Foundations

Introduction

The purpose of this section is to work through the crucial, but awkward period between when you've joined B-school, and when the shortlists start coming out. This period is both crucial and awkward because:

- Crucial -

Once the shortlists have come out you know you have to prepare for your interview, but you also have a bunch of other very distracting events, calls and processes to think about. You're likely to wish that you were already better prepared than you are. Hence this period prior to shortlisting is crucial to get some of those foundations in place, which many people will not, once the process begins.

- Awkward -

For a lot of people consulting is the aim when they enter college, but they are aware that they might mot get their preferred shortlists. For still others consulting is an option, but they're also interested in a different space. The majority of the batch therefore doesn't want to commit to preparation which will prove futile, or even demoralising at a later stage.

In this section we shall try to demystify what can and should be done in this crucial and awkward phase. The core idea is to focus on your foundations, things which will enable you to be a good case solver and consultant. But we will be working only on the foundations, things which are generic, and just good for business and problem solving across all sectors. I believe that these skills have been useful for me in consulting, but a tremendous advantage in sales and marketing. As such, this section should be useful, independent of whether you finally choose consulting or not.

Foundational Elements