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Why you're failing interviews even when you've prepared — Transcript

by Matt Huang · 3,085 words · 452 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00So today I'm going to tell you about
0:02something that's taken me probably five
0:04plus years to realize about the personal
0:07story, the two-minute story, the
0:09elevator pitch, whatever you want to
0:11call it. Basically, whenever you get
0:13asked in an interview, tell me about
0:15yourself. This is the question that gets
0:17asked 99% of the time. And today I want
0:20to share with you a few things that I've
0:22picked up about this that I think set
0:25the uh average candidate apart from the
0:27one that actually gets the offer,
0:29especially when you're talking about
0:30really really competitive roles um such
0:33as investment banking, management
0:35consulting or in big tech. And these are
0:37learnings that have allowed me to get
0:40into
0:41multiple companies in these fields. um
0:44whether it is Solomon Partners in
0:46Investment Banking, um BCG for
0:48Management Consulting, or Google, which
0:50is where I currently am working. And so
0:53without further ado, if you're still
0:55with me, make sure you full screen lock
0:56in and turn off your notifications.
0:59Let's get right into it. The way I want
1:00to start this video is I actually want
1:03to give you two examples of two
1:07candidates with the exact same
1:09background. let's say same exact facts
1:12about where they're from, where they go
1:13to school, what internship experience,
1:16club experience they have, what field
1:17they're trying to get into. And I'm
1:19going to give you the exact same story
1:21except in two different ways. And I want
1:23you to really listen and see if you can
1:26identify which candidate is going to get
1:28the offer or at least which candidate is
1:31doing a better job of telling their
1:32story. Before we get into it, I want to
1:34establish the facts that we're going to
1:36have. So, let's just assume that this
1:38candidate is from Boston originally.
1:40They went to Georgetown for their
1:41undergrad. They're currently in a
1:44consulting club on campus. They interned
1:46at a startup last summer. And currently,
1:49they are gunning for a management
1:53consulting role, ideally at a MBB
1:55consulting firm. So, that's Mackenzie
1:56Bane or BCG, which are usually the most
1:58coveted roles for students.
2:01Okay. So, example one, candidate one.
2:06Tell me about yourself.
2:08Yeah, sure. Absolutely. So, I'm
2:10originally from the Boston area and I am
2:13currently a sophomore at Georgetown
2:15University. I'm majoring in public
2:17policy and minoring in computer science.
2:21And I'm currently a member of our uh
2:25onampus consulting club, the Hilltop
2:27Consultants, where I work with a bunch
2:30of other consultants on different case
2:32projects for small businesses in the
2:34Washington DC area. And I've also
2:37interned at a startup in the fintech
2:40space last summer where I was able to
2:43get some exposure to the fintech
2:45industry and work with industry leaders
2:47on impactful projects. Now that
2:49experience has made me realize that I'm
2:51really interested in management
2:52consulting and so I'm really looking to
2:56land a role in the industry and I've
2:59also talked to a few people and in my
3:01personal life I also enjoy reading,
3:05playing sports, watching basketball and
3:08cooking.
3:10Okay, going to stop there. Now,
3:14candidate two, tell me a little bit
3:18about yourself. Walk me through your
3:19resume. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. So, my
3:22name is Matt. I'm originally from the
3:24Boston area and I went to Georgetown for
3:27my undergrad. I'm majoring in public
3:30policy with a minor in computer science.
3:32The reason why I chose to study this is
3:34growing up my parents worked in the
3:36technology sector and I always had kind
3:38of this interest in how technology
3:41impacts society at large. And so coming
3:44to Georgetown I really wanted to put
3:46myself in different situations where I
3:49could learn a little bit more about tech
3:51and business generally. And so I've
3:53joined an on-ampus consulting club. I've
3:55also interned at a startup in the
3:57fintech space most recently. And that
3:59experience has been really awesome. And
4:01what I enjoyed the most about it was
4:03being able to work very closely with the
4:05founder of the company on highlevel uh
4:09strategic business decisions. So for
4:11example, we had to figure out how to
4:13develop a competitive response when a
4:16competitor had entered the market after
4:18us. And so I worked very closely with
4:20the CEO that summer to think through
4:22okay first of all is it even a threat
4:24and then what are our options to address
4:26it? and then finally um actually helped
4:28with operationalizing the recommendation
4:31that we decided on. And so as I think
4:32ahead to next summer and how I want to
4:35spend my time and what I want to learn,
4:37management consulting feels like the
4:39logical next step for me. And when I saw
4:41that you guys were recruiting on campus,
4:43I was just so excited. And uh you know,
4:45I've had really great conversations with
4:47folks at the firm who have had really
4:49great things to say. And so just super
4:51excited to be here today and excited to
4:54get into it.
4:56Awesome. So I'll stop there. So notice
4:58how in both stories the general facts
5:02were largely the same, right? The
5:04candidate was from Boston, went to
5:07Georgetown, was studying public policy
5:10and computer science, was currently in
5:12an on-ampus consulting club, had
5:14interned at a fintech startup, and was
5:16gunning for MBB consulting. Now, as
5:18someone who does a lot of career
5:21coaching and talks to probably hundreds
5:23of students every year on networking
5:26calls, what I can tell you is that this
5:28profile of candidate, especially if
5:30you're going for a competitive role in
5:34consulting, banking, or even tech is
5:36extremely common. Now, if you're sitting
5:39here and you have a background kind of
5:41like this, you're probably thinking to
5:43yourself, "Ah, shoot. Like, am I
5:44cooked?" And the answer is no, you're
5:47not. But what you should really pay
5:49attention to is the nuance between the
5:53first story, which I would categorize as
5:55more of an average level story. nothing
5:58terrible about it, but also nothing
6:00remarkable with the second story, which
6:03I'll go into detail later about what
6:04makes it so much better, but broadly
6:07speaking, flows much more and doesn't
6:10leave too many questions in the
6:11interviewer's mind about who you are and
6:14where you come from, why you're here
6:16today, and where you want to be in the
6:18future. And so that leads me to the top
6:20three questions that you 100% need to
6:24keep in mind because these are the only
6:26questions that really matter when you're
6:29telling your personal story. The first
6:32question is where are you from? The
6:36second question is why are you here? And
6:38the third question is where do you want
6:40to go? Now this sounds very simple in
6:45theory, right? Like of course I'm going
6:47to answer where am I from and where why
6:50am I here and I'm going to talk about
6:51where I want to be, right? Like I want
6:53to work at their company. But you'd be
6:56really surprised. I think a lot of
6:59people actually struggle to answer these
7:00three questions in their interviewer's
7:02mind. And if you'll notice in candidate
7:06one, the story was not really a story at
7:09all. It was more a listing of the
7:12different facts. So they just said like,
7:14"Hey, I'm from Boston. Hey, I go to this
7:16school. Hey, I'm studying this. I'm also
7:18doing this on campus. Oh, yeah, by the
7:20way, I'm also interning at the startup
7:22or I interned at the startup last
7:23summer. And yeah, I want to get into
7:26consulting and so that's why I'm here.
7:29So, the critical flaw here is that it's
7:31failing to connect the dots between each
7:34experience. And I'm going to go into
7:35depth about how you can actually do that
7:39in a bit. It also ends with them talking
7:42about their hobbies and interests
7:44outside of their professional uh school
7:48life, right? They talk about, oh yeah,
7:50my hobbies are doing this and that and I
7:51I like cooking and and uh sports and
7:54basketball, blah blah blah. None of this
7:56is bad, but again, it's failing to
8:01answer the question at the end of where
8:03do you want to go and why are you here,
8:05right?
8:06You need to end the story with why you
8:09are here today. Because the last thing
8:13that the interviewer should be thinking
8:15in their mind after you've given your
8:18two-minute story is, "Oh, awesome. Makes
8:21total sense why they're here today. I
8:24can tell that they're excited genuinely,
8:27and it makes sense for them to join our
8:32company." And so let's contrast this
8:36with candidate two and what they did
8:38better. Well, number one is they
8:41actually told a story. And so a story is
8:45literally just when you connect multiple
8:48facts and events that happened at
8:51different points in time when you
8:52connect them together in a cohesive and
8:54logical way that actually makes sense,
8:57right? And when you logically weave each
9:00experience together, what's going to
9:03happen is that the restatement of facts
9:06turns into a believable sequence of
9:09events. And I emphasize the word
9:12believable here because a lot of
9:15students will try to tell a story, but
9:18they'll make up certain details or
9:20they'll make up experiences or they'll
9:22they'll tweak experiences in a way that
9:24they think their interviewer wants to
9:26hear. The problem is that nine times out
9:29of 10, the person who's on the other
9:31side of the table, they know way more
9:35than you do about that job because
9:36they're literally working it. And so
9:38it's very very easy for them to sniff
9:41out any kind of BS that you're trying to
9:43put out there. Any kind of faking around
9:45that you're doing is probably going to
9:47be detected unless you're just a very
9:50very good liar. And I also don't
9:52advocate for lying in interviews either
9:54because even if you say do get the job,
9:56then you're going to actually have to
9:57perform on the job. And so if you're not
9:59actually qualified, you're actually
10:00shooting yourself in the foot by lying
10:02about your experiences.
10:05So how do you make it believable? Well,
10:07step one, you weave each story together.
10:09And you include what I call transition
10:12phrases. Things like, "Oh, yeah, and so
10:15I had a really great experience here
10:17this summer, but as I thought about next
10:19summer, what I reflected on was, okay, I
10:22really enjoyed this thing, and so I
10:23wanted to do more of that in my next
10:25experience, and that's why I'm looking
10:26for this." Or, you know, one of my
10:28favorite experiences about this
10:30internship was being able to work with a
10:33lot of different companies across a
10:34bunch of different industries. And so
10:36that's something that I'm actively
10:37looking for in my next role. And so if
10:39you include these transitionary
10:42phrases or sentences in between each
10:45experience rather than just saying, "Oh
10:46yeah, and so I did this internship and I
10:48did this and I learned that and now I
10:51want to do this and I've realized that I
10:52want to do that." It's going to be a lot
10:54more believable. But it's not just about
10:56that, right? A critical component to
10:59logically weaving disparate experiences
11:01together in a story is demonstrating
11:04that you have a sufficient level of
11:07reflectiveness. So you need to reflect
11:10on your experiences and you need to show
11:12them that you didn't just do the
11:14internship and then forget about it. You
11:16need to show them that you did the
11:17internship and then you reflected on
11:20that experience. you thought about what
11:22you actually liked or didn't like and
11:24then you used that information to inform
11:28the trajectory that you want to move in
11:31next because if you don't demonstrate
11:32that level of reflection then it's not
11:35going to be believable about why you
11:37want to suddenly make the the move over
11:39and you're going to end up defaulting to
11:41what I call blanket reasons to go into
11:45these prestigious high-paying jobs which
11:47are things like money like the pay the
11:50prestige
11:51or the impact. Right now, the first two,
11:53money and prestige, most people don't
11:55say that in an interview and it's kind
11:56of taboo. But the third one, impact,
11:58which is like, oh, I want to work with
12:00really big companies or I want to work
12:01with really big clients and I want to
12:03have a a big impact on them, which is
12:07super vague, by the way. The problem
12:08with that is anyone can use that reason
12:11and it's kind of low effort and
12:13demonstrates that you're not really
12:15unique. Now, I know what you're
12:17thinking. You're probably thinking,
12:18"Then how the heck do I make my reasons
12:22unique?" And I'm not saying you have to
12:24come up with some crazy reason that
12:25nobody else has ever thought of. No, the
12:27way that you make it unique is again,
12:29you tie your individual set of
12:31experiences together in a logical way so
12:34that it only makes sense that you want
12:36to go to their company or go to work in
12:39their industry because very few people
12:42are going to have the exact same set of
12:44experiences. And so that's actually your
12:46edge to be able to tie your disperate
12:49set of experiences and unique set of
12:51experiences together. But this brings me
12:53to the third point which is you need to
12:56demonstrate effort. And so in that
12:58story, the second story, I talked about
13:02how oh yeah, like I'm really excited
13:04about consulting and have heard really
13:06great things about your firm through
13:08conversations with current employees.
13:11So, what that is doing is one, it's
13:14showing that I actually took the time to
13:18network with people at the company,
13:20which already puts me above like 50% of
13:23people because more than half of them
13:25probably didn't even network before they
13:27got the interview. And two, it's going
13:29to make me more credible again because
13:32I've actually done the research and I've
13:34actually talked to someone who works
13:35there, right? I'm not just like making
13:37up stuff about their industry or their
13:40company that I think is true. I'm
13:43actually showing that I went out of my
13:44way and I talked to someone who works in
13:46the industry. Now, other ways that you
13:48can demonstrate effort is you can also
13:50just do a lot of in-depth research. So,
13:52if there is information out there
13:54online, you honestly should be already
13:57looking up every possible bit of
13:59information if you're interviewing at a
14:01company. But if you're not, you should
14:02make sure to do in-depth research so
14:04that if called upon, you can talk about
14:06a specific example of something, maybe a
14:10program that the company runs that
14:12you're really interested in. For
14:14example, at McKenzie, they have this
14:16program that I think it's called like
14:18the LEAP program, and it's a way for
14:21McKenzie consultants to get exposure to
14:23startups. So, that's a specific example
14:26that if someone asked you, hey, why are
14:28you interested in working at McKenzie?
14:30You could bring it up as, hey, you know,
14:32one of the reasons why I'm interested in
14:34working at McKenzie is also, I've heard
14:36from my conversations with current
14:37consultants, you guys have this thing
14:38called the LEAP program. It's a great
14:40way for consultants to get exposure to
14:42the entrepreneurship and startup
14:43ecosystem. And that is something that's
14:45really exciting to me. So, the specifics
14:48are really, really important, but you're
14:49only going to get those specifics if you
14:51take the effort to talk to people and do
14:53your research. The last thing that the
14:54second candidate did better than the
14:56first one was instead of talking about
14:58their hobbies and their personal life at
15:00the end, they ended on a high note by
15:02tying it again to the present, why
15:05you're here today, and then reiterating
15:07their excitement. So, if you remember, I
15:10basically said something along the lines
15:11of, "Oh, yeah." And so, like, when I saw
15:13that you guys were coming to campus for
15:15on campus recruiting, I was super
15:17excited because I've heard really great
15:18things through my conversations with
15:20current consultants. And so, ready to
15:22get going and just excited to speak with
15:24you today, right? And so, what you're
15:27doing right there is one, you're tying
15:30it to the present. So, you're saying,
15:31"Oh yeah, like I saw you guys were
15:33coming to campus, so I applied. I was
15:35super excited." and you're reiterating
15:38your excitement. So, you're literally
15:40ending on a high note. You're saying,
15:41"I'm like so excited. I'm revved up and
15:45I'm just ready to go. Let's get into
15:47it." Right? You'd be surprised how few
15:49people actually express legitimate
15:53excitement in interviews because half
15:54the time people are just so nervous that
15:57they can't even act like they're excited
16:01because they're just so nervous and
16:02they're thinking about like all these
16:04hypothetical scenarios where things
16:06could go wrong and they're super nervous
16:07and maybe they didn't sleep well the
16:09night before because they were cramming.
16:11And so if you can literally just
16:13demonstrate a little bit of excitement
16:15at the end, genuine excitement of like,
16:17"Yeah, I'm excited to get into this
16:19today." You're already going to be
16:21starting off on such a good foot with
16:23your interviewer because they're going
16:25to feel that excitement and they're
16:26going to be like, "Wow, okay. Yeah, this
16:28guy's got a great attitude. Let's get
16:30into it." Okay? And so if you do all of
16:34these things that I've explained to you
16:36today and you don't just list out the
16:41facts of your story and you actually
16:43weave each experience together into a
16:46logical and cohesive narrative that
16:50answers the three core questions of
16:52where are you from, why are you here,
16:55and where do you want to go? And then
16:58you tie in all of these elements, right?
17:02and end on a high note by reiterating
17:04your excitement and enthusiasm for this
17:08interview, then you are going to be
17:12ahead of 99% of people who interview for
17:15these highly highly competitive roles.
17:17Even if there's someone there who has
17:19the same background or a very similar
17:21background as you, your story is just
17:23going to be so much more compelling
17:24because of the way that you tell it.
17:28But anyways,
17:31that's all I got for you guys today.
17:32Hope you found it helpful.

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