Landing a job at a top consulting firm is famously difficult in part thanks to the case interview, during which candidates are asked to solve real-world business problems on the spot and out loud.
Aspiring consultants might spend months going through practice cases in order to prepare for the case interviews, which firms use to assess a potential hire’s problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and business knowledge.
“They’re evaluating you on your thinking, ultimately,” Kelly He-Sun, a former consultant and project leader at Boston Consulting Group, told Business Insider.
He-Sun worked at BCG for nearly six years, during which time she also interviewed and hired candidates. Now she does content creation, posting tips about how to get hired in consulting, as well as private coaching.
She said the case interview is a crucial part of the hiring process, including at the prestigious MBB firms, or McKinsey, Bain, and BCG, and that her tips have helped some of the students she’s worked with land offers.
Here are the three things she said consulting candidates should do to stand out during their case interviews, and three common mistakes that they should avoid.
3 ways to stand out
1. Study industry notes
He-Sun said that in addition to practicing case studies, candidates should learn how businesses in different industries work — how they make money, their highest costs, and common business challenges and solutions. Studying up on various industries can help you focus on your problem-solving process during the interview, rather than on asking basic questions.
She said it’s the difference between a candidate who has to ask, “Hey, tell me how credit card companies make money,” and the candidate who says, “Oh, I know already that for credit cards, interest income is a main revenue source.”
Which industries to study depends on where you’re interviewing. She said for MBB, you”ll want to know the basics of several major industries, like consumer, healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing, while boutique consulting firms could be more specialized.
2. Explain your thought process
“Don’t assume your interviewer knows what you’re thinking or why you’re thinking that,” He-Sun said, adding, “you get points when you talk them through your smart thinking.”
She said candidates should walk the interviewer step-by-step through their thinking. For instance, when you see data, explain what the exhibit tells you, which insights you see, what calculations you want to make and why, and how you plan to do it. When you’re asking a question, you should also explain why you’re asking it and what hypothesis you’re trying to prove.
3. Think of your structure like an action plan
He-Sun said that how you structure your approach to the case should essentially be an action plan that outlines how you’d actually investigate the problem if you were working on it for a client.
For instance, if the client is asking, “Should we enter this market?”, your action plan would be to answer questions like: Is the market attractive? Can our client actually win there? What would entry require? Would it be worth it financially? What risks could change the answer?
The goal is to build a structure for solving that case that sounds like how a consultant would actually tackle the problem in real life.
3 pitfalls to avoid
1. Don’t lose sight of the core question
He-Sun said candidates often lose sight of the actual question being asked. “This will break your interview, but so many candidates mess this up,” she said.
She said if the question is “should we invest in this technology?”, don’t get sidetracked focusing on market or competition when it’s really about evaluating the technology itself and the vendor who’s selling it.
2. Don’t skip financial considerations
He-Sun said some candidates get intimidated by the financials and only focus on market, competition, and customers.
She said you should always consider financial implications like ROI, payback, investment required, profit dollars, and profit margins. “You can’t make business decisions without knowing the financials,” she said.
3. Don’t jump to conclusions too quickly
Some candidates make the mistake of jumping to conclusions too quickly, He-Sun said. For instance, they may be presented with data that shows China has the largest market size and assume that means it’s the best market to enter, but in reality, it’s too early to know how much of that market you could actually capture.
“You cannot jump to conclusions too quickly because it instantly reduces your credibility,” He-Sun said. “You want to show that you’re not going to get sidetracked by one thing that looks attractive. You’re going to think through all the other aspects.”
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