How long should 'Tell me about yourself' and 'Why consulting?' be?

Your answer should be around 1-2 minutes long. Importantly, you need to have a compelling story told in a concise manner! It also depends on the interview you have (do they seem like a calm, patient person, or are they anxious/in a hurry?).

The "optimal" time changes based on the interviewee's background AND the interviewer.

I've included some tips below for crafting both of your responses.

Resume walkthrough

Needs to be chronological

Only keep important details that make you look good (i.e. I worked across 7 industries and rose up the ranks twice in the course of that role)

Keep a theme of "why consulting"

I.e. at each step you need to show that you both got exposure to aspects of consulting AND thrived + enjoyed them

Finish with: And that's why I'm here today looking for consulting with your company

Why Consulting

You need to summarize what you did before along the theme of consulting aspects you liked and consulting aspects that were missing

You then combine those two - i.e. I know I like + am good at x, y, and z which is required for consulting, and I really am excited to get a, b, and c

You finish with a "mini" why x company