What is the "end game" in the prep?

The number of cases you've done says almost nothing. 
Actually, in my experience coaching people who have done 70+ cases here on PrepLounge, just a tiny minority of them get an offer without starting from scratch to work on fundamentals. 

Indeed 70 cases are a lot, and if you prepared without clarity on how to structure and communicate top-down, you only worsened your performance for 70 cases.

My first suggestion is to focus on fundamentals:

• structuring drills
• estimations as precise and logical as possible
• quality of communication

The second suggestion is to review the cases you found more difficult. 
 

(editiert)

Hey there,

Quality > Quantity. 70 cases mean nothing if the cases you worked on are bad quality, the case partners provided faulty feedback, you did not incorporate their feedback, etc.

The end game for the prep should be that you

• are comfortable with every case interview situation, context, industry, and brief
• can run problem-solving almost on autopilot by following the right habits, thinking techniques, and communication strategies
• know how to deal with frameworks, charts, math, and recommendations
• know how to use hypotheses and synthesizing to drive insights and move through the case
• enjoy the analytical aspects of solving a case and have not burnt out yet (risk of going through too many cases without clear targets and metrics)

This all culminates into two things:

1. You have created clear spikes in your performance that will secure your offer (e.g., extremely strong structuring and communication)
2. You have lifted your weaknesses to a solid level that is needed to pass the bar to avoid a rejection (e.g., you might be a bit slower on quant, yet are able to solve math problems accurately nonetheless)

On top, do not forget that there is a fit part as well (PEI for McKinsey), which counts as much as the case. Invest some time drafting and rehearsing answers for the most common questions, and especially invest a couple of hours to draft strong PEI stories.

Cheers,

Florian

The end game for prep is getting the job/performing well in the interview.

I will say practicing 70 cases can mean a lot of things. Did you practice it all by yourself in front of a computer screen? Were all 70 cases practiced with others? Did you get the opinion of a coach or someone currently at the firm you are interested in? Number of cases practiced on its own is a meaningless metric beyond 25 unless you are truly practicing the correct way.

There's no end game where you have only embarked on the journey of learning and refining the consultant toolkit.  Personally, I feel that is an important mindset to have as you prepare.  Don't pressure yourself around whether you are doing enough or not and really think of it as practice to being a better MBB consultant.  Good luck!

For someone with extensive practice such as yourself, there are a few things I would suggest:

1. Balance the amount of cases you from now up until interview time between too many (burnout, potential for being “robotic”) and not enough (forgetting some of the small things you knew before, not having practice for the specific firms you interview for)

2. Ensure the other aspects of your preperation are covered (e.g. resume is airtight, you feel good about the behavioral questions, you have solid questions to ask)

3. Make sure you feel good about the practice you have done - if they are all with peers, there is a tendency that all inexperienced candidates miss the same things, as others have pointed out. This can be avoided by doing a couple practice sessions with either a professional coach, a current/former consultant, or even peers who have gone far in the process before (in descending order). One approach here is to reach out to people on LinkedIn or friends of friends to ask for practice time / advice, especially if a professional coach is out of reach $-wise.

Best of luck!

Hi there,

More is not always better.

You can burnout, become overly robotic, stop enjoying casing, etc.

I highly recommend you get a professional to case you to see what's missing - that is, a current or ex consultant from MBB that you know or a case coach.

Per casing is great, but the feedback/intensity generally stays at the intermediate level.

I agree. Do a few interview simulations with former interviewers if you can. That way you will notice where you might get caught off guard and can fill your blind spots accordingly. It also helps to get the feel for time management and performing under increased pressure.

Hey there,

It's important to do several mock interviews especially with consultants or ex-consultants (ideally from the companies you are applying to). if your prep has been mainly offline (you crunching case studies), consider putting yourself in a full interview setting with peers or coaches to:

1- practice the full interview setup, not just the case

Remember that interviews also have a fit or PEI section and these are as important to practice for. 

2- solve cases under pressure and answer unexpected questions

once you have done various mocks, you know your personal stories better and you aced the case part, you're ready to go! 
 

Mario

Hello,

This highly depends on where you are with your case quality - it all depends on how you approached your 70 cases, what you retained from them, and how your casing skills developed as a result. At your stage, I would probably think about what it is you want to be improving: what are the parts of the case you find the most difficult, or get feedback that you need to work on the most? I would isolate those components, and focus your prep on them. If you feel like you have a lot of prep under your belt and are not sure how to develop further, I would recommend doing a session with a coach (or a friend who is a consultant / very experienced with case interviews) so you can get some good feedback on your performance. Feel free to message me if you'd like any more guidance, and best of luck!