Not improving at case interviews?

Hello Shaan,

You are pointing a problem that most candidate are facing after a first round of preparation. Somehow you manage to sometime solve the case, but you haven't yet understood in details what make you succeed or not.

From now on, it is very important to identify each of the dimensions you need to improve, and on work it on individually.

1. Structure is the most common and impacting issue, since it will be very difficult to dive in the case if you don't cover the right topics or are not properly structured to do so. Forget about the pre-existing framework you can find in books. The one question you should keep in mind while building your structure is "Will each of the dimension of my approach bring insights to formulate a recommandation". I can provide with a very good exercice for this called structuring drills, contact me in pm if needed.

2. Drive and business sens come in second. You need to understand that you have the lead for the case resolution, and identifying insights from analysis you will conduct. So your attitude must be dynamic and always keep in mind that what you are looking for is insights not data.

3. Recommandation is not a conclusion ! Meaning that you are not closing the case by summarizing what you've just done. The first words you will prononce at this stage should directly answer to the question, and then bring the elements supporting this recommandation. Keep in mind, that in many cases this is not your recommandation itself that matter but the way you will structure your communication to deliver the message with a lasting impact.

I hope this help, don't hesitate to reach me if you need more details.

Best

Benjamin

Hi Jessica,

Practising for case study interviews can be compared with trying to get fit at the gym. At the gym, if no one tells you how to use the weights properly you can end up with injuries and weird muscles. Similarly, with case studies, if no one gives you the necessary advice and feedback that will change your habits it won't matter how many cases you do, your bad habits will be there and they will only get worse.

I recommend that you do the following:

• Spend a week or so practising online with as many different people as you can. Use this week as a filtering process to select those partners that give you really valuable feedback. You should end up with 5/6 great partners with whom you will practice from then on.
• Try to get advice and direction from an expert. The best way would be to research your network and contact any friends/connections that are in MBB or other strategy firms. Ask them to give you advice and if possible, a mock case. They will definitely give you feedback that will put you in the right direction for future practice.
• If you can't manage to practice with someone in your network, consider working with an expert in PrepLounge. This is a more expensive way but will definitely provide value.
• Use Victor Cheng and Case in Point only as a way to provide you with certain tools and knowledge. Do not stick to their frameworks, you should always tailor your structure to the unique case. This is one of the hardest things to do but you will be able to get there if you follow these steps.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Hi Anonymous,

here are a couple of tips I found useful to keep general motivation.

1. Define clear goals for your preparation. You should have goals with specific numbers (eg I want to get at least 70 cases done / 3 consulting invitations / 2 offers) and with a specific timeline (eg I want to achieve such target by March 31). You should write down the goal, not just imagine them.
2. Review daily you goals, ideally in the morning
3. Create a visual representation of your goals.
4. Keep a diary with your progression towards the goals that you put
5. If you miss an objective/deadline, go back in your diary and try to understand what you did wrong and why you did not achieve such objective

In terms of cases specifically, you should create a routine to maintain practice. Keeping a routine could be based on the following:

• Commit in writing to dedicate x minutes every day to case practice, no matter what, and allocate the time in your calendar
• Create social pressure to help you to keep commitment – eg schedule interviews with other people so that you are forced to show up
• Invest in the preparation – either via Premium memberships, coaching sessions, material etc. Studies shows that if you invest in something you are brought to keep your commitment, at least not to lose the investment you have made

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hey,

In my view, if you flatlining with performance then you need to pinpoint specifically where you feel you are lacking and really try and focus on working on those case elements through specific practice rather than simply repeating general case practice.

All cases can be broken down to individual components that will all contribute together to define your final performance: overall structure, structured communication, analysis and discussion of exhibits, both quantitative and qualitative anslysis, synthesis, business judgment etc.

My advice would be to work on those where you feel the weakest in a structured way first, then jump back in to doing a few cases and repeat the process if needed with a different focus. That should help you overcome your feeling of flatlining and improve your overall case level.

Best,

James

Hi Anonymous,

I think a very similar question has been asked here, and the points raised are very good advice in my opinion: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/not-improving-at-case-interviews-447#a891

I believe a large part of the success in becoming a strong case solver comes down to the quality of the direct coaching that he/she is getting. A small network of 4 to 6 persons, including at least one real (ex-)consultant who has ample real interviewing experience for one of the big firms, will be worth much more than any material like LOMS or Case in Point, and it will also be much more effective than having dozens of practice sessions with random persons who are also inexperienced. Feel free to reach out if you would like to chat more in detail. :)

Cheers,

Sidi

Hi,

Here is a list of things you can do to boost your progress:

1. Take a session with an expert here / current MBB consultants to get some feedback
2. Take some FIT interview coaching. Over 150+ candidates that I've coached only a couple really experienced ones were great with the FIT part
3. Work on the social / economic / non-profit and other non-traditional cases. I've noticed that most of the candidates are struggling with them. More on these cases here: Non-Profit/Public Sector/Non-Traditional Case Strategies 
4. Work on the operational cases - most of the candidates completely miss them. More about them here; Operations Cases? McK 
5. Continue working on fast and accurate math - you can always do better. Details here: Case Math Prep 
6. Work on your business acumen. I strongly recommend developing the proper industry knowledge. More details here: What's the best way to increase general business acumen? 
7. Make sure everything is fine with your communication: Structured discussion
8. Do more cases!!!!

Best!

Hi Jessica,

first of all, don't be so negative :)

Keep in mind that, even if you don't see it, you surely moved on onto your learning curve and definetly improved your skills since you started. The fact that you failed first rounds doesn't mean you are (and never will be) good at doing cases: MBB are a tough test and there's multiple factors that can impact on your result.

The thing I would really try to focus on if I were you would be to find "quality" peers to interview with and stress the final feedback a lot. It seems to me that the feedback you received this far is either weak or not structured so you haven't really had a chance to improve. Try to find people that went through the process, do a case with them and listen carefully to what they will tell you about your points of improvement, then start from there and fix them. For example, if you hear your math skills are not perfect, try to do a good number of quantitative cases or even just practice doing calculations on your own.

Hope this helped,

marco

I agree with all points Francesco stressed!

In addition, it might be worthwhile to create a new stimulus here and there.

• This could be getting specific coaching on some aspects from a seasoned consultant/expert who has not coached you before.
• Depending on your country, you could also be applying to one or two firms that are low priority for you to "test the waters" in terms of your case skills. Doing real interviews with these firms can provide a strong additional stimulus before and after the interviews!

Cheers, Sidi

Hi,

First of all - try to get the objective measurement of your performance. It may be the case that you think you have plateaued but in reality, you have lots of things to improve. The sources of the objective assessment and feedback might be:

• MBB Consultants giving you a mock session
• Coaches on prep lounge
• Very experienced candidates who have passed the 1st rounds

Ask them proactively for the hard cases.

Secondly - I will look at unusual cases and the cases that most of the candidates miss

I have answered this question here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hardest-cases-to-excel-in-1648

Finally - don't stop practicing, especially before the interview. Solving cases is a mechanical skill and it has a tendency to go away (same as muscles:)

Best!

Hi Anonymous,

I think a very similar question has been asked here, and the points raised are very good advice in my opinion: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/not-improving-at-case-interviews-447#a891

I believe a large part of the success in becoming a strong case solver comes down to the quality of the direct coaching that he/she is getting. A small network of 4 to 6 persons, including at least one real (ex-)consultant who has ample real interviewing experience for one of the big firms, will be worth much more than having dozens of practice sessions with random persons who are also inexperienced.

Cheers, Sidi

Hi,

50 cases can be a lot if you've done them with great partners and feedback and can be nothing if done improperly

3 things to work on:

1. Doing more cases with very good partners
2. Building business acumen (industry and functional knowledge) (will explain further)
3. Revisiting all the cases that you've done before and rebuilding the structure with new and better approaches

Business Acumen is all about building proper industry and functional knowledge. Here is how you can do that:

1. Practice more cases with the other candidates. Try to start with the most common industries - Retail, Consumer Goods, Airlines, Banking
2. Study the annual reports of the public companies in each industry. They have a good overview of the company and the industry.
3. Get the industry information from relevant books, magazines, etc. We'll recommend some good reading in the next lessons.
4. Study MBA cases. They have a good industry overview. You can purchase HBS cases here: https://hbr.org/store/case-studies
5. Follow this course further and you'll learn a lot about different industries

For each industry, you should understand:

• Revenue streams
• Cost structure
• Average margins
• Key Performance Indicators
• Industry trends

Best

Hi Anonymous,

in terms of customizing the initial structure I would recommend the following

• Be sure to clarify the goals and revenue model of the client well before moving to the structure
• Use that information to personalize the initial structure. For example, don’t talk about price and volume for a bank providing loans, but rather number of loans and interest charged

In terms of understanding how to structure inside the case: it would be very useful if you could provide some examples of what you found challenging as otherwise one can only suggest a general approach.

In general, I would recommend the following steps to improve how to structure inside a case:

1. Recap the situation until that moment
2. Ask for one minute of time to structure your thoughts
3. Identify some key MECE areas. This is something you can do even if you have never seen that question before. If you go blank, you can use a structure as X vs Non-X. Potential divisions include: Long term vs short term; Current vs New; Financial vs Non-financial. The more you practice cases in the right way, the more you will be able to derive appropriate MECE areas fitting a case.
4. Brainstorm inside each of the areas. Your creativity in this area is directly correlated with the number of cases you have done. If you feel weak in one specific industry, the most effective strategy is to go through consulting MBA casebooks (there are many available for free online – although not all are good) and screen the list for the industries interesting for you. MBA casebooks are not good in terms of the structure of the case but can help to develop creativity.

I provided an example below.

---

Interviewer: So, generally speaking, how would you decrease the cost of raw materials?

Step 1: Recap the situation

Interviewee: So, if I understood correctly, you would like now to move to the elements that could decrease this cost. If it is fine for you, I would like to do a small recap and then move through the key elements that can help to do so. In the beginning, you asked me what brought a decline in profits. We have identified the problem lays in Product A, and in particular in the cost area. We then found out that the main increase in cost was related to raw material.

Interviewer: That’s right.

(Note you may have gained 30 seconds of additional time summing up information to think)

Step 2: Ask for one minute of time to structure your thoughts

Interviewee: Do you mind if I take 1 minute to think about it?

Interviewer: Please take your time.

Step 3: Identify some key MECE areas

Interviewee: Thanks; I believe there are two key areas to decrease the cost of raw material; we may decrease the cost of each unit, or we may decrease the number of units we buy. I would like now to go a bit deeper into these two components.

(Note that even if you are brainstorming, you are first presenting a list of the MECE areas. This is fundamental to brainstorm correctly)

Step 4: Brainstorm inside each of the areas

Interviewee: Well, in order to decrease the cost per unit we may do a couple of things, keeping in mind we want to maintain revenues at the same level:

1. we may negotiate a lower price;
2. we may look for other suppliers.

In order to decrease the number of units, we may do the following:

1. we may start to use a more efficient technology for our raw material, so that we have less waste;
2. we may use a new kind of raw material for which there is less waste.

---

Best,

Francesco

Hi,

Based on the resources that you've mentioned, looks like you did not have any interviews with great partners.

1) The first way is to find the right partners. Your preparation is more about quality rather than quantity:

1. Don't count the cases you've done yourself
2. Don't count the cases you've done from the casebooks
3. Count the cases you've done with experienced candidates (50+ cases solved / passed the first round) who can give you a real case and a good feedback.

2) Another way is to have a good coach. If you take a good coach, you can make it in 20-35 cases. The coach will give you the right knowledge. Partners will help you integrate the skill. At the end of the day, it's just a skill that can be trained. 

Why do you even need partners and coaches? When you are stressed during the case interview and out of energy having the 3rd case in a row, 90% of your questions and reactions should be fully automatic. Otherwise, it's extremely hard to solve the case, trying in find out what you've memorized from v.Cheng book.

Best!

Hi,

I recommend doing several things on a regular basis:

1) Every 10 cases revisit the previous cases and think how you would structure them differently now having the new experience and having solved the new types of cases

2) Build business judgment. Read about different industries and functions. I strongly recommend practice drawing structures for each industry - profitability, value chain, etc . Then I will switch to getting functional knowledge and key concepts in Marketing (Brand and trade marketing tools, etc), Supply chain (Ops metrics like cycle time and throughput time, distribution and delivery specifics, etc), Finance (Basic Accounting and Valuation). Good sources might be:

• Books - one good book about airlines with numbers and industry analysis can give you all needed industry knowledge 
• Company reports, equity reports, etc - usually have a good overview of company and industries.One of the best sources to prepare
• HBS cases - quite useful, but not sure if lot's of them available publically. Probably worth buying

Again, every 10 cases revisit the previous cases and think how you would structure them differently now having the new knowledge

3) Practice fast math

• Learn how to multiply double digit numbers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ndkkPZYJHo)
• Learn the division table up to 1/11 (i.e. 5/6 = 83.3)
• Learn how to work with zeros (Hint: 4000000 = 4*10ˆ6)
• Use math tools (Mimir math for iOS), Math tool on Viktor Cheng website to practice

4) Read Viktor Cheng Book and listen to LOMS. I recommend to reread the book and listen to LOMS every 15 cases. Every time, having more experience, you’ll be finding something new.

! Important: don't forget about the FIT interview part. Crafting you stories and backups stories will require a couple of weeks!

Best!

Hi Anonymous,

what did you do besides VC and Case in Point? It is difficult to provide a feedback without more specific information.

In general, it is likely you are not receiving proper feedback on how to improve. As already mentioned, the best way to do so is to find great partners or experts, that can quickly tell you not only what you are doing wrong, but also how to improve.

If you want to share the feedback you got, or why you feel a complex case is intimidating, as part of a Q&A, that could also help to get more specific feedback.

Best,

Francesco

Hello Jessica,

I understand your issue. But trying to give you some advices without understanding of our real level and gaps is just like out of the blue. 

The thing is that you can practice hundreds of cases, but exact advice on how o advice at some specific point, you can get only from the coach. Me and my colleagues are happy to help you with that. 

Feel free to reach me out. 

GB