Practice for case interviews while working full time

Hi there,

1) From now till September, is it possible to be fully prepared to pass MBB interviews?

It is possible. But it depends on how many hours of prep you can put in.

Most candidates need 100+ hours starting from scratch to be ready. The exact amount depends on:

1. The resource you use
2. Your current level

If you think you can put that amount of time between now and the interviews, you should be able to maximize your full potential.

Below is what I usually recommend for the preparation:

1. Define a calendar for your preparation. Identify how many hours you have before your interview and allocate a time slot for preparation in your calendar for each day, working on the points below. As mentioned, many candidates need 100+ hours to be ready before the interview starting from zero so you can keep that as a benchmark.
2. Start reading good MBA Consulting Casebooks – you can find several for free online (INSEAD is a good one to start). Read the cases and try to apply your structure to solve them. Whenever you see there is something missing, upgrade your structure with the new insights. Try to read a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the information with constant learning.
3. After the first 5-10 cases in books/casebooks and basic theory, start to practice live. PrepLounge can be helpful to connect with other candidates for that. There is a relevant part of the interview score that is based on your communication, which you cannot practice at all if you read cases only.
4. Keep track of your mistakes and see which ones you are repeating. This is extremely important, as otherwise you may do a ton of cases without fixing the real issues. If you find common mistakes, try to identify the reason for them (feedback from experienced partners would be particularly useful for this). Be sure to focus on both the behavioral part and the case part during the mocks. The case part should also cover market sizing, math and graph analysis.
5. Before the interviews, be sure to prepare your questions for the interviewer  – a great way to show you prepared in advance and to connect with the interviewer for a good final impression. Ideally, try to get information on who they are and study their profile to have good questions to ask.

2) Is it a good idea to practice during weekends?

Really depends on your schedule. In theory it could work fine.

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If you want to spend a few hours only instead of 100+ and cover everything mentioned above, I developed a program precisely for that. 

I can also share with you real questions for your target office (I have a db with 1.500+ questions asked in 60+ offices you won't find anywhere else - you can check on my profile if I cover your particular office).

You can check the program at the following link to learn more:

▶ GYM Program

If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.

Best,

Francesco

Hi there, 

Yes, it's possible. I think that's actually a good timeline. 

You should basically focus on two things:

1. Find a sustainable schedule for your interview prep. It could be 1h every day or every other day. But be consistent about it. 

2. To compensate for the little time, hire a coach, even if just for one session, to understand how you can progress in the most efficient way possible. You'll figure out this way what to focus on to make the most of your time. 

Best,
Cristian

Hello,

I think the answer to this varies to person to person, and you know yourself best at the end of the day. In general, yes, it's absolutely possible - there's plenty of time between now and September. However, preparing for case interviews while working a full-time job can be challenging: you want to balance being disciplined and sticking to a case prep schedule, being judicious in figuring out what kind of prep you need exactly, and making sure you are taking care of yourself such that you don't burn out. Based on the things you mentioned in your question (e.g., working on skill-building techniques you know you need, being mindful of the fact that you are susceptible to burnout), it seems like you are very self-aware and are doing a bunch of these things already.

I'd advise you to do your best to work on your case prep, but also be mindful of when you need to rest, and don't overdo it. Perhaps one strategy would be to do a bit of case prep on weekends (a couple of hours / a live case or two), but not trying to spend all day working on it and burn yourself out in the process. Speaking to a coach to assess your needs and put together a personalized plan that works for you could also be helpful.

Hi there,

Preparing for interviews while working full time is certainly a difficult task to juggle both.

I'll share a personal POV on your predicament:

• Burning out and having ineffective / low quality practice is not ideal, I think we can all agree on that
• Time, and your energy/capacity, is finite
• What if, because of the 2 suppositions above, you cannot have the best of both worlds (i.e. do well on your day job while also preparing well for interviews)?
• In the scenario above, I would suggest you consider what you are willing to sacrifice/risk and for what upside
  • Is it better to perform less well on the current job if that means you get an offer at MBB?
  • I know people who have come to that conclusion above that yes it is better to risk the current job than miss out on MBB

Of course, if you could do both, that is the ideal scenario. But more often than not, that's not fully possible. 

• Please note that I am also not asking you to abandon all responsibilities on your current project
• Instead, if you agree its more important to focus prep on MBB, then you need to be really 80/20 on your current project
  • e.g. what is the least amount/quality of work/output I can do that is still acceptable?
  • e.g. what can I let slip on my current project (and incur some wrath from my manager), and what must I NOT screw up and get absolutely right?
  • e.g. Am I ok to get a “Average” or “Good” rating on this project, instead of a “Very Good” 

All the best!

Hi there,

Please please get a coach.

A coach is a personal trainer.

A good coach is there to:

• Be your emotional support
• Keep things in perspective
• Adjust your prep/training plan and schedule breaks so you can rest
• Minimize the hours you have to spend
• Figure out why you're failing 1st rounds and fix it

Einstein once said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

You need to do something different now. It sounds like you're someone that needs a trainer and person guiding you along the process.

Why risk going through last year all over again, stressing yourself out, doing the prep wrong, and failing interviews, when you can invest in yourself to get your dream?

2-3 hours Saturday and the occasional Sunday for 4-5 months. That is clearly enough. Particularly as you already practiced before.

Just make sure you know early on “what good looks like”.

It's possible but will require a lot of effort and all of your time will go either to work or to preparation especially if you want to spend a lot of time building up your interview skills. 

One thing you can do is to take it a bit slower for now and when you have a confirmed interview use a combination of weekends and pto to prepare. Also nowadays hiring at mbb has significantly slowed down so it might be wiser to apply in a year or more anyway.