Send us Fan Mail Whether you’re targeting McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or Tier 2 / Big 4 strategy firms, your evaluation can start before interview invites even go out. Many firms bring MBA candidates in for a group case or a 1-on-1 session first – the sessions are evaluative. Maile Dyer, a former Bain manager and Chicago Booth MBA, went through one of these sessions as a first-year and later helped decide who got interviewed. She joins the podcast to share how to prep for an evaluation that happens ...
Oct 30
33 min
Send us Fan Mail AI was supposed to kill junior consulting jobs. Then McKinsey, BCG, and Bain raised starting pay to $120,000 for pre-MBA hires and $200,000 for post-MBA hires. So why would 3 firms lock in higher base pay for junior consulting jobs? And is the raise as big as it looks? Namaan shares his take, plus what it means if you’re an undergrad, an MBA, or an experienced hire. The pay data behind it comes from candidates who shared their offers – listen, then add yours below. Resources:...
Oct 29
12 min
Send us Fan Mail Ben van der Schaaf of Arthur D. Little and Stephane Budel of DeciBio land in the same place on AI – it makes everyone faster, but the experience to know which questions to ask is what clients still pay for. Ben’s example: a colleague with 25 years in quality systems built a 17,000-line model over a weekend. Someone without those 25 years couldn’t have built it. And that idea runs through the rest of the conversation: specialists are winning work against firms 50 times their s...
Oct 28
56 min
Send us Fan Mail Juliane Hoss spent 3 years at Bain, and she’s interviewed plenty of candidates since. In this live Bain case interview, she coaches Abhirav after every step. The case: a UK healthcare consulting firm wants to double its revenue in 3 years. Abhirav, an engineer turned DJ turned finance student, solves it from clarifying questions to recommendation while Juliane coaches him. But the moment that sticks isn’t a framework. Juliane says the question she and other interviewers keep ...
Oct 23
41 min
Send us Fan Mail Mini case interviews are often the first test you face at McKinsey, Bain, and BCG. And if you’ve heard them called market sizing questions, you’ve already met the most common version. But a mini case interview plays by different rules than a full case, and the interviewer isn’t going to guide you through it. Namaan breaks down what to expect, how mini cases are scored, and how to finish one the right way. Resources: Want to know how you’d handle a mini case under time pressur...
Oct 21
4 min
Send us Fan Mail Most case interview prep is written for US interviews. If you’re recruiting for a European office, you’ll walk into a different interview than the one you practiced. Laura Ackerman worked at McKinsey and BCG and has coached European candidates for 4 years. She breaks down where US prep falls short in European consulting interviews: the case formats, the case topics, and how conversational the fit interview gets. And she shares how one client with a diplomacy background landed...
Oct 16
42 min
Send us Fan Mail Bain interviews have different rules, and Abi Chen spent 6 years at the firm learning them from the inside. As a former Bain manager and now an MC coach, she interviewed candidates and helped decide who got an invite. So she knows where strong candidates lose ground. In this episode, she walks through 4 of those mistakes – and what to do instead so you can get your offer. Resources: Practicing cases but can’t tell what’s holding you back? See how Black Belt coaching works – 1...
Oct 14
30 min
Send us Fan Mail Almost every large consulting firm has a healthcare practice. Far fewer have a healthcare position. In this episode of The Briefing, Namaan breaks down our 2027 healthcare consulting research. The big finding is that healthcare consulting splits into two sides, care delivery and life sciences, and a firm that’s excellent at one is often absent from the other. So the question for any practice leader is which side your firm has built a position on. McKinsey, BCG, and Bain take ...
Oct 9
33 min
Send us Fan Mail "I need to start prepping for the online assessment now, because it's the hardest part of getting an interview." Katie hears some version of this on her calls all the time, and it's easy to see why. The test can feel like a weird game you have no way to practice for, and it's the first thing standing between your application and an interview. So in our first episode of Case Busters, Katie puts it to the test. Should you really be grinding practice tests months before you appl...
Oct 7
8 min
Send us Fan Mail In most cases, your interviewer already knows how they'll score you by the time you reach the closing. But when it's a close one, the closing is the tiebreaker, and it can rescue your score. Namaan breaks down the 3 parts of a closing that works: the recap, the recommendation, and the risks and next steps. Practice it in every case, so the closing is ready to rescue your score when you need it. Resources: Start my free Case Foundations course – it covers all 5 core components...
Oct 2
5 min
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