Consulting Case Interviews: How to Crack a Case
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Are you considering a career in consulting? If so, it’s important to perform well during your case interviews. These interviews are part of the recruiting process of most consulting firms.
Hopefully, the tips and tricks in this article can help you to land your dream job offer.
Before diving into tips and tricks, 2 quick reminders:
- What is a case interview?
- How many case interviews are required to get a job offer?
1. What is a case interview?
A case interview is an interview during which the interviewee is presented with a hypothetical — often business related — question. The purpose of a case interview is to simulate the type of work consultants do on the job.
It allows the interviewer to see how a candidate thinks and communicates. If a candidate does well, he or she will probably be a good consultant.
If you don’t enjoy solving cases, you will likely not enjoy being a consultant. However, it’s important to note that some individuals see their case performance improve over time, while others have a natural talent for it.
2. How many case interviews are required to get a job offer?
It depends. For example, in Brussels, the required number of successful case interviews to get an MBB offer is 4–6. MBB is an abbreviation for the biggest strategy consulting firms: McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Bain & Company.
Depending on which role you apply for, the “Big 4” (Deloitte, EY, PwC and KPMG) also conduct one or multiple case interviews as part of their recruiting process. In contrast to MBB, one of these will typically be together with other applicants (“group case”).
How to do well during case interviews
Let’s have a look at some dos and don’ts for beginners for each part of the case interview process. A case interview consists of 4 parts:
- Part 1: Understanding the case prompt
- Part 2: Structuring the case
- Part 3: Solving the case
