Case Interview – Free Video Tutorials, Frameworks & Examples from a Former McKinsey Interviewer
The following videos and handouts were presented to approximately 100 students from the Harvard Business School on the topic of case interviews for management consulting jobs. This 6 hour case interview workshop is provided to at no up front cost.
These videos describe the case interview methods that allowed me to pass 62 out of 63 case interviews when I applied for jobs at all the major firms. I ended up working at McKinsey & Company in their New York City office (a great experience I might add).
I received offers at McKinsey, Bain, AT Kearney, LEK Alcar, Monitor, Strategic Decisions Group, Mercer, and received an invite to Booz Allen Hamilton final round (I declined since I had already received offers from my top 2 choices). BCG somehow escaped me in Round 1, go figure! (though I suspect it was probably not because of the case, but because of the general interview Q&A).
I was hired as an Business Analyst at McKinsey and two years later was promoted to Associate (Only 10 out of 100 business analysts worldwide that were offered the opportunity). As an Associate, I also became a Case Interviewer and developed an appreciation for being on both sides of the table.
(For what its worth, the interviewer is definitely not out to get you… you're just one thing on their "to do" list that's infinitely long.)
The materials below are an updated version of my own prep tools that I created many years ago. I gave the first version of this presentation to four friends who were a year behind me at Stanford. I believe 3 of 4, or possibly 4 out of 4, got offers at consulting firms including Bain and Booz.
Years, later I had someone contact me out of the blue telling me they got into McKinsey using my presentation notes — apparently one of the four original participants had made copies and handed it down to the class following. (I had no idea this had happened).
I decided to update these materials based on my experiences as a McKinsey interviewer and as a way to fund raise for one of my favorite charities www.kidpower.org. If you find these tools useful, I would ask that you donate $47 to www.kidpower.org.
I support Kidpower because this nonprofit organization has brought empowerment and ‘People Safety’ skills to over 1.2 million children, teens, and adults, including those with special needs, around the world.
I took a course from them to learn how to keep my kids safe from everything from bullies to child predators without using scary words or ideas (a lot of their training for younger kids is centered on self-assertiveness and personal space protection).
All of their training is experiential-based (e.g., role playing and simulation). They have numerous success stories of training 10 year old girls in a short one-time course, and 13 years later as grown women, the students fended up attackers (while their stunned boyfriends stood frozen I might add). So it's quite remarkable to me that what they teach, their students learn.
I remember the stuff I learned from them several years ago.
They've trained over 1.2 million people on a ridiculously small budget. They have a highly leveraged operating model where they work with other non profit and non-governmental organizations in dozens of countries around the world and teach their staff their methodologies.
Think of it is content licensing without the royalty. This gives them a no cost distribution channel because they piggyback off pre-existing staff and overhead while still getting reach to their audience. For example, for $4,000 (most of it plane fare) they were able to open their Vietnam presence via a partnership with an NGO there. They've repeated the process in dozens of countries around the world.
It is a brutally efficient model from an economic standpoint. I've supported them for several years now and continue to do so. I hope you will to. Just use the donate link located at www.kidpower.org
It's the honor system and I can assure you that the nearly 6 hours of material below is worth well more than $47, but I remember being a student too. Just remember goodwill always comes back to help you, so if you really find the stuff helpful, please donate.
Keep in mind, you need to practice a lot. By the time I had my first real case interview, I had practiced on my own about 40 or 50 times (see the video below on how to practice).
Also, a final thanks to Josie Parr (I hope I spelled that correctly), a Stanford GSB student (at the time) and a former Mercer Consultant, who took the time out of her day to give me my first practice case interview.
I totally bombed it… (didn't even last 6 minutes), just goes to show practice and preparation make a big difference. I STILL remember the case! It had to do with batch sizes in soft drink manufacturing.
(To Josie: Thanks again for the help many years, ago. Just wanted to let you know it was not a total waste of your time!)
Finally, if you manage a personal website or your schools' consulting club website, I would certainly appreciate any links you create to this site.
Thanks,
-Victor Cheng
- Video 1: Case Interview Workshop Introduction (18 min)
- Video 2: Case Interview Basics, Case Interviewer Mindset (28 min)
- Video 3: How to Open, Analyze and Close a Case – Part 1 (18 min)
- Video 4: How to Open, Analyze and Close a Case – Part 2 (26 min)
- Video 5: Matching Case Interview Questions to Problem Solving Framework (13 min)
- Video 6: Profitability Framework Explanation & Demonstration (25 min)
- Video 7: Business Situation Framework (35 min)
- Video 8: How to Practice Case Interviews (10 min)
- Video 9: Business Situation Case Demonstration (26 min)
- Video 10: Case Interview Question& Answers (5 min)
- Video 11: Mergers and Acquisitions Framework & Demonstration (47 min)
- Video 12: Final Case Interview Tips & Strategic Planning For Your Career (21 min)
Workshop Handouts
If you find the videos helpful, please remember to make a $47 donation to www.kidpower.org
Other Notes
- Reminder that this workshop did not cover estimation questions. I did this deliberate because I thought Marc Cosentino's discussion of this topic in his book Case in Point did an excellent job of covering this topic. So, no need to re-invent the wheel on that one.
- Also these videos do not cover numerically driven supply/demand cases in the context of mergers and acquisiton situations (e.g., if company X shuts down one of its plants, reducing the "supply" in the industry, what happens to industry prices and each company's profitability?)I never got this type of case myself, but as an former interviewer would not hestitate to give such a case. I didn't do a great job covering the topic in my original live workshop, so rather than confuse you I opted to omit it.When I get a chance, I'll write a note on the conceptual approach to this kind of case (in a nutshell 1) review an introductory microeconomics concepts of what happens when demand and supply curves shift suddenly and 2) get accustomed to drawing demand and supply curves in a stair-step fashion that shows each individual customer's contribution to demand, and each individual supplier's contribution to supply)
FAQs
Question: Do I offer any 1:1 case interview prep services?
I don't do any 1:1 coaching or anything like that. Case prep is not my career, just something I thought I could contribute to the MBA community while building awareness of one of my favorite charities www.kidpower.org
If you're looking for someone to work with you on a 1:1 basis, you should take a look at this mock case interview service.
Question: Are these videos available for download to my video iPod?
Yes, simple visit each video on this site and click on the "Google Video" icon. It will take you to the Google video page where a download link is available.
Final Thoughts
Best of luck in your interviews. Feel free to email your success stories and suggestions to victor (at) caseinterview.com
(I do read all the email at least once a month, but just to set realistic expectations don't expect a reply back.)
-Victor Cheng
P.S. Don't forget, if you find the videos helpful, please remember to make a $47 donation to www.kidpower.org
