Smart vs Dumb

How you view your audience is important because it will determine the communication approach you take with them. For example, when you talk to a child, you will be very patient, and you explain a lot. When you talk to an adult, you will be succinct and use metaphors. It's the same in consulting interviews. The question is, do you treat your interviewer as smart or dumb? The answer: it depends. 

When you are doing your fit portion of the interview you need to treat your interviewer as super smart and when you are doing your case portion of the interview you need to treat your interview as super dumb. Why?

When you are doing fit, you want to tell stories that SHOW your qualities instead of TELL your qualities. Your SMART audience will infer your qualities from your stories themselves. For example, instead of saying "I want to join BCG because BCG has great company culture. Before I applied to BCG, I talked to a number of consultants and they all told me that they got a lot of office support.", which is mere TELL, you should say that "I want to join BCG because BCG has great company culture. Before I applied to BCG, I talked to a number of consultants. One of them told me a story that impressed a lot. She said there was once she run into a technical problem in a project, she sent out an email to the firm seeking help and received more than ten replies within a few minutes, and the majority of them from consultants she didn't even know.". The latter is SHOW, and let your smart audience infer that you like BCG because of its supportive office culture. The former is TELL, you told your audience you like BCG because of its supportive culture, but it's not convincing.

When you are doing case, you want to be extremely clear with your structure so that even the dumbest audience can follow it. You want to add absolutely no twist into your structure and you want to remind your audience constantly where you are at your structure. Don't be mistaken: there is only a small difference between a messy structure and a clear structure, and it has everything to do with the quality of the structure as well as the delivery of the structure. Here is an example of a messy structure delivery: "To help our client, there are three areas I'd like to explore. Revenue, cost and risks. First, I want to look at revenue. Blablabla. In terms of cost, blablabla. Risks include, blablabla". Here is an example of a clear structure delivery:"To help our client, there are three areas I'd like to explore. Revenue, cost and risk. First I'd like o look at revenue. Blablabla. SECOND, I'D LIKE TO LOOK AT COST. Blablabla. THIRD, I'D LIKE TO LOOK AT RISKS. blablaba". What's the difference? It's very subtle. Instead of saying"First, interns of, risk include", you say"first I'd like to, second I'd like to, and third I'd like to". Clear numbering and repeat usage of the same lead phrase help your DUMB audience follow your closely.

So, Know your audience, and know how to treat your audience. You are one step closer to effective communication in consulting interviews.