Cornerstone Research Consultant Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process involves two case interviews. One case is more qualitative, and the other is more quantitative. The cases are moderately difficult, and the candidate is expected to lead the discussion. You'll encounter tables and graphs during the interviews.

I wasn't planning on going into consulting after college, but a recent info session piqued my interest, so I decided to apply. The first round was on campus and involved three case interviews back-to-back. Although the recruiter said you can't really prep for these case interviews like you can for MBB cases (which I thought was untrue), I guess you can. I was completely unprepared and unfamiliar with business terms, making it hard to understand the questions, let alone solve them. If you're not a business major, I'd suggest looking up basic business terms beforehand. Some of the MBB case prep resources online are really detailed, and I wish I'd found them earlier, like Victor Cheng's website. Specifically, the first interviewer was new to interviewing and very nice, not sticking to the time limits. Their case was about analyzing stock prices. The second case focused on goodwill and brand building, and the third was about calculating profit margins (I didn't even know what those were before the interview). Unsurprisingly, I didn't get the offer. The experience was okay; most interviewers were intimidating except the first one. The third interviewer seemed bored and eager to wrap things up.

We had a pleasant conversation with the interviewer. We talked a bit about my past experiences and then jumped into a case study. The case study was challenging, focusing on auction-rate bonds and the responsibility of financial advisors for bad advice. Basically, a client needed to raise money and the advisor recommended auction-rate bonds instead of fixed-rate. Soon after, the economy worsened, leading to high interest rates and fears of the client defaulting. I also had to figure out the economic value associated with the financial advisor's decision.