case selection

Question

How are cases chosen? Is there a case bank within which interviewers will choose cases that are interesting to them or is it set in stone each year and interviewers have freedom to personalize the standard cases?

wishing to understand the interviewer's perspective

Answer 1

Hi there,

this is very much firm-, role- and sometimes office-specific. Some have pre-set list of cases interviewers can choose from. Most others give full discretion to the interviewer.

To give you a concrete example, at BCG, I had full freedom to select the cases for the most part. There was only one exception to this - First Round interviews of MBA on-campus recruting. For those, the intent was typically to make results more comparable & fair among direct peers, hence more standardization. At McK, by contrast, in general I see a more standard set of cases in rotation from which many interviewers seem to choose from.

That said, as Benjamin mentioned, it should not really matter too much how case selection happens - at the end of the day, if you have the skills a firm is looking for, you're likely to make it through anyway. Irrespective of the actual case. If you feel your performance is not consistent / dependent on specific case types, it's typically a strong signals that you need to further improve your casing foundations.

Hope this helps.

Regards, Andi

Answer 2

Hi,

A very similar question was asked recently w.r.t. Partner and final round cases.

In short: it depends.

Some firms have a set list of cases
Others let interviewers build and give their own cases

If you are trying to understand the interviewer's perspective by trying to find out what cases are given and how, I think you are approaching this wrongly and asking a question that is really not as relevant to your success and objective (which is to land a job interview).

What case is given/you get does not and should not matter
From an interviewers perspective I expect you to demonstrate the skills/capabilities that I am looking for regardless of the case/question I am giving you
- This is why Partners may go ‘off script’ but still fail candidates, because even if they conduct the interview in a way you did not expect, you did not demonstrate the skills they were looking for

So while it may be interesting to get an answer to your question, I really think this is not something you should be focused / concerned on. Knowing this answer does not help you get closer to receiving the offer.

All the best!

Answer 3

Hi there,

First of all, it doesn't matter! The answer to this question should not change any action you take in terms of your preparation - therefore, it is wasted time/effort/mental space.

That said, the answer is also it depends. Some firms have a bank of cases, others have the interviewers create their own.

Focus your prep on how to solve any case in an objective-driven way. Here's some reading to help with that:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/candidate-led-cases-what-to-expect-and-example-cases

Answer 4

Hi there,

That's a cool question.

It depends from firm to firm, interviewer to interviewer, as you might imagine.

But until recently, interviewers were free to pick cases from the internal case library or use their own.

Many interviewers would also come up with the case on the spot (this is how 3 out of the 4 McKinsey interviews went).

Now it's changing because firms want to eliminate bias and as a consequence of this they want to standardise the process more.

So interviewers are asked only to use cases from the internal library. There are of course many who still don't do that, especially more senior interviewers who still prefer their original style.

If you're looking for MBB cases, here are a couple I wrote after recent interviews of my candidates:

Also, if you're interested in how diversity initiatives are changing consulting, check out this guide:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/role-of-diversity-and-inclusion-in-consulting

Best of luck!
Cristian

Best,
Cristian