One week to prepare for McKinsey interview
* Nutshell summary: How to become a case ninja in 7 days? I have a few resources - but what do I read, and in which order? Reading alone won't make me a case ninja. After reading the resources - what do I do? *
OP continued at end
How to Become a Consulting Case Ninja in 7 Days
With consulting interviews, the best way to prepare for the cases is:
Reading alone will not help you develop the skills you need to ace this style of interview.
As Certified Consulting Professional @pfitzy" shares,
- If you are going to try to substitute case practice with reading cases (an imperfect substitute at best), do not read them how you would normally read a book. Read the intro, think through what clarifying questions you would ask and write them down, then compare with what the book says, and move on in such fashion. Doing cases involves on the spot thinking and an ability to form structure from ambiguous details.
- Also, I would highly recommend you find someone to do practice cases with you. Working through a case aloud and within time constraints is quite different than reading one at a leisurely pace. There are people on this forum and others all the time looking to do Skype interviews.
- Similarly there could be alumni from your school in consulting (does not have to be McKinsey, coming from a nontarget I found most young alumni in consulting were willing to help out).
- Finally, a smart friend or parents could probably give you a case after reading through an LOMS transcript or the Wharton Casebook case background information. It would not be as good as live practice with a current consultant but would be helpful in identifying weak points that might not be readily apparent while reading.
Recommended Reading
- Prepping for a Case Interview in 1 Week
- Is it Possible to Prepare for and Ace Consulting Interviews in One Month
- Less than a Week to Prep for MBB Interviews Best Sources
Continuation of OP
Hi monkeys!
I have just found WSO and I want to seek your guidance in preparing for my interview with McKinsey next week (Thursday).
Coming from a non-target, I was not expecting to get this far (especially with the way my PST went..) but I was successful in getting a call for an interview for the BA position.
Now I want to make the most of this opportunity and bag this offer.
I just started reading Victor Cheng's book (halfway through). I have got access to some other resources:
VC LOMs
Management Consulted bibles
Found a few MBA casebooks (Wharton, Kelloggs, Stanford, Harvard)
I am at a very basic level atm. What can I do in the next 7 days to get to a decent level that will allow me to progress to the next round?
I feel I can get a understanding (familiarity) of the different frameworks.. but how do I demonstrate competence in the interview?
I am also concerned that I will 'know' the frameworks but I won't be able to effectively apply them in the interview (knowing vs doing) or will not be able to recognise all the drivers in the case which would then affect my structure/analysis of the case.
Is there a resource that identifies the different drivers? (I know this comes with practice, but in 1 week I can realistically only do so much...)
Thank you very much for taking the time out to read and reply.
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Try case in point and get a practice partner
I would focus almost exclusively on Victor Cheng's materials; you don't have enough time to go through multiple things. Specifically, watch his 6 hour video tutorial on his website (caseinterviewprep.com), as it will answer a lot of your questions about actually "applying" the frameworks, since he does examples. Also, listen to the LOMS cases, but don't waste your time on all of them; instead, listen to the last recording for each case, as it typically is the best and you can learn what a good case interview sounds like. Good luck!
Thanks for your input FPM13.
I've watched the VC videos - I felt the information is pretty much the same as outlined in his book. As expected the book is more detailed in the explanation.
I'm reading the LOMS transcripts as well (faster than reading). I'll focus my efforts on the best practice examples before looking at the others (time permitting).
I don't have access to interview partners as the people at my uni are not really targeting MBB. Keeping this in mind, could I substitute case practice with reading a lot of cases?
Thanks for your help man.
If you are going to try to substitute case practice with reading cases (an imperfect substitute at best), do not read them how you would normally read a book. Read the intro, think through what clarifying questions you would ask and write them down, then compare with what the book says, and move on in such fashion. Doing cases involves on the spot thinking and an ability to form structure from ambiguous details. If you only read cases you might understand why they did what they did but find yourself unable to replicate the process in crunchtime.
Also, I would highly recommend you find someone to do practice cases with you. Working through a case aloud and within time constraints is quite different than reading one at a leisurely pace. There are people on this forum and others all the time looking to do Skype interviews. Similarly there could be alumni from your school in consulting (does not have to be McKinsey, coming from a nontarget I found most young alumni in consulting were willing to help out). Finally, a smart friend or parents could probably give you a case after reading through an LOMS transcript or the Wharton Casebook case background information. It would not be as good as live practice with a current consultant but would be helpful in identifying weak points that might not be readily apparent while reading.
Best of luck!
Use this, and you can find someone to do one with you over skype (although you'll probably have to do one for them in return:
http://www.consultingcase101.com/case-interview-partner-2012-2013/
CIP. There is a matrix at the beginning of the different types of cases chapter that outlines how to structure your approach to most any type of case. This chart is gold. Also, Google Wharton's and Kellogg's practice case PDFs online and apply said matrix/chart from CIP. Good luck, pal.
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