Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy | Critical Thinking

Informações:

Sinopsis

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.All the techniques we teach are also used in our highly successful program "The Consulting Offer" where we take real students and train them for interviews, and publish all the videos online. In every season, the show has succeeded to place candidates.This podcast channel describes our lessons from training our clients.www.firmsconsulting.comwww.strategytraining.com

Episodios

  • 77: How PhD Candidates Should Prepare

    16/06/2012 Duración: 19min

    PhD candidates face three unique circumstances. First, they have to overcome the lack of available timing or guidelines for internship interviews since most thesis advisers will be unlikely to reschedule experiments and summer plans to accommodate McKinsey internship requests. Two, PhD's have certain stereotypes which they personally believe and exhibit such as they are less analytic than MBAs. Third, PhD's need to address the weaknesses consulting firms think they have like an inability to prioritize. This podcast touches on the main issues.

  • 76: Case Competitions Do Not Help

    10/06/2012 Duración: 20min

    One of the greatest myths is that entering a case competition will help you prepare for a consulting interview and will impress a consulting firm. Neither is true and this podcast explains why. We specifically encourage our clients to avoid case competitions if they can. If mandatory, we insist they put in the least possible effort.

  • 75: Myths about Management Consulting

    04/06/2012 Duración: 13min

    This general podcast describes some of the common misconceptions applicants and even practicing McKinsey/BCG consultants have about their own firms. It will be useful to anyone who wants to understand some of the broad themes and misunderstandings about the profession.

  • 74: Writing McKinsey Resumes

    29/05/2012 Duración: 29min

    This podcast examines the 5 "hard" elements McKinsey looks for in a resume. Yet, the main value of this podcast is in discussing the things McKinsey looks for but is very hard to quantify and describe; what is the best bullet to write, what is an achievement oriented bullet, should education go to the top or bottom, should GMAT scores be included etc. These subtle inclusions all contribute to your resume profile and in our experience, we have never seen a resume that did not have to be substantially re-written.

  • 73: How to hold networking conversations

    23/05/2012 Duración: 09min

    Networking calls/coffee chats are tricky. You should not be following the advice found for general recruitment. We insist our clients network with partners so most of the advice we provide is for networking with McKinsey and BCG partners. The reality is that partners are best equipped, and most influential, to assess a unique profile and make a judgement call on the spot. The danger is that if you do not impress the partner, you are very unlikely to go anywhere with further networking. The more atypical your profile, though, the greater the need to network with a partner, and the benefits far outweigh the risks.

  • 72: Consulting Lifestyle Challenges

    17/05/2012 Duración: 19min

    This podcast unpacks the typical lifestyle of a consultant. It touches on some elements for associates and business analysts, though delves more on the issues and challenges addressed by partners at BCG and McKinsey. Nonetheless, it is a good idea to understand how consulting lifestyle trends change one progresses further and further up the organization. This at the very least will help you decide if you want to stay all the way to partnership. This podcast is largely based on my own experiences as a partner.

  • 71: Advice for Aspiring Female Consultants

    11/05/2012 Duración: 27min

    It is a ridiculous myth to assume the world is fair and females have an even playing field with males. Females, especially in emerging markets, face unique and trying obstacles during the case interview process. Firmsconsulting has always been fairly direct in telling the truth as we see it to ensure female clients have the correct expectations, understand the hurdles they will face, and are armed with the correct training to handle their interviewers. This podcast explores this topic further.

  • 70: Managing your Case Interview Image

    05/05/2012 Duración: 20min

    Image management is crucial. A significant part of our approach is around teaching clients to manage, control really, the image they portray. This involves a wide area like dressing, networking, emailing, speaking, hand movements, body language etc. This podcast touches on these elements of image while exploring several in depth. This is one of several detailed podcasts exploring different areas of image management.

  • 69: Important Case Guidance

    29/04/2012 Duración: 11min

    In our ongoing series of podcasts, we again introduce new advice about case interviews or sometimes view an old topic in a different manner. The objective of these podcasts is to explain concepts like MECE, 80/20, brainstorming, hypotheses etc in different ways so that as many listeners as possible will understand these concepts. We have seen some listeners obtain McKinsey offers merely by using the podcasts to prepare and we therefore want to increase the amount of material we generate - in the hope of helping more listeners.

  • 68: Analyst to Partner

    23/04/2012 Duración: 01h09min

    In this podcast I examine my rapid progression up the ranks of the elite firms all the way from analyst to principal and then director. I offer anecdotes or my own experience and especially the mistakes I made, strategies I followed and the lessons I learned along the way. What you find is that analytic skill is very important early on, but being brilliant at analyses only gets you so far - and not very far at that. To push into the partnership ranks you need to have much more skills, especially the ability to influence others, take risks and build your peoples capabilities.

  • 67: What is business judgement

    17/04/2012 Duración: 10min

    You cannot and will not improve your case skills from practicing case alone. "Case skills" refers to a variety of skills including body language, communication and especially business judgement. Business judgement effectively means your ability to make reasonable guesses/inferences in business situations. That largely comes from being well read. This podcast breaks down business judgement further and offers advice to improve this skill.ies.

  • 66: Follow an R&D Strategy Study

    11/04/2012 Duración: 34min

    An earlier podcast discussed a fairly labor-intensive case where we needed to literally roll-up our sleeves to find and extract data, and a corporate finance study. This engagement is somewhere in-between. It discusses a study I led to help a major corporation completely redesign their entire R&D strategy and restructure their R&D division, a behemoth of a unit with little direction. I do recall this being one of the friendliest clients I have ever encountered. PhD's usually are this way.

  • 65: Discuss your analytic skills, sample answer

    05/04/2012 Duración: 09min

    In this series of podcasts we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril. The reality is that McKinsey will rarely ask this question directly. They will ask a simple question, not referring to leadership, but expect you to always draw out leadership, analytic, teamwork and "can-do" attributes.

  • 64: Talk about a leadership example, sample answer

    30/03/2012 Duración: 21min

    In this series of podcasts we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril. Talk about a leadership example, sample answer

  • 63: Talk me through your resume, sample answer

    24/03/2012 Duración: 14min

    In this series of podcasts we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril. Talk me through your resume, sample answer

  • 62: Why is BCG appealing to you, sample answer

    18/03/2012 Duración: 10min

    In this series of podcasts we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril. Why is BCG appealing to you, sample answer

  • 61: Why are you interested in this office, sample answer

    12/03/2012 Duración: 11min

    In this series of podcasts we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril. Why are you interested in this office, sample answer

  • 60: Why did you go to Arizona state, sample answer

    05/03/2012 Duración: 06min

    In this series of podcasts we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril. Why did you go to Arizona state, sample answer

  • 59: Please elaborate on a weakness, sample answer

    28/02/2012 Duración: 12min

    In this series of podcasts we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril. Please elaborate on a weakness, sample answer

  • 58: Rules for FIT and PEI Case Interview Questions

    22/02/2012 Duración: 14min

    In this podcast we outline some simple guidelines to use for McKinsey and BCG FIT/PEI cases. The objective is to know what each firm is for and then design the answer to address each of those points. The objective of FIT is not to deliver your life story. That is largely meaningless but unfortunately a common tactic used by many candidates.

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