This fall, three MAAS students—Alex Maass, Anne-Laure Malauzat, and Mat Zalk—started the Georgetown Graduate School of Foreign Service Consulting Club (GSFS CC). The club formed when the students realized they were unprepared for interviews at management consulting firms. Lisa Keathley of the Graduate SFS Career Development Center, who was in conversation with the students, urged them to create the organization. “We were only vaguely familiar with the case interview format, and didn’t realize the extent to which the big consulting firms use it to evaluate candidates,” says Zalk. This format involves testing a candidate’s ability to think logically through a business problem and to critically analyze the qualitative and quantitative aspects of difficult situations.
Maass, Malauzat, and Zalk began practicing case interviews together in preparation for the real interviews they hoped would come. “As we prepared, we learned that many international consulting firms seek candidates from degree programs like ours,” says Maass. “We decided to launch GSFS CC as a complement to the McDonough School of Business Club. Our purpose is to provide consulting information for students with our background.”
Malauzat mentions that aside from providing a forum to practice case interviews, the club has two particular objectives. “We first want to create an understanding of what a consulting career entails,” she says. “We also want to invite current consultants to participate in discussion panels and workshops in order to expand our applicable skills as well as build and strengthen ties between the alumni community, the consulting firms they work for, and our members.”
With these goals in mind, and a Board of Advisors comprised of alumni working at major firms, the GSFS CC is off to an energetic start. In fact, it’s already paid off for Zalk, who was recently offered a job with management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in their Dubai office. Malauzat also recently accepted a job with Bain and Company in Dubai. Stay tuned for events that will benefit other GSFS CC members’ career plans.