To help prepare you for your interviews and a possible career in the field, we’ve asked our insiders to give us the most up-to-date consulting jargon. Beware: Unauthorized use of these terms has been known to seriously offend every known species of consultant.
2×2
Pronounced “two by two,” this is a favorite consulting tool used to analyze a number of items along two dimensions. It’s basically a graph with X and Y axes that cross in the middle, creating four different sectors. Don’t be surprised if you’re asked to produce one of these during your interview.
Activity-based costing
Assigns overhead costs to customers and products based on the amount of activity and resources spent on these customers and products.
Back-of-the-envelope calculation
A rough, on-the-spot estimate. Among other things, the case interview (see below) is intended to test whether you’re comfortable performing calculations of this type.
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