Case Interview Preparation & Management Consulting | Strategy

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50: Analyst-Partner mistakes Jan 05, 2012

Show notes

This long podcast (60 minutes) examines the common mistakes consultants make at each level of their career. I have gone into some detail to explain my own mistakes, and that of former and current colleagues. Some of the advice is counter-intuitive and I have stayed away from generic advice. This will be very useful to aspiring consultants who need to understand what it takes to succeed at each level.

49: Join Accenture etc? Dec 30, 2011

Show notes

We get this question more times than you can imagine. We also get a chorus of Accenture people telling us we are wrong, and they are "eating McKinsey's lunch." I think the question posed is incorrect and the defense of Accenture is incorrect. This podcast explains why. BBM are good at advising decision makers on general management issues. They excel at that. They are pretty much no-where in the implementation space. Accenture, Deloitte SO etc have their areas of strength, but it is not in the general management advisory space. They are both good at different things. Decide what you want to do and then pick the firm. However, don't assume a firm is good everything, and if you have never worked at BBM, don't believe everything your Accenture/Deloitte/[add your firms name here] partner says. Get first-hand information. FYI – Kennedy Research, the Economist and IDC Research are not first-hand information and neither is getting the opinion of a junior person or someone with just one or two years experience.

48: BCG And Clients Dec 24, 2011

Show notes

Not all BCG engagements begin via a call from the CEO or Chairman of the board. Many do, but life is not that simple. Some, unusually, begin with a call from a middle-manager who does not speak English well. What differentiates BCG, and McKinsey, from Tier-2 firms, however, is how we handle these calls, understand the deeper problems, and cascade the issues upwards until, when the time counts, we are in front of the board. Most Tier-2 firms receiving the same call would settle to try to sell the middle-manager a $100K project or simply dismiss him as unimportant. BCG uses it has an opportunity to learn.

47: Greg Smith's Goldman Op-Ed Dec 18, 2011

Show notes

I have had many people emailing me the Goldman Sachs letter to tell me that, "Michael, this is exactly what you teach us." It is not. I fundamentally disagree with what Greg Smith did. It goes against the consulting culture, values and ethos, at its very fiber. Here is why, and I would welcome your comments on this.

46: Comparing 2011 MBA Salaries Dec 12, 2011

Show notes

Based on offers made to our candidates in the Fall 2011 full-time recruiting, we present the ranges of packages offered. The sample size, 48, is large enough to offer a good approximation of all offers extended. Listeners are cautioned not to extend these numbers outside the USA, where salaries differ significantly. As expected, Accenture and Deloitte dramatically out-offered Bain, BCG and McKinsey.

45: Follow A Corporate Finance Study Dec 06, 2011

Show notes

An earlier podcast discussed a fairly labor-intensive case where we needed to literally roll-up our sleeves to find and extract data. This is the opposite engagement. It is the glamorous engagement all aspiring consultants dream about and imagine consulting is about. In this engagement, we worked for the largest company in the world, in its sector, to understand how to increase its share price. We were based out of The City in London and had to change conventional wisdom about value creation. I had the good fortune to lead this engagement.

44: Why Most Fail the FIT Interview Outside the FIT Nov 30, 2011

Show notes

Many, many see fit as just 15 minutes of the full case. That is a dangerous myth. You are always being assessed for fit, even when the formal fit portion has ended. Provided you understand this, you will be fine in cases. Moreover, do not memorize answers. The main part of the fit is not the initial answer you provide, but the cross-examination which will follow, especially with McKinsey, and you can never be prepared for that.

43: BTO Applications and Interviews Strategies Nov 24, 2011

Show notes

This podcast addresses some of the common misconceptions candidates have, and the mistakes they routinely make for this McKinsey path. Many of this mistakes commonly arise due to the nature of the work done in BTO. We advice applicants to focus less on "what" is done and much more on "how" it is done. This is also one practice we have been most successful in placing older candidates.

42: Traits of Successful Consulting Applicants Nov 18, 2011

Show notes

A continuation of a podcast series we regularly update which looks at new traits and examines some in greater detail. In this posting, we spend more time looking at experienced candidates. Experienced candidates face unique and material challenges such as being out of an university recruiting cycle (out-of-cycle), having to prove their analytic skills, having to prove their ramp-up rate etc. We discuss how successful clients in our program have met these challenges and thrived.

41: Canadian MBA Programs for Consulting Nov 12, 2011

Show notes

This podcast provides some behind the scenes numbers about MBA program in the Great White North, as well as some tough questions candidates should ask themselves before applying. The headline is that the traditional power-house schools like Ivey and McGill have essentially fallen dramatically behind and largely rely on their alumni success versus any real weight in the current placement numbers.

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