Hi there,

If you're struggling after 80+ cases and 20+ interviews, quite honestly you would be best served by a coach. If you have 6 years experience, you can probably afford one as well!

Now, I totally understand that you really don't want one (even if it's really what you need), but, here's the best advice I can giv ehere:

1. Quality over quantity - you're measuring 80+ cases etc. This isn't how to succeed! Look at what you can do to better yourself in a qualitative way. As in, instead of doing more cases, why don't you review your old ones?
2. Take a step back - pause. Zoom out. Reflect. What's missing?
3. Get a “free” expert - call up a friend in consulting, ask the companies you're interviewing with to pair you up with a current consultant, find an awesome caser on preplounge. Try and get all of the above to case you, and emphasize that you want genuine, honest feedback
4. Take a break - sometimes just letting thing ssettle is the best thing you can do. Stop, forget about casing for a few months, then come back. You'll see the dust has settled, formed a nice foundation, and you'll be ready to hit it again!

Good luck!

Hey,

If you are struggling after 80+ cases then clearly there are blind spots and/or bad habits which you are unable to break. If you are set on not using a coach (the investment pays off quickly once you land the job anyway!), please try and find a current consultant, peer or friend who is experienced in this space and can work out your gap areas. Go for quality and not quantity as you have practiced enough number of cases anyway.

Also, please dig out as much feedback (interviews and practice) and see if there is any clear trend, mistakes you are making and/or type of cases you are struggling with. The more specific the better.

And final tip, I have noticed some people struggle with keeping calm and managing interview anxiety in-spite of being well prepared. Check out this link for some tips on this:https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/dealing-with-nervousness-10452

All the best.

For the business sense part, you are struggling with, I recommend trying to think like a CEO. As someone with strong industry expertise, you might be too narrow in a specialist mindset. As a consultant, you will be required to communicate top-down and make sure you can articulate your recommendations (outcomes of your work (analyses, etc.)) in the context of the business overall as well. 

When you do cases, take some time to understand the business itself and what it looks like from a CEO's perspective. What would your client be interested in in the overall business sense? How does your work help to solve the problem? etc.

Try rocketblocks!! You can do structure drilling.

Few sessions with coach seem good to build foundation despite you have done 80 cases. They may notice problem beyond structuring and can teach how to do hypothesis driven structuring properly. Even the easy case you thought you did very well may not be good enough in eyes of interviewer/coach