Advice on case interview preparation

Hi there,

We would need a bit more details to be able to gauge perfectly. I've heard some candidates say that before and that's usually for one of the reasons below:

1- Preparations Fatigue

You need to pace your preps as it takes time to learn and digest all the information flowing your way. Interview preps can take weeks or months depending on the candidate. You might be rushing things by doing several cases every single day, without getting proper sleep and rest, which may result in lack of focus and lower performance.

2- Untackled development areas 

You need to understand exactly what you're doing well vs. not. For example, is your structure always good but the problem is in the quant? Do you usually know how to solve the case but you feel you don't have time? It's often by training with peers or coaches that can you can spot these better.

Once you understand those, you need to start doing cases to tackle them (e.g., more quant heavy cases if that's the problem). Once you feel one development area is tackled, you can move to the next.

3- Need to know the theory better

Remember that there are ways of preparing for interviews. You need to be familiar with the various case types, the math shortcuts, the comms methods, the business terms and more. You can't jump straight into cracking cases and hope for the best. 
 

Happy to chat more and to help you with the preps! 

Mario

The results from preparations are not linear - there is a learning process involved and as long as you are headed in the right trajectory it is fine.

In your case it sounds like you do not think you are improving. To me that indicates one of the following

• Your process for how you solve cases is not ideal - perhaps you are relying largely on self practice, maybe you are not addressing your core areas effectively, or the people you are practicing with are not helping you learn. It is often helpful to practice with someone who has expertise in this and can help you address feedback and skills you need to develop
• The cases - are you practicing on different elements of the case and then working on the entire case or always just looking at the entire case itself? It is important to build your individual skillset that is addressed vs always just looking at the entire case.

Getting the case right can be a difficult process but with the right technique it should get better with time

Best,

Udayan

Without knowing more detail my guess is that you are doing too many cases with poor quality partners (maybe you are using friends or classmates who are not experienced interviewers), and perhaps you are also practicing for too many different types of case interviews

The problems with this approach include:

• Highly variable and conflicting feedback. (E.g. One interviewer says you took too long to structure the case and the next one says you are rushing into it).
• Incorrect feedback. If your case partners don't have interview experience then they are guessing at what you are, and are not, doing well
• Lack of focus. Different firms have different styles of interviews. My advice is to pick the firm you most want to work for and learn how to do their case interviews well (what is good in a McKinsey interview may not work in a BCG interview)

My advice is to:

• Pick one firm that you want to work for and focus on their style of case interviews
• Find 1 or 2 coaches who are experienced with that firm and try and do more than one case with each of them (the best way to know whether you are truly improving or not is to have the same person interview you more than once and then tell you)

Best of luck!

If you feel like you are getting worse with every practice interview than better, you need to put on the brakes and reassess the situation:

• Can you pinpoint the areas of the interview where you feel like you are not progressing? (solving cases, personal fit, both)
• Table the areas you think you can already handle well for the time being and map out the parts that cause you a headache
• Take a structured approach to tackle the headache parts with dedicated practice rounds that focus on the identified areas (repeat a few times until you stop getting nervous about them)
• Allow yourself enough time to digest the material - you actually need to understand the ways of thinking rather than just memorizing certain frameworks or approach recipes

Feel free to reach out if you'd like to chat further

In most cases this happens because you are trying to fit in frameworks and not being objective driven in your approach. You may need to completely change your approach to cases.

Another option is that you may just be overworking yourself. I suggest you take a few days to relax and recover on your sleep. You should make an effort to be disciplined and make sure you are having enough rest everyday. 

On a side note, you should actually avoid doing a lot of preparation when you are feeling tired and overwhelmed. Otherwise you will actually gain a lot of bad habits (e.g. “lazy” structuring or market sizing just because you are exhausted). So take it easy now and make up for it later.

Stop.

Take a break.

You are over-casing. This happens a lot, and it especially happens if you're casing with the same types of people.

Take some days (even a week or more off), depending on your timeline. Don't even think about casing during this time.

Then, when you come back, get a coaching session with a coach. Have them through a tough/curveball case at you to see how you do.

Here's a bit of reading to jolt you into the right mindset for casing: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

It is quite common and it depends on the fact that you are training wrong without help from professionals.

My strong suggestion is that you should hire a coach or two and have an assessment and some feedback.

Oh dear I know what you mean. It's that moment where you've learnt so many frameworks and taken in so much feedback that you can't remember how to think through the answer properly. I recommend that you take a bit off time off from casing, do the things that you love to do and reset. Then go back to doing a case and focus on thinking through the answer vs., thinking through the frameworks you have learnt. You'll begin to realise that it'll come naturally. 

Good luck!