I have spent ~5 months interviewing with MBB firms and stopped at final rounds. I am also working full time so the entire journey has been very stressful. I am now facing a dilemma: I'm tired and exhausted, but I want to continue to apply to tier 2 firms.
Is it necessary to keep doing 2-3 cases per week just to keep the “momentum”? Or, is it okay just to read notes, do drills by myself, and practice casing once a week? Thanks for your suggestion!
Hi there,
Sorry to hear about the rejections. If you are exhausted you need to have a break. A few days / one week won’t be an issue long term and will help to recover.
After that, the amount of practice depends on your timeline for the Tier 2 applications. It is also more important who you do cases with and the feedback you receive than the number of sessions you have. That’s why I connect candidates I help with each other, so that they can train with qualified peers.
You can find some tips on how to prepare here:
▶ https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/only-one-month-for-my-first-interview-at-mbb-14567
Best,
Francesco
Hi there,
Hard to tell what it is that you need but it may well be a break!
You're clearly at the brink of over-exhausting yourself, if you haven't already. You can save that for the actual consulting job…
I would suggest to not do any prep work for a while and then work with a coach to help you with a diagnostic and targeted work plan. You can achieve so much in so little time with the right guidance. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true and people spend months practicing without any progress.
Let me know if you'd like to discuss sometime - happy to help!
Best of luck!
You should actually avoid doing 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, when needed… and feeling rested and again excited with cases.
Get some much needed rest and swing back into action when you line up new set of interviews. There will be muscle memory, so you dont have to start from scratch. And this time focus on your gap areas. There is no need to go through tons of cases. Quality over quantity.
All the best.
Dear candidate,
it depends on you but yes if you do drills and do practise on your improvement areas, doing one live case per week should still work. Important is that the drills are in areas that will help you improve your overall performance. Sorry to hear about the interviews but very well done. You are likely to find a great place at a tier 2 firm and do not worry about it.
Best regards,
Charlotte
Hi there,
sorry for not making it this time.
I would recommend first to take at least some mental break and to stretch your mind what will be the best next move for you. I understand that having a full-time job and preparing for an interview is hard, on the other hand, MBB job is actually similar to what you experienced: working 12-16 hours a day with high expectations and little praise for what you do.
So how to move forward:
1. I would recommend networking with someone that has worked at the 2nd tier consulting before joining MBB to understand well the expectation differences and also for you to have a clear picture of what eventually you should yet master.
2. You should also ask for all feedback from MBB and eventually get a coach to help you only with the areas of improvement to be as much effective as possible.
Wishing you all the best,
Lucie
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Hi there,
5 months of interviewing + prep time before that all while working full-time sound very exhausting.
With case prep, less is often more.
You want to make sure to
In your position, I would not touch cases for at least 2 weeks, take some days off, do something else.
Then come back, create an effective plan, and execute against it. Happy to support you along the way :-)
Cheers,
Florian
Hi there,
Please get this “momentum” concept out of your head - it's totally misguided!
You need a break! Take an undefined amount of time off. If you set an end date you won't fully rest/recover.
Once you're ready to jump back into it (you'll know when) you'll find you might actually even be a better caser than you were before!
When you do return, read the following to start your mindset shift in casing: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case
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