4 answers
sarah
Student
Nashville, Tennessee
1
Question
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How do I get an internship at MBB?
I'm trying to get an internship at McKinsey, Bain, or BCG for next summer. How do I prepare enough for case interviews to succeed?
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4 answers
Shamira Sanghrajka
Management Consulting
1
Answer
New York, New York
Updated
Shamira’s Answer
I would look at a couple different places for resources:
- YouTube practice cases are a great resource
- A lot of universities have consulting clubs which publish handbooks and practice cases
- An older resource is Victor Cheng's website which has frameworks and podcasts where he goes through practice cases. I found it quite useful when I was starting my prep to understand how to answer questions
Specific resources to problems in the case:
- Mental maths - try to practice arithmetic wherever you can
- Look at company websites who will have examples of prior cases
- YouTube practice cases are a great resource
- A lot of universities have consulting clubs which publish handbooks and practice cases
- An older resource is Victor Cheng's website which has frameworks and podcasts where he goes through practice cases. I found it quite useful when I was starting my prep to understand how to answer questions
Specific resources to problems in the case:
- Mental maths - try to practice arithmetic wherever you can
- Look at company websites who will have examples of prior cases
Aneri Bakshi
Management Consultant
5
Answers
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Updated
Aneri’s Answer
Hi, Sarah! I currently work in the consulting industry and have led many sessions on case & technical interview prep. I have also gone through this process myself with consulting companies. Each company will have a different structure and and their own specifics, however here is a summary of the advice I usually provide for consulting case interviews:
- Make sure you thoroughly review & understand the problem/case you are being given: take notes on key points, capture the facts, and highlight
what is relevant
- Don't be afraid to ask questions! If there are any points or facts that you would like to clarify, take the time to do so
- Make sure you are clear on the core question that you are trying to solve. It can be easy to get lost in all of the information you are provided, so always try to keep the main problem and objective in mind
- Feel free to break the problem into components to better understand it/the main factors. This is also a great way to fully assess the issue and start to brainstorm potential solutions
- Don't be afraid to ask follow-up questions while going through the process - the interviewers are usually there to help you and will continue to clarify any additional queries on the information while you brainstorm. This is also a good way to make sure that the plan you are creating isn't missing any information/doesn't include any incorrect assumptions
- Present your plan/solution! Start by quickly recapping the main facts and objectives of the case. Then, walk through your solution, plan, and final recommendation. Make sure to have a few key facts/points ready as support for your solution. Feel free to also suggest next steps
As a final piece of advice, don't fret too much on coming up with the "best" solution - oftentimes there is no one correct solution to these cases! Interviewers will be looking more towards how you approach the problem, your creation of an informed solution, and your skills articulating/presenting the final recommendation.
- Make sure you thoroughly review & understand the problem/case you are being given: take notes on key points, capture the facts, and highlight
what is relevant
- Don't be afraid to ask questions! If there are any points or facts that you would like to clarify, take the time to do so
- Make sure you are clear on the core question that you are trying to solve. It can be easy to get lost in all of the information you are provided, so always try to keep the main problem and objective in mind
- Feel free to break the problem into components to better understand it/the main factors. This is also a great way to fully assess the issue and start to brainstorm potential solutions
- Don't be afraid to ask follow-up questions while going through the process - the interviewers are usually there to help you and will continue to clarify any additional queries on the information while you brainstorm. This is also a good way to make sure that the plan you are creating isn't missing any information/doesn't include any incorrect assumptions
- Present your plan/solution! Start by quickly recapping the main facts and objectives of the case. Then, walk through your solution, plan, and final recommendation. Make sure to have a few key facts/points ready as support for your solution. Feel free to also suggest next steps
As a final piece of advice, don't fret too much on coming up with the "best" solution - oftentimes there is no one correct solution to these cases! Interviewers will be looking more towards how you approach the problem, your creation of an informed solution, and your skills articulating/presenting the final recommendation.
Kelsey Marshall
HR
2
Answers
Richmond, Virginia
Updated
Kelsey’s Answer
I would consistently be checking out their Careers page to see what new roles/internships are posted. I would also recommend connecting on LinkedIn with a Campus Recruiter from one of these organizations as they'll have the best insight into when the roles will be posted, what the interview process looks like, basic qualifications of the role, salary insight, etc. Most importantly, they can provide you with their recommendations on how to best prepare. They can't give away any answers but they want their candidates to feel prepared! Case studies are a bit tricky to overly prep for as a lot of is analytical and scenario based that is challenging to have scripted responses for. Check out Glassdoor or Youtube to read others reviews of Case studies. If you have any connections at these organizations, I would also recommend seeking guidance from them how to best prepare and what they found challenging about the case study.
William Tarnowski
Management Consulting
2
Answers
New York, New York
Updated
William’s Answer
- Hacking the Case interview by Taylor Warfield is the best book to start with. It's very short (should only take a couple hours to read) but provides a good overview of the case interview process and pushes you to be more creative with your bucketing
- Aim to do one case a day with friends that are also preparing for consulting. If you don't know anyone to practice with, there are several online websites (would look into prep lounge or case coach) where you can zoom with other people interested in case practicing and you each give each other a case. Giving cases to others can help just as much as doing them yourself!
- One really important thing to do at the start of your cases is make sure you are fully aligned on the objective / specific goals the client has. For example, if someone says "we need to improve education" you can't just say ok and start writing down ways to do that. "Improving education" is way too ambiguous, you need to ask "how does our client define an improvement in education? Do they want increased student attendance, better standardized test score, improved student/teacher ratios, etc." And ask if they have a specific goal or metric in mind. The question might go from "improving education" to "we need a 5 to 1 student/teacher ratio." Once the goal is clear, it's a LOT easier to start structuring targeted ways to solve for it.
- Best mental math tip I learned is thinking or percentages in terms of 1% or 10%. For example, 8% of 75 = 10% (7.5) - 2 x 1% (.75). So 8% is 7.5-1.5 = 6. Let's do another. 4% of 60. We know 1% is .6, and 6x4 = 24 so .6x4 =2.4. Or could do it like this -- 10% is 6, 5% is half (3), 4% is just 5% - 1% so 3-.6 = 2.4.
- Each of the MBB's has a different casing style.
McKinsey: Really values the behavioral part of the interview (called PEI, worth 50% of your total interview score) and tells you the behavioral questions they will ask beforehand. Because they tell you the Q's they will ask, it means they expect very detailed and thought-out answers to the questions. You need specific, structured reasoning for every action that you explain in your story (i.e. I said xxx to him because of these 3 reasons). You should be able to talk about each of your stories for 10 mins. The McK cases often have creative brainstorming components and reward flexibility with the types of bucketing you can come up with -- won't always be purely for profit business issues. Check out mckinsey case website they have excellent practice cases that you can even go through alone.
Bain: Usually only 5-10 mins of behavioral (so less emphasis on it than McK), and cases are typically more for-profit, finance oriented (e.g. we have a decline in revenue and need to fix it, or we are thinking of acquiring xx company, does this make financial sense?).
BCG: First round interview is a robot case where you answer multiple-choice / fill-in-the-blank questions and are guided through a case problem by a computer. The only time you actually speak to express your thoughts (instead of filling in answers) is at the very end when you are recorded for one minute and you give a final recommendation summarizing your thoughts. This process is very different from in-person case practicing but would only recommend prepping for the computer case once you get the BCG interview, because in general practicing with a computer / filling in answers is not how most of your case interviews will be. In the final rounds (with real interviewers this time), BCG will be decently extensive on the behavioral portion and, like McK, you may be more likely to get a-typical, creative bucketing type questions where you need to be flexible with how you come up with your buckets.
- Aim to do one case a day with friends that are also preparing for consulting. If you don't know anyone to practice with, there are several online websites (would look into prep lounge or case coach) where you can zoom with other people interested in case practicing and you each give each other a case. Giving cases to others can help just as much as doing them yourself!
- One really important thing to do at the start of your cases is make sure you are fully aligned on the objective / specific goals the client has. For example, if someone says "we need to improve education" you can't just say ok and start writing down ways to do that. "Improving education" is way too ambiguous, you need to ask "how does our client define an improvement in education? Do they want increased student attendance, better standardized test score, improved student/teacher ratios, etc." And ask if they have a specific goal or metric in mind. The question might go from "improving education" to "we need a 5 to 1 student/teacher ratio." Once the goal is clear, it's a LOT easier to start structuring targeted ways to solve for it.
- Best mental math tip I learned is thinking or percentages in terms of 1% or 10%. For example, 8% of 75 = 10% (7.5) - 2 x 1% (.75). So 8% is 7.5-1.5 = 6. Let's do another. 4% of 60. We know 1% is .6, and 6x4 = 24 so .6x4 =2.4. Or could do it like this -- 10% is 6, 5% is half (3), 4% is just 5% - 1% so 3-.6 = 2.4.
- Each of the MBB's has a different casing style.
McKinsey: Really values the behavioral part of the interview (called PEI, worth 50% of your total interview score) and tells you the behavioral questions they will ask beforehand. Because they tell you the Q's they will ask, it means they expect very detailed and thought-out answers to the questions. You need specific, structured reasoning for every action that you explain in your story (i.e. I said xxx to him because of these 3 reasons). You should be able to talk about each of your stories for 10 mins. The McK cases often have creative brainstorming components and reward flexibility with the types of bucketing you can come up with -- won't always be purely for profit business issues. Check out mckinsey case website they have excellent practice cases that you can even go through alone.
Bain: Usually only 5-10 mins of behavioral (so less emphasis on it than McK), and cases are typically more for-profit, finance oriented (e.g. we have a decline in revenue and need to fix it, or we are thinking of acquiring xx company, does this make financial sense?).
BCG: First round interview is a robot case where you answer multiple-choice / fill-in-the-blank questions and are guided through a case problem by a computer. The only time you actually speak to express your thoughts (instead of filling in answers) is at the very end when you are recorded for one minute and you give a final recommendation summarizing your thoughts. This process is very different from in-person case practicing but would only recommend prepping for the computer case once you get the BCG interview, because in general practicing with a computer / filling in answers is not how most of your case interviews will be. In the final rounds (with real interviewers this time), BCG will be decently extensive on the behavioral portion and, like McK, you may be more likely to get a-typical, creative bucketing type questions where you need to be flexible with how you come up with your buckets.