OEE Ops Director, Duncan Burtoft shared his insight into the world of recruitment in a recent interview with the professional careers website Top-Consultant.

Please note this article was published before OEE Consulting and gobeyond joined forces to become Gobeyond Partners.

We have written a short synopsis of the interview but if you would like to read the full version, click here.

OEE Consulting is growing strongly and we are constantly recruiting. We are lucky enough to receive 1000s of applications every year, and we run around 25 assessment centres each year.

With OEE, “it’s all about the people” and finding the right “fit” between who we are and what we do. Fundamentally, it’s about a candidate’s interpersonal alignment rather than their specific technical knowledge and experience. We can teach that later! Although not a prerequisite, engineering is a good grounding for a management consulting career, because it brings clarity of thought and analytical skills. However, the key to success here at OEE is demonstrating the right consulting behaviours.

We have a thorough assessment process, the majority of which is common to all types of applicants. The assessment comprises an initial stage, completed remotely, to check alignment with what we do; followed by a face-to-face assessment centre. During the process, we provide lots of information on the business and what it will be like to work with us; we really try to “let candidates in” to our business during our assessment centres.

Some really good advice is that candidates should not try to find out the details of our assessment process in advance! It’s very obvious when candidates have prior knowledge, and anyway we change the details of our individual assessment tasks regularly. We go to great lengths to get to know our candidates to assess if the relationship is going to work. The best advice for candidates is to be themselves and be completely open to the process; it’s as important for our candidates that we get this right as it is for us.

Our process is designed to help candidates make the right decision as well as to help us to make a good decision; and candidates receive lots of straightforward feedback. So for anyone unsure whether OEE Consulting is the right employer for them, or even whether a career in management consulting is right for them, then my advice is to apply and we will help them to find out.