Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking
StrategyTraining.com & FirmsConsulting.com
Firmsconsulting maintains a 80% success rate at placing clients within McKinsey, BCG and Bain. This is the highest in the industry and the rate is higher if we include other firms. We achieve this rate because we only use former partners from McKinsey, BCG et al to develop our clients. This makes us unique. We never use analysts, associates, engagement managers or associate principals. We also carefully select and develop clients on their communication, image, technical and case interview skills. This podcast channel describes our lessons from training our clients.
www.firmsconsulting.com
www.strategytraining.com
www.firmsconsulting.com
www.strategytraining.com
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 22, 2013 • 24min
157: How to Influence Your Interviewer
In this podcast we will discuss a client who is very good at influencing the way interviewers work with her, and the subtle danger of her approach. A counter-point to this is another candidate who initially completely mismanaged his image, and we discuss the impact of his actions and what happened when he changed.
Sep 16, 2013 • 13min
156: Key Differences in Bain FIT Questions
In looking through our database of over 240 former clients and speaking to Bain partners we know, we see two unique ways a Bain fit interview differs from a McKinsey PEI. The first relates to way in which you interact with the interviewer as you deliver your response, and the second relates to a very specific attribute that Bain seeks in your fit responses. Both differ substantially from a McKinsey or BCG interview. In fact, EVERY single client we placed at Bain strongly displayed these two characteristics. It is uncanny how close a correlation exists.
Sep 10, 2013 • 9min
155: Bonus vs. Salary Resume Editing
Bonus versus salary resumes, is a very simple test we do on resumes. This podcast explains the test. We basically look at whether or not a bullet point explains an action which earned you a salary or would have resulted in a bonus. The latter is vital and the former should be purged from your salary. McKinsey looks for things on your resume which earned you your resume. It is important to understand that merely doing your job is not an achievement in itself.
Sep 4, 2013 • 8min
154: Economic Impact of Poor Business Judgement
The economic impact of poor business judgement, is a topic we managed every day as partners. Each time an associate made a poor “common sense” decision we needed to explain both the potential reputation and economic damage done to the firm. The former is well-known, but the latter is less known but just as important. In thinking through why consulting firms look for business judgement, it helps to consider the economic impact to clients and the firm.
Aug 29, 2013 • 7min
153: Generating Multiple Creative Hypotheses
Building of our technique to develop hypotheses, this podcast explains a clever way to generate creative hypotheses. In essence, the podcast will be useful to candidates who have already seen how we brainstorm and generate hypotheses, since this podcast expands on that thinking. The core of this idea is that if more than one structure can be brainstormed for a case, each of those structures can be used to develop a new type of hypothesis. This is a very, very simple technique as well.
Aug 23, 2013 • 6min
151: Read Exhibits as Maps For Insights
In this podcast present a clever technique to treat graphs as “maps” when reading them. Corporate Finance candidates will like this. The key to this technique rests on the simple idea of ignoring the data plots and first trying to understand what the type of graph is saying. Once this is clear, the data is then examined within the graph to understand its meaning. The podcast explains this with an example and is a very effective tool we use for teaching clients.
Aug 17, 2013 • 10min
150: McKinsey Senior Partner Networking Success
We always ask our clients, especially those from weaker schools, to network with the most senior partners of consulting firms. This is a podcast about a PhD client, from a weaker school and no existing consulting relationships, who painfully followed this advice over several months to network with a member of McKinsey's worldwide leadership and obtain interviews for his office of choice. It is not easy, but can be done. It works.
Aug 10, 2013 • 5min
149: Why To Bring Energy To The Interview
Lots of candidates leave it to the interviewer to determine the energy levels, tone and mood of the call. That is a bad idea. In our experience, the best candidates always bring a light mood to interviews. Seriousness, can hurt you as it is confused for anxiousness. Delegating the mood to the interview is bad idea since it means the energy of the case will be largely out of your control. Moreover, unless you practice controlling the energy, it is unlikely you will have this skill to deploy in the case interview itself.
Aug 4, 2013 • 3min
148: Making sexist comments in interviews
Due to culture, tradition and even good intentions, candidates make sexist remarks. Sometimes, a very innocent remark may come across as sexist. This podcast examines some the incidences we have encountered which have hurt candidates in cases. It is wise to think about your own inadvertent sexist behavior.
Jul 29, 2013 • 39min
147: McKinsey, Bain, BCG Johannesburg
This extremely detailed podcast offers advice and information on the rise of Sub-Saharan offices – Nigeria and South Africa, the rise of African candidates, types of work done in these offices, the interview process and challenges faced by candidates, key partners, key clients, significant projects, hiring strategies, recruiting firms used, expatriate strategies and more. It is one of several detailed office podcasts we have released for the English-speaking offices.
