Graduate Careers at Roland Berger

In contrast to some of its peers, Roland Berger employs graduates hailing from a wide range of disciplines, and the number of employees armed with MBAs is much lower than the industry average. However, discipline aside, you’ll still need top grades from a highly rated institution to stand a chance of breaking into this German monolith.

The recruitment process is standardised and unsurprisingly efficient (it is a German consulting firm, after all), with the entire ordeal completed in just one day. The assessment begins with a morning session comprising a personality interview and a numerical test. Sufficiently impress your assessors and you’ll be invited to stay for the afternoon, when you’ll be interviewed by a partner and managing director. Interviews encompass both the personal and professional, and be prepared for the usual consultancy teasers: cost reduction, synergies for M&A, profitability, market sizing etc.

Roland Berger Graduate Recruitment Info

Contact:

Tel: +44 (0)20 3075 1100

recruitment@gb.rolandberger.com

How to apply: careers.rolandberger.com/applications/

Roland Berger Profile & Stats

Roland Berger has come a long way since its inauguration in 1967; growing from a one-man practice in Munich, the firm has expanded into a worldwide operation spanning 26 countries, with more than 2,000 employees. Firmly ensconced in the top 10 of global strategy consulting, Roland Berger advises leading international corporations, non-profit organisations and public institutions on all sorts of management issues. The firm provides support for strategic alignment, introducing new business models and processes, organisational structures and IT strategy.

The eponymous Roland Berger began his consulting career with US based Boston Consulting Group, before lending his name and expertise to his own specialised marketing consultancy at the age of 30. The firm quickly found its feet and just six years later it was the third largest consulting firm in Germany. In 1976, the firm christened its first foreign outpost in Sao Paulo, and at the outset of the new decade, Roland Berger became the first European consultancy to be accepted to the revered ACME (Association of Consulting Management Engineers). Deutsche Bank temporarily owned a majority share of Roland Berger between 1987 and ’98, but this stake prevented the consultancy from opening independent offices in the US, sparking Berger and his partners to buy back the shares and reclaim sole ownership. In 2003, Berger gave up direct leadership of the firm he started, moving into a supervisory role and making way for new blood.

Structurally, Roland Berger is now owned by its 180 partners. Operationally, the firm’s global Competence Centres – organised along functional and industry lines – allow it to offer clients bespoke services delivered by interdisciplinary teams of experts. These centres work across a whole host of different industries, from automotive to travel and tourism.

Organised by function, Roland Berger provides a smorgasbord of industries advice on corporate development, corporate headquarters, corporate responsibility, restructuring and corporate finance, sales, marketing and brand management, market attack, complexity management, financial and risk effectiveness, franchising, information management, operations strategy, purchasing, manufacturing, supply chain management and logistics, organisation, price and offer management, customer relationship management (CRM), real estate management, research and development, strategy and corporate excellence... to name a few!

Interminable services aside, Roland Berger has also become renowned for its work in the field of research and development. The firm periodically creates authoritative studies and reports on topical business and management issues; it sponsors chairs at several universities; and it even established an association (The Roland Berger Strategy Consultants Academic Network) which teams consultants with academics at 15 universities, thus placing it at the heart of theoretical and practical exchange.

The firm focusses its altruistic endeavours on the arts, with previous pro bono projects including work for the Bach Academy in Stuttgart, the Salzburg Festival in Austria, the Schauspielhaus Zürich in Switzerland, and the Academy of Arts in Berlin.