Hi there,
Q: Are there any specific methods to prepare for these interviews, especially considering my law background, and the fact that I'm likely to be pitted against business school/MBA students who'll most likely be better prepared than me?
Your main weak point is probably related to a lack of business knowledge. This can be fixed with proper case practice. There may also be some resources to speed up the preparation (I created a 62-page Industry Cheat Sheet to help my candidates with exactly that).
I helped a few candidates with a law background and they mostly did very well in interviews – I believe one reason is the diligence and perseverance you develop as a lawyer.
In terms of general preparation, I would recommend the following:
- Define a calendar for your preparation. Identify how many hours you have before your interview and allocate a time slot for preparation in your calendar for each day, working on the points below. Many candidates need 100+ hours to be ready before the interview starting from zero so you can keep that as a benchmark.
- Start reading good MBA Consulting Casebooks – you can find several for free online (INSEAD is a good one to start). Read the cases and try to apply your structure to solve them. Whenever you see there is something missing, upgrade your structure with the new insights. Try to read a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the information with constant learning.
- After the first 5-10 cases in books/casebooks and basic theory, start to practice live. PrepLounge can be helpful to connect with other candidates for that. There is a relevant part of the interview score that is based on your communication, which you cannot practice at all if you read cases only.
- Keep track of your mistakes and see which ones you are repeating. This is super-important, as otherwise you may do a ton of cases without fixing the real issues. If you find common mistakes, try to identify the reason for them (feedback from experienced partners would be particularly useful for this). Be sure to focus on both the behavioral part and the case part during the mocks. The case part should also cover market sizing, math and graph analysis.
- Before the interviews, be sure to prepare your questions for the interviewer – a great way to show you prepared in advance and to connect with the interviewer for a good final impression. Ideally, try to get information on who they are and study their profile to have good questions to ask.
If you want to spend a few hours only instead of 100+ and cover everything mentioned above, I developed a program precisely for that.
I can also share with you real questions for your target office (I have a db with 1.500+ questions asked in 60+ offices you won't find anywhere else - you can check on my profile if I cover your particular office).
You can check the program at the following link to learn more:
▶ GYM Program
If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.
Best,
Francesco
