2 years of prep while working

Question

Hi everyone! :)

As I'm working full-time at the moment (as a fresh graduate), I'm wondering if 2 years would be a good benchmark to get myself ready for MBB applications. Currently, I've gone through Victor Cheng's and some basic business knowledge for case interviews, and have yet to do any mock cases yet.

I assume weekends would be my only time available to practise case interviews..but I'm not sure if 2 years would be a good benchmark here.

The reason I mentioned 2 years is because I want to join the consulting firms before applications get harder (I think?) as an experienced-hire applicant.

Cheers!

Answer 1

Hi there,

I would say 2 years is far too long a timeframe for casing specifically. You will absolutely burn yourself out and get far too robotic in solving these cases!

That said, I highly highly recommend you begin your prep by reading, reading, reading. For at least the next year I wouldn't do any casing. Rather, I would get into the habit of daily business/economics reading. This includes, but is not limited to:

The Financial Times
The Economist
BCG/McKinsey Insights

Build up your world knowledge now! That's something that will help you in the long run.

Answer 2

Hi, 2 years is too much. Working for case prep during evenings and in the weekends few months will be more than enough

Best,
Antonello

Answer 3

Hi there,

If you are starting from zero and work on your own, you should target 100 hours to be offer-ready (less if you work with a coach).

Can you do this in 2 years?

2 years ⮕ 100 weekends ⮕ 200 days in weekends ⮕ 30 min per day

So it is totally feasible. I would argue you can restrict this to quite less time: 6 months with 2 hours per day on weekends – a lot less if you work with a coach as you won’t need as many hours of prep in that case.

Best,

Francesco

Answer 4

Hey there,

Good answers already here. I wanted to question your assumption in the last sentence. Applications won't get necessarily harder after 2 years.

Overall, I believe 2 years is way too long of a timeframe to prepare regardless of doing it in parallel to being employed. The marginal benefits will decrease significantly after 1 month (full-time prep) or 3 months (next to a job).

In these 2 years, I would work on the solid foundations that are often lacking and can't be built in a short time frame. That means, focus on

your business acumen and judgement --> read business newspapers and magazines
communication (learn top-down communication on the job, Pyramid Principle)
math drills (make sure to become flawless with mental math)
networking (to make sure to get the contacts before applying)

Start 3 months before your interviews with actual case and fit practice.

Cheers,

Florian