Case interviews, frameworks, recruiting
— done seriously.
Long-form articles for candidates who want more than a framework cheat sheet. Written and reviewed by former MBB consultants. New posts roughly weekly.
Case Frameworks
9 postsProfitability, market entry, M&A, pricing, and the structural moves that separate average performers from offer-getters.
Clarifying Questions: What to Ask, What Not to, and When to Stop
Clarifying questions are the first thing an interviewer hears you think. Learn the four jobs they do, the test that separates a good question from filler, what not to ask, and when to stop and start structuring.
Cost-Reduction Cases That Don't Collapse Into a List
Many candidates answer a cost-reduction case by listing cost categories. A stronger answer finds where the money is, picks a lever per cost line, and nets the savings against one-time cost and side effects. Worked example included.
Pricing Cases: Four Questions to Ask Before Any Framework
Many candidates answer a pricing case with cost-plus and stop. Four questions about the objective, the customers, the anchors, and the response come first, and a worked example shows why volume effects decide the answer.
Math & Estimation
5 postsMental math drills, market sizing patterns, and the recovery techniques top candidates use when a number goes sideways.
Reading Charts and Exhibits Under Time Pressure: A Six-Step Routine
Exhibits arrive with one instruction: tell me what you see. A fixed six-step routine, a worked example with the arithmetic shown, and the five traps (units, truncated axes, percent versus points, mix shift, stacked charts) behind most misreadings.
Talking Through the Math: How to Narrate a Calculation in a Case Interview
Interviewers can only grade the math they can hear. Six moves for narrating a calculation, a side-by-side of a silent answer and a spoken one, and a recording drill that fixes the habit.
Case Math Drills: 12 Worked Examples to Build Fluency
Drill articles only work if you actually do them. Twelve case-math problems with worked solutions across the patterns that show up most: percentage shifts, big-number scaling, profitability math, and 90-second market sizing.
Firm Insights
12 postsHow MBB, Big 4, and tier-2 firms actually run their interviews — and what each one is really screening for.
BCG Interviews: Format, Online Assessment, and What They Look For
A candidate-reported overview of the BCG process: the stages, the pre-interview steps that vary by office and cycle, what the case tends to reward, and how to prepare for each stage. Hedged, because offices and years differ.
LEK and OC&C Case Interviews: How to Prepare for Number-Heavy Cases
Candidates commonly describe LEK and OC&C interviews as heavier on numbers and faster than MBB-style practice cases. What that means for your prep, with a worked example of a calculation chain built on an exhibit.
Consulting Online Assessments Beyond Solve: The Formats You May Meet, and How to Prepare
Solve gets the attention, but candidates report a wider set of online screens: game-based tests, reasoning tests, situational judgement, one-way video and chat-style cases. What each measures and how to prepare for it.
Behavioral & PEI
6 postsPersonal Experience Interview, Why-Consulting?, leadership stories, and the soft side that gets candidates dinged silently.
Delivering a 90-Second Fit Story Out Loud
A story that reads well can still fall apart when you say it. Here is a five-beat structure with a word budget, a fully worked example, and the drills that turn a good story into a clean ninety-second answer.
Five Patterns That Trip Up Strong Candidates in Final Rounds
Strong case scores get you to the final round; they do not carry you through it. Five patterns that tend to separate strong candidates from offers, what each sounds like, and how to fix it before your next round.
Build a Story Bank: Eight Stories That Cover Most Fit Questions
You do not need thirty rehearsed answers for consulting fit interviews. You need eight good stories that between them cover most fit questions, each able to answer two or three of them. How to choose, structure, map, and test them.
Recruiting Strategy
13 postsNetworking, OCI, MBA timelines, lateral moves, and how to position yourself when you don't go to a target school.
The Week Before Your First-Round Interviews: A 7-Day Checklist
The last week before a first round is for consolidating, not cramming. A day-by-day plan covering your final mock, logistics, firm refresh, interview-day routine and the notes to take afterwards.
Asking for a Consulting Referral (and What to Do If You Already Have One)
A referral is a favor from someone who puts a little of their reputation behind you. Here is when to ask, how to make the request easy to forward, two short email templates, and what to do if you already have one.
The Two Weeks Before Fall Recruiting: What to Lock In Now (14-Day Checklist)
Two weeks is enough to lock in the things that fail on the day and fix one or two weaknesses, but not enough to rebuild your case skills. A 14-day checklist: documents, stories, mocks with unfamiliar partners, logistics, and a deliberate taper.
Industry Trends
6 postsWhat's actually moving in healthcare, tech, financial services, and energy — and how it shows up in real cases.
Healthcare and Life-Sciences Cases: The Primer Candidates Skip
Healthcare is the sector many candidates quietly hope not to draw. This primer maps who pays whom, explains drug and hospital economics in plain words, and walks through a patient-funnel calculation step by step.
How to Practice Cases With an AI Partner Without Building Bad Habits
An AI partner is good at reps, spoken practice and consistent feedback, and weak at judging your story or pushing back like a real interviewer. Six habits that go wrong, and how to avoid each one.
What Private-Equity Due-Diligence Cases Actually Test
A due-diligence case is not a diagnosis. The client is an investor deciding whether to buy, and the job is to find what must be true for the deal to work. A structure, a worked mini-case, and what interviewers are scoring.
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