Need help preparing for your case interview? A case interview coaching could be perfect for you if you're aiming for a successful start in your consulting career. Increase your chances of landing your dream job offer at McKinsey, BCG, Bain or other top consulting firms and prepare yourself to the best of your ability. The competition is fierce, so the key to standing out is investing in preparation.
But what exactly should you know about case interview coaching? How do you choose the right coach and coaching package for you? How can you make the most out of your coaching sessions? In this comprehensive article, we'll answer all these questions for you. Let's dive in! 💙💚
The wide range of resources available for case preparation can quickly become overwhelming. The following questions and their corresponding answers will help you gain an overview and structure your expectations and needs.
Case interview coaching with former consultants helps you prepare for your job interview in consulting. Together, you can simulate the real interview situation, consisting of a personal fit interview and the case interview. You'll receive valuable feedback to improve your performance. A single session usually lasts 60 minutes and can be conducted via PrepLounge directly or through video call providers like Google Meet, Zoom, or Teams.
Before the session, you'll discuss with your coach what needs you have and where you stand in your preparation. The specifics of the coaching session for the case interview depend on you and your progress. The session will be tailored to your needs. When you book your coaching on PrepLounge, our coaches are verified by us, and you can rely on their information and skills.
On PrepLounge, we offer various coaching options:
a) Premium+Coaching is our most cost-effective combination of a premium membership and a coaching session. Here, you get the premium membership for a year and can also book a coaching session with our handpicked "Premium+Coaching" experts.
👉 Check out the Premium+Coaching package now
b) Expert Packages: Meet with your favorite coach for multiple sessions. Many coaches enhance their packages with additional materials - so it's worth taking a look at the included materials.
Some of our best coaches offer their own coaching packages. This is a sensible investment since they have the most experience and have helped hundreds of candidates secure their dream job offers. By focusing on one coach, you'll receive significant discounts and can adjust the pace gradually. However, make sure to supplement your coaching sessions by practicing with suitable case partners through appointments on our meeting board.
👉 Check out our coaching packages now
c) CoachingPlus: The all-in-one package for your case interview preparation
The CoachingPlus package is our all-in-one preparation package if you have a limited budget. It offers a combination of multiple coaching sessions and a 6-month premium membership, giving you access to the most important preparation materials on PrepLounge.
You can choose from a list of over 50 different coaches. All CoachingPlus experts are experienced management consultants at top firms. They can also advise you on creating your CV, for example.
👉 Check out CoachingPlus now
Through our years of experience helping candidates secure their dream jobs in consulting, we are confident that both suitable case partners and experienced coaches can help you significantly increase your chances of success. Case partners help you achieve quantity in your training, while coaches can assist you better with quality. Our coaches Francesco and Hagen explain this vividly:
As for many other activities, a coach for consulting interviews can help you to faster achieve the results you want to get, which means you can get to your top-level performance in a lower amount of time AND increase the likelihood of getting into your desired company. There are several reasons for that, including as main ones the following:
The most successful people in the world - from Warren Buffet to Michael Jordan - had coaches helping them to achieve their goals. The reason is simple: investing in the stock market can give you an 8% return in one year. Investing in yourself can give you a 10X return in one year. And getting a great coach is one of the easiest ways to invest in yourself, whatever part of your life you want to improve.
Working with an experienced coach who has years of experience in consulting, interviewing, and coaching will improve your interview preparation in two ways: it will increase the overall quality of your preparation and accelerate your preparation process.
Investing in an experienced coach will ensure that your preparation is not only thorough but also strategically tailored, maximizing your chances of succeeding in the highly competitive field of strategy consulting.
Certainly, there are examples of candidates who have received offers even without case interview coaching, sometimes without any preparation at all. However, consider how many candidates fail their interviews due to lack of preparation and have to wait one to two years before they can reapply.
From our candidates, we know that they don't regret investing in coaching because the costs of coaching have more than paid off after receiving their job offers. Coaching pays off. If you receive a job offer as a top consultant, you can repay the investment with your salary within the first week of work!
Coaching is necessary to assess your preparation level, master the personal fit part of the interview, and perfect your skills before the interview. One of our candidates says:
"After my first round at BCG and before the final round, I had four sessions with a case interview coach and then received my offer. I would say it was definitely worth it because it was the small, final touches that helped me get the offer."
The costs of case interview coaching are even tax-deductible in Germany. If you are from another country, we recommend contacting a tax advisor to clarify how this is handled in your country.
As so often, it depends. Some candidates prefer to prepare mostly on their own and only check if they are on the right track through a few scattered sessions. Others prefer intensive coaching throughout the entire case interview preparation process to receive continuous feedback and work on their weaknesses in a targeted way.
Based on our experience, we recommend starting your entire case interview preparation no later than four to six weeks before your actual first interview and scheduling your coaching sessions between three and one week before the actual interview. This time frame allows you to consolidate what you have learned, clarify specific questions, and improve your performance under pressure.
Who could tell you more about this than candidates that already got an offer? 🚀 Have a look at two reviews by candidates below:
"I practiced very intensively with Sharona and booked 10 sessions with her. I must say, it was a very valuable experience for my professional development. She tailored the cases to my needs, allowing me to see my improvement from session to session. She always took the time to discuss my concerns and questions and provided me with very helpful feedback.
One of the aspects I appreciated the most was Sharona's ability to break down complex consulting concepts into tangible and actionable steps. This allowed me to build strategies and apply them to real-life examples with this approach. This practical approach significantly accelerated my learning and skills development. I highly recommend her to anyone looking to enter consulting! THANK YOU :)"
"The session with Francesco was impressive; thanks to his advice I managed to receive an offer from Bain!
I would strongly recommend it to everyone tackling an interviewing round with a 1st or 2nd tier management consulting firm!
Among the key highlights of the session, I would underline:
To sum up, I would strongly recommend a session with Francesco for boosting your preparation before an interview and increasing your chances to get an offer!"
By following the steps below, you can ensure that nothing goes wrong in choosing a coach. The time you take in making your selection will help you prepare efficiently and work with the right expert to accelerate your preparation!
Diving straight into coaching sessions when you haven't even started with case interview preparation can be a waste of money and time. Therefore, it's important that you first grasp the fundamentals. This means going through our Case Interview Basics, solving some cases independently, and practicing them with like-minded individuals.
After several rounds, it may be worthwhile to plan your first coaching session so that you don't develop in the wrong direction and adopt incorrect techniques. However, you can also choose to go for coaching only after you have reached an advanced level. After all, the value of coaches lies in taking you from good to excellent.
Before starting the search for a case interview coach, it's important that you know your needs and can briefly explain them. For this, you should have a clear understanding of your goals so that the coach can determine if they are suitable for you. You should define:
What is your background? Do you have knowledge in business administration and professional experience?
How much time do you have until your interview, and which companies are you applying to? What is your desired company?
How far along are you in your preparation? How many cases have you solved with how many different candidates?
Do you already have some specific topics in mind (e.g., structure, brainstorming, personal fit) that you want to focus on during your session?
Write a brief paragraph that you can send to the coach when contacting them.
In our experience, it's beneficial to receive feedback from various coaches, as you can benefit from different perspectives. Here's how you can proceed:
Filter the coaches based on key criteria such as number of sessions, recommendation rate, and price per coaching/package.
Choose up to 10 coaches whose profiles, reviews, Q&A contributions, and PrepLounge awards you examine closely.
Reach out to 2-3 coaches to clarify your questions about coaching and to get a first impression.
Good coaches typically will:
Tailor the coaching to your needs
Build a good relationship with you
Provide full transparency about the coaching process on PrepLounge
If you opt for a coaching package, you can apply the same approach for CoachingPlus coaches and top experts with their own coaching packages.
There's no one-size-fits-all solution for case interview frameworks or your coaching session. Therefore, a personalized approach tailored to you and your needs is an important foundation and will help you make your coaching session as effective as possible. Let your coach know at the beginning of the first session what is important to you (e.g., personal fit or case interview preparation).
Then, you should go through an initial practice interview so that your coach can assess your level and help you determine how much work still needs to be done. If you already have a lot of prior experience, one session may be sufficient to refine your performance, but it may also be the case that you need five or more coaching sessions to make significant progress.
All of our coaches will provide you with detailed feedback after your coaching session, which is likely the most important part of coaching. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't take notes yourself! Listen carefully and jot down the important points and feedback your coach gives you during your session.
You won't have much time to focus on note-taking (listening is, of course, still the most important part 😉), so take some time immediately after your conversation with your coach to write down in detail what you learned during the session. This will help you later when you put the feedback into practice.
Practice interviews with other candidates will help you implement the feedback your coach has given you. So, this is definitely something you should do after your first (and subsequent) coaching sessions. Additionally, it's important to sometimes take on the role of the interviewer to see what needs to be focused on during an interview.
After each practice interview, take notes again based on the feedback you received from your case partner. Also, write down other things you noticed that will help you improve your performance. You should collect these insights along with all notes from your case interview preparation and revisit them before and after each practice session.
Whether you're preparing for an interview at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or another top consulting firm, coaching can help increase your chances of landing your dream job offer.
To make the most of your coaching sessions, start by familiarizing yourself with the fundamentals of case interview preparation and defining your needs and goals for the coaching session. Then, choose a coach who aligns with your background, budget, and schedule. Benefit from coaching sessions tailored to your individual needs and rapidly and effectively improve your skills.
Interpret case interview coaching as a worthwhile investment in your future. It's essential to actively implement your coach's feedback and practice regularly to continuously improve your performance and prepare yourself ideally.
If you're ready to make the most of your case interview preparation and maximize your chances in the interview process, check out our coaches overview directly and start your preparation today! 💼🚀
