Alle Fragen zum Tag 1st round - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

My top tips for the written case are:

1. The trick to written cases is to have a filtering system to find the data you need from the worthless data, and of course, recognising that not all the data is useful. Written cases mirror cases done in case-method schools like Harvard. Lots of data is provided in those cases, but not all is useful. Your job is to find the useful data and that means having a framework upfront.
2. THERE IS NO ONE “RIGHT” ANSWER; THERE ARE MANY POTENTIAL ACTIONS YOU COULD TAKE. The goal is for you to present a persuasive recommendation and participate in a discussion about how to improve the client
3. Be concise. Have your key messages outlined in your summary. Save the details for your discussion.
4. Be pragmatic. Craft a recommendation that can actually be implemented by the client.

In order to prepare yourself for written cases I recommend the following:

1. Read articles in the FT, Economist, etc. then summarise the three key points or 'takeaways' from the articles. This will get you really good at scanning info and pulling out the most important factors.
2. Practice going through written cases under high time pressure - synthesise a recommendation.
3. Present your recommendation to someone and get feedback on your ideas and clarity of expression.

The reality is that you are competing for a job in one of the toughest firms to get into. It is harder to get a job at MBB than it is to get into any university in the world. Your peers are as talented as you and some might appear to be even more accomplished. I say that because once you accept this it becomes easier to process the feedback you recieved.

Every interview needs to go well - you have to connect with the interviewer, you have to do well on the case and if you are not doing well you need to be self aware enough to course correct during the interview. Anyone who sugar coats this for you is not being honest. The interview day matters a lot and preparation gets you 80% of the way, 20% is just luck. You can have a bad interviewer, or slip up where you usually don't. It happens.

What does it mean for you? You will never be 100% prepared. No one is. But you need to meet a certain threshold. If you do well on 8 or 9 out of 10 cases consistently and have good answers to PEI questions then you are ready. If you do well on 5 out of 10 and PEI is not great yet then you are not. The bar IS high. There is a reason people spend a lot of time preparing and there is a reason people take coaching session.

You seem self aware as you asked this question. The best thing to do is to benchmark your performance and see where you stand and decide from there.

Best,

Udayan

Answer First at Bain consists of two different concepts, both are useful to use in a case environment:

1. Answer First to plan your work: This means you should be hypothesis-driven to structure your work. Start the case with a clear hypothesis for the answer and use your framework to plan an analysis that tests for the hypothesis to either confirm or refine it.
2. Answer First to communicate: Use a top down structure for your communication, especially for your summary. State the result of your case clearly and then provide 2-3 supporting arguments and then lastly next steps.

I hope this helps!

Hi there,

Industry knowledge is useful for brainstorming during the case. If you can’t think about the importance of the load factor in an airline case, or that customers may not pay for prescription drugs in some countries as they are refunded by the government in a healthcare case, you may be at a disadvantage compared to other candidates.

Having said that, you are not supposed to be an expert in any industry for generalist roles. Moreover, you should be able to derive the main insights with the right clarifying questions.

If you feel you are not strong in some industries (eg financial services, healthcare) try to do more cases in that sector – after 4-5 you should have a good understanding of the industry and be able to do better when brainstorming.

Best,

Francesco

100%!

The best way to improve your odds here is to network effectively.

Do your best to speak to people across the firms, get known by HR, and possibly get a referral.

Three key ways:

1) Have a convincing / powerful resume

2) Have a strong cover letter

3) Network effectively!

In terms of networking effectively:

1) Check out the PrepLounge Q&As

2) Sign up with a session with a coach (I can teach you what you need to know in just 1 session)

3) Follow these immediate tips:

a) Reach out to people in your network

b) Reach out to people once removed from your network

c) Reach out to people with a similar backgorund to you (i.e. same alma mater, same historically underrepresented demographic i.e. gender, orientation, ethnicity, etc., same career switch, etc.)

d) Tailor a message to them specifically both showing interest in them and their journey and demonstrating that you have done your research and could be a valuable hire

e) Play "tag" across calls you get so that you can work your way towards the company/office/role you want

f) Never directly ask for a referral, but "hint" at needing one (this is nuanced and important...happy to talk through wording)

Hello!

TBH, it is very hard for me to believe this ever happened in MBB -or, also, that this is the whole story-.

Interviewers are trained, coached, shadowed... all to get the people ready to be good, fair and valuable judges of your peformance.

What you wrote there is completly against this.

However, it´s true that interviewing has a high "human" component, and you can always have free riders... This said, is very very very rare.

Don´t feel you need to get ready for that, because you don´t.

Best,

Clara

Hi,

Since you have not mentioned what role you are applying for I am going to assume it is either a BA or Associate position. In which case you will have the following

• 2 interviews that are 1 hour each.
  • 8-12 mins of PEI in EACH interview
  • Followed by 1 case for the remainder of the interview

If you are applying for a specialist role (e.g., Senior pharma analyst) then this will be different and they will clarify it in an email.

All the best,

Udayan

It is EXTREMELY difficult to do this. There is a strong incentive to not allow this move as the hiring criteria, comp structure and skills are very different for both types of roles. The only realistic way to do this is to get partner support and also senior partner support. Without that it is impossible.

Hello!

There is no such thing as a top performer award.

However, the intuition is right, there is a different "ranking" of your performance that is discussed in a comitee every 6 months.

Dimensions taken into consideration:

• Problem solving skills
• Anlytical skills
• Client management skills
• etc.

I leave you a graph that comes from the Integrated FIT guide for MBB (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34). It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the Integrated FIT Guide, since we still have some left from the launch!

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hello!

There is no such thing as a top performer award.

However, the intuition is right, there is a different "ranking" of your performance that is discussed in a comitee every 6 months.

Dimensions taken into consideration:

• Problem solving skills
• Anlytical skills
• Client management skills
• etc.

I leave you a graph that comes from the Integrated FIT guide for MBB (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34). It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the Integrated FIT Guide, since we still have some left from the launch!

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hello!

Although some people get to see some Tableau and R, 99% of people deal only with Excel.

Indeed, iff there is one thing I wish I had done before joining McKinsey, that would have been Excel. It can really be a game changer, so I would really focus on that (more than pptx, industry knowledge, etc., that are nice-to-have, but not deal breakers).

Excel skills are part of the core skill-set of consultants, and it´s great that you want to practice them. PFB a list of the most popular commands:

• Basic operations: SUM, SUMPRODUCT
• Text transformations: CONCATENATE, LEFT, RIGHT, & operator,
• Connecting different datasets: VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX(MATCH(),MATCH())
• Conditional-based operations: SUMIF, COUNTIF, SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, COUNTA
• Learn how to analyze data using Pivot Tables

There are plenty of online materials:

• Microsoft Support: https://support.office.com/en-us/excel
• Kubicle: https://kubicle.com/personal (go for the 7 days free trial - Excel for Business Analytics)

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi!

You described it very well in your post: the structure that they are going to follow is exactly the same as MBBs: FIT + business case.

Hence, the prep would overlap at 95%, and you can perfectly all materials in this page.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

If you have some time and connection, suggest you talk to a few Bainies and/or Bain alumni, to ask them why they chose Bain, what they like most about Bain. I guess culture would be the top reason, while there might also be something else.

During your interview you can tell the interviewer that you had these conversations and thus you think Bain is the right place for you. It shows that you are really serious, you did your homework and your answer well thought-through and not just cliche.

Those conversations (esp with Alumni because they have no reason to sugarcoat) actually would be very helpful for you to decide whether you would like the company or not.

Hi Anonymous,

Obviously lots of speculation involved in answering, since nobody of us was really involved in the process.

In general an offer to re-apply in a year does not mean that much as most candidates would like it to be. In conjunction with your additional input that the interviewer offered personally to stay in touch and that McKinsey will reach out again, it sounds already a bit better!

Still there is no point from McKinsey's perspective to be 'unfriendly' in whatsoever way to a candidates - you don't know what future brings and where pathes might cross again in future (also possible from client side later in your career).

So take this offer with a grain of salt, but maximize your chances by staying in touch and ensure to re-apply later based on that offer (if it still fits into your life at that point).

Hope that helps - if so, please be so kind to give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

Dear Avetis,

The core skills of a competent business Excel user are something like:

• Formatting & basic formulas
• Mouse-free Excel navigation
• Vlookups & conditional statements
• Data analysis - filtering, sorting, and analyzing data
• Data visualization - tables, charts, and dual axis charts
• What-if-analysis
• Pivot tables

If you can do these things, you’ll outperform 95% of people in the workplace.

To learn these concepts, you could:

• Learn the concepts online for free
• Take an online course

If you’re looking for something free, I’d recommend Googling & Youtube-ing those topics on my list. Tons of free material online. On Udemy you can also find some courses.

If you’re short on time, take a short business-focused online course.

I’d recommend the following business-focused course focused on mastering the 20% of functions that make up 80% of Excel work.

Best,

André

Hi,

If you get the cheaper debt to finance CAPEX, you will decrease interest expenses, however the CAPEX will stay the same. If you reduce your interest expenses - you'll obviously have more cash that you can use as a networking capital

Best

Hi!

It is very important "how" you tell the story. Even the best story will not work if you're presentation is not to the point. Being able to communicate effectively is key for a consultant and that is also what they want to see.

I think you can use the story (if you can't think of anything else). You should tweak it a bit and highlight the key points a bit more.

Key things to remember:

> Structure your story (1) Situation (What is the context) (2) Complication (What was the conflict?) (3) Solution (How did you resolve the conflict?) In your story 2 and 3 is not clear enough.

> Be specific but keep it simple. It is a fine line between being too generic and adding too many unnecessary details. Your mention lots of details in your stories that are not always helpful for proving your point.

> Not longer than 2min. It is important to be to the point and bring across your key messages in 2min or less. So practice your presentation.

Good luck! I am sure if you go over it again and practice, you will have an excellent story to tell :-)

Best, E

Hello!

Honestly, they would never ask you something like this.

Precisely for the fact that does not reflect reality:

1. You would know, if you are the poor bastard who needs to do this, how important it is for the client and the engagement. You will have the info you need to see whether is good or not to do 8020
2. Partner will be available at some point to double check. In the real world, people don´t disappear.

Hence, don´t loose time with these things and focus on the real case + FIT prep.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi there,

The BCG Online Case - also called Potential Test in some offices - is a multiple choice computer test with 23 questions to be answered in 45 minutes.

It has one single case only. You receive +3 for each right answer, 0 for no answer and -1 for a wrong answer.

Calculators are generally not allowed, but there are exceptions in some countries - you can clarify that with HR if needed.

I recommend the following approach to prepare:

1. Look online for reliable BCG test simulations. You can find an example here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/bcg-potential-test-1-13
2. If possible, don’t print the sample tests; rather, do the simulations on your computer. The day of the test you won’t be able write notes near the questions or turn pages. If you practice on a paper version, you will find different dynamics the day of the interview that could impact your performance. You should also do all the simulations with a time constraint
3. After each test write down the mistakes you did. You will probably find that the mistakes have something in common – eg wrong math, too much time wasted on some questions, wrong interpretation of graph
4. Work on each area of improvement. Many candidates do these simulations checking only the final score and don’t spend time analyzing the mistakes - thus they don’t improve
5. Once you have done all the BCG test simulations, move to PST practice. You can find a good number of PST tests online. The PST is different from the Potential Test – in the PST there are multiple cases, the types of questions are different and you have more time available. However, it may still help to improve your performance

As additional notes:

• Remember you are penalized for wrong answers - you should adapt your strategy accordingly
• Aim to identify the main areas of improvements already with the first test - the typical ones are math, graph interpretation and ability to absorb information quickly
• Try to distribute the tests between the day you start practicing and the day of the test for constant learning – avoid to do them just at the end

If you want to practice on a real example of a BCG Potential Test, you can find the one I prepared below:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/bcg-potential-testonline-case-1-13

With this test you will be able to:

• Prepare on the exact same format of the BCG Online Case – 23 questions in 45 minutes
• Identify your possible improvements thanks to detailed solutions for all the 23 questions
• Practice on material tested by multiple candidates who did the test and successfully passed the Potential Test.

Below you can find a screenshot of the test:

If you need additional support or have any questions on the test please feel free to PM me, I can provide additional tips for free.

Best,

Francesco