Breaking into MC - A Preparation Guide
I made a comment on a FT 2021 thread on consulting; and since I had a lot of people message me, I thought I'd just share the advice and resources in a separate post.
I've been tracking the consulting industry from an undergrad entry level. I'll speak on what I've seen and best practices from those I spoke with across firms. If anyone has more to add or any corrections; please add on.
My advice:
(1) Begin by reading or reviewing Case in Point 8th Edition and Case Interview Frameworks - this summarizes the recruitment process and consulting mindset quite well and gives you exposure into the questions and frameworks consulting firms traditionally use.
(2) Practice a few cases with a partner, you should aim for a completion of 30-50 cases, with every 10 or so to be with a consultant within industry. This is due to the fact that as great as your friends are, they would know how to go from good to great, and where to improve based on your case solving ability.
(3) Once you've read that, listen to Looking Over My Shoulder. This provides an incredibly detailed view into how to solve a case from top to bottom in in a concise manner. I would honestly advise listening to them more than once since there's quite a bit to pick up on. I'd also mention that if possible, a subscription to RocketBlocks or a free alternative (CraftingCases) is great for working on specific components of the case interview.
(4) Finally, make sure to frequent news articles on strategy and markets. The common option is to look into Morning Brew for daily markets report, and look into university publishings for strategy. I'm a fan of HBR and Knowledge (Wharton's website) since they provide some great reads. The goal of this is to build intellectual capital to draw on for the creativity aspect of solving cases. If you've read on supply chain management tactics implemented that work amid COVID or more generally in a recession, then it could work to serve as a cost minimization tactic within the retail sector for a hypothetical case. - this was an actual example a consultant provided for how he stood out.
(5) Continually practice cases or case skillsets (Arithmetic mathematics, Structuring, Market Sizing Questions, Data Extrapolation), to isolate for weaker areas. I, myself, struggle with structuring and more elaborate mathematics.
The current market:
Given the unique situation, I would also advise speaking with regional firms to understand what the hiring practices are in this unique time. Some firms are in flux, specifically, Deloitte and Oliver Wyman have instituted a hiring freeze. PwC is cutting back on full-times hired, and I've received a mixed response from some other firm contacts. I believe the timeline has remained unchanged with most applications opening in August and interviews/offers carrying to September.
Finally, some free resources for consulting that I think are great include:
- MConsultingPrep (Youtube) includes an introduction to the field and mindset of consulting
- PrepLounge includes partner-system for mock cases
- Caseinterviews has articles and video series of the consulting mindset; I would advise reading/listening to LOMS (Looking Over My Shoulder) if you can find a copy.
- CraftingCases has a 7-day crash course into consulting components (brainstorming, mental math, structuring, MECE framework, etc.) and plenty of articles for specific problems in solving case interviews.
I guess everyone is different with the prep, but I think a lot of this may be overkill (at least for some).
Agree on reading Case in Point. Any edition will be fine. It is more to get the right ideas flowing around and I looked at it before I started casing.
Idk, but 30-50 seems like heavy overkill. It becomes pretty obvious when you are the one interviewing if someone has overpracticed. Not saying you will get cut as a result, but this isn't like banking where the more you study technicals, the better you will be at them. The idea of practicing cases is to practice how to interact with the interviewer and how to be quick on your feet thinking through a problem. I would say like 15-20 (max) is probably the sweet spot. If anything I'd say people who do 12 probably do better than those that do 30+. Part of it is that you end up sounding very robotic and just start trying to fit everything into a perfect framework. It probably won't be a big deal the first round, but will crush you in the second round when partners get bored and get off script. As an interviewer (1st round) I would always lean more towards someone unpolished who is a great thinker than someone who isn't giving an original thought but had memorized 100 frameworks. I agree to mix it up with who you case and do 1 or 2 with a consultant. Basically, just work with a variety of friends and make sure they are taking it seriously and practicing hard. Spread it out, don't do more than one a day.
I've never heard of this. Again do it if you need it but seems like way overkill.
Agree with this one the most. I honestly am not a big fan of morning brew since it is pretty surface level, but just read the news. Understand trends and how they effect industries, see how companies and trends evolve. You should start doing this regardless of consulting, but after a year or two you start to actually see how things connect across industries and across the world. This will help you in interviews and really stands out. If you want to do HBR/Knowledge than great, but just be intellectually curious, there isn't a need to force it. If you are than consulting probably won't be a fit anyways.
Again, I don't think everyone needs to. I think this makes sense for math if you are slow with it to just practice like times tables and basic tricks, but for others this just comes easy. Market sizing and all of that again could just seem forced if you do it over and over again.
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