Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

This podcast draws on the feedback of one of our principals, Michael Boricki who was a Big-3 principal and left the firm on the day after he was appointed director, to discuss the technique he used to not only fix a stuttering problem, but use the pain from fixing the problem to introduce broader, and much needed, flexibility in this communication techniques.

This podcast is built on a discussion we recently had with a Yale PhD. His friend, who made it to the final round of McKinsey, was told that the firm had no specific development areas for her. She just did not make the make cut and she was upset about this lack of feedback, especially having been denied a place at the firm.

It is quite common for Firmsconsulting to receive the following emails, questions or comments from clients and readers. When reading the comments below, try to think about why a reader would have these questions. In other words, what are their underlying assumptions?

Due to our longstanding relationships at Yale and Berkeley, since several Firmsconsulting mentors are Harvard alumni, our Harvard and Yale clients' involvement in the development of The Consulting Offer Season 1 and 2, students of these schools receive complimentary access. This podcast offers some unique suggestions for PhDs and MBAs from these schools to use the material. In particular, 32 Harvard MBAs were intimately involved in testing the program between December 2012 and June 2013. We discuss their experiences and advice for using the material.

Putting together the September 2013 Quarterly feature article, "Unemployed to the Big-3," was both an interesting and challenging article. It follows the new format of the Firmsconsulting Quarterly. This podcast discusses the lessons you should be taking from this article. The context for those lessons, however, is determined by the way this article was written.

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews.

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews.

Networking will not lead to an interview in management consulting. That is because networking is very poorly done and treated merely as a process of asking for help and referrals. We have a very high success rate due to the unusual steps we take to prepare clients. All time allocated in this part of the training is at the sole discretion of Firmsconsulting since it is not subtracted from the 12 hours of coaching.

For the majority of clients, the most important area is resume preparation. A poor resume leads to a poor LinkedIn profile which results in no networking when consultants view the weaker online profile. Our most successful clients take the time to build effective resumes. All time allocated in this part of the training is at the sole discretion of Firmsconsulting since it is not subtracted from the 12 hours of coaching.

Give our extensive screening process; we have a detailed file on clients before the program begins. The planning call sets the agenda, timetable and objectives for the next few weeks or months if needed. Very few candidates tend to work with us for less than a month and the majority are working with us for more than 6 months.

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews.

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Third Application Step: Interview with an ex-McKinsey or BCG partner.

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Second Application Step: OAT (Online Analysis Test) If your resume screening is successful, you will be invited to an online test. This is purely a business judgement test. No preparation is required for the online test. The test is not assessing your ability to pass a McKinsey PST or a BCG screening exam. The online exam has no pass mark and is used as one data point to assess your candidacy. The online system assesses why you performed as you did and the final mark is not relevant nor does a high score guarantee you will be invited to the final screening interview.

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. First Application Step: Submitting a resume, grades, recent cover letter and/or audio file

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Accurate information will make the difference between an offer which will change the trajectory of your life. This is an unregulated industry and forums, websites, books etc. are rife with misinformation. We negate this problem by only using principals and partners for our training. We also use some of the most eminent senior partners at McKinsey and BCG.

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Since we personally work with each candidate, we collect extensive data on case preparation. A limited amount may be seen in The Consulting Offer Infographics. We therefore make decisions based on measurable statistics from the client in question and the general trends we observed with all other candidates. This provides an unusual advantage in being able to support our decisions on your training with numbers and correlations. For example, we know practicing to be faster in cases does not lead to greater speed since we have measured clients who have practiced this approach and clients who have followed our preferred approach.

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. In every intake of 7 clients / coach, we take in 1 candidate who does not have as strong credentials on paper and usually lives in a developing economy. They may have graduated from domestic schools, have poor access to MBB, weaker grades in a few cases and even weaker GMAT scores. If we believe candidates have outstanding potential but are limited by their circumstances, we will admit them to the program to help place them. This group of candidates has a ~75% placement rate and is among our best performing group. We do however adjust the program to cater to their unique skills gaps and their development takes place over a much longer preparation period. Some of the most outstanding Firmsconsulting alums be

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. ~10% of all clients have non-quantitative degrees such as literature, history, the arts etc. This is one of the most successful clients groups because we have the ability to teach all the skills required from a zero-base. That said, clients in this group typically take longer than normal and usually work with us for a minimum of 3 months before the interview.

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Consultants: ~15% of all clients are consultants typically looking to move from Deloitte, Accenture etc. ~30% of this group are ex-MBB consultants who are trying to rejoin the firm in other parts of the world, or a consultant within MBB trying to move within this group to another firm. We treat both groups differently since their development areas tend to be very different.

This series of detailed podcasts provides prospective applicants to our program all the information they need to put together an application package, do well in the screening interviews, and, should they be the offered a place in the Firmsconsulting program, succeed at their McKinsey, BCG et al interviews. Lawyers: ~10% of our client base are associate lawyers or graduates of law programs. This is a successful group yet our focus is heavy on teaching basic business principles and techniques. We use our own strategy libraries and finance courses to prepare law students with the foundation skills to tackle cases.