How To Show Up Well In Case Interviews (With Tripp Twyman)

This fun and fast-paced conversation with Tripp Twyman (ex-BCG and current MC interview coach) covers:

• How Tripp broke into BCG
• Soft skills to highlight and develop to stand out in case interviews
• The power of executive presence – how to carry yourself in the interview and on the job
• What a day-in-the-life of a consultant can look like
• And so much more!

To hire Tripp to coach you one-on-one – whether on executive presence or case interview prep – click here.

Transcription: How To Show Up Well In Case Interviews (With Tripp Twyman)

Stephanie Knight 

Today on Strategy Simplified, I’m excited to bring you another installment of our coach interview series. In these conversations, you’ll learn more about our coach’s background, journey to MBB, and their case coaching philosophy. Next on the hot seat is Tripp Twyman, who’s taking a break from his work at BCG to pursue an MBA at Stanford GSB. He’s passionate about recruiting, diversity and social impact, and has lots of insights to share about both the recruiting journey and the work of consulting. There’s a lot of gems in this conversation. I hope you enjoy the discussion.

Tripp, I’m so excited to have you on the Strategy Simplified podcast today. Welcome.

Tripp Twyman 

Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here.

Stephanie Knight 

I’m excited to learn more about you, your background. Would love if you could just kick us off with a little bit of introduction about your life, pre MBB.

Tripp Twyman 

Yeah, happily. My name is Tripp Twyman. I’m from San Diego, California, born and raised until I did undergrad at the University of Arizona out in Tucson. There I studied accounting, finance and entrepreneurship, because I knew business was what I wanted to do. But I was really indecisive about what type of business. And at the end of my time in Arizona, that’s when I actually found out about consulting. I had met a couple partners at BCG, and one of my good friends was recruiting for the firm. I snuck into the interview process, but didn’t make it through the first round, which is a pretty normal experience, I’ve come to realize. And I ended up doing a Masters of Accounting at USC out in LA. And in that masters of accounting program I re-recruited and ended up with job offers at BCG and Bain. So happily ever after, but it was kind of a windy road to get there.

Stephanie Knight 

So let’s rewind the clock there. That first time around, I might hypothesize that you kind of just went in blind, maybe you didn’t really prepare. Did you do any prep? And what do you remember about that? And what did that feel like?

Tripp Twyman 

Yeah, so it was really just recruiting on a very compressed timeline. I had a master plan where I was going to prep for like six months. It was going to be really smooth. And in the background, I would meet every partner of BCG in the United States. So when I applied, I was definitely going to be good enough. But also all the partners were going to love me already, and they would just hire me on the spot. What actually happened was my interview ended up like, I got invited. And my interview was four weeks later, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I haven’t even started really learning this. I had done one case interview in my life. And it was like a reciprocal one where I was helping my friend prep. And then she was like, you want to try it? So it was a train wreck, as it should have been.

And yeah, I guess in my prep process for that four weeks, I really tried to cram. But there wasn’t a lot of structure in the way that I was preparing. I think I learned the fundamentals. So four weeks was enough time for me to figure out the nuts and bolts of like the dance of the case interview, and the types of insights to do, and of course I could do the math, so there wasn’t a ton of learning to do there. But where I fell short was in the, it was almost the polish. It was figuring out some of the more nuanced aspects of how to behave in a case interview, how to behave in an interview environment. And how to convey through those more nuanced behaviors that I was really the right person for BCG to be putting in front of their clients. And so I got some feedback after that failed first round. And the feedback I got really helped me then kind of reroute and figure out how best to prepare for the next time so that I could actually hit a homerun.

Stephanie Knight 

I look forward to coming back to some of those pieces a little bit later on in the conversation to understand how that applies now to your coaching philosophy, but I want to continue on with your journey. You didn’t make it through that first time, you recruited, you got offers. What was different just for you personally about that second time around? Do you think it was just time that gave you that polish? Or did you did you practice and prepare in a completely different way?

Tripp Twyman 

Well obviously I had much more time to prepare. So I think I was a bit sturdier in my case interview skills. For example, instead of the first time, doing them well but having a few little things go wrong. By the time I was recruiting the second time, consistently, I was doing everything just like it needed to be done. And I was also having a lot more fun in case interviews. Through the summer when I was prepping, I really learned how to like enjoy the process, and even enjoy the times when the case would just like wreck me. There was one practice case that I use with some of my clients actually, because I think the math is impossible. And there’s a reason why. The math obviously not actually impossible. But the case interviewer stole some passed down case book was written in like 2010, or 11. And it was written because someone like went into an interview, and like, came back out and wrote down everything they remembered from the case. And so the math solution in the case book, I don’t think actually matches with what the math of the case should be.

But regardless, I used it for myself and for my clients as an example of like, here’s some really complicated math where that’s going to force you to feel like you’re struggling through it. And how do you get comfortable with that struggle, right? You need to be ready for situations where you don’t actually know where you’re going, or you’re not entirely sure what the right path forward is, or there’s just so many variables to be managing, that it can feel a little overwhelming. And part of what we need to get good at is managing those feelings and performing through them. So I loved it. By the time I was prepping, I was like laughing at myself, and like trying out new things to like figure out the way to the answer. I think the other thing that worked really well for me the second time around, was that I had much more time to talk to people about what the job was, and to clarify my own hypotheses around why I wanted to work in consulting, and what I would bring to the table.

And I think understanding the job more helped me behave more like a consultant in the interview, which let my interviewers know, yeah, this guy belongs here, like he could do this job very well. And you can tell not only because, he can get to the insights or get the right number on the math, right, or solve the problem. But a lot of it’s the way you carry yourself and the way you engage with the person you’re talking with. And the way that you like, it’s not to be redundant or oxymoronic, but it’s like the consultative approach. You need to show your interviewer that you will be able to walk some client through some really complicated analysis, in a way that’s personable and insightful and easy to follow. And underpinned by a lot of  really rigorous analysis and thinking. So I got better at that.

Stephanie Knight 

Tripp, there’s so many gems in what you just said, right? I mean, at its core consulting is being able to confidently move through the ambiguity and the gray and to be curious and excited about chewing on a tough, challenging problem and trying to break it down. Trying to understand it, trying to work through it. And I do, as an interviewer, that’s what we want to see in the process, that a candidate is prepped and ready equipped, not only through knowing the fundamentals, or the right formulas and the vernacular, as you said. But also the mindset, and just the approach and the presence to be able to lean into that process. Because that’s the day in and day out job.

Tripp Twyman 

Right, exactly. And I think that’s something a lot of candidates might miss when A) when they first start prepping, but especially if they’re trying to prep on their own or with friends, you miss that lens of what does a “good consultant” look like, and how then can I display those traits or behaviors while solving this problem. Because a lot of kids are robots, to be honest. This is something I noticed coming from like a non-target school and talking with my non-target school friends. There’s a lot of brilliant kids out there who don’t have the soft skills, or don’t invest in developing the soft skills that are required to do the job well. Like, you can be an incredible analyst. I could throw a huge data set at you, some super complicated problem, and you can crush it. You can get the right answer in like 30 seconds with your eyes closed. Cool. That’s fantastic.

But if you can’t communicate to a client how you got there, or why they should care about the results of your analysis, or how this is going to impact them in their business, A) no one’s gonna listen to it, which means you did all this work for nothing. B) You’re not going to move up in the firm, because eventually your job is not to do the analysis. Your job is to work with clients and manage people. And you need to start building those muscles early, like really from day one. Because especially at like the MBB firms, there’s not really training wheels. Week one, you’re going to be working with clients who are like pretty senior leaders at some very reputable organizations. And you need to be able to play ball with them. And that requires more than just analytical jobs.

Stephanie Knight 

So Tripp, tell me what that transition was like for you. I mean, you came in the second time around, but still as a young guy coming in, deciding to go to BCG and being thrown into the fire, like you said. Full apprenticeship model. It’s not like there’s a 12-month training program when you get into MBB. And then all of a sudden you’re put into the fire. That just happens. So tell us more about what the experience was like for you to move into that work and what your time was like at BCG.

Tripp Twyman 

Yeah, my time at BCG was a roller coaster. I, starting out, was not good at the job. And it was a kind of a rude awakening because I think I took my foot off the gas. I felt like I made it. Like I’ve gotten the job, I’m the big-time consultant now. Let’s go live it up. And I had a really good time, like, worked hard-ish, but didn’t appreciate the standard or like the bar that they hold you to, and also how fast that bar rises. And so it took me a lot of work to identify and then build the core sort of skills in the consulting toolkit to be able to perform the job at a really, really high level. And once I got there, I think everything clicked. A

 

And the whole time, I was doing the basics. Like you’re getting your tasks and doing them and working with clients, asking them for data or noodling on potential answers to a problem. But I think where I personally struggled was a lot of things around like attention to detail and prioritization. Those just were not my strongest skills coming in. And so like the analyses that I did, I could do really well. But then translating them to slides, there might be little errors, or a number wouldn’t tie across the deck. And so I learned to build processes for myself to safeguard the results, essentially. And make sure that no matter how I was feeling, or what I had on my plate, that my output always met this standard in terms of quality and consistency.

And then I got a lot of support from people in the firm, like leaders, managers, to help me figure out how better to prioritize. Like what are the right priorities, what aren’t the right priorities, testing this with my managers. And then using them as thought partners to think about how tactically can I improve. What are some new behaviors to try? How do we track to make sure that I’m growing at the rate that I need to be and that I want to be. That was an incredible experience. And by the end of it, from day one, I was in the meeting with the CFO of our client who was Wall Street’s darling in the city that we were working in. And in that meeting, I remember, we went around the table, and everyone did introductions.

And I’ve noticed, someone later told me that the more junior you are, the less you’ll say in your introduction. And the really senior people just kind of talk about all the stuff they’ve done. Because we go around the table and the partners are like, Hey, what’s up, I’ve been working in this space for the last 15 years in a variety of things, mostly this and this, but I’ve also done some of this and it’s whatever. And then my introduction, I’m like, Hey, everyone, I’m Tripp. I’m at BCG. Excited to be here. And I had some little fluffy stuff of I bring a lot of expertise in accounting and marketing, but like, it was not the robust introduction that I think I wanted to have, and I had to get comfortable with still establishing credibility. Without this long resume that I could point to. I had to lean on other things to show clients that I was credible, and that I can actually add value to their business. A

nd then by the end, I had lots to say. I was like, Hey, I’m Tripp, in my third year at BCG. I’ve spent most of my time in this space. But recently I’ve transitioned more to this work, really excited to be part of this project. And I think it’s gonna be a good run. Right? Much easier to show up. And  once you can show up well, then I think the rest follows, like the client management, the relationship management and the value add just kind of come more naturally.

Stephanie Knight 

Absolutely. I would love to hear more about that type of work that you did. I understand at least a portion of it was in the social impact space. But would love to understand how those years were spent. And maybe you could pull up a key memory or project experience that stood out to you.

Tripp Twyman 

Yeah, so I guess I’ll talk about the social impact piece. My big hypothesis in life is that I can do a lot of good in the world through business and through the private sector. And BCG gave me a platform to test that and to try and advance that hypothesis. So one summer, I think it was summer 2020, we got to work with the City of Los Angeles, to stand up a private sector racial equity task force, which was super cool. The mayor had recently come out with like executive directive 27, which essentially said that we were going to create his private sector racial equity task force. And that project was incredible for me.

We brought together leading companies from all of LA’s biggest industries. And we spent three months basically surveying and interviewing their leaders to learn about what was working and what wasn’t working in their companies with respect to racial equity. What had they tried that they thought was particularly successful that other companies should implement. We got to interview thought leaders within BCG and outside of BCG, and outside of these companies to hear about what they thought of as leading edge racial equity levers that different firms could pull in different industries. And ultimately, we created a pledge that all these companies signed, including BCG Los Angeles. We created a playbook that now lives on the mayor’s website in LA, for any company in the area, really any company that wants to go to the website, to essentially triage like where are they at in terms of racial equity today, where are the areas that they can move the needle on most, and what are some tangible changes they can make to start on that journey.

This was an awesome project for me. It’s a topic I’m passionate about. I got to work with some of my favorite people at BCG. This is actually the first time that I got to work with one of my mentors. So that was a good experience too and really helped me get up the learning curve in terms of doing the job. And on top of that, it was an opportunity to actually give back to the city and to create something tangible that will live on on the mayor’s website and hopefully continue producing positive changes in the market. So that’s one example, but it’s one of my favorites.

Stephanie Knight 

And was that a side project, more like a committee experience? Or was that your full time engagement?

Tripp Twyman 

That was my full time job. We’ve been working with the city for quite a while just on pandemic-related stuff. And one of the mayor’s big priorities was getting this right. And so this was actually  BCG working in partnership with the city with a full project team to stand this up and roll it out and make sure that it was as successful as possible.

Stephanie Knight 

That’s very cool work. That’s exciting.

Tripp Twyman 

It was awesome.

Stephanie Knight 

Now there’s some not so exciting work too, I’m sure, in your time and your tenure. If you’re to look across the whole, could you just walk us through what’s the average day like? And I know there’s not really a thing such as an average day, but helping people who haven’t been in the role before understand what is a day feel like at BCG? What does a week feel like at BCG?

Tripp Twyman 

Yeah, the weeks go by quickly. And sometimes very slowly, at the same time. Every day typically starts with a standup, where our whole team will get together for 20 or 30 minutes and just quickly run through what are their priorities for the day. Any big updates from yesterday or changes in approach based on conversations from the partner team. And what do we need from each other. If I’m working on this, and I need something from you, Stephanie, I’m going to tell you in the standup, hey, I’m doing this but your thing is an input to my thing. So do you think you can get me that at a reasonable hour. This helps us coordinate and stay relatively connected before we all scatter and start doing our own things.

Now, what does the day look like doing our own things? It could be anything. You could have a day with heavy client meetings. You could have a day with a lot of desk research, where you’re just spending your time on reading through Google and the internal BCG research database and different market reports to get smart on an industry or to think about what are potential solutions to a problem. You could be interviewing experts within BCG, or that we’ve sourced from expert networks. Those were some of my favorite memories, getting to talk to, I got to talk to the former CEO of one of the big three record labels. And ask him about music streaming royalty structures, basically, and try and figure out what do we think these contracts look like today, and how are artists actually getting compensated. So super interesting stuff. You might be doing an analysis in Excel or Tableau or whatever tool you’re using to crunch numbers and try and actually get to an answer.

You might be where you’re working in PowerPoint to put that answer on a page, and figure out how it fits within a story and how to tell that story to a client. Any day is probably a mix of these activities based on what deliverables are required at that point in the project. Every week, approximately, we would have a thing called a CTM, which is a case team meeting. And that’s where the whole team gets together and essentially does a big show and tell workshopping problem solving session with the partners to keep them up to speed on what are our hypotheses, what work are we doing, where is it going, how is it trending, and where do we need their input. Maybe we just need to show them the thing we built and say, This is what we’re going to do, do you like it? Maybe there’s something we’re stuck on and we need their opinion on which way we should go or other potential solutions. Maybe honestly, sometimes CPMs are just like time to catch up as a team a little bit.

My favorite ones always include like 10 or so minutes just for everyone to kind of debrief the day and talk, because it’s not often that you get the entire team together in one room. Because people are so busy, there’s so much going on. We might all be busy working in the room together, but that social time in the middle of the day is really special. So I like including pieces of that in CTM. And then the days usually end with a checkout where everyone gets back together. It’s sort of like a stand up, but for the rest of the day when we say, Hey, here’s what I’ve gotten done today. Here are the things that are left on my plate. Here’s when I think I’ll be done. Here’s where I could use help. Right? And that’s an opportunity for us to load balance. So if certain people don’t have a lot of work to do, and other people do, then we might kick some stuff over. Right before I left for business school, I kind of offloaded most of my work. And so for the last week or two, I really didn’t have a lot of huge things that I was owning.

And so in our checkouts and stand ups every day, and that was a chance for me to be like Hey, I noticed you have like six things you’re trying to do. Do you want to kick one or two over to me because I’ve got capacity so I can help out. So we use the checkouts, it’s a really good opportunity to kind of pull the pressure release valve and avoid having really late nights. It’s also a chance to deprioritize.

So if I’ve got five things on my plate, I’m going to tell my manager or my PL, Hey, I’ve got five things on my plate. If I do all five, I’m working till like 1am. I’d rather stop at like 10. So what are the odds that I could do one and two today, which are the most important ones, and 3, 4, 5 I’ll do tomorrow morning. And in most cases, your PL will say  Yeah, that’s great. We actually don’t need those, those things are not needed first thing in the morning. So get your sleep. Because there will be nights where we need to stay up late, we need to push hard to get things done. So when there’s a chance to relax and have your life, you should do that. That’s what a typical day or work week would look. Intermixed, you’d have a bunch of team dinners, or team events.

After work, we’ll go out to some restaurant nearby and just take a break, enjoy each other, learn about each other’s lives. Because everyone in the firm is just so interesting. So actually it’s really fun to just get to hang out together. We do a lot of team workout classes. I don’t know why, everyone in consulting is active there. Wake up and it’s like, Hey, anybody want to go to SoulCycle at 7am, or like, Hey, who wants to go to SoulCycle right after work? And I’m like I don’t, but I do. So somehow, I got into the whole group fitness scene through BCG. And then we have actual team events, like one time my team went whale watching.

Another time we went to an Angels game, which was super fun. There’s this guy named Shohei on the Angels who’s super good. And he’s a pitcher, but he hits the ball really well. And they were giving out shirts that just had his face all over them. And I was so excited. But we got to the game late, because nobody had like any sense of urgency about getting there. And so the game was at like 6:30, and we got there at like 6:30. And all the shirts were gone. All the Angels fans had already showed up and taken them. So that’s probably my biggest regret is that I didn’t push my team to leave the office like 30 minutes earlier, so I can get my shirt.

Stephanie Knight 

That’s too great. You’ve got to scour eBay, one of them is going to come up at some point or another.

Tripp Twyman 

Honestly, I think I would have to, and I will email the partner on my team. And I’ll be like, hey, because I couldn’t get this shirt at this team event, do you think we can put this on one of your cases? And he’ll say no.

Stephanie Knight 

Wow, good birthday, present, Christmas present, make it happen. Oh my gosh, I love it so much. I have not thought about team group fitness for a while. But I participated in such as well. And those are great bonding experiences. It’s super fun.

Tripp Twyman 

I remember my very first case of BCG. I was getting mini pls by this this girl named Lisa, who I’m convinced is just an angel. She’s so good. And we were at Barry’s Bootcamp. And we’re on the treadmill like we were next to each other. And I was like huffing and puffing, like barely making it, and I look over and Lisa is like running in the most composed, like, easy, nothing’s phasing me way I’ve ever seen. And she’s running super fast too, like 12 miles an hour on the treadmill. just crushing. And I’m like, What are you doing? And she’s like, she looks over. She’s just like, I’m just compliant. They told us to put it up. And I thought this was the funniest thing because I think it’s something about just consultants and like strategy consultants that just makes them like addicted to like group fitness. And I don’t know if it will ever fully be me. But I really respect the hustle.

Stephanie Knight 

High performers, achievers, competitive, but people that can also work with others and team oriented, collaborative. It just works. That’s so funny. Well, I understand. So you decided to take a little bit of time away, you decided to go get an MBA. Some would say that the on the ground learning of being at a top firm like BCG is maybe a more valuable experience than any MBA that you could get. But you decided to take some time off, go get your MBA, but I understand you’re going back, right?

Tripp Twyman 

Yes.

Stephanie Knight 

So help me understand, and for others who are thinking about this type of pathway, why did you decide to go get the MBA, what was a part of that process, and how are you feeling about it so far?

Tripp Twyman 

Great question. For me, I think the most important part of the MBA, I think there are three things. And I hate that I said that because that’s one of the most consulting things.

Stephanie Knight 

The McKinsey in me loves that you said that, give me those three things. Love that.

Tripp Twyman 

I need to come up with a fourth or something. I think one is my own growth as a leader. I go to the Stanford GSB, which I’m convinced has the most outstanding leadership development curriculum of any business school. And leadership development is absolutely something you can learn on the job at BCG. But it’s nice to have the sandbox where I can spend two years focused on becoming a better communicator, becoming a better manager, becoming a better leader of people, becoming a better teammate, and not having the pressures of a full time, very intense high stakes job on top of that. Second, the content. I care a lot about racial equity and environmental sustainability. And these are both things that BCG does work on.

But two years of business school will allow me to get really deep on this content, again, without the pressures of client work, without the deliverables, without all of the other extracurricular commitments that are involved in existing in a firm. And so instead, I can come out of business school in two years, with really clear perspectives on what matters to me. What unique skills I bring to the table with respect to solving problems in the racial equity or environmental sustainability space. How I can use those tools to actually do that. And then how I can do that work at BCG.

What does that look like? What projects should I be trying to get involved with? Because there’s a lot, especially climate work. There’s a ton of climate work going on at BCG. So how do you pick? Before I was kind of like a leaf in the wind. I would just kind of go to whatever cool project came up next. And I think after business school, I’ll have much more direction, much more intention in terms of what I’m working on. And the third piece is the relationships. BCG is a really rich community of people from a ton of different backgrounds, like people from all over the world who studied all sorts of things and you’re all kind of thrown together working on teams to solve tough problems. But one thing we all have in common is that we work at BCG and I picked BCG over Bain because I loved the BCG people. We’re just like a certain type of person. But that also means that my entire network at BCG is made up of BCGers. And that’s a certain like dimension of homogeneity that I wanted to just break.

And so now, I’ve got 400 plus new, incredible talented friends from business school, from all sorts of careers and walks of life. There’s maybe 30 of us who worked at BCG at one point. But that leaves almost 400 people still who didn’t work at BCG, that I can get to know what I can learn from. And I can bring those relationships back to BCG with me so that on my professional journey, while I’m looking to make an impact in the world, I have friends across the country really, really around the world, working in all sorts of places who care about similar things as I do. And who I can bounce ideas off of, or I can go to for support when I’m feeling stressed. Or if I don’t know how to approach a specific problem, right? I can ask someone who’s done it before. And that’s really valuable for me. So that’s why. Plus business school is really fun. It’s a great time. And if BCG is gonna help cover my tuition, who am I to say no? Are you kidding me?

Stephanie Knight 

Oh, absolutely. I mean it’s some pretty easy calculus from that angle at the end of the day. And you know, we’re so grateful that you took this opportunity to go to business school, because that allows you to be a case interview prep coach in the interim. And to help others kind of pressure test whether or not this is the right path for them, to guide them along. In that process. I’m sure whether that kind of fit behavioral prep, or case interviewing, or even just kind of mindset, and some of these executive presence elements that you were talking about. So tell us more about your philosophy as a coach, and how you approach your sessions with your clients.

Tripp Twyman 

Yeah, so I think there are two, if I had to break them into buckets, there would be a segment of my clients that come in with specific needs, or objectives. And they kind of drive our process. They say, Hey, I’ve got an interview next week. I just need to run a case or two and get some feedback on how to polish it up, or like, what else should I be thinking about. Or I’m struggling with the math or oh, I’m struggling with frameworks. Whatever it is, they come in with a thing that they want to work on. And so we work on that.

Then there’s another group of clients that I have, that we work much more holistically around I’ve got my interview in a couple months. I’m just starting the prep process and want to work with you to make sure this goes well. And so in that case, we’ll usually start with a conversation. What’s your background, where are you coming from, why are you trying to move into consulting. It’s really important to understand that. It helps shape your story. But it also shapes the things that you will focus on in your interviews. How do you bring your unique areas of expertise or interests out during the interview. Then we’ll usually run a practice case, it’s almost like a diagnostic. And I’ll form an opinion on what do we need to work on. Where are you already pretty strong, where can we use some work. We’ll talk it through together to see if there are other areas that they felt a little bit more shaky on, or areas that they’re actually really confident in their abilities in. And then we’ll set up a plan. We might spend a full session just working on math, or just working on different framework exercises. Sometimes I give them homework. And, of course, in the mix, there’s a lot of practice cases that we’ll run.

And by the end, I think we can get people to a pretty good place. I know I always leave really proud of the progress they’ve made. And I’m big on feedback, so I’m always asking my clients, Is this helpful? Are you learning? Do you feel like you’re getting better here? And as long as the answer is yes, we keep going, and the answer has always been yes, so that’s positive.

Stephanie Knight 

Absolutely.

Tripp Twyman  

And then I think the last thing is that I’ll share perspectives on that polish piece, so the nuances that I was talking about earlier. Because we can get you really good at case interviews. But there’s a certain element of knowing what interviewers are looking for, like connecting the interview experience to the experience of doing the job. And then thinking backwards to say, Okay, we know this is true about the consulting job. You’ll be in situations like this, you will need to do this, your manager will be thinking about this. And so how in the case interview can you demonstrate an aptitude for those things. How can you show early on that you will get that stuff right. Or that you’re the type of person who communicates this way. Or you’re the type of person who does the extra X, Y and Z to make sure that the concept comes across clearly so that we’re not wasting extra time or energy in doing some analysis. It’s those little things that I think can almost be like signposts for your interviewer saying like, Yes, this person’s moving in the right direction, this is a really great candidate. And thinking about how to embed those in your interview can be really useful.

Stephanie Knight 

Absolutely. Certainly anybody would say, to get a position at the MBB level, you’ve got to kind of do all the things well, and even talking a lot about these little nuance polish soft skills. But is there anything that sticks out to you in terms of one or two pieces of advice, or one or two things you think people need to get right, to be able to be successful to break into that MBB top level?

Tripp Twyman 

Yeah. Well, you have to do well in the case interview naturally. But I think doing well on the case interview is about, well, it’s about a lot of things. Like showing focus, getting the right answer, being analytical and structured, all that’s kind of, some of my managers at BCG used the phrase motherhood and apple pie, which I never really understood. But if they say it to mean like, everyone’s going to agree with this. I think what helps candidates stand out is bringing your full self into the interview, and into the recruiting process overall. Because it’s not just the interview, it’s the chitchat before the interview, and the follow up questions that you ask after. And it’s the behavioral responses you get. All of this should be very authentically you. And there’s a way to be authentically yourself, while also demonstrating the right attributes, right? Like you shouldn’t need to turn yourself off to show people that you’re professional and polished and organized, right? Those things can exist together.

And helping people kind of unlock that, I think is the biggest way to make people stand out. Because it’s really easy. I mentioned a lot of kids are robots earlier. And it’s really easy to get caught up in the structure and the rigidity of the interview process. And to just nail like, Okay, I’ve got good behavioral answers. And I know how to the case interview, I get the right answer every time, it’s structured, it’s clear, great. But at the end of the day, that’s like the floor. Everyone that they hire should be able to do that. But the people that they hire, and the people that they want to put in front of clients are the people that clients will feel like, wow, I can trust this person. I understand what they’re saying to me. I feel like they have my best interests at heart, and that they’re really competent. Those dynamics aren’t something that people think about a lot. Because case interviewing is kind of unnatural, right? Like it takes some time to get used to it. And I think people will spend more time focusing on that and less time on let’s call them the soft skills that are required to show up really effectively.

The other thing, this is a personal thing, but I think people should ask more personal questions during the recruiting process. I’m tired of why BCG? And what’s your favorite thing about BCG? And can you tell me about your favorite project? And if you were in my shoes, what skills would you be working on to do well, because I promise, everyone has these questions. And A) you don’t need to be the person that’s asking them. B) They’ll probably be answered in some forum, either like a group presentation, or on the internet. Also, don’t ask questions that are Googleable. That’s a big one. Ask something like, one of my favorite ones is tell me about the last vacation you took. When was it? Where did you go? Oh, that’s crazy, I love that place. You know, like that. You could have such way more interesting conversations.

When I was recruiting, there was a principal. I think he was a principal. He might have been a PL and then got promoted, either way. He was a former British diplomat and then had moved to LA and was working at BCG. And I asked him after a recruiting event, I was like, Hey, man, it’s super cool that you were formerly a British diplomat. Do you have any crazy diplomat stories? Like, what’s the wildest experience you ever had? And so yeah, he told me this story about how when his second kid was being born. I think the kid was born a little early, and he was in the middle of a war zone and needed to get back to London. But like, obviously, there aren’t just like direct flights from the middle of war zones to London. So he had to sneak onto two different military planes, just like hitching a ride with people bouncing in this weird path across wherever he was, to then eventually get on a plane and make it back in time to be with his wife. And that was such a fun story. I was like, dude, wild. And that’s not going to come out if I’m asking him about skills that are required for the job, right? And surprise, he remembered me much better as the kid that he was telling the story to, and that we talked about this. That’s much more memorable than why BCG? So I always encourage people to learn about the people they’re interacting with and not to be so singularly focused on the job or the role.

Stephanie Knight 

So, again, so many gems there, Tripp. And I just want to say Tripp and I did not collude on any of his answers. Because anybody who’s listened to me give workshops and teaching and training, I have a lot of similar refrains to what you’ve just spoken to through this conversation. But, you know, it’s firm agnostic advice. It’s best practice advice, and you’ve thrown a lot of great wisdom at us today, Tripp. Would love to end with some of those personal questions for you, some of those fun questions. So I think our audience has had a great opportunity to to get to know you, but we just want to round it off, it’s a Strategy Simplified tradition. Tripp, what’s one of the most unique foods that you’ve ever tried?

Tripp Twyman 

Alpaca. I ate it when I was in Machu Picchu this summer. Tastes like steak.

Stephanie Knight 

What kind of preparation?

Tripp Twyman 

It was in a sauce, which is like a cheesy pasta sauce. But the the alpaca itself was in a dish called Lomo Saltado, which is like a classic Peruvian stewed beef dish. But this time because we were at Machu Picchu apparentl, you could choose between the steak version or the alpaca version. And naturally, I was like, give me alpaca. When else am I going to try this? And it was very tasty. So I would recommend.

Stephanie Knight 

Love it. Love it. What’s one of your top five things still on your bucket list? Where are you hoping to go? What are you hoping to do?

Tripp Twyman 

Oh, great question, Africa. I’ve never been to the continent and I want to go. Fortunately, the Stanford GSB has a thing called global study trips, and I’m going for spring break to Kenya. So I’m juiced because it’s gonna be like a week long climate tour, where we learn about climate tech and  all the innovations that are going on in and around Nairobi. But then at the same time, we’re gonna go see wildlife, and I’m gonna get to learn about Kenya, which I’m pumped about. So that’s like a bucket list item that’s getting resolved soon. I think one that I don’t have a path to yet is hiking or backpacking in Chilean Patagonia. I think that’d be really fun. I’m a big nature guy. So I like being outdoors. The problem is A) the hemispheres thing. So if I want to go when it’s warm, I gotta go around this time of year, like November, December, January. And I’m always busy with holidays, family, school, stuff that does not involve getting lost in Chilean Patagonia, but one day we’ll work it out.

Stephanie Knight 

Being off the grid for a few weeks. Maybe not exactly knowing your way around,

Tripp Twyman 

I would lose my Duolingo streak. That’s the hardest part. So I gotta come to terms with that. Or sometimes what I’ll do if I know I’m gonna be like out of service for a while, this is cheating. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m admitting to this in public. But I’ll ask my little sister sometimes to like login to my account, just do some like really basic thing for me for like a few days if I know I”m without phone service. So yeah, it’s rough. I had to do that this summer. I was in the Amazon rainforest exploring and couldn’t like there’s not really good phone reception there except when you’re on the river. And so as a hedge, I made sure that she logged in and did something for me every day.

Stephanie Knight 

Those gamification elements, I mean, they matter. They work.

Tripp Twyman 

Every day when it’s like, here’s your streak like, dude, come on, just mainline me dopamine. This is fantastic.

Stephanie Knight 

Last one for you. What’s a piece of content that you’re consuming right now that motivates you that you’d love to share with others, a podcast, a book, etc.

Tripp Twyman 

That motivates me. So one that doesn’t motivate me to kind of, but I just think it’s really interesting. There’s a podcast called After Hours. It used to be by HBS. Now, it’s by the TED radio collective or something. But really interesting, highly recommend. It’s basically just some HBS professors riffing on interesting content for a while. And I really love it because I think it’s intellectually stimulating. I also point my clients to it from time to time, because the type of insights that they point to are like, I think the type of insights that you should aspire to allude to in case interviews, where you can like kind of connect dots that people wouldn’t normally see to show that you have a good grasp of the content. Yeah, I think that’s probably the something I’d recommend. It’s not explicitly motivational. If you want motivational stuff, I’m big on that, too. I’ve got like a whole archive of different motivational things. It’s weird.

Stephanie Knight 

Well, there you go. You’re gonna have to work with Tripp to be able to get into his motivational archives. As we wrap up the conversation, Tripp, anything else you want to say to people out there who are considering working with you at Management Consulted?

Tripp Twyman 

Yeah, I think the main thing is that I care a lot about this. Consulting, management consulting in general, I think is A) career rocket ship, and B) not something that people are universally aware of. It’s a bit gate kept. And I’m very anti-gatekeeping, which is partly why I care so much about recruiting and interview prep. I went to a high school where people’s parents knew about this. There was someone in my little sister’s class, like a sophomore in high school or whatever, who was talking about wanting to be a venture capitalist. What the hell is happening.

So you can imagine, I didn’t learn about consulting until my senior year of undergrad when it was basically too late to recruit. And then there are kids who have known about it their entire lives because their parents worked in consulting. And it’s cyclical, right? So something I’m very passionate about actually is making sure that like more people are aware of the opportunity to work in consulting. and then have the support they need to land the job, to break in. So I don’t know, I’m pumped about it. If you have questions, shoot me an email. Honestly, you don’t even have to pay for a session to email me and say, Hey, Tripp, this is on my mind. And I promise I’ll try to respond. But yeah, if you want to work together, let me know. I like to think I’m pretty fun.

Stephanie Knight 

I think that’s been evident through our conversation. Tripp. It has been a joy and a pleasure to get to know you today. Thanks so much for coming on.

Tripp Twyman 

Thank you. This has been a blast. I appreciate the time.

Stephanie Knight 

Want to work directly with Tripp? Check out his current coaching calendar. And he offered that you could email him directly as well. You’ll find both his email and a link to his calendar in the show notes below. All of our coaches are ex-McKinsey Bain, or BCG consultants and interviewers who’ve been extensively vetted and only coach with us here at MC. They love working with prospective candidates to mock through full interviews, or drill in the areas that you need extra help, getting that nuance and polish as Tripp talked about. Check out the link in the show notes or read more about our offerings at managementconsulted.com We’ll see you next time.

 

Additional Links:

• Reach out to Tripp via email
• Work with Tripp 1:1 to land a consulting offer or prep for life on the job
• Connect with Tripp on LinkedIn
• Join an MBA-only case prep cohort