Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

Many candidates are confused between the different types of cases: interviewer led, interviewee led, brainstorming, market entry, market sizing etc. In this podcast we will discuss the different types of cases you will face and where you will likely encounter them.

McKinsey, BCG, Bain and Roland Berger use similar but not the same case styles. Within even one firm, styles may differ. Each firm uses a very different interview style. We discuss the different styles to expect and how to handle the questions you will encounter. We also rank the difficulty of the cases from each firm. Expect some counter-intuitive ordering.

How do you pick the firm to build your career: prestige, ranking, salary, feedback from friends or friendliness of the interviewer? Actually none of these will help you. In this podcast we explain how outstanding consultants build their careers and what you need to consider when choosing a firm.

We were forced to prepare this podcast after realizing how poorly candidates prepare for the arithmetic rigor they need to display. For some reason candidates believe practicing hundreds of math problems make them better at math. This is not how to learn math in cases. This podcast gives you proper guidance on learning arithmetic for cases, and how to communicate this competency.

On Monday this week, we had an early lunch at Crush restaurant at King West in Toronto. We wanted to advise a recently placed McKinsey associate who was struggling to make the transition. The challenges he faced provide an interesting perspective on what skills you will need as a consultant, and related to this, what you need to show in an interview.

We would say 90% of candidates with whom we speak do not understand what is confidence, how to build it and how to demonstrate it. We will talk about experiences we have had with candidates with weak confidence levels and what you need to consider when preparing for your own interviews.

MBA programs want you to believe that joining a school like Stanford, Harvard etc in the MBA program will dramatically improve your chances of success. It will not and that is a huge myth.

This is a topic which is very dear and close to me. In fact, it is why we started Firmsconsulting and run it the way we do. Very, very few people truly understand the culture of management consulting. Many existing consultants also struggle to understand the culture. Consultants are professionals, not business people. I would strongly urge you to listen to this podcast.

This is an important podcast because it explains how a consulting career should fit into your overall career planning. Most candidates want to work at BBM because everyone says they should. They also think they know the exit opportunities but have a very weak, and sometimes fantasized, view on exit options.

You are unlikely to pass a McKinsey case interview unless you can brainstorm. Consulting interviewers are ALWAYS testing for poise, confidence, structure and logic in your response. Most candidates do this well everywhere – except when it comes to brainstorming. Learn how “not” to brainstorm. This podcast looks at one of the most common brainstorming problems. A problem so common, that many simply assume it is the way to brainstorm. Fixing this problem can improve your brainstorming skills by between 5% to 30% percent.

McKinsey, BCG et al engagements are very different from the stories typically depicted on blogs etc. Too often the writer seems intent on explain how long the hours are and the need to do analyses. That is part of the picture but far from the entire story. Many of these stories are also written bottom-up with an associate or analyst seeing things from their relatively narrow view without a proper feel for the higher level discussions.

Here we talk about the unusual tactics we used to place a musician into BBM Europe who had just a master’s degree in music, from an elite institute and 4 years of experience in the Arts. Lacking a business background she decided to make the transition after her marriage. The tactics are not surprising, but the execution is.

Having a brilliant profile and credentials is good, but not great. In this podcast we discuss the hurdles which caused a brilliant Wharton MBA to stumble during their interviews. Much came down to the candidate simply not understanding the consulting culture and not acting on feedback. Moreover, McKinsey, especially BCG, look for reserved leaders versus over-confidence. That balance is crucial.

Aspiring consultants typically struggle at this selection and arrive at the wrong strategy. When you live in a country with just one BBM office, like most countries, how do you select a 2nd, 3rd or 4th choice? How many options do you realistically have and how do you size them up? Are the UAE and Singapore your only options? This podcast addresses these issues.

If you read forums worldwide everyone is obsessed with cracking the case. Yet, most people cannot communicate like a consultant. We hope by reading this post, candidates spend an equal, if not more, time focusing on their communication skills as well. If you cannot speak like a consultant, you cannot be a consultant.

No one will say this, but you should not be planning a family in the formative/early years of McKinsey or BCG. While firms go to great lengths to extol the virtues of their family friendly cultures, at the end of the day, the numbers say otherwise. It is very difficult to balance family demands and the pressures of a McKinsey engagement. It is best to select phases in your life, and early in you career, focus on career building. Related: - The Consulting offer 2: The Challenges of A Chinese female PhD Purusing Consulting - Quarterly Article: Why there are so few female management consulting partners

The most important piece of feedback for a McKinsey, BCG et al networking event is to do nothing. You actually want to draw as little attention to yourself as possible. Networking events are really formats where consulting firms market themselves. There are obviously exceptions, but rarely is this going to be a moment for you to market yourself. For one, there is too much happening around you and you will almost never get an opportunity to dazzle anyone. Related: The Consulting Offer season 2, Episode 1 Partner Networking and Resume Feedback Quarterly article: Networking with Management Consulting Partners

Unless you have a stellar resume and profile, you will likely need to do some form of networking to secure an interview. Most aspiring consultants cannot network and treat networking as a “tick-the-box” set of coffee chats and phone discussions. Related: The Consulting Offer season 1, Partner Networking Emails

This podcast introduces and discusses the steps firms like McKinsey use to screen and review resumes. Consulting firms and recruiters essentially look for five things: 1 Your school 2 Grades at school 3 Stature of employers 4 Achievements at work 5 Personal experience

This podcast answers the following reader question on GMAT scores and their relevance versus GPA scores when applying to consulting firms.