You may be asked to opine about international cuisine [/pink]

Jokes aside, best of luck. Sounds very positive.

Let's hope they stick to restaurants and subjects from the lav room and I will be good to go

General consulting, transactional (M&A), tax, or something else...?

Whatever it is, I'd say you have probably passed the test in terms of subject matter expertise at this point and the interview with the partner is more to determine personality fit and how you present yourself. A big part of consulting at a Big 4 firm is sales after all...

Be confident and personable and you will be fine.

Thumbs up emoji

General consulting

My guess is that at this point they are comfortable with your technical skills and are only going to see if you are a fit in terms of personality and ability to generate clients, the issues that matter most to them at your level.

Likely nothing you can do to "prepare."

Thanks, I was seeking a confirmation / affirmation of that

I suspect its actually less about getting business than not losing it, as whilst I'd operate in English, commercially it would be in another language and deals would not be done in english

Relax. Deep breath

Good luck mate. Former KPMG grunt here :) It's a personality contest. Tell them you'll Make Consulting Great Again. :D

Tell them you do triathlons, people love it when you do that.

Take that shit to the other forum

when I was at Big4 - it was Golf, Golf, and more Golf. Their whole lives revolved around golf; like a cult If you didn't golf and talk about it constantly you were going nowhere. Worse than Vegans, crossfit, or new Costco members.

I'm ex MBB (from a while back); similar process to the 4.

I remember interviewing 6 times with McKinsey, 5 times with BCG. In their not so humble opinion they thought this was key to finding the best people, but it struck me as a bit redundant. They set a hurdle at a certain height. You jump over it once, then they ask you to jump over it again and again and again. I'm not sure how much more anyone is learning, although there is always a chance of someone clipping the last one.

Once you are before a partner they probably trust that you have been adequately tested on your technical and reasoning skills, and they are probably checking their comfort with the people skills/ fit. If things have gone particularly well, they'll be keen enough that s/he will be trying to sell you on why you should join them. You never know, though. I once had 2 challenging case studies at a partner level interview (that I'd been told was to "meet for a chat"). At another partner interview, we had a pleasant discussion until 5 minutes before the end, when he suddenly said "well, I guess I'd better give you a case study". The one he gave was so simple that a clear-minded 15 y-o could have nailed it. Again, not sure what the point was.

So, you never know. I'm not sure what level you are entering at, but they may want to interrogate your capacity for more senior responsibilities: team/project/program management and business development. They might want to better understand your longer term objectives: they churn & burn staff, but like to do it on their timetable, so convince them that you have some medium-long term ambitions with them.

Beyond that, just be your clever and charming self.... Good luck.

Best of luck. You seem to have your head on straight and plenty of intellectual horsepower, they would be lucky to have you.

drn92

Yep, as others mentioned, this should be mostly a chemistry and fit exercise. I'm assuming you have done an exhaustive search of the partner.....job history, school, any associations, speeches he's given, LinkedIn profile, Facebook, etc. Anything and everything you can find. Don't hesitate to bring up involvement with tri....I've been surprised many times meeting others who are involved somehow. Good luck!

Ex-Big 4 consulting Director here (PwC UK).

Just curious as to what level role you're going for - I'm assuming its at least senior manager as you're seeing a partner, they tend not to get too involved in the recruitment process for the junior levels (although that does depend on the size of the office).
As all the above replies have said - at this stage its all about personal chemistry, your interpersonal skills and capacity for business development. Partners will be way behind on the technical nous, their main job is running a happy ship, managing existing client relationships for add-on business and cultivating new relationships/business.

Just be yourself, ask lots of questions about where they see the business going, and definitely make sure that they are the right fit for you. At this stage of your life, assuming that this is a full time role for you, you need to be interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you, to make sure you have all the answers to make the right decision. Big 4 is not for everyone.

I'm a big 4 partner. Everyone seems to be on the right track here. The hiring process differs from country to country, role to role, and sub group to sub group, at this stage in the process it's likely about assessing fit. To be honest, it's usually almost entirely about assessing fit and how you'll interact with clients and less about technical skills. The attitude, will, desire and ability to learn go a long way. I can always train someone, but only if they want to learn and are reasonably intelligent and won't be an asshole to my clients.

Update:

So it was fine, a chat about location, scope, the partner in question does not appear to be heavily involved in the parts of the business I'd be involved in. He discussed terms, package etc

He wants me to speak to another partner, I think about logistics as it is an expat role.

Overall I think it's fine, the guys I'd work with / for all seemed to be positive and he seemed positive wanting to discuss a package and the work.

Wait and see

So in summary, you and the partner had a good discussion about your package and he asked if you'd like a third man to be included.

Sounds promising...

Im not sure. It wasn't negative but it can be difficult to read between lines about some of the other things.

It's not shut down, so I think I'm still in a discussion with them. Wait and see

Did you not catch the innuendo?

Now you point it out.........

I'm going to go away now.........

I'm not quite sure what "logistics" means in this context.