I want to get some thoughts on how real is the interview feedback from consulting firms. I have a few major disappointments where I failed to get through the final stage at 2 big 4s, 1 top Telecon firm and 2 small size consulting firm. Despite good MC experience , engineering and MBA, I don't know why I am not able to make it. feedback i got from various firms - - not incorporating teams views in the group exercise (despite asking team's views a number of times)- too much focus on analysis and less on implementation/people issues- no negative feedback but there were other more suitable candidatesi am wondering if this is my accent or wrong colour of tie or something else?

Often they make their decision first and then work out what feedback they'll give you.So basically there may be truth to the points they raise, but it's often not what determined their hiring decision.Let's be honest, people just go for the ones they like most, providing they think they're able to do the job.

I agree with Dave. My favourite pre-interview rejection recently was "they had a number of applicants who had experience with their main competitors". I pointed out that I had 7 years experience in their industry including 3 of their main competitors.....then they changed the rejection reason to something completely different.In my experience feedback seems to be "made up". I guess they don't even know themselves why they choose one candidate over another.

Chris - sounds like they just didn't like you! But - asking the views of the team is not incorporating them into the exercise. Just a thought?As a Rec Manager let me try and de-code some feedback:"You Are Over Qualified": We have trumped up the job spec and it's actually a menial role or we can't meet your salary expectations or we are cheap and not paying market rate for this role"We Can't Meet Your Salary Expectations": We don't think you're worth the money you're asking for."Cultural Fit": Either - we just don't like you/you are way too ambitious/you are not aggresive and ambitious enough to fit in."Nothing Specific/Other More Qualified Candidates": This could be a number of options, 1. In this market it could be true. 2. We've found someone with the same experience for less money. 3. You could do the job but we just didn't like you as a personality. 4. (And this one is true most of the time) You meet all the criteria for the role, you've got the experience and a great profile, but we've asked around informally about you and found out that you are lazy/arrogant/don't deliver/got fired from a previous role/are a constant HR issue/were having an affair with a client/generally have a bad reputation/have p!ssed off one of our Partners when you previously worked at the same company etc etc.

Well done HR Dept! Pretty much agree. The one you have missed is “on closer inspection of your CV, during the interview, we realised you didn’t really have the right experience after all but obviously we can’t tell you that because you will realise we have completely wasted a few hours of your life and annual holiday allowance”Reference Chris’s original email sadly you are obviously disappointing them “in the flesh” and even if you could find someone honest enough to tell you (friend? Mentor? Boss?) it might be something you can’t do anything about even if you wanted to. In my experience it’s often something a bit tricky for someone to tell you: too short, too fat, too spotty, long hair, otherwise scruffy, odd speech mannerisms, grammatical errors on CV, skirt too short etc. I recently had a candidate, currently working at a big 4 up for a director level interview who I hadn’t met. They called me afterwards and said “have you met her?”. I said I hadn’t and they said she was very overweight, short skirt, clouds of strong perfume and stripy hair: ie potentially rather lacking credibility with clients