Bain & Company I have interviewed with MBB a few times during the past 2 years and have been preparing for new MBB interviews the past few months. I've been regularly casing and working with a coach, but I'm still not performing at the right level. How do you deal with this? It's very frustrating because I'm trying, but I'm simply not good enough. Other people only need 5 days to prepare for and pass MBB interviews and I'm stuck years later
McKinsey & Company Bain & Company Boston Consulting Group.
Rising Star
Do the best you can, if with all this prep you don’t make it - maybe its a sign that it’s not a good fit. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
You said you're working with a coach (ex-MBB I'm assuming?), so your first step should be ask them to tell you what areas you're falling short in and give you actionable feedback. Regardless of whether the problem is math, communication/executive presence, structuring, etc. there are lots of resources out there that can help. When you practice your cases, slow down and incorporate what you've learned -- so many people with poor fundamentals try to brute force a million cases in the hope that they'll magically get better and it doesn't work that way.
If you do all that and still don't make it through your interviews, it's probably time to call it quits and move on. I understand the allure of the money and prestige of MBB, but the reality is that the vast majority of applicants don't make the cut and that's ok; it's a statement about the competitiveness of the candidate pool rather than your abilities as a consultant. There are plenty of other firms that will give you exciting projects and pay you well.
This! If you’ve zeroed in on Math being an issue, stop doing full cases and focus on just the Math component. Use rocket blocks or some other to just to get the math sorted.
If you have 60 mins to prepare would you rather spend it doing a full case which would only give you a single opportunity to practice a Math question or use those 60 mins to do 5-6 math exercises?
Having case interviewed between 800-1,000 people at this point, here are a few things:
1) there are diminishing returns in case prep, prep is about familiarity, not mastery
2) the bar on cases is not at all fixed and there is not necessarily a right answer. A case is a platform for an interview, not a happy path. That is not to say there isn’t a path, but good interviewers (especially the partners in second round) generally see through and adjust for prep in their assessment. And they are looking for a lot of things that aren’t about the case performance.
3) Cases are meant to simulate the ambiguous business situations that are the stock in trade of MBB. As such, the case is about how quickly and well you can tear apart complexity, zero in on the right issues, and advance a pragmatic and quantified solution. There are many many jobs that don’t put a premium on this skill (and there are many other skills people have) but strategy based consulting does. If you don’t have this skill you are unlikely to thrive in strategy based consulting.
Chief
Where are you falling short?
Chief
What’s a synopsis of the last case that stumped you, and what specifically got you?
Rising Star
You’re likely overthinking it and hyping yourself up. Don’t aim for perfection, just be confident in your abilities and use structure
I only want to pass. I know I won't be perfect in the interviews, and that's ok. I was confident but I couldn't get through today's case and feel like I'm regressing again. I even started crying toward the end of the case because I'm so frustrated with myself
maybe consulting is not for you
Crowe* and consulting is not for me… Did not mean it as a bad thing…
Does a project manager level also need case interviews or just consultants level
F
1. Try a different coach
2. Do drills on just setting up the math portion i.e. start with the framework already done, and just setup the problem. Rinse and repeat.