PrepLounge Meetings

There are guidelines on how to manage session in the website and also “pre-prepared” cases for you to practice - so please take a look at the website section that are pretty informative

Will add my two cents here

 - General rule is you can decide whether you switch roles during the session (e.g. 45 mins you are the interviewer and 45 mins interviewee) or stick to a “mono-role”. Please make sure to agree with your peer regarding how to use session in the best way reaching out by the message board in advance

- From my point of view to prepare correctly

1) No matter what prepare a case (this will benefit even if you will not use it in the session as general preparation) which means

- Reading the case multiple times including solutions

- Be ready to guide the interviewee if it is a “interviewer-led” and in general be ready to answer various questions from the interviewee

- Firmly understand how to rate performance in each part of the case (what is a good vs. stellar answer to part #1, to the math part) so that you can be OBJECTIVE in your assessment of your peer

- If you have already done peer / coach cases before, write in advance to your peers your needs / preferences (E.g. I want a very quantitative-heavy case preferably on insurance and please play close attention to my verbal communication…). This way he/she will be able to tailor the session

- By all means ask at the end to have a structured summary of your performance in all sections and take notes or even better ask him/her to share his notes (you can agree upfront to have a shared word doc)

- Adapt the sessions vs. the status of your journey (each new peer session prepare as per the points above and tailor to your needs - e.g. before round 2 you can ask for a more difficult case, …..) - continuously dynamically re-assess your self and agree on a session upfront that is more helpful to you

feel free to PM me to deep-dive if you want.

All the best for your preparation! Cheers. P

Welcome to Preplounge!

You will have a steep learning curve so here´s some pointers for the first meeting:

• Yes, you should prepare a case for your peer - this is expected of you and the backbone of this platform
• Preplounge has many cases on file and selects one for you (unless you have one from an external source and prefer that)
• Work through the case including all the math and get very familiar with it - they usually come with instructions that help you navigate as an interviewer
• Watch some youtube videos on case cracking to see how interviewers present the case and conduct themselves, then emulate
• You will be able to re-use the case with other people afterwards (unless they know it), so you don´t have to invest the same amount of time before every session

Hope this helps! Let me know if there´s any questions. 

Happy casing :)

Hi there,

1) Can you provide me some tips on how to get the maximum benefit of these meetings? 

I would recommend the following:

When you act as an interviewer:

• Read the case in advance
• Ask for points of improvement of the candidate in advance to tailor the case
• Prepare for possible variations (candidate solving the case faster / more slowly than expected)
• Provide feedback to the candidate at the end
• Review the mistake of the candidate and think how you could do better from your side if you would be an interviewee

When you act as an interviewee:

• Express your preferences on the type of case
• Ask for feedback on improvement areas if not provided
• Write down all areas of improvement (also those you found and the partner didn’t)
• Review the improvements so that you can work on drills on those areas / apply in the next cases
• Repeat the process on the improvement areas, aligning with your next interviewer, until you feel the problem has been fixed

Ideally you can create a list of different cases you can use and adapt to the needs of the interviewee.

2) Shall i prepare a case for my colleague as interviewer? If so, how should i know if he is progressing in the right direction? 

Yes, you should prepare the case in advance. If you do so, you will know if the candidate is proceeding in the right direction.

You can find below two cases I created with detailed instructions for the interviewer:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/interviewer-led-mckinsey-style/advanced/mbb-final-round-case-smart-education-198

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/candidate-led-usual-style/beginner/bain-1st-round-case-blissottica-235

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

First, yes you absolutely need to have a case ready for him. It is expected that you give him a case after/before he gives you a case.

The case tells you what flow/pathway needs to be taken.

Ultimately, you're going to sink a bit before you swim - that's ok! Continue to book with beginners so that you are not wasting people's time. Once you feel more comfortable, move up to advanced.

The general rule to gain from these meetings is to case others in cases that you struggled in, reflect on the case after the fact, save the case+notes+sheets of paper for later review, and take all advice with a grain of salt (it's the blind leading the blind for now).

Ultimately, a coaching session would benefit you immensely (I would take you through a “start-stop” case and well as share with you offline content that gets you setup properly for casing.

Hello!

In 90 mins you would probably have times to do both partners and feedback, but this is the first thing you should arrange with the other person (use the chat for this, you can be in contact using the platform). 

What you can prep is the case that you will give you partner in advance. I recommend the PrepL library, since not only provides the prompt but also tips about how to guide (particularly coach´s cases) 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Hello there!

I suggest to propose a case that you have solved in the past. It helps to follow the flow and support your peer in the solution.
Start with a peer that is a beginner like you, you'll see that is not that hard :)

I also suggest to listen to some of the Victor Cheng LOMS live cases before starting, it give you some good insights from the interviewer point of view.

Feel free to text me if you need any help

Best,
Luca

Hi there,

First of all, welcome to PrepLounge!

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

• Yes, you are actually required to prepare a case study as well, this is a give-and-get format.
• Personally, I feel it is very hard to identify if someone is progressing within one meeting. However, you can and should obviously take notes on the peer's performance. In case you continue practicing with him/ her, you may take special care of the areas identified as weak spots.
• Moreover, I would advise you to make yourself a case study log where you take notes of the interviewer, the case study provided, the case study taken, your strengths, your weaknesses and other comments.
• Lastly, I would like to encourage you to embrace the journey and enjoy it!

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare your upcoming consulting interviews with your peers, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen