You might ask, what is the difference between a consultant and an analyst? A Research Analyst is not client facing at first and might work with consultants in the organisation, sometimes across other regions such as Asia-Pacific. Also, for people who don't have an MBA, it sometimes is difficult to become a consultant. The role of a Research Analyst is perfect for people who want to understand what the consultant world looks like, without having to do an MBA.

Differences aside, consulting (including being a Research Analyst) gives you a new perspective and good exposure to different industries like agriculture, pharma, automotive, etc, which you can learn from. It helps you push your thinking boundaries.

Let me tell you a bit about my day@work. Say, a Company which finances vehicles, approaches my firm to understand ways in which it can reduce its costs. We, as Research Analysts, would first understand the root cause of the issue and figure out the inefficiency. As a part of this, we would breakdown the operating costs nature wise.

We would then extract similar information for the client's competitors, or the top 10 companies in the vehicle financing industry. We have access to premium databases such as Bloomberg, S&P, Profound and Thomspon Reuters where such customised information is available. We also cover events such as press conferences to get first-hand information about large corporates in the field and add our layer of insight to these findings. These sources would help us analyse the growth rate of the vehicle financing industry in the world and advise our client on what they should do to stay relevant.

I chose the commerce group in Class 11 since I didn't enjoy science all that much. I did my B.Com at Loyola College. It was then that I realised that the top consulting firms give priority to recruiting from specific well-known colleges.

As a part of the recruitment process, I had case interviews and technical interviews. Case interviews are where live business cases are given to you, and you are required to identify the problem and propose solutions to solve them. Sometimes, they could be in the form of Guesstimates - For e.g., you would be asked to guess the number of teachers in a particular city. This would involve some basic knowledge of the population mix, and some assumptions. These are primarily asked to test your thinking process and approach, which are more important than the answer itself. Quantitative skills, excellent graduation scores, and a broad understanding of current happenings the country and world are some must-haves to crack interviews for this role.

Ability to deal with pressure and long working hours is one of the key asks of this job, which is known for its 12-15 hour work days. While deadlines are very tight and it is sometimes impossible not to get nervous; a broad business sense, plenty of reading, prioritising tasks and a clear head would undoubtedly go a long way in helping you cope with this demanding but enriching workplace.