What is a Consultant at American Enterprise Institute?

As a Consultant at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), you serve as a critical bridge between our world-class policy research and the external stakeholders who support, implement, and amplify our mission. This role is not a traditional management consulting position; rather, it is deeply rooted in consultative sales, strategic partnership development, and stakeholder engagement. You will be tasked with understanding complex policy initiatives and translating their value to corporate partners, philanthropic donors, and civic leaders.

Your impact in this role directly fuels American Enterprise Institute’s ability to scale its influence and resources. By identifying the unique needs and priorities of external stakeholders, you align their goals with our research initiatives. Whether you are operating out of our headquarters or representing us in key regional hubs like San Francisco, your work ensures that our scholars have the backing necessary to drive meaningful public policy conversations.

This position requires a unique blend of intellectual curiosity, business development acumen, and exceptional emotional intelligence. You will navigate complex, high-stakes relationships and collaborate closely with internal teams of researchers, communications professionals, and executive leadership. Expect a role that challenges you to be both a strategic thinker and a tactical executor, where your ability to build trust and drive consensus is just as important as your grasp of public policy.

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparing for your interview requires a deep understanding of our core evaluation pillars. We design our interviews to uncover not just what you have accomplished, but how you approach complex interpersonal and strategic challenges.

Consultative Sales Capability – At American Enterprise Institute, selling is about advising and aligning. Interviewers will evaluate your ability to ask probing questions, uncover underlying stakeholder needs, and craft tailored narratives that connect external interests with our internal policy work. You can demonstrate strength here by sharing specific examples of how you have guided a client or partner from initial skepticism to full commitment.

Behavioral Consistency – We firmly believe that past behavior is the most accurate predictor of future actions. Your evaluators will look for consistent patterns in how you handle adversity, navigate rejection, and drive projects to completion. Prepare to use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method to provide structured, evidence-based answers.

Team Collaboration – No Consultant succeeds in a silo. You will be evaluated on your ability to work cross-functionally, particularly with subject matter experts who may not share a business development background. Show us how you build internal consensus, leverage the expertise of others, and contribute to a unified team culture.

Mission Alignment – Your effectiveness relies on a genuine connection to the work we do. Interviewers will look for your understanding of American Enterprise Institute’s core values and your ability to articulate why our approach to public policy matters in today’s landscape.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process for the Consultant role is designed to be rigorous but highly conversational. Candidates generally report an average difficulty level and a positive, respectful candidate experience. Unlike highly technical roles, this process heavily emphasizes your interpersonal dynamics, your strategic mindset, and your ability to navigate nuanced conversations.

You will face a panel interview format, bringing together diverse perspectives from our development, partnerships, and internal operations teams. This panel approach is intentional; it simulates the cross-functional stakeholder meetings you will lead on the job. Expect the dialogue to be heavily behavioral, with interviewers probing deeply into your past experiences to forecast how you will perform in our consultative, team-oriented environment.

We prioritize authenticity and evidence over polished theoretical answers. Our interviewers are trained to dig into the "how" and "why" behind your resume achievements. You should anticipate follow-up questions that test the depth of your involvement in past projects and your capacity to handle the specific objections and challenges common in consultative sales.

This visual timeline outlines the typical progression of our interview stages, from the initial recruiter screen to the final panel evaluation. Use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you have a robust repository of behavioral examples ready by the time you reach the intensive panel stage. Keep in mind that while the core structure remains consistent, specific panel compositions may vary slightly depending on the regional focus, such as our San Francisco market.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed in the panel interview, you must thoroughly prepare for the specific competencies our interviewers are trained to assess. Below are the primary evaluation areas you will encounter.

Consultative Sales and Stakeholder Management

As a Consultant, your primary engine for success is your ability to manage and grow relationships. This area tests your methodology for identifying prospects, understanding their intrinsic motivations, and guiding them toward a mutually beneficial partnership. Strong performance here looks like a candidate who listens more than they speak, asks highly strategic questions, and tailors their pitch to the specific audience.

Be ready to go over:

• Needs Assessment – How you uncover the true challenges and goals of a stakeholder before proposing a solution.
• Objection Handling – Your framework for navigating skepticism, budget constraints, or ideological misalignment with grace and persuasion.
• Pipeline Management – How you prioritize your time and energy across a portfolio of relationships to ensure consistent results.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Navigating multi-threaded organizational structures to secure buy-in from both economic buyers and internal champions.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk us through a time you had to pivot your pitch completely based on new information uncovered during a stakeholder meeting."
• "Describe a situation where a key relationship was deteriorating. How did you salvage it?"
• "Tell me about a complex partnership you secured. What was your specific strategy for mapping out the decision-makers?"

Teamwork and Cross-Functional Collaboration

You will frequently act as the liaison between external partners and internal policy scholars. This requires immense tact, as you must balance external demands with internal capabilities and boundaries. Evaluators want to see that you can lead without formal authority and foster an environment of mutual respect.

Be ready to go over:

• Managing Internal Experts – How you collaborate with highly specialized, analytical colleagues to translate their work into compelling external narratives.
• Conflict Resolution – Your approach to resolving disagreements within a team, particularly when priorities clash.
• Information Sharing – How you ensure that insights gathered from external meetings are effectively communicated back to the internal organization.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to rely on a colleague who was unresponsive or resistant to your project. How did you handle it?"
• "Describe a scenario where you had to translate complex, technical, or highly academic information for a lay audience."
• "Give an example of a time you put the team's success ahead of your individual recognition."

Past Behavior as a Predictor of Future Action

Our interviewers rely heavily on the principle that your historical performance is the best indicator of your future success at American Enterprise Institute. This evaluation area focuses entirely on your resilience, adaptability, and track record of execution. We want to hear the unvarnished truth about your experiences, including your failures.

Be ready to go over:

• Overcoming Failure – How you process mistakes, extract lessons, and apply them to future endeavors.
• Navigating Ambiguity – Your ability to drive results even when the roadmap is unclear or resources are constrained.
• Goal Achievement – The specific, methodical steps you take to ensure you meet and exceed your targets.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you missed a significant goal or lost a major partnership. What happened, and what did you learn?"
• "Describe a situation where you were given a project with virtually no direction. How did you determine your first steps?"
• "Walk me through your proudest professional achievement. What were the specific obstacles you had to overcome to reach it?"

Key Responsibilities

As a Consultant at American Enterprise Institute, your day-to-day work is dynamic, requiring you to constantly shift between external networking and internal strategic planning. You will be responsible for identifying, cultivating, and closing strategic partnerships that support our policy initiatives. This involves conducting deep research on prospective partners, understanding their philanthropic or corporate goals, and mapping those goals to our ongoing research projects.

You will spend a significant portion of your week in direct conversation with stakeholders, utilizing your consultative sales skills to build trust and uncover opportunities. Following these engagements, you will collaborate closely with internal teams—including scholars, communications staff, and executive leadership—to draft tailored proposals, briefing materials, and impact reports. Your ability to seamlessly translate between the academic language of our researchers and the results-oriented language of our partners is crucial.

Additionally, you will manage a robust pipeline of engagements, tracking your progress meticulously to ensure you are meeting organizational targets. Whether you are hosting a small roundtable discussion in San Francisco, presenting a comprehensive partnership proposal, or navigating a complex contract negotiation, you are the face of American Enterprise Institute to your portfolio of partners.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To thrive as a Consultant with us, you must bring a proven track record of relationship-building and strategic execution. We look for candidates who combine professional polish with a deep, genuine interest in public policy and civic engagement.

• Must-have skills – Exceptional consultative sales abilities, mastery of relationship management, strong verbal and written communication, and a demonstrated history of working effectively in team environments.
• Must-have experience – Several years of experience in business development, strategic partnerships, major gift fundraising, or management consulting, with a clear record of meeting or exceeding performance metrics.
• Soft skills – High emotional intelligence, active listening, resilience in the face of rejection, and the ability to influence stakeholders without relying on formal authority.
• Nice-to-have skills – Familiarity with CRM software (such as Salesforce) for pipeline management, a background in think tanks or public policy, and existing networks in key regional markets like San Francisco.

Common Interview Questions

The questions below represent the types of behavioral and situational inquiries you will face during your panel interview. They are drawn from actual candidate experiences and are designed to test your consultative sales acumen and teamwork. Do not memorize answers; instead, use these to practice your STAR method responses and identify which of your past experiences best fit these themes.

Consultative Sales & Persuasion

These questions assess your ability to uncover needs, build trust, and align external partners with internal goals.

• Walk me through your process for identifying a new prospective partner and securing that first meeting.
• Tell me about a time you successfully persuaded a highly skeptical stakeholder to buy into your vision.
• Describe a situation where a client or partner’s needs were completely misaligned with what you could offer. How did you handle the conversation?
• Give an example of a time you had to ask difficult or uncomfortable questions to uncover a client's true motivations.
• Tell me about the most complex deal or partnership you have ever negotiated. What made it complex, and how did you navigate it?

Teamwork & Collaboration

These questions evaluate how you function within a cross-functional environment and manage internal dynamics.

• Describe a time you had to work closely with someone whose communication style was the exact opposite of yours.
• Tell me about a project that required you to gather input from multiple departments. How did you keep everyone aligned?
• Give an example of a time you stepped in to help a teammate who was struggling, even though it wasn't your responsibility.
• Walk me through a situation where you disagreed with a colleague on the strategic direction of a project. How was it resolved?
• Tell me about a time you had to deliver bad news to an internal team regarding an external partnership.

Behavioral Indicators & Resilience

These questions dig into your past behavior to predict how you will handle the inevitable challenges of the Consultant role.

• Tell me about a time you failed to meet a significant professional goal. What was the aftermath?
• Describe a situation where you had to adapt quickly to a major change in organizational strategy or market conditions.
• Give an example of a time you received critical feedback that was difficult to hear. How did you apply it?
• Walk me through a time you were overwhelmed with competing priorities. How did you decide what to tackle first?
• Tell me about a time you went above and beyond what was expected of you to ensure a project’s success.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How difficult is the interview process for the Consultant role? Candidates generally rate the difficulty as average. The challenge lies not in technical brainteasers, but in your ability to provide highly specific, compelling behavioral examples that demonstrate your consultative sales and teamwork skills under the pressure of a panel format.

Q: What differentiates the candidates who receive offers from those who do not? Successful candidates seamlessly connect their past business development or sales experience to the specific mission of the American Enterprise Institute. They don't just show they can sell; they show they can sell ideas and build coalitions alongside internal policy experts.

Q: How should I prepare for a panel interview at American Enterprise Institute? Prepare to engage multiple stakeholders at once. Practice making eye contact with all panel members, addressing multi-part questions methodically, and demonstrating how you would facilitate a complex meeting where different individuals have different priorities.

Q: Is this role fully remote, hybrid, or in-office? While American Enterprise Institute is headquartered in Washington D.C., roles like the San Francisco-based Consultant often operate in a hybrid or regional capacity. Expect to discuss your ability to work autonomously while maintaining tight communication with headquarters.

Other General Tips

• Master the STAR Method: Our interviewers are explicitly trained to look for past behavior to predict future actions. Every story you tell must have a clear Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Focus heavily on the "Action" portion—what you specifically did, not just what the team did.
• Research Our Scholars: A successful Consultant knows what they are representing. Spend time reading recent publications, op-eds, or reports from American Enterprise Institute scholars. Referencing this work naturally in your interview demonstrates genuine mission alignment.

• Prepare Your Own Strategic Questions: The questions you ask the panel at the end of the interview are evaluated just as rigorously as your answers. Ask probing questions about their current stakeholder challenges, organizational goals, and the specific metrics by which this role will be judged.
• Embrace the Consultative Mindset in the Interview: Treat the interview panel as a prospective client. Uncover their needs, listen actively, handle their objections gracefully, and close the conversation by clearly reiterating your value proposition.

Summary & Next Steps

Stepping into the Consultant role at American Enterprise Institute offers a unique opportunity to blend the dynamic, relationship-driven world of consultative sales with the deep intellectual impact of public policy. You will be at the forefront of securing the partnerships and resources that allow our scholars to shape national and global conversations. It is a demanding role, but one that offers unparalleled exposure to high-level stakeholders and critical societal issues.

This compensation data provides a baseline expectation for the Consultant role. Keep in mind that total compensation may vary based on your specific geographic location (such as the premium associated with the San Francisco market), your years of direct business development experience, and your track record of securing high-value partnerships.

As you finalize your preparation, focus intensely on refining your behavioral stories. Ensure that every example you bring to the panel highlights your ability to navigate complex sales cycles, collaborate seamlessly with diverse internal teams, and drive measurable results. You can explore additional interview insights and resources on Dataford to further sharpen your approach. Trust in your experience, lean into your strategic mindset, and approach your interviews with the same consultative confidence you will bring to our external partners.