Mastering the Case Interview in <30 hrs
Hey WSO Peeps,
Noob here. New to the site, really need some help:
Q: I was ready to accept an offer from Google's finance division, when the son's of bitc*es at McKinsey and BCG decide to finally reach out for Round 1's. Realistically, I have about 30 hrs of study time to dedicate to prepping for case interviews and be as good as Dominic Barton, worldwide director of McKinsey (I have yet to get started and have only heard about case interviews).
How would you prepare? What SPECIFIC tools, websites, articles, and the like, would you recommend to somebody who has limited time? I need SPECIFICS.
I know many of you put a lot of time into prepping for cases and you're thinking why the hell should we tell you all of our secrets...well, I'm really desperate right now and if you help I'll give you a banana, or whatever the hell this site uses for brownie points.
Background:
- I'm a professional public speaker, so I'm not worried about behavioral/fit types of questions; mostly worried about the case questions
- Current undergrad; so applying for entry level consulting gig
Gracias!
Understand that you have less than 30 hours, but can you give a realistic estimate of where you are?
Have you never seen a case before? Have you seen one but never practiced? Have you read anything? Do you know frameworks?
You have to give a bit of a starting point before anybody on here can really give you an optimal route to prepare. If you have never visited caseinterview.com, I would highly recommend you do so and look at simulations for case interviews. Internalize the cases on that site as best you can. Since it's first round, I would start with Profitability and the general business case frameworks.
If you're at a school with friends who have gone through the process, ask them to give you sample cases ASAP. That would be a much better learning experience than reading about them. Offer a beer/bottle/whatever to get them to bite. The best case practice is live case practice, preferably with someone who has gone through the entire process already.
I'm not a consulting bro but was emailed this:
http://www.insead.edu/mba/clubs/consulting/consulting/documents/ICC_Han…
And when you tell your Google folks you're rescinding their offer give them my resume. I'll PM it to you.
Jk. ;)
Be structured. Don't jump around your analysis. Big picture to small, small to big, your call and depends on case. Value chain from largest to smallest, supply chain from raw materials to product etc etc. You get the drift. If you can be structured and do simple math... you should be okay.
@IBTeaching
Great point! Here's more detail on my Background:
1) Have worked at either GS/JPM; have worked at tech comps, in addition to Google: Lockheed Martin/Intel 2) I'm on page 20 of Case In Point 3) Economics Major: very liberal artsy education but I understand basic business jargon 4) Have already had 2 case interviews with Oliver Wyman (didn't want the job, just wanted practice with cases) 5) I go to a terrible school where nobody knows what consulting is, which means practicing with friends can be crossed off
Ok.
Urgh you beat me to it!
Personally, in my own biased opinion, I'd stop reading Case in Point. Now. If you have a lot of time, attempting to internalize his multitudes of frameworks might help. You need the quickest way to understand how to approach and solve cases.
I would watch (in double time if your quicktime allows) the Victor Cheng six-hour ace the case crash session on caseinterview.com (mentioned above). Then I would spend I little more time understanding his approach and frameworks, those would help. (We're at 4 hours now).
Then, I would go through the most recent Wharton Casebook you can find and read the portions on case interview frameworks and industries (at most 1 hour, so 5 hours down). Run through 3-4 of the practice cases in that book hiding the interviewer portions as you go through it (i.e. read the question, stop and write out a framework...saying it aloud, then asks yourself questions, find the answer in the packet, and so on and so forth). After this (10 hours in), I would get 1-3 live/telephone practice cases in (if possible) to assess weak areas. Then go back to your reference materials (casebook, Case in Point, Victor Cheng, etc.) to bolster those capabilities and try again in iterative fashion.
PM me if you want more info/materials.
Dear Noob,
I agree and also disagree with pfitzy on some issues:
You need to do do 2 things to get an offer from McKinsey with preparation less than 30 hours.
1, I wouldn't stop reading Case in Point. I am certain skills taught at the estimation question section are extremely valuable and come up frequently.
2, We agree on watching Victor's Video Guides. With an emphasis on opening and closing cases.
I wish you my best!
Keep us informed!
Eszk2012
To add a suggestion - you should practice with experts. There are options here on WSO, but there are also websites like Evisors, and the top names like David O, and Marc C provide individual support as well.
They will put you through a live (Skype) based mock interview, and will give you individual feedback. On such short notice, I think this will be the best bang for your buck.
WSO_noob I'm in the same boat as you, applied from a non-target with no case experience. I just watched Victor Cheng's video series and read through some practice cases in Case in Point, didn't really do any live cases. I got the BCG offer yesterday and have McK interview next week, so if you're smart, which it looks like you are, you should be fine.
I like wetfeet guides. Also, I would reach out to someone who is recent grad of your school or similar school/major and ask them to run a case with you. It won't count against you if you don't do well at first but it really helps and they can often offer good feedback.
Or you can try out the WSO Consulting Case guide which has 11 original cases and is tailored for specific interview practice (so someone that is even pretty clueless can give you a mock case interview): //www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/consulting-case-interviews
the key (espeically with this little time) is really to learn the fundamentals and try to practice as much as possible with mocks.
Good Luck! Patrick
Patrick,
If we bought the older edition, do we get free updates? Wondering because most sites do this.
Thanks.
Yes, you can get a free update. The only time in the past we have charged more is when we bumped the price on our other guides which have now been the same price for a while (and even then, we only charged the difference).
But I'm fine giving free updates to those who purchase when the price is lower.
Thanks, Patrick
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