Casecoach vs Crafting cases?

Hi there,

Let me give you a real answer :)

Best for building up (from beginner to intermediate): Case Coach

Best for frameworking/structuring: Crafting Cases

Best for case partners + Q&A: Preplounge

Best to move from intermediate to advanced: Hiring a coach

Right now it's clear that CaseCoach would be best for you (until you get to the intermediate stage)

Hi there,

My first reaction is that you are taking a quantity over qualitty approach. This is bound to fail.

15 cases in 2 weeks is too many. 65 cases last year is too many. You are hitting your casing  "American Style"...i.e. throwing resources at it and taking a purely quantity approach.

You need to prepare smarter.

You need to think about what aspects of Crafting Case and CaseCoach you need. All your "percent split" and "what videos" and "maximize resource" questions are dependent on the individual! Different approaches work for different people.

Now, if you can afford Crafting Case and CaseCoach, I think you can afford a coach. There is no better route for seeing rapid, real results, than hiring a personal trainer (especially after you've already tried the "go it alone" approach). Please do yourself a favor and interview a few coaches here to find that one that will really unlock your abilities!

Hey there,

It seems like you are investing a large chunk of your time to hunt for jobs and prepare for cases, which in itself is good!

However, I might fear you are overinvesting the time spent (giving you a false sense of security) instead of preparing smartly.

5 cases with a coach + structured exercises provided by the coach in between sessions + 10 cases with peers > 80 cases with peers

Also, I have seen candidates burn out with cases of the preparation takes too long. In general, I argue that case interview prep should be completed within one month, at a maximum two if the person is busy with other things on the side.

Now to your questions:

1. Haven seen them

2. Use them as starting points, watch them, take notes, especially related to your pain points. Then you need to get into practice mode (this is where 90% of your gains will come from). I am not sure if the resources include practice drills. If not, find practice drills for math and structuring (PM me if needed since I can tell you exactly how to practice structuring for free + have math drills available)

3. Practice should make up 90% of your preparation

All the best,

Florian

I used all three CraftingCases courses and they were all excellent. They helped me get my MBB offer and were much more useful than doing tons of cases with other applicants, because we all had no idea what we were doing (of course!). Even though I didn't get any market sizing questions, the market sizing course and drills helped me with structuring using issue trees, dealing with rounding, and overall making me more confident and prepared for the interviews. I recommend the free fundamentals course to everyone who I feel would benefit from it.

The courses are about much more than watching videos; pause after the questions, do the drills, and review your answers compared to the provided ones afterwards. After taking the courses, you can be more efficient with your partner practice because you can focus on the areas where you need any more improvement (if you aren't there yet after doing the course drills). I did very few cases after taking the courses, but I improved much faster with the courses than when I did 50+ cases prior to taking them.

You clearly know what the process and mechanics of a case is. These courses should get you the rest of the way there if you pay attention to why you're doing these things and how to phrase/organize your answers, that should help you a lot.

Good luck!

Hello!

It seems you are putting a lot of time and effort into this. I think that 15 cases in the last 2 weeks is a very good phase, since it´s one daily, so not too much -particularly taking into consideration  that you re dedicated full time-. 

The materials you mention are indeed very good, the only problem is that they are quite "standard", and not tailored to you and your own mistakes. Have you considered having a coaching call?

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Hi Matteo,

I honestly think it's a very good resource, especially if you are in a very beginning of your prep. The guys are doing a really good job of explaining how to create structures and how to read exhibits – which are two out of three of the most important elements of the case (third being math).

However, as it always goes, treat those explanation videos as examples – do not try to learn any of this by heart. And once you go through them, start practicing with other people (or coaches) – only practice will improve your performance.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Daniel

Hi there, 

I think it depends on your business and consulting experience. Some candidates go just with peer practicing and it is enough for them, while others prefer professional coaches. 

From my experience, the best result is the combination of both. The greatest advantage of a session with a professional coach is:

• Explain to you how the consultants structure the problem (real experience, no guessing how it should be)
• Give you feedback on your performance (most of them had done consulting recruiting)
• Reply to all the questions, explain so many WHYs

This is something you won't get with a peer. 

If you would like to try a coach, feel free to reach out, I am awarded as the top BCG trainer, teaching newly hired consultants consulting skills, including problem structuring. I will be happy to support you on this journey. 

Lucie

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Hey there! 

You should focus more on the quality of the solved cases than on the quantity. If you are solving them that fast - master your presentation, structure etc. It's not less important! 

Look for a partner among the community, here on PL. Working together with somebody will help you to understand how to maximize your profit from the solved cases and improve your skills. 

If you have any doubts or questions - reach out!

GB

Hey, a very short and direct advice to you is to practice with people/friends/peers who are experienced in cases and/or are former/current consultants, if you dont want to invest in Coach yet. Practicing alone (cases) is not going to get you far.

All the best.

In terms of deciding whether case coach or craftingcases is best for you, note that both are great prep firms:

a) I generally recommend trying to find a coach who tailors their approach to you and give them a call if you are unsure and evaluate on that basis rather than only using other people's references

b) references are great but it helps if you have more input points. If you reach out by mail and ask for a call someone should be able to speak at least 10min and help you evaluate whether it is a good program for you. 

c) It is also a good sign for you to see how they respond, for example if you email specific questions between your coaching sessions, will they answer or not, or does everything cost extra - ask them.

(If you are still considering what to sign up for: I offer advice completely tailored to your situation and am happy to have a free conversation with you to explore whether it could be helpful to you. I also point candidates to free resources at the end of a call so they know how they can pratise on their own. )

My view: it creates an inaccurate illusion and wrong expectation about what is actually tested in MBB interviews. 

An “Analytics Academy” is simply NOT what will make you successful in these interviews. But it is very typical for the kind of advice people get when asking former Consulting Juniors for help. The BIG damage I see with my mentees who went through such drill compilations is that they spent an enormously disproportionate amount of time on something that will only make up 5-10% of their success in the MBB interview process. Especially for MBB interviews, it is simply IMPOSSIBLE to learn “analytics” in a way that is detached from full case contexts. 

Because guess what: it is about the INSIGHTS, not the technical calculations (which are pretty easy in MBB interviews!). And insights NEVER reside in the data! Insights always come from CONTEXTUALIZING the data against the principle logic you set up for the question asked by the client. This is one of the major reasons why candidates are struggling in the real interviews - because all the drills they went through have not prepared them for a thorough and insighful discussion of the problem at hand. Instead they do all sorts of meaningless percentage analyses which are completely random and just show a complete lack of focused thinking.

Cheers, Sidi

_______________________

Dr. Sidi Koné 

(Former Senior Engagement Manager and Interviewer at McKinsey | Former Senior Consultant and Interviewer at BCG)

Hello,

It really depends on you and on which part of your preparation you want to reinforce.
I have heard about that source and I have worked with a couple of guys that used it: it's an interesting material if you have experienced difficulties in structuring your cases.

On the other hand. as you know, structuring a case in the right way is fundamental but it's just the first step for a good interview. If you want to focus more on your soft skills or on handling the information they provide you, it's better to focus on "live cases".

Hope it helps,
Luca

Ian hit the nail on the head! Generally speaking though, there are 1000 different ways to start and all are somehow valid (some more efficient than others).

The key is to optimize the bit between starting and interviewing. If there's little time available and/or if you're unsure on how to set yourself up for success, I would advise to consult a professional coach.

Sometimes, all it takes is a couple of sessions with someone who truly knows what it takes to succeed and is able to benchmark your performance with an action plan to close any gaps. This approach can save you a lot of time, stress, money, and ultimately get you from 80% to 100% (which is what it takes).

Hope this helps! Feel free to reach out if there's anything specific you'd like to discuss.

Hello! 

It depends on how well prepared you are already and the amount of time your have to prep. 

If you are a begginer and you need to start from the basics (how to crack a case, typical things you would find, usual frameworks, etc.) it´s probably worth the money, since there you will have a good repository of materials to get you up to speed pretty quickly. 

However, if you are past that point already, I would focus my time -and particularly my money- on coaching and casing. From a certain point onwards, practicing is the only thing that makes you improve. 

Hope it helps!

Best, 

Clara

Time to get a job!

This will clearly not work. If you done 80 cases and are not consistent, I would believe that this is not for you. However, I do agree that a coaching session could be valuable for you as they could more professionaly do the diagnostics on your performance.

IGAO - not worth the money - you get a PDF with 5 cases and their solutions and you also get 2 hours of video materials in which they solve 5-6 cases in details. The materials are good, but far from feasible to prepare you for the interview. You can go through the materials in 2 days and then you'll have nothing to gain from them. There is also a video for math practice, which I found to be very bad.

There are a couple of sites that have 1 free week after which you have to pay the monthly fee and I would recommend you to try them and see it by yourself :)

1) RocketBlocks

2) Crafting Cases

Would love to hear opinion from other people about these resources.

Ciao Matteo,

Sicuramente è una buona risorsa, ho avuto diversi candidati che l'hanno utilizzata e mi hanno dato un feedback positivo.Dovresti utilizzarla?Dipende da te e dal tuo livello di preparazione attuale.

Una lettura al Consentino o al Cheng è sufficiente per avere delle buone basi di partenza. Una volta aver studiato su questi manuali, è fondamentale concentrare i propri sforzi sull'esercizio e sulla pratica con altre persone. Questo per due motivi:

1. Studiare troppa "teoria" potrebbe renderti troppo accademico nella risoluzione dei casi e limitare anche quella parte di inventiva o approccio unconventional che può impressionare l'intervistatore. Ricorda che loro vedono decine di candidati all'anno, enon basta ripetere a memoria quanto studiato per risolvere in modo efficace un caso reale 
2. E' fondamentale fare almeno 50/60 casi con altre persone prima delle interview, perchè leggere un caso è completamente diverso dall'esercitarsi con altre persone. Arrivare ad una soluzione è solo uno dei KPI della tua valutazione, ci sono tanti altri aspetti di "soft skills" non meno importanti che saranno valutati e che puoi sviluppare solo con l'esercizio

Spero utile,
Luca

Hi there,

I actually think their Frameworking Fundamentals is quite good for frameworking. Rocketblocks is great for charts/exhibits. Casecoach/Preplounge are good for a sort of crash course in understanding casing (but not becoming advanced). 

Casing with others is the best way to move from intermediate to advanced.

Best of luck!

Ciao Matteo!

It´s a good page, indeed, since it gives the "theorical basis" in a very passive way for the candidate (e.g., videos, material is very "prepared", etc.) This for sure will make you save some time vs. the classical reading of Case in Point or other classical manuals. 

However, you have the risk of having a too-theorical preparation. Once you have a basis, the most important thing to do is multiple cases, of different: 

• Types: being the top ones profitability, pricing, market entry, M&A, etc.
• Styles: not referring to the misleading concepts of interviewer-led, etc,. but there are many case structures worth seeing at least once
• Even industries!

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Hi,

Based on the feedback that I received from my candidates, those online sources are a good resource if you are at the beginning of your preparation. If you have already studied on a good book, I woul strongly recommend to focus on live cases/interview, either with other candidates or expert coaches. 
Only live cases give you the same feeling of a real interview.

Best,
Luca

Hi Iavi,
I confirm they are good sources. However, once you have fixed the basis by reading Cosentino or Cheng, practice is more important than theory.

Best,
Antonello

Hi! Have you already purchaed a premium subscription? How did it work for you?

Dear Iavi!

I agree with other experts, if you're only starting your consulting path, of course, you can try these courses, but actually I would recommend you to download the "Case in point" book.  It's not the best guide on how you should approach the cases, however, it will give you the basic understanding.

Also, purchase and read Viktor Cheng Book (Amazon Kindle store) and listen to LOMS (his website). I recommend rereading the book and listening to LOMS every 15 cases. Every time, having more experience, you’ll be finding something new.

Hope it helps!

Best, 

Andre