consulting landscape.

Lets Get Into It

How did you learn about consulting and what got you motivated for it?

Answer- I was a part of DCG from my 3rd year, and there I learned about consulting and got motivated for it.
But due to my electrical background, I kept thinking about circuital jobs. But the change actually happened when I started looking through guesstimate, and found out I was quite good at them.
I didn't find friends or seniors who influenced me in a major way. The thinking was I wouldn't be able to find much growth in Core Electrical Industries. My mindset had set in that non-tech was better for me and was looking forward to doing an MBA then going for managerial roles.

How did your Btech Branch and its accompanying CGPA affect your placement experiences?

The Electrical Engineering branch is comparatively much more challenging compared to other branches and maintaining a good CGPA is a must when applying to different companies in the Non-Tech Industry. Of course, my department made it difficult to always remain above the cutoff for many companies' placement requirement.
This is a harsh truth that companies don't regard the difficulty/complexity of the branch when you are applying for non-tech roles, but use CGPA as a blanket cutoff. But getting shortlisted due to CGPA is only half the battle.

You confided that you were somewhat lacking in the CGPA during the placement season, yet you bagged an Offer from EY. How?

The reality is after clearing the cutoff, the main battle is won through your Resume, and Skills Matter a lot in that resume. The work you have done and how truthful you are in that interview determines whether you will get the offer letter or not. You have to ensure that after you are in the interview, you do the best you can, because ‘jo hogaya, so ho gaya’, and I can't change the past.

How has your engineering background aided or helped you in consulting?

Indirectly, it has helped me a lot.
You will definitely be asked about the transition from engineering to consulting, your future studies, which in my case was my plan for doing an MBA. Still, companies come to engineering colleges knowing all this, so you can be frank here.
Engineering background means they have a lot of choices and they can choose any path and that’s how I tackled the question asked by the interviewer.

Tell us about your career in EY, your role there and what future do you imagine going forward?

I was offered the role of a Tech Consultant in EY.
Let me first explain what a tech consultant is. In Tech consulting you get to work with the development side of things. Like in my case, I was working with Dell Inc. and they were looking for software development for various processes. Another aspect of tech consulting is you get to work with data and various tools that an organization may use to collect and organize it. The work would be to develop presentation stats from that data.
EY functions as a contractor, where it organizes its people into small teams, which are distributed to work on different aspects for the contracted organization. I have recently shifted to the audit side so I am exploring that area, currently.
In terms of future plans, I am sure of doing an MBA, as it's a must for higher level positions in organizations like EY. As for my career growth inside EY, I am going with the flow and exploring different aspects that interest me.

INTERVIEW PHASE

I was rejected by many companies and EY was one of the last companies that were open for placement in the non-tech field.

How did you deal with rejection? What sort of changes did you make after those rejections, to make yourself more of an ideal candidate?

I have made 3 types of resume – tech, non-tech and core, one for each. To make my communication skills better, I read newspapers and magazines. All these steps became my basic funda. After going through that, as hindsight I can say, 2 major reasons for getting placement are LUCK and HARD WORK.

Can you explain the prep and process of getting an offer, from start to finish?

In the evening, there will be an aptitude test and for those who clear that, there will be an interview the next day.
For the Interview, I studied my resume and prepped some basic questions that you will face in each interview, that are your introduction, strengths, weaknesses, etc. One thing I remember is that I was very nervous. A strange or somewhat lucky incident that happened was that I sat with the wrong panel due to some management error, so it felt like I had given a mock to me, which made me confident and prepared for my final interview.

Were there recurring themes in interview questions across different panels?

Interview experiences often mirrored one another, albeit with slight variations. Recurrent inquiries, such as project details, showed the standardized nature of interviews. Similar insights from friends who shared similar experiences further validated this.

What advice would you offer to first and second-year students aspiring for similar career paths?

Extracurricular engagement, multitasking abilities, and staying updated on current affairs are imperative. Enhancing communication skills and becoming confident remain fundamental, while acknowledging CGPA's significance for non-tech pursuits and future MBA endeavors.

Reflecting on your college journey, is there anything you would change?

Undoubtedly, CGPA reigns supreme, particularly for non-tech avenues and aspiring MBAs. Acknowledging its weightage early on could potentially reshape one's collegiate trajectory.


Interviewer - Adarsh Ranjan
Editor - Pratyush Kumar