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Candidate preparation · Strategy consulting leadership
Preparing for a partner interview process
A Partner, Principal or Director move in strategy consulting is not an interview. It is a process — typically seven distinct stages run over two to three months, in front of five to eight people who have never met you and who each decide independently. Each stage tests something different, and the thing that got you through the last one is rarely the thing that gets you through the next.
This page is the preparation tool we give our candidates. For every stage: what it is actually testing, what best practice looks like, what the market is doing right now, the questions worth asking, and the ones that cost you.
Seven stages — click any one to jump straight in
Seven stages, seven different jobs
Start at stage one even if you are already in a process — it is the one that makes the last stage straightforward. Otherwise, pick where you are.
Stage 01Take stockDecide your criteria before anyone shows you a package. Seven or more factors you come back to at every stage after this.Open stage →Stage 02Exploratory callThirty minutes that settle your level, your motive, and whether the work you sold would come with you.Open stage →Stage 03Business caseThe document the decision actually rests on — what goes in it, how to polish it, and how to pre-empt the doubts.Open stage →Stage 04Interviews 2–5Every partner is a cold start. How to give context, stay consistent, and survive the cross-practice rooms.Open stage →Stage 05Final roundPresenting the case to the partner group — plus the due diligence you owe yourself before you can accept.Open stage →Stage 06Offer & negotiationWhat to ask for, how to phrase it, what not to touch, and when to walk away.Open stage →Stage 07Resign and landLeaving properly, and the hundred days that decide whether the move actually worked.Open stage →