I have an engineering background, and I know nothing about business. Do I just trust the process on Preploung or I need to do something extra ?

Hi Abdulrahman,

Coming from an Engineering background myself, I feel your pain. Although PrepLounge is a great platform to leverage, you will need to complement it with other tools at your disposal.

Let me try to help you with my answer, but feel free to reach out in case you have any other questions:

1. Complement your basic business knowledge gaps: this is a very important first step. Although you don't need to be an expert in business (no company asks for that), you should know the basics. You can use many materials, but I recommend you leverage the existing content on YouTube (look for Essential Business Concepts). And during your interviews, remember: if you are not familiar with the concept, ALWAYS ASK!
2. Understand what Management Consulting firms look for in candidates: This is where you should focus next. You need to understand very clearly what type of skills your interviewers will be looking for during the interview, and why. Victor Cheng's book Case Interview Secrets is a good short read for you to get a sense of why the recruitment process is built this way (although be mindful that this book was written +10 years ago, so some things are no longer 100% true)
3. Become a master at these skills: After understanding what skills consulting companies are looking for, you need to practice them until they become natural to you (structuring problems, being MECE, communicating clearly and with structure, etc.). There are many free resources online you can use (hit me a DM, and I'll tell you my favorites).
4. Practice with real case problems: This is where PrepLounge can be a great resource. After you start to feel comfortable with the process, it's time for you to practice with cases and mock interviews/coaches at PrepLounge. Feel free to reach out if you need any guidance!

I hope this helps you (and all the others reading this) kick-start your preparation! This answer is focused on the “case” part of the interview. Don't forget you also need to prepare for the test/game, the fit/personal part of the interview, and the final questions, but I'll leave these for another answer.

Good luck!

Hi Abdulrahman,

your engineering background won’t impact your preparation for case interviews. 

The key to succeeding in these interviews is not demonstrating deep business knowledge but rather showcasing rigorous, repeatable, and logical thinking. 

However, it’s important to note that these skills cannot be fully acquired just from reading blogs and books, particularly those of lower quality like Victor Cheng or Case in Point. These essential skills require substantial time, qualified coaching, and extensive practice to understand, internalize, and adeptly apply in real case interview scenarios. 

My recommendation would be to allow enough time for your preparation and to find someone who REALLY understands consulting—not someone who just had a 1-3 year stint—to coach and mentor you on how to properly think through such problems. 

In the optimal scenario, you receive coaching by an experienced former interviewer, and you complement this with a hand-picked set of determined high-quality practice partners (e.g., other candidates that are applying to the same firms).

You then have to distinguish between coaching sessions and practice sessions.

• The coaching sessions are used to get an understanding of what is tested in the interview, how you need to think, how to craft bullet-proof logic, and how to navigate through this logic.
• The practice sessions are used to get additional repetitions under your belt to make it "second nature".

From experience, my mentees applying from a full-time position need about 8-12 weeks to get from zero to a level that could be called "MBB offer-ready". Assuming that your intrinsic base capabilities in terms of articulation, raw intellect and ability to focus meet a certain minimum standard.

Cheers, Sidi

_______________________

Dr. Sidi Koné 

Former Senior Engagement Manager & Interviewer at McKinsey | Former Senior Consultant at BCG | Co-Founder of The MBB Offer Machine™

Hi there!

Not sure what you mean by ‘trust the process’ :) but Preplounge is one of the best places where you could be to learn more about how to get into consulting. 

Adding here a couple of articles that are further tailored to your question:

• Expert Guide: Build A Winning Application Strategy
• Expert Guide: How To Handle Networking Calls and Get Referrals
• Expert Guide: What Do Management Consultants Do?

And feel free to reach out if you have question.

Best,
Cristian

Consulting, and case interviews are designed to be a testing tool that can be relatively well-applied to people from a large variety of background.

However, being an engineer is often the more helpful of backgrounds for to-be consultants. Top it off with with MBA and you are a potent weapon.

However, for an engineer to adapt to consulting - there are some fundamental changes in thinking process that can make the journey easier to navigate and effective in succeeding.

Engineers are experts at deductive reasoning, while consulting is done better with inductive reasoning. Engineers are detail oriented, while consulting is done better with an 80:20 approach. Engineers like to analyze and then prove, while consulting involves making a claim first and then attempting to prove/disprove. And so on…

There are 3 aspects to the process for case interviews - the tools, the mindset, and the delivery. So when we say “trust the process” - what we mean is that you get those 3 things in order.

Happy to help you in navigating through if you'd be interested.

I wouldn't exactly say “trust the process on Preplounge”. There's good content over here and you should definitely use it. But you should diversify your information sources:

• Use MBA case books and their introductory chapters where they explain some business terms and industries, for example.
• Do a lot of cases and when you find  a new concept (e.g. entry barriers) go and try to learn a bit more about it.
• Read headlines of financial / business newspaper

Hi Abdulrahman,

I see that Pedro already pointed to helpful ideas/resources and Cristian led you to relevant articles.

One thing I would add is that it really depends on the consultancy you target. 

For some firms, especially MBB, you could be successful relying solely on your communication, logic, common sense etc. (even though it depends on interviewer and case topic and I would advise familiarizing yourself with business topics using newspaper such as Economist and Pedro's tips). 

Other firms, including some Boutique firms, may test business knowledge including things like how to read a P&L etc. 
Do your research regarding the specific companies you apply to in order to be on the safe side! 

PS: And most importantly, do not follow a perceived process but plan your preparation wisely and consciously :)

Best,
Gero

Hi Abdulrahman,

you should familiarize yourself with what consulting projects and deliverables look like. Cases provide a simulation of that. Then you will notice what kind of business knowledge is required. The more cases you do, the better your feel for the relevant topics will become. There are some “typical business frameworks” that everyone should know about but when solving cases, you have to be careful to not try to force-fit everything to the frameworks you might know. They are always only tools or guide posts but don't mistake them for the solution to everything.

Other than that, some good sources were already pointed out in the other comments.

Best of luck

You have great materials on PrepLounge to prepare your consulting interviews. Reading some additional business materials (books, articles, etc.) won't harm ;)

Best,

Alberto

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Check out my latest case based on a real MBB interview: Sierra Springs