Math and Formulas: Economic and Financial concepts for MBB interviews

Many candidates preparing for consulting interviews don’t have an economic background, which makes the highly competitive case prep even more uphill. In fact, >40% of MBA candidates come from non-economic backgrounds, and they represent >50% of the candidate pool interviewing for consulting. 

I myself was one of them: I went through my McKinsey interviews when I was in my last undergrad year in Architecture. I had no idea of what a break even point was, and the word EBIDTA was just a bunch of letters for me. 

After +4 years of candidate coaching and university teaching, and after having seen hundreds of cases, I realized that the economic-related knowledge needed to master case interviews is not much, and not complex. However, you need to know where to focus! Hence, I created the guide that I wish I could have had, summarizing the most important economic and financial concepts needed to solve consulting cases, hoping to help candidates focus on what matters.

The guide will walk the candidates through the key economic and financial concepts needed to solve consulting case, combining key concepts theorical reviews and a hands-on methodology with examples and ad-hoc practice cases. 

Following the guide’s four core topics (Economic concepts, Financial concepts, Market structure & pricing and Marketing and Customer Acquisition), the candidate will interiorize and apply the handful of key concepts that appear in almost all consulting interview case, gaining focus, consistency and speed in his or her interview prep. 

Finally, the guide contains +25 full pages dedicated to case interviews following each key concept, color coding (1) prompt, (2) additional information and (3) detailed resolution to allow for solo practice and case review. 

• Don’t have an economic background and want to learn the must-knows without having to consult countless online sources, or without having to go through the first 20+ cases googling terms such as “CAPEX” or “NPV”
• Have some economic knowledge, but want to deep-dive and focus on the concepts that are really needed in consulting interviews
• Want to learn not only the theorical concepts, but they are applied in cases and why do they matter
• Want to follow a straight forward methodology, leveraging exercises and cases to practice and interiorize every concept individually and as part of a consulting interview case
• Want to have all materials in one single resource, saving time and ensuring consistency and accuracy

This product was originally created for consulting candidates to help them prepare for interviews and their career start. However, its content is perfectly transferable to other industries (e.g. finance) and provides valuable insights for all applicants.