Ready to launch your consulting career with Slalom? This comprehensive guide to Slalom consultant interview questions will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to ace your interview and impress the hiring managers
Why Slalom?
Slalom is a leading consulting firm that helps organizations solve their most complex business challenges. With a focus on modern technologies and a collaborative approach, Slalom empowers businesses to achieve their goals and thrive in the digital age.
Slalom’s Interview Process
Slalom’s interview process typically involves
- Initial phone screening: A recruiter will reach out to discuss your qualifications and interest in the position.
- Series of interviews: You may participate in phone, video, or in-person interviews with various team members, managers, and HR representatives.
- Case interview: You will be presented with a business case study and asked to analyze it, develop recommendations, and present your findings.
Common Slalom Consultant Interview Questions:
1. Tell Me About Your Work Experience:
- This is your chance to showcase your relevant skills and experience.
- Focus on the accomplishments that demonstrate your problem-solving abilities, analytical skills, and ability to deliver results.
- Use specific examples to illustrate your points.
2. Describe a Recent Project You Managed or Were Part of:
- Choose a project that highlights your skills and experience relevant to the role you’re applying for.
- Discuss the project’s goals, your role, the challenges you faced, and the solutions you implemented.
- Quantify your results whenever possible to demonstrate the impact you made.
3. How Does Your Experience Align with This Role?
- Connect your skills and experience to the specific requirements of the role.
- Highlight the transferable skills you’ve developed in previous roles that will be valuable in this position.
- Show your enthusiasm for the role and your understanding of Slalom’s values and culture.
Additional Slalom Consultant Interview Questions:
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Why are you interested in working at Slalom?
- What are your career goals?
- Tell me about a time you had to work under pressure.
- How do you handle conflict?
- What are your salary expectations?
Case Interview Preparation:
- Practice analyzing business cases: Familiarize yourself with different case types and practice analyzing them using frameworks and methodologies.
- Develop your presentation skills: Learn how to structure your thoughts, present your findings clearly and concisely, and answer questions effectively.
- Stay calm and confident: Remember, the case interview is an opportunity to showcase your problem-solving skills and analytical abilities. Stay calm, be confident in your abilities, and don’t be afraid to ask clarifying questions.
Tips for Acing Your Slalom Interview:
- Research Slalom and the specific role you’re applying for.
- Prepare answers to common interview questions.
- Practice your answers out loud.
- Dress professionally and arrive on time for your interview.
- Be confident and enthusiastic.
- Ask thoughtful questions about the company and the role.
- Follow up with a thank-you note after your interview.
By following these tips and preparing for the common Slalom consultant interview questions, you’ll be well on your way to landing your dream job at this leading consulting firm.
Remember that being yourself, showing off your skills and experience, and showing how much you care about Slalom and its mission are the keys to success.
Good luck!
The 5 Steps to Solve Any Slalom Case Interview
A case interview is a special type of interview that nearly every consulting firm uses. Case interviews aren’t as important at Slalom as they are at some other consulting firms, but you should still learn how to do them well.
In slalom case interviews, you are put in a made-up business situation and asked to solve a business problem. This is meant to make you feel like you are in a real consulting job. You’ll spend 30 to 40 minutes collaborating with the interviewer to reach an ultimate answer or recommendation.
Slalom case interviews are generally candidate-led. This means that you will be expected to lead the direction of the case. You’ll be responsible for asking the right questions, analyzing data, driving discussion, and proposing each next step.
Case interviews can cover any industry or any type of business problem. Even though you can’t be sure what question you’ll be asked in a case interview, they all go in the same general direction:
- Kick off the case
- Solve quantitative problems and answer qualitative questions
1. Understand the case
Your case interview will begin with the interviewer giving you the case background information. Pay close attention to the interviewer and carefully write down the most important details as they talk. Focus on understanding the context of the situation and the objective of the case.
Don’t be afraid to ask clarifying questions if you do not understand something. You might want to tell the interviewer what you think about the case by summarizing the background information.
The most important part of this step is to verify the objective of the case. Not answering the right business question is the quickest way to fail a case interview.
2. Structure the problem
The next step is to develop a framework to help you solve the case. A framework is a tool that helps you organize and break down big problems into smaller, easier-to-handle parts. Another way to think about frameworks is brainstorming different ideas and organizing them into different categories.
It is fine to ask the interviewer for a few minutes to gather your thoughts and think about the problem before you start making your framework.
Ideally, you want your framework to be as MECE as possible. MECE stands for mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. You want each element of your framework to have zero overlap with the other elements. There are also important things you want your framework to cover, like all the important issues or parts of the case.
Once you know what the main issues or areas are that you need to look into are, go over your framework with the interviewer. They may ask a few questions or provide some feedback.
If you want to learn how to make frameworks that are specific to each case, read our article on case interview frameworks.
3. Kick off the case
After you’re done showing off your framework, you’ll start working on the case by going into more detail about different parts of your framework. How this process will start depends on whether the case interview is candidate-led or interviewer-led.
If the case interview is a candidate-led case, you’ll have to suggest which part of your framework you want to look into first. So, propose an area and provide a reason for why you want to start with that area. There is generally no right or wrong area of your framework to pick first.
The interviewer will either tell you where to start in the framework or give you a question to answer if the case interview is interviewer-led.
4. Solve quantitative problems and answer qualitative questions
Your case interviews will most likely have some quantitative aspect to them. For example, you may be asked to calculate a certain profitability or financial metric. Additionally, you might be asked to guess the size of a certain market or a certain number.
To solve quantitative problems, it’s important to agree on a structure or method with the interviewer before you do any math. The rest of the problem is just simple math to do if you plan out and present your structure to solve the quantitative problem and the interviewer agrees with it.
When doing the math, make sure to talk through your thinking and calculations out loud. The interviewer should be able to easily follow what you are doing in each step of your calculations. Describe how your answer changes the suggestion you are starting to make once you have found it.
Your case interviews will likely also have qualitative aspects to them. You may be asked to brainstorm a list of potential ideas. You could also be asked to provide your opinion on a business issue or situation.
The key to answering qualitative questions is to structure your answer. When brainstorming a list of ideas, develop a structure to help you neatly categorize all of your ideas. When you give your opinion on a business issue or situation, first explain what you believe and then list the reasons you believe it.
When you finish answering a qualitative question, connect your answer back to the case objective. How does your answer impact the recommendation that you are beginning to form?.
5. Deliver a recommendation
In the last part of the case interview, you’ll give your advice and the main reasons why it’s a good idea. You don’t have to go over everything you’ve done in this case again. Just focus on going over the most important facts.
You should also include possible next steps you would take if you had more time or information. They could be parts of your framework you didn’t have time to look into or questions that have been bothering you for a while but don’t have good answers.
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 key questions or slide templates that are already filled out, this is probably what your framework will be built on.
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.
Consultant Interview Questions with Answers
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.
What skills is slalom looking for?
The skills and experience that Slalom is most looking for include product management, process improvement, software development, product ownership, business analysis, and organizational effectiveness. Due to the pandemic, Slalom is holding all candidate interviews virtually (previously candidates had on-site interviews).
