EY Parthenon SaT - Strategy and Operations Consultant

Hi there,

Congrats on the interview! Your preparation so far with 20 live cases, especially market entry cases, is a great start. For EY-Parthenon’s SaT team, you can expect cases that align closely with their work—commercial due diligence, growth strategy, and M&A-related cases. While market entry is relevant, also make sure you’re comfortable with profitability, commercial due diligence (CDD), and private equity-style cases (e.g., “Should a PE firm acquire this company?”).

For the case interview with the manager:
    •    Be structured and hypothesis-driven – Managers at EY-Parthenon appreciate clear frameworks but also expect you to adapt them based on the case details.
    •    Quant skills matter – Be quick with mental math and comfortable interpreting financials, as SaT cases often involve revenue projections, market sizing, and valuation elements.
    •    Synthesize clearly – Always wrap up with a strong conclusion that ties insights back to the client’s strategic goals.

For the HR interview:
    •    Expect behavioral questions around teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, and why EY-Parthenon specifically.
    •    Have clear STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) answers ready, especially around experiences that highlight analytical thinking, adaptability, and collaboration.
    •    Know your motivation for strategy consulting and EY-Parthenon’s SaT focus—HR will want to see that you understand their positioning versus competitors.

For the partner interview:
    •    This is often more conversational and focused on your fit for the firm and industry insights.
    •    Expect high-level strategic questions like “What are the key drivers of M&A activity in [DACH industry] right now?” or “How would you assess a company’s market attractiveness?”
    •    Be prepared to discuss your past experience in a way that aligns with EY-Parthenon’s work—partners look for client-ready professionals who can think critically about business problems.

I’ve been with EY-Parthenon for six years now, so I can definitely help with your finalising your prep and refining a few final bits - feel free to reach out!

Best,
Evelina
 

Hi,

I am currently coaching 2 people applying for the same position within EU.

Their entire interview process consists of 4 round. You can find a brief overview of each round below.

1) Personal motivation and business case

• Personal motivation: Why EY, the office, consulting experience, data analysis experience
• Business case: Market entry, PE (e.g., number of active Spotify users, PE investment in retail chain ...)

2) Strategy case

• Focus on developing MECE framework
• Case has a quantitative and qualitative component
• Strategic advise based on market data & financial data 

3) Operations case

• Post integration M&A case (Efficiency, quality, HR ...)

4) Partner interview

• Motivation
• Market sizing question or brainteaser (e.g., number of traffic lights in NL)

Please reach out via chat for further information or coaching. 

Mattijs

Hi there,

I am a former recruiter for EY-Parthenon. Happy to support you. Some advice:

• Please have a bit more diversity in your case types. Particularly because this is not a role related to Commercial Due Diligence, focusing only on market entry is a risky approach.
• Hope you know how to do market estimates "with your eyes closed" :) If not, happy to give you some tips and how to handle the different types of market estimates.
• HR is a fit interview. Partner may be a small case, although most likely is a conversation (and a fit interview). Also happy to support this, I have plenty of experience with Fit Interview preparation :)

Hey there 😊

Thanks for your message and congrats on the interview with EY-Parthenon SaT in DACH – that’s already a big step 🎉

For EY-Parthenon Strategy & Operations (SaT) in DACH, here’s how you can best prepare:

🔹 Case Interview (30 min with manager):
Expect more operational-heavy strategy cases – often profitability, cost-cutting, or market entry with operational constraints. SaT cases tend to be a bit more data-heavy than pure strategy. So make sure you’re confident with quick math, interpreting charts, and structuring without overly “textbook” frameworks. Be ready to dig into supply chain, pricing, or process optimization levers.

🔹 HR Interview (30 min):
This will be personal fit and motivation-focused. You should prep:

• Why consulting?
• Why EY-Parthenon (specifically SaT)?
• Why this region? Why now?
• Past team experience, conflict resolution, time you handled pressure etc.

Keep it structured but personal – they’re assessing cultural fit just as much as experience 🌟

🔹 Partner Chat:
This is usually less technical and more about your story, interest in consulting, and ability to connect and think top-down. Be confident, calm, and clear in how your background adds value. They might challenge you a bit on your motivations or understanding of the role – it’s more of a “fit + maturity” check.

If you need help refining your answers or running a mock case to simulate the interview style, happy to support! Let me know 🤗

Best of luck, you got this!
Best,
Alessa 😊

Hey there,

Focus on learning how to case, not on specific types of cases!

• The key reason why candidates fail their case interviews and don't improve with practice is because they never learn the right approach and techniques to begin with. They might go through 30-40 cases, just repeating the same mistakes over and over again. There is often no strong baseline.

• Make sure you understand and learn the basics for each part of the case (structuring, charts, math), which is

  • A replicable step-by-step for each part of the case interview

  • The right thinking techniques around the individual parts (e.g., what's a framework, what is evaluated, how can I ensure I think about it the correct way, what are some shortcuts to get to the answer quickly, etc.)

  • Simple communication templates to help you communicate your insights as well as ask for data in the right way to drive the case forward

• There are several approaches you can take, such as hiring a skilled coach, reading the right materials, or enrolling in relevant courses. For example, my book provides direct guidance tailored to modern case interviews (also for EY). It covers all the essential points mentioned here, and more, while also offering a detailed preparation plan. You can find it on Amazon

• Avoid generic advice and framework memorization approaches for specific case types like you mention market entry. This will only hurt your performance and waste a ton of time (why -> check out the first post here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-goodrelevant-is-the-case-in-point-book-for-case-prep-1984)

• Once you have that baseline it's time to practice and internalize the skills to create the right profile, polishing your strengths and lifting your weaknesses to a robust-enough level

• Practice drills alone (structure, chart, math) and practice full cases with other excellent candidates that know the right habits and approach. It is crucial that you are practicing with really good peers, otherwise, it's a waste of time. Practicing drills on your own is a huge effectivity and efficiency booster since you can go over many more questions in a shorter amount of time compared to practicing with peers. Do both in parallel! You want to spend your time where it is most useful, e.g., if you struggle with math focus on math drills, etc.

• Focus on quality over quantity. Doing 50+ cases does not mean much if you are not applying the right habits to score high and do a detailed debrief after every case to improve. You want to move from bad to good for your weaknesses and good to great for your strengths --> use the feedback from your previous experience and tailor your prep accordingly

• Consider booking at least an initial coaching session to get a detailed and objective evaluation of your performance + learn the right habits for every case regardless of context and framework + get a tailored preparation plan out of the session that will set you up for an effective and efficient prep.

• Don't forget the fit interview part. Prepare answers for all the typical fit questions and stories (3-5 hours) and rehearse them a couple of times (5 hours)

All the best,

Florian