Consulting Industry News, Events, Opportunities and Case Interviews‌ ‌

Consulting Newsletter

February 2025 

Industry News / Events / Opportunities / Cracking Case Interviews

With the December slowdown behind us, consulting recruitment is picking up again as firms reassess their market position and hiring needs. The events and opportunities featured in this newsletter reflect this renewed momentum.

My work has also been ramping up - delivering consulting projects in Netherlands and Greece, and supporting business school candidates at Cambridge Judge, Birmingham, and EADA Barcelona. I have also been developing my new online course designed to help candidates master case interviews and secure their dream consulting role. The course is now live, with a half-price introductory offer in February which you can access here. You can find more details at the end of this newsletter.

This newsletter community has grown to over 1,350 subscribers! If you haven’t already, you can subscribe at the bottom of this issue. PDF versions are available for download here.

Industry News

BCG has high expectations for M&A activity in 2025 despite deal volume being subdued. Their M&A sentiment index highlights positivity in USA and Europe, particularly in health care, energy, and technology, media, and telecommunications.

L.E.K Consulting now has a presence in Switzerland with German and Austrian clients being served from their new office in Zurich. Marc Gruter has been appointed as the Managing and will, no doubt, be recruiting over the coming year.

Management Consulted has released its 2025 consulting salary report, highlighting that salaries stayed flat compared to 2024 with some exceptions. They expect 2026 to be a better year for salary growth and note that only 20% of McKinsey hires were direct MBAs giving other grads some hope.

How will Gen AI impact consulting? Bill Farrell, Managing Partner for IBM Consulting in the Middle East & Africa, highlights the need for consultants to skill-up so that they can unlock insights, deliver value faster, eliminate time-consuming manual tasks, and focus more on creating value for their clients.

Global strategy and management consulting firm Oliver Wyman has grown its global revenues by 9 percent over the past year to $3.4 billion. Could this be driving recruitment for 139 consultants?

KPMG appears to be bucking the trend of other big 4 firms as profits grew by 11% and UK partner payouts grew by 9% in the UK. This came despite major cost-cutting measures, including the loss of 200 UK jobs.

Consulting Quest has published an article examining the growth in internal consultancies and how they fare against traditional external consultancies. These can be a very good stepping-stone option for those looking to pivot into consulting.

The UK Management Consultancies Association forecasts 6.4% growth in 2025 and 8.7% in 2026 with AI, sustainability and cost reduction being the biggest growth areas. Nearly 40% of firms are looking to expand further in 2025.

Events

As expected the number of recruiting events has increased again in February.

• Bain & Company is hosting a lots of events in February including an in-person event at their office in Paris for students at Paris Daupine-PSL (Feb 6th), a webinar for experienced hires (Feb 6th), a female mentorship program in Amsterdam (deadline Feb 9th. Program runs from Feb to July 2025), webinars introducing offices in APAC and EMEA (Feb 12th), and an EMEA 'Crack the Case' webinar (Feb 26th).
• BCG Australia and New Zealand are hosting virtual meet the recruiter events (Feb 12th, 19th & 26th) and meet the consultant (Feb 13th, 20th & 27th). They also have in-person information sessions at the Sydney and Canberra office on Feb 25th and again at the Melbourne office on Feb 28th.
• Elsewhere, BCG are also hosting a 'Bob Camp' in St Moritz, Switzerland on Feb 28th. They are also hosting an online event on Feb 27th from their Tokyo office designed for women who are considering a move into strategy consulting.
• EY UK is hosting a series of online application bootcamps on 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th Feb.
• Management Consulted is hosting an online employer panel for those with advanced degrees (PhDs, MDs, PostDoc, etc) on Feb 13th. There will be recruiters from Bain, Clearview and L.E.K there. They are hosting a free online mock healthcare case interview on Feb 18th.
• McKinsey is hosting various virtual events in February including a 'Europe Open House Series' Jan 22nd to Feb 13th), and 'How to Build an Impactful CV' (Latin America) on Feb 3rd, 12th, 16th & 17th,
• Roland Berger is hosting an in-person event at their Amsterdam office for PhDs and EngDs on 6th Feb. They are also hosting events for students in Germany and Portugal through February.
• Simon Kucher is advertising a 2 day strategy business course in Amsterdam in May. Deadline is March 7th.

Recruitment and Internship Opportunities

• Accenture Strategy has many vacancies globally. For example there are 24 strategy vacancies in Austria including an internship, 12 in Belgium, 8 in Canada, 22 in mainland China, 31 in France, 93 in Germany, 940 in India, 5 in Ireland, 85 in Italy, 47 in Spain, 12 in Switzerland, 48 in UK and 14 in USA. The biggest increases (since December) appear to be in Germany (29%), Spain (34%), India (7%) and UK (30%).
• Advancy is still recruiting interns at their Frankfurt and Paris offices and strategy consultants at their Frankfurt, Paris, New York and London offices.
• Alvarez & Marsal has 1340 consulting vacancies globally (up by 15 since December) with the majority in the USA.
• Arthur D. Little has 17 internship vacancies at various offices globally (down from 21 last month). They also have associate, analyst and consultant roles open.
• Bain & Company is advertising for Associate Consultants and Internships globally. They also have various internship programs open for application ranging from less than a week to several months part-time.
• Baringa has 48 open roles in UK (up from 43 in December), 22 in Germany, 14 in USA, 9 in Australia plus other open roles globally in Bulgaria, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands and Singapore.
• BCG has 288 consulting roles open globally including 13 internships, 24 roles in Germany, 24 in Indonesia, 22 in France and Austria and 19 in Malaysia. There don't appear to be any open roles in UK. Take a look at their virtual office, designed for people considering a role there.
• Elixxr has consultant roles open in London, San Francisco, New York and Dallas.
• EY UK 2025 program applications are open including internships and graduate roles. The consulting program appears to be closed to applications now though.
• Kearney has 22 internships, (up from 16 in December), and various associate and analyst roles globally.
• L.E.K is advertising for summer interns in Paris, Munich and Wroclaw, and associate and consultant roles in London, Paris, and Wroclaw. They are also advertising for an intern in Shanghai and associates (2026) in their Sydney office.
• McKinsey is advertising globally for analyst interns. They are also advertising for associates, associate interns, business analysts, and business analyst interns.
• Newton is recruiting for their operations, digital and people consulting graduate program.
• Oliver Wyman is advertising for 136 roles with most in Germany (19), Italy (10), UAE (9), UK (8) and USA (24). 10 of the roles are internships and entry level roles globally including South Africa, USA, Spain, Greece, India, UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Australia, France and Netherlands.
• Partners in Performance, the operations management consultancy that is now part of Accenture, is hiring Business Analysts, Associates and Senior Associates in London, Australia, New Zealand, Quebec, and South Africa.
• Roland Berger has 24 global internship opportunities, (up from 19 in December), 3 MBA vacancies in Germany, Bucharest and Tokyo, 1 MBA internship in Germany and 21 global vacancies for graduates.
• Simon Kucher is advertising 11 consulting roles and 16 intern/associate roles.

How to Crack your Case Interview

(and why starting early matters!)

Over the past few months, I’ve coached more than 100 students, helping them build their consulting skills and prepare for case interviews. It’s always exciting to hear their success stories from Deloitte, Bain, BCG, McKinsey, ZS Associates, Teneo, and many more.

But I also hear about rejections. The most common feedback? Candidates didn’t seem prepared or hadn’t practiced enough.

So, What Can You Do to Avoid That?

1. Start Early - Much Earlier Than You Think

Many candidates wait until they secure an interview before they start practicing. That’s a mistake. By then, it’s often too late to develop the structured thinking, problem-solving ability, and confidence needed to excel. The good news? Case interview preparation doesn’t just help you land a consulting job - it sharpens your strategic thinking and communication skills, making you a stronger MBA candidate and professional in any field.

2. Make Your Practice Effective

Watching YouTube videos and reading cases passively isn’t enough. You need to practice out loud with a partner who can provide constructive, honest feedback. Ideally, work with a coach or join your business school’s consulting club. Aim to complete 30+ cases, covering a variety of case types, including those that don’t fit into standard frameworks:

• Profitability Cases
• Revenue Growth Cases
• Market Sizing Cases
• Market Entry Cases
• New Product Launch Cases
• Mergers & Acquisitions Cases
• Pricing Strategy Cases
• Competitive Threat Cases
• Business Operations Cases

3. Get Expert Guidance

You can accelerate your learning by working with an experienced consulting recruiter or taking a structured course. Your business school may offer resources, but if you want a proven system, my online course provides a simple 3-step framework to solve any case from any firm. You’ll also get access to actual case examples from Deloitte, Bain, and BCG, plus the chance to practice with the BCG Casebot interview.

James Brown is a certified coach, a practicing management consultant and a former Director at Accenture Strategy and Consulting.