Application Process
Why Apply?
180DC bridges the gap between classroom learning and industry consulting experience for students to help organisations maximise their social impact and address issues they are facing.
Create social impact
180 Degrees Consulting provides students with an accessible and enjoyable avenue to create social impact while fostering growth via practical consulting training. From your tenure at 180DC, you will be able to directly see the impact of your work for the client, contribute to the world’s largest student-led consultancy and gain experience in the consulting industry.
Improve both professional and interpersonal skills
As a student consultant at 180DC, you will access both professional industry mentoring and training and practical project consulting experience. Our comprehensive training program, spearheaded by our industry partners and dedicated Learning & Development portfolio covers a range of skills, including problem-structuring, PowerPoint and Excel. You will also have the chance to develop soft skills such as client relationship management and presentation through keynote events such as our Social Impact Pitch Night.
Global recognition
180DC has consistently produced exceptional alumni, many of whom have gone on to work across top consulting firms (Mckinsey, Bain, BCG). Consequently, the 180DC name holds significant value with many strong industry connections.
Projects & Client Meetings
Engage in weekly meetings with your project team to problem solve the toughest challenges for socially-focused client organisations.
Attend client meetings (3-4 times per cycle) to present your findings and insights.
On top of this, you will have access to unparalleled opportunities such as workshops with sponsor firms, our Asia-Pacific conference and various other personal and professional development opportunities across the consulting and social impact space.
Our alumni have gone on to join firms such as McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, A.T. Kearney, Goldman Sachs, and founding startups which have secured 7-figure investments.
And More!
What do we look for?
Assisting our clients to the best of our ability starts with our recruiting process. We look for driven individuals with a real passion for social impact and who want to leave their mark on the world. We also expect to see a consistent commitment towards the project, providing the space for you to learn and improve on your soft and technical skills. Most importantly, we want you to have fun! Having a passion for continually learning from those around you, maintaining a positive and collaborative attitude, encouraging open communication and having a creative mindset are all qualities present in 180DC Consultants.
Your experiences and interests provide unique perspectives on our projects, allowing for greater depth when presenting final solutions to the client. Unlike many other consulting societies, 180DC is largely composed of students from non-business disciplines, e.g. psychology, engineering, medicine. Whether you’re a 1st-year Commerce student looking for some insight into a consulting career, or a 4th year in Medicine student who is simply curious and wanting to make a social impact, all are welcome to apply!
Join the 180DC Community today!
Our 3 Step Application Process
1
Written Application
Our recruitment procedure starts with the written application, where we learn a bit more about you and your passions outside of your studies through your words. We also have a video interview where we get to assess how you communicate your ideas. This is where you can express the knowledge and skills you’ve developed over the years and show us where you truly excel.
2
Interview
If successful in the written application, you will be invited to complete a behavioural interview alongside a case interview with 1-2 other students. The behavioural section consists of conventional questions where we learn a bit more about you and your achievements. Finally, you complete a case within a short timeframe and present your findings to the interviewer.
3
Outcome
Once we have reviewed your application and collated your results, we will send you an email regarding the outcome of your application.
Best of luck with your application!
Use the STAR method
The STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method is a great way for you to clearly lay out your role in a significant scenario and how it has come into fruition. We recommend this structure as it nicely blends people and impact together, and allows us to recognise your past experiences!
Behavioral
Questions
Make sure your responses are structured and direct
As much as we love a good story, there are only so many you can remember, particularly in one session! Therefore, it is incredibly hard to follow without structured responses. To ensure that your response is targeted, we recommend signposting - using firstly, secondly, etc. It helps with pacing and more importantly, a clean structure. We invite you to consider and reflect on what makes you you - think about experiences that might have shaped your leadership, conflict, and teamwork style, strengths and weaknesses, conflict style, passion areas, etc.
Make sure to outline your thought process
A case interview is a hypothetical business situation used to determine how a candidate thinks about a problem, commonly used across consulting firms. At 180DC, the purpose of the case interview component is for us to understand how you think. It’s also the best time to show us your creativity or innovation, as well as your logical reasoning. Hence, we are less interested in whether or not you get the ‘right’ answer, and more about how you thought about the problem and why you thought that.
Case Interview
Questions
Practise Sample Cases
Before entering the interview, it is important to get a feel for case interviews and how you might approach them. Attempting them beforehand allows you to get familiar with working through a business problem and it mimics the scenarios you might face as consultants, which will help you become prepared for the work you will get involved in throughout the project cycle.
Tips & Tricks
Receive all the tips and tricks you need to ace your interviews!
Please note that while our cases often reflect the type of work we do, this case is based on an entirely fictitious client.
Problem Set 1
Sample Case Study
Your client is a small local hospital in Western Sydney, and has come to you with the issue that they are extremely restricted on capital. The hospital operates like a normal public hospital, however, they also have a small fundraising arm, wherein the funds that are raised are used to treat people who are in financial need, or fund research and clinical trials for particular medicines.
Today, the hospital would like to know how they can increase their funding.
You’ll be given 20 minutes to work on this together with your partner, and then 3 minutes to present your recommendations, after which there will be a 2-3 minute Q&A. Please ask any questions you might have about the situation or client, as there is some more information we haven’t given.
Christine Nou
2023 Education Director
Claire Zhou
2023 Education Director
Divneet Singh
2023 Education Director
Christine Nou
2023 Education Director
Claire Zhou
2023 Education Director
Divneet Singh
2023 Education Director
Authored By
THINKING OF JOINING?
We welcome and encourage all students from all faculties and degree levels to join our organisation. Past Consultants and Project Leaders have come from Bachelors, Masters and PhD programs in the fields of Law, Medicine, Engineering, Commerce, Music, Science and Arts.
There is no better opportunity to develop, learn, and make friends to last a lifetime than at 180DC UNSW!