Hi there!

You may start by selecting what consulting firm, what role, where… once you know I would recommend you:

1. Understand well the recruiting process of each firm, https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles

2. familiar yourself with the type of cases you can get https://www.preplounge.com/en/bootcamp.php and check cases published on PrepLounge

3. Practice math!

4. Dont learn any framework by hard, understand rather how to structure a problem and form a hypothesis to prove/disprove with an analysis

5. Practice with peers and take a few sessions with a coach, eventually do one diagnostic session to tell you where you stand and what your next steps should be

Feel free to reach out if you need a coach to support you, I am rewarded as a top BCG trainer, training new hires all the consulting skills (including how we create frameworks), as well as experienced coach. 

Good luck!

Lucie

Was my answer helpful?

Hi there,

Would skip #1 - this is generally pointless and will become clearer the more cases you do.

As for #2, #3, #4, that is roughly what it takes. However, it's very general and the same as saying “I plan to build a house, starting with the foundation, some walls, and a roof on top”.

My strong advice would be to get a coaching session early on to get you focused on what's really important. Any good coach will then help you develop a good preparation plan and you just take it from there.

Let me know if you'd like to talk more about coaching. I worked in STEM for 6 years prior to transitioning my career and joining McKinsey.

Best of luck!

(edited)

Hi there, 

Aside from what's already been mentioned, I'd enrich steps 1 and 2 with a couple more things. Try: youtube channels with live cases, audio recordings of cases, reach out to your network and chat with consultants to understand the firms better, read books about consulting and prepping for consulting. Coaching is sort of the last step and is meant to bring you from good to great (unless you don't have a lot of time and then it's pretty much the only option that you have to accelerate your tranjectory)

Hi there,

not quite sure what the question is, but I will say that success in consulting recruiting is not so much a question of business knowledge / experienced but more a question of structured, methodical approach that allows you to tackle problems and questions you are not necessarily experienced in.

In fact, candidates with a STEM background are very attractive to consultancies, given the highly analytical nature of the work. Hope this helps.

That said, with regards to your outlined steps, I'd suggest you try to get in coaching support early in the process, rather than late. A good coach will be able to guide you in terms of the right prep plan and focus - if you wait too long, you may end up boiling the ocean rather than finding the fastest way to get up to expectation.

If you'd like to get a detailed view on what prep should look like in your specific case, feel free to reach out via PM. I'm sure other coaches will be happy to offer the same. 

Cheers, Andi

Hi there,

I highly recommend 1 coaching session, at the very least, early on. This is so that you can get a fully tailored prep plan + direction in what to do, and get started with the right mindset (and right materials!) for casing properly.

The only risk with your approach is you're at risk of learning in far too academic a manner and may get to #4 with bad habits learned a much much more hours spent studying that you actually needed to (i.e. inefficient studying).

Just my 2 cents!

Here's some reading on Fit prep: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question

And some reading on case prep: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

(edited)

I'm from a similar background. Read the Wall Street Journal, Economist, Financial Times, NYT Business or Bloomberg Businessweek every day. Just pick 1 article/day in your industry of choice, whichever catches your fancy. Reading and understanding these articles will help you understand and communicate better. It's also helpful when you're actually doing your job (assuming you'll end up in consulting or something else related to business or finance) and honestly, the habit can be quite fun and valuable in ways unrelated to your work. 

Hello!

I like your approach, and also like people who advise you to broaden your exposure to these topics through reading (coz this is going to be good for you and interesting to better understand the world in which we live in). 

However, at the end of the day, practice is the only thing that truly makes you advance, since you get to apply the concepts you learn. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Agree with SJ where in addition to your list, broadening your exposure with real business problems/topics that interests you is the best way and a good practice to start early.  Although it will give you an edge as MBBs are highly competitive, there is no expectation of prior business knowledge where strong intrinsics that one learns from STEM (e.g., first principles, hypothesis-led thinking, analytical ability, etc.) should propel you through the process.  At least, that was my personal takeaway from my own interview process.

Good luck!