Getting back into Case-Practice after a longer break

Hi there,

Honeslty, whenever there's a tight timeframe like yours my #1 recommendation is a coach. Nothing is a greater time lever than bringing in an expert.

Short of that, you'll want to try and get in as many cases as possible AND review old cases you've done to spark your memory and get that muscle memory back.

Good luck!

You could try and practice with experienced peers or a coach of your choice over the next week to speed things up. Muscle memory could kick in and things will get back to you. Otherwise best postpone and get additional 2-3 weeks.

A week is a pretty tight timeline, I have to be honest... I've worked with many current consultants applying for MBB where even they struggle. Although the case interview is representative of the job itself, it does test the same skills in a more "academic" environment which requires familiarity and practice. 

If I were in your shoes, I would have a mock case interview with a partner or coach to identify the areas where you feel your performance has gone down. After which I would focus on specifically those things.

Good luck!

Hi there,

I would recommend the following:

1. Understand which are your areas of improvement – the sooner the better.

No one can provide tips on how you can get better if you don’t know yourself which are the possible improvements

• The “fast” way is to book a coaching session. However, that’s not free
• The “cheap” way is to find a good case partner that can provide great feedback

Whatever option you use, write down the improvements/mistake in an ad-hoc spreadsheet and use it as a reference for the next steps

2. Take the feedback and work on the improvement areas

• You may have to do drills on a specific part where you are weak (eg structuring or graph analysis)
• Update your spreadsheet after each case/drill
• Try to find cases/drills related to your improvement area until you are not repeating the mistakes

3. Refine your prep

• Once you have fixed the mistakes you are aware of and your current partners cannot point out additional ones (or if you cannot find ways to fix them), move to a new partner or a coach for fine-tuning
• Review the fit part - it is as important as the case, although it is easier to prepare. You can find more tips on that here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/bain-london-can-anyone-share-insightsexperienceadvise-on-behavioral-interview-pastforward-looking-9156
• Prepare your questions for the interviewer

If you don’t have enough time to reach a good level, it is better to reschedule the interview. You should be able to get an idea of your level after step 1. When I do coaching I provide a score that points out exactly how far you are from a first and final round pass, but any good partner should be able to give you a general idea of that.

For additional questions please feel free to PM me.

Best,

Francesco

Hey there,

Without knowing your performance on the case and personal fit/ PEI, it is quite difficult to give an honest assessment.

My general advice would be:

1. With one week left, you would need an honest evaluation and tailored prep plan as soon as possible. Without knowing your skill level, strengths, weaknesses, it's hard to give more targeted advice. Assuming that you learned and internalized the right habits for the case and prepared proper stories that actually hit the dimensions that consulting firms are looking for, I would just recommend you to practice cases with peers, conduct drill exercises for the key question types to wake up the rusty skills. If you are not at this level, I'd recommend a diagnostic session with a coach. Some candidates need 3 sessions with a coach and learn exactly the right approach while others conduct 100+ sessions, repeating the same faulty patterns, habits, and make the same mistakes over and over again.
2. Work on your perceived weaknesses in peer case interviews, and conduct several charts, math, and structuring drills + speak through your stories and personal fit answers with a few friends (check out my answer here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-prepare-for-a-case-study-10480) or alternatively do one final finetuning session with a McKinsey, BCG, or Bain coach (depending who you are interviewing with).
3. The closer you get to the interview, the less you should be doing and the more focus should be on enjoyable experiences to free your mind.
4. If you feel like time is not enough to be up to par, I'd try to reschedule the interview!

All the best for your interviews!

Cheers,

Florian