OVERALL IMPRESSION
Between laughable and insulting
MY BACKGROUND
* MBA from Top 5 university
* 10 years in consulting, including position at one of the Top 3 strategy firms
PROCESS
* I saw the position posted for "Consulting Opportunities" on a business school alumni website.
- "Currently, we have very few consultant positions available. However, we are accepting applications from candidates who are interested in being considered for future consulting roles."
- I was interested b/c they assert that they are unique in their focus on growth "Gallup Consulting is different from most consulting firms. While other organizations provide services in traditional disciplines like cost reduction, building or re-engineering processes and systems, or mergers and acquisitions, we help companies drive true organic growth -- revenue and profit increase from continuing operations."
* Applied on-line, which required a quite long (30-45 min.) series of personality-type questions.
* Received an e-mail the next day qualifying me for an interview.
* An admin called me to schedule a phone interview for 4 days later
* An interviewer called me from Omaha
- If it hadn't been an interview, I would have thought it was a telemarketing call
- Questions were similar to the on-line questions (seemed like a survey rather than an interview)
- Interviewer was just there to read off a script--I had to answer closed-ended questions (e.g., "rate yourself on numbers, 1-5; If you were managing employees and one was strong and one was weak, who would you spend more time with?) and often "why"
- Interviewer couldn't explain questions; could only repeat them
- My answers were recorded for review by someone else
- There were zero questions about my experience or education
* An admin called me to schedule another interview 4 days later
* Another interviewer called me--exact same type of telemarketing survey
- Are these the same interviewers that conduct Gallup Poll surveys & do this between calls?
- Same types of closed-ended questions (no doubt determined by using some statistical model from answers to the first interview
- Once again, no questions about experience or education
- The very final question was about salary expectations (wish it had been sooner, after seeing the low ranges on glassdoor for consulting)
* 5 days later, received e-mail dinging me
IMPRESSIONS
* Every other major consulting firm (from McKinsey/BCG/Bain to boutique firms) relies on case studies, in person, with partners and consultants
- Those firms show that recruiting is one of the most-important uses of their time, rather than delegating the first steps to machines & telemarketers. Gallup's process is an insult to its candidates
- After my interviews, I talked to someone at a b-school alumni networking event & he said that Gallup has quantitatively found that their methods yield the best candidates
- If the most-prestigious firms in the world--the ones that have the most-prestigious clients and projects--find their best candidates with in-person case studies, what proof does Gallup have of its methods? And why had I never heard of their consulting group before?
* Upon searching for Gallup consultants and partners on LinkedIn, many have sales backgrounds--I didn't see any with reputable consulting firms in their backgrounds
* While the job description says they are unique in focusing on organic growth projects,
- The major strategy firms all do these projects and their success has been well-documented.
- Consulting appears to be a loss-leader for Gallup to sell its surveys and statistical tools
Does the emperor have no clothes? Maybe the first question is whether the emperor is really an emperor at all.
