hello everyone my name is Kent investi I'm an ex BCG consultant an ex-googler and the founder of rocket blocks an online platform that helps students prepare for job interviews in today's mini lesson we're going to talk about a really important part of the interview that we haven't actually covered it all yet and that is the Q&A section of the interview at the very end usually the last five to seven minutes of the interview where you actually get to ask the interviewers some questions about their job their role company the industry anything that you're really interested in hearing about that's related to that discussion so we've spent a lot of time talking about the case interviews obviously and the skills that the firms are looking for and what they're gonna be testing you on and how to best react to that and to prepare for that and of course we spent some time talking about the fit interview as well what the firms are really looking for that traits they care about but we haven't spent any time talking about the Q&A portion yet and since it is five to seven minutes and it is the last impression you get to make on the interviewer it is an important part of the interview itself and it's a great chance for you to get to interact with the person on the other side of the table almost you know in a setting that's more similar to interacting with a colleague rather than a more rigid interviewer interviewee relationship so it's a great opportunity and for that reason we have a few tips three specific tips that we want to go over for how you can make the best use of that time so let's jump in okay I'm gonna start with one bonus tip which is you must absolutely have some questions prepared for the end of the interview under no circumstances is it a good thing to get to the end of the interviewer haven't have any interviewer asked you okay what questions do you have for me and you meet them with a blank stare you absolutely want to have some questions prepared because not having them is just a big red flag it might be a red flag but you're not interested in the company the firm maybe even the whole industry it really doesn't matter which one of those it is you don't want the interviewer guessing that you have that it's any of those that's a really bad way to start off so first thing you absolutely need to have questions now let's jump into the specific tips tip number one ask specific well-thought-out questions you've probably heard of a phrase growing up that there is no such thing as a bad question and while I love the sentiment of it especially when you're learning something new I have to break it to you that in this scenario there is such a thing as a bad question and the general rule of thumb that you can use is if you can go to that firm's website and find the answer to that question in less than five minutes it's probably not the best question for example does Mackenzie have a technology practice does Bain have a Lisbon office does BCG have a digital group those questions are fairly generic and if you go to the firm's website you can find the answer to those questions in less than five minutes or or Google them as well so what you really want to do is ask specific well-thought-out questions so playing off the third question I asked a question about I've seen that BCG has a digital a new digital group and I know that they also have a technology practice those seem very similar how do they interact if at all and what's the plan for those groups working together in the future that's a much better question it's specific it shows that you put some thought into that firm itself and you're thinking about how these new groups are interacting and it's going to yield a much better discussion between you and the interviewer okay tip number two ask questions that you are genuinely interested in the answer to now this really works for two main reasons the first is that if you follow your genuine interest and ask questions that come out of that it's more likely to lead you to unique interesting questions that the interviewer hasn't heard a million times already so for example like if you are interviewing at Fame and you ask you know a fairly generic question like tell me a little bit about the private equity group that's gonna be a very common question it's a popular group of Bain everyone tends to ask about that and you know maybe you're not even interested about you're just asking because you know it's there and it'll kill some time in the interview that's a bad way to use that time buck for example say you are really interested in Thane's culture and the engaging friendly culture that you've heard about and kind of specifically how they actually manage to keep that through their office centric model and how they've made that work over time so you might be able to ask something like you know I'm really interested in in the culture of Bain and I feel like you've been able to keep this engaging culture that comes partly through this office centric model or that the employees are together more often but how do you make that work when you compete against McKinsey and BCG you have this client specific model and are pitching to to the clients that they'll be there four days a week that question with your genuine interest might might yield some really engaging discussion so that's the first thing the second thing is that when you ask questions that you are genuinely interested in the answer to you tend to be excited and have a good energy because you're you're excited about hearing what the answer is to that and that excitement tends to to show through it tends to be culpable and the great thing about that is that when you exude that energy and excitement it's hard for the folks on the other side of the table not to reflect that back and get excited about the answers that they're providing and be engaged as well now conversely if you are asking a question and you are bored with your own question or seem apathetic that's likely to be reflected on the other the table as well and getting that bored and reflected back is not going to yield an interesting conversation or discussion so you know if you ask these questions that you are truly genuinely interested in you're going to yield good engaging discussion you're gonna get some excitement reflected back and that's really great because it really allows you to take advantage of this period in the interview where you get to interact with the person on the other side of the table just like a colleague like asking a few questions in a work environment and that's a really great opportunity that you should make the best of tip number three listen and follow up so you'll notice this tip is actually not about asking the questions at all like the first two were this one is really about what you should do after you ask your questions and really what you want to do is you want to listen and digest what that person is saying and then have the chance to follow up on the parts that you think are most interesting most people actually ask a question and then immediately they freeze and all they're doing is thinking about the next question they're gonna ask they're not even listening to what that person is sending and that's a really bad idea because especially if you've followed the first two tips you're gonna have specific well-thought-out questions that you are genuinely interested in the answers to and as that person starts talking if there's any a lot of valuable information in that and if you can listen to it and process it and follow up on the parts that you are most interested in that's really where the conversation is going to get interested tends to be where the best insights come out of and it really creates that dialogue between you and the person on the other side of the table and that's what you want you want this interaction to feel like just you and a colleague talking about some interesting material and so if you can really take a step back after you ask those questions and make sure you really listen listening and processing what that person saying then follow up appropriately that's gonna create some really great engaging discussions one last easy piece of advice to keep in mind is generate a list of questions that when you ask and hear the answers to is going to get you even more fired up to work at this firm and go down this career path that really is going to help encapsulate everything we've already talked about up to this point specific questions questions that you're genuinely interested in the answer to and then of course once you've asked those questions you're naturally going to want to listen and then follow up when you hear more interesting tidbits so that's one great rule that kind of encapsulates everything so thank you so much for watching we hope you enjoyed this video if you haven't subscribed yet there is a red button below you can click that and subscribe to the channel 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