Behavioural Questions Flashcards
Tell me about yourself/walk me through your resume
I am a corporate lawyer by training - two years of experience - specializing in M&A/securities/corporate governance.
Background in fields like legal tech and agricultural tech industries, which has given me diverse skill set in analysis and problem-solving.
After earning my Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, DETOUR - sought- CUTTING EDGE - BETTER LAWYER - translating legal cases into quantifiable data for machine learning models.
Going to law school - enjoy BUSINESS SIDE
For the past two years at Sangra Moller, I have been involved in high-stakes transactions, including the successful closure of four acquisitions and financings over $10 million each.
one recent project, three critical risk issues during due diligence across over 100 documents that, working with partner, led to ACTION before DEADLINE
Identifying precise, ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS to drive decision-making, consulting CLIENT VALUE
I thrive in dynamic, high-pressure environments and am eager to bring my problem-solving mindset and dedication to continuous learning to your team.
Why Consulting? Why Consulting Now?
For two reasons:
My intellectual curiosity and
One experience - BOTH consulting/lawyer - EXCELLED
- Problem-solving - political science, - understanding global events and how human interactions shape them.
Consulting feels like the perfect extension of that intellectual curiosity, to resolve complex business challenges. - A defining moment - opportunity to work closely with a CFO on a major strategic decision.
Advising on a $5 million loan,
Short term vs long term
Advice NOT well received
FRAMING
This experience opened my eyes to how strategic decision-making, is an area where I could add value and thrive.
Conversations with people like Tania Law and Gillian Cook - her experience leading conversations and presenting analysis to clients at a junior level to shape decisions - own goal - shaping decisions - confident that consulting is the right career for me.
Why BCG?
its collective culture, diverse industry opportunities, and its approach to predictable professional growth.
Through my research and conversations with individuals like Tania Law and Gillian Cook, I’ve come to understand that BCG offers an environment where teamwork is central to success, and individual insights are valued within the team dynamic.
At Sangra Moller, I worked closely with along teams. Small claims. By prioritizing key risks, I ensured that the team could focus on the most impactful issues, allowing us to deliver a clear, actionable report on time.
This experience reinforced the importance of working together to tackle challenges, leveraging collective strengths to drive outcomes. I am excited about the opportunity to contribute to BCG’s team-oriented approach, where every member’s input drives the overall success of the project.
Industry Opportunities:
BCG’s work across a wide array of industries, including financial institutions, retail, telecoms, and consumer goods, is another reason I am excited about the opportunity. These industries are dynamic, complex, and full of challenges that require innovative thinking and tailored solutions. I’m particularly drawn to BCG’s focus on financial institutions and retail/consumer sectors.
The financial institutions sector offers vast opportunities to work on strategic issues around regulation, risk management, and market disruption. Given my experience with managing complex and high-stakes projects—like the aforementioned due diligence process—this type of environment excites me as it would allow me to apply my skills in a fast-paced, high-pressure context while tackling intricate legal and business challenges.
Similarly, the retail and consumer goods industries are undergoing rapid transformation, particularly with the rise of e-commerce, changing consumer preferences, and global supply chain issues. I see immense potential in helping companies navigate these shifts. My ability to distill complex data and provide actionable insights, as demonstrated in my prior work, would be beneficial in these industries, where the impact of strategy decisions can be felt immediately.
The diverse range of industries BCG serves offers an ideal opportunity for me to expand my expertise and contribute to projects that span multiple sectors, providing both personal and professional growth.
Predictable Professional Growth
Lastly, BCG’s commitment to predictable professional growth, particularly through structured mentorship programs, is something I find extremely compelling. Tania spoke about BCG’s biweekly career development check-ins and the support from managers in guiding your career path. This structure provides a clear and tangible approach to growth, which is a key factor in my decision-making process.
Throughout my career, I’ve found that mentorship is critical in my development. In previous roles, I’ve thrived when given clear guidance and regular feedback, especially in managing complex tasks. At BCG, the predictable and supportive mentorship model will allow me to continuously improve, sharpen my skills, and take on increasing responsibilities, knowing that I’ll have the support and guidance I need to succeed.
The fact that BCG’s mentorship structure is formalized, with regular check-ins and a focus on career development, aligns perfectly with my career goals. This not only provides a sense of direction but also reassures me that I will be able to grow in a supportive and structured environment, which is crucial for long-term success.
Entrepreneurship at SM
Problem: Asked to assist with due diligence process for high-profile; large volume of lease contracts and trust documents. Over 100 documents.
Goal: understand trust structure and identify potential risks with lease and service agreements; report to partner within the week.
Role: to review all documents, summarize them. Out of comfort zone because volume and complexity was more than anything I’d worked on before.
Action: prioritized key documents for risk. I considered reviewing sequentially - thorough, but volume may miss key issues within time frame.
Prioritization categories minimize key compliance issues on risks (change of control).
Due to difficult language, needed to focus energies on areas more likely to impact deal outcome.
Worked with a partner needed clear, actionable report. Prioritization meant finding meaning earlier that would be presented as made to have higher impact.
Result: completed due diligence with 3 flagged issues that were actionable next steps. Contributed to smooth transaction and solidified relationship with client. Partners commended ability to handle challenging workload, which sense of accomplishment in managing a complex, high-stakes, project.
Why should we hire you? what is your greatest strength?
A great consultant is one that is able to interact with advise high stakes senior clients OR change clients minds
Tell story about how I did that -
Interacting with senior stakeholders - M & A
Changing minds - Project
What are your main weaknesses?
When given tight deadlines, lose attention to detail
Learning:
Tell me about a time when you resolved conflict/convinced someone to change their mind
Problem: Asked to facilitate credit agreement, client wanted clause that allowed decrease of borrowing facility of the loan at any time; damage to cash flow.
Role: help facilitate agreement and protect client interest; direct responsibility to identify potential issues and long term implications. Client wanted to close the loan for immediate funding.
Action:
In-depth discussion with the partner; raised concerns about bank clause. Explained potential risks directly with the CFO, highlighting the long-term value for negotiating for more flexibility. Realized company was going to expand next year into another continent, explained how this term would inhibit that
Why: I knew client was focused on timeline, but after analyzing the risks, realized that bank terms could seriously impact the client’s future financial position.
Result: ended up reducing the borrowable amount by 10% to remove the term. Allowed the client to pursue additional clients which allowed for net income to increase of 100% two quarters later.
Tell me about a time you led a group of people to achieve a challenging objective?
Problem: Leading two articling students to manage bill collection for a client. Articling student first time speaking in court, and processes were complex and deadline was tight and within a few days. I was tasked with reviewing their work but had own projects ongoing simultaneously.
Became clear that the students was struggling with coordination as they were doing it on first time; both were working on other projects as well which was an overwhelming volume of work. Stress and friction.
However, key deadlines. We risked jeopordizing the case’s outcome, client relationship, and the firm’s reputation.
Role: needed to provide leadership and strategic direction. Responsible for managing team, organizing workflow and ensuring communication with client and senior partners.
Action:
Organized team meeting to discuss timeline and workload management. Encouraged everyone to voice concerns.
Broke down tasks and assigned clear responsibilities based on strengths. Told one student to do the research and another to prepare the materials.
Implemented check ins twice per day to monitor progress, address issues and provide guidance.
I proactively communicated with partners and client; manage expectations; seek additional resources if necessary and update on teams progress.
Why:
Lack of clear communication was causing stress and inefficiency. Knew i had to step in and provide structure and address team morale. By breaking work into smaller tasks, I believed we could regain control.
Alternative was to step in and do it myself, but recognized importance of empowering to solve problem to develop skills and not enough time. I remained accessible and working on other files. This was a longer term issue of coordination too, so just stepping in would cause dependency which meant not allocating time effectively.
Result: workload distributed effectively, met court deadlines. We eventually won our case, in part of the support of the team members preparing good materials. Team gained confidence in ability to handle high-pressure, and served as a valuable leadership development opportunity to me.
Tell me about a time you made a big mistake
Mistake: Sent the final agreement to the opposing client instead of their lawyers.
Task: I was responsible for sending the final agreement to the opposing legal team to ensure confidentiality. Potential risk to confidentiality protocols.
Reason for mistake: Under tight, strenuous deadline to close the deal.
Action:
Followed up with the correct legal recipient, ensuring they received the document for review.
Took ownership and ensured that all steps were followed to safeguard confidentiality.
Informed supervisor and client, reassured them the mistake was being corrected.
Reason:
Address the mistake transparently and correct it quickly.
Preserve professional trust and avoid potential issues.
Other options considered:
Try to cover up the mistake (not a responsible choice).
Why this decision?
Transparency and quick correction would minimize fallout and maintain credibility.
Taking responsibility was the best way to ensure the deal proceeded smoothly.
Outcome:
The opposing legal team acknowledged the error and assured no further issues would arise.
The mistake had minimal impact. The deal proceeded on time without delay.
Lessons learned:
Importance of triple-checking work, especially under pressure.
Developed protocols for ensuring proper email recipients and confidentiality.
Emphasized attention to detail and communication with the team.
What are your greatest strengths? why should we hire you?
A great consultant is one that is able to interact with high stakes senior clients on fast paced problems
Interacting with Stakeholders/senior people: For a credit agreement, my client wanted a clause allowing the bank to reduce their borrowing facility at any time, which posed a risk to their cash flow. I negotiated with the CFO and, using a thorough analysis, managed to reduce the borrowing limit by 10%, removing the clause that could have hindered their international expansion. This allowed the client to secure new clients and double their net income within two quarters.
Time management: In a due diligence process involving 100+ lease contracts, I worked closely with senior partners to identify key risks in a tight one-week timeframe. I prioritized the most critical documents and kept partners informed with regular updates. The result was the identification of three major risks, which helped the deal proceed smoothly and strengthened client relationships.
Analytics: In the same project, by conducting a deep dive into key financial clauses and potential compliance risks, I was able to pinpoint discrepancies that could have cost the client significantly in penalties. I provided actionable insights, helping the client avoid these risks and renegotiate terms, ultimately securing a better deal that aligned with their financial goals. This outcome highlighted my ability to leverage analytics to create value in high-stakes environments.
What are your main weaknesses?
One of my key weaknesses is that I tend to overanalyze situations, particularly when it comes to gathering and organizing information. I noticed this in a past experience while working as a junior associate at a law firm. I was tasked with taking notes during a client meeting. Since the matter was new to me, I wanted to ensure I captured every detail accurately and organized the notes in a way that clearly outlined the next steps and clarified the key points discussed.
However, in my effort to be thorough and precise, I spent more time than necessary formatting the notes and connecting them to next steps, which ultimately led to me missing the opportunity to present my notes to the senior lawyer in time. By the time I was ready to share, the senior lawyer had already moved on to the next steps and had a different direction in mind.
This experience was a valuable lesson for me. I realized that while it’s important to be thorough, there needs to be a balance with efficiency and the ability to act quickly. Since then, I’ve worked on improving this by setting clear time limits for tasks, trusting my initial instincts, and focusing on prioritizing the most critical aspects of the work without getting bogged down in unnecessary details. I’ve also started using decision-making frameworks to structure my approach and ensure I don’t get lost in the process.
I’m constantly refining this approach, and I’ve become more effective at managing my time and balancing thoroughness with efficiency. I now recognize that sometimes, “good enough” is more than sufficient, and that speed and adaptability are just as important as precision in the consulting world.
