Dinners Process

Process

Dinners are a lot more complex than the other steps of the process. Not that it will be difficult to navigate, just that it seems a little unnecessary and weird, especially in an online setting. Here's why firms organise these placement dinners:

1. Sell their brand -

This is the only undeniable benefit and definite reason for organising a dinner. Especially in an offline setting, where the firm either brings a grand meal to campus, or takes you to a hotel (depending on which campus you're in). Firstly, there is the grandeur and show of the whole thing. Secondly, it's an opportunity for them to have a more targeted, and longer pre-placement talk, in effect. Finally, and most importantly, this is an opportunity that they use to put forward their most impressive sounding partner, rising stars and the projects that they're proud of. This is the firm selling itself to you, so you should pay attention and form an impression, note down what interests you and ask about it (not necessarily during the dinner).

2. Clear up doubts -

A stated purpose of dinners is that not every buddy is able to spare enough time, or answer some of the high level doubts which candidates may have. The firm aims to bring together a panel which can satisfactorily answer any of the questions which are top of mind for candidates. This seems rather pointless to me, because I can't think of many doubts which would be well suited for this sort of setting. The different kinds of questions that one could have are:
  1. Placement process related - Partners aren't the best people to ask about this process, there are a lot of people that you can ask for more pointed answers to these questions. And there is a certain shyness barrier to ask these questions, even if it is a pressing question on someone's mind.
  2. Firm related - If one is looking for facts, it's either available on google, or you're not going to get pointed and accurate facts in the answer you hear anyway. If you're looking to understand the firm philosophy and culture, you should ask the people who are working at the entry level, not their boss' boss.
  3. Industry related - The internet is a magical place, with actual answers. Asking these questions at a dinner just kills the mood, at what could still be a fun event.
  4. Personality related - You could ask about their experiences, in college, at the firm or just over the course of their lives. Independent of the setting, in small groups, I think this is nice to learn (provided that you and other are genuinely interested to know the answers). Go beyond the simple "what was your best project?", and ask about partners they learned the most from, times when they pulled numbers out of their ass, times when they considered leaving their job. Try to actually understand the human aspects of the job that are of interest to you.

On the whole, I don't think that a lot of doubts get cleared up during dinners. But I would definitely encourage you to ask questions for 3 reasons:
  1. In consulting and in life you will be in positions where you spend time with people very different from you (in age, experience, interests etc). This is a good place to start practicing how to keep a conversation going, without losing the whole group. Some people will ask super technical, boring questions, and others will stay mum. Can you engage most people to a decent level?
  2. There are some actual answers that you will get out of personality based questions. You won't be a partner any time soon, and a lot of their experiences might not mean very much to your immediate situation. But some way down the line, having a rough idea about the kind of people you're working with is always useful.
  3. Asking tough questions, or even questions that partners would like to answer about the firm, is a wonderful opportunity for you to evaluate them. Are these people who are able to sell themselves well, are they able to turn a sticky situation on its head, or do they just sound like politicians? Your work will depend on how well your partner can sell to the client, and what expectations they set up. So by all means, test them out a bit.

3. Evaluate candidates -

To the best of my knowledge, only one company truly relies on the dinner as a meaningful source of evaluation. Here they look to evaluate whether you are able to engage with people rather senior to you, while also keeping a larger group interested. In consulting you will often not inly have to present to such people and impress, but also cordially engage with them and form a rapport. While this is tough to evaluate in such a short period, and especially in an online setting, without much body language to read into, some of the absolute best and absolute worst might be identified. As long as you don't make a complete fool of yourself, you're allowing your resume to do the work for you. If you really are a super charming people's person, put yourself to the test and impress.