Failed all my case interviews - why?

Vlad offered a solid answer: need to practice with consultants and experienced coaches for the actionable / relevant feedback, and live cases can be useful as well. Fit is also a component, and obviously it all is also a numbers game. 

One other thing that crossed my mind since I have this issue right now with two of my clients: Do you get stressed out and lose your abilities? If so, you need to address your nerves first. We've had a few threads on this lately, with potential solutions including compatmentalization, yoga / meditation, box breathing....

If you still aren't sure why you got rejected and you haven't done so yet, I would also encourage you to reach out to all these companies again and ask for some feedback. It will often be of poor quality but you might hopefully get lucky and be told exactly where you failed.

Last but not least: I know rejection hurts, I have been rejected by multiple consulting firms, some more than once. I eventually got into BCG though -> all is not lost, there will be other opportunities if that's what you really want. Also remember that MBB rejects tens of thousands of amazing people every year, who often go on to very successful careers in industry or start ups. This outcome doesn't say anything about you; keep your head up and truck along, someone else will come your way.

Best -

Hi,

Sad to hear that you didn't get the offer especially with the companies that are not that demanding in terms of cases. Several thoughts:

• Unfortunately quantity <> quality. Having hundreds of interviews with the lower level candidates or coaching with multiple different coaches do not necessarily give you the consistency of preparation
• One thing that you've missed in your story is the Fit interview part. Have you worked on that at all?
• In addition, I recommend practicing some interviews with the current consultants (not skype but the live meeting) since they might notice some issues that are hard to spot.

Best,

You should ask your coaches for a referral. Sometimes I do doubt the quality of the coaches here and on other sites (even the "highly rated" ones) from personal experience. What I've seen is their interest in getting the finances but not their focus on the training - many just skim through, give general (and usually encouraging and positive) feedback, and are simply too comfortable. They do not consider how those seeking coaching (like us), dole out that money from our hard work and pockets, and will not go out of the way to help (my hypotheses).

So if they told you that you are ready, then they shouldn't hesitate to refer you.

Hi Anon,

I've been in a similar situation in my first attempt applying to consulting firms - 6 first round rejections out of 7 interviews (with the last one not being case interview-based). That was 2 years ago, but since then I've only practiced before applying in bulk to companies, and have been much more successful (3 offers to Tier 2/boutiques from 6 companies). I'm happy to have a chat regarding your experience and maybe share my own experience if you're interested.

I was legitimately relatively clueless after 60 or so cases, but it only took me an additional 10-20 cases before getting much better, and another 10 to become very comfortable with cases in general.

If you want to chat feel free to leave your username or create another one if you want to remain anonymous

Cheers