Case interviews are a crucial part of the consulting recruitment process, and interview candidates at McKinsey, BCG, or Bain often turn to resources such as Victor Cheng's "Case Interview Secrets" or Marc P. Cosentino's "Case in Point" for guidance. 

While these sources can provide a useful first overview of the types of problems you might encounter in a case interview, they often fall short when it comes to the most important aspect: how to actually approach and solve the case.

In fact, the "framework learning philosophy" promoted by these casebooks is a major REASON why so many candidates fail to secure an offer from the top strategy consulting firms. 

A framework is only useful if it is tailored to the specific context of the problem at hand. This means that every element you consider – the "building blocks" of the framework – must be directly related to the question you are trying to answer.

The key is to start with the specific question you want to address, and then define the criteria that need to be met in order to answer it. 

In the vast majority of cases, value creation will be the central element – essentially, this means generating profit over a certain time period. 

From there, you can build a tree structure  to isolate the numerical drivers of your solution, and then map out the relevant "framework elements" to the sub-branches of the tree. 

This approach, visualized through a driver tree, is much clearer and more rigorous than any framework found in a casebook.

However, this approach requires time and qualified coaching to master. But it is ultimately the way that consultants think about problems – how can we optimize for value creation? By following this approach, you can give yourself the best chance of success in your case interviews and increase your chances of landing a consulting job.

If you, as an applicant at one of the big strategy consulting firms, would like to learn how to ensure success in your interviews with McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, then feel free to apply for a free initial consultation with us. In this free session we will find out whether we can help you, and if so, how we can help you to reach your goal of joining a firm like McKinsey, BCG, or Bain & Company. 

Within the last years, we have helped more than 350 people to receive job offers from the three MBB companies! On average, every single week, two of our clients are signing an employment contract with either McKinsey, BCG, or Bain.

Case interviews are a crucial part of the consulting recruitment process, and interview candidates at McKinsey, BCG, or Bain often turn to resources such as Victor Cheng's "Case Interview Secrets" or Marc P. Cosentino's "Case in Point" for guidance.

While these sources can provide a useful first overview of the types of problems you might encounter in a case interview, they often fall short when it comes to the most important aspect: how to actually approach and solve the case.

In fact, the "framework learning philosophy" promoted by these casebooks is a major REASON why so many candidates fail to secure an offer from the top strategy consulting firms.

A framework is only useful if it is tailored to the specific context of the problem at hand. This means that every element you consider – the "building blocks" of the framework – must be directly related to the question you are trying to answer.

The key is to start with the specific question you want to address, and then define the criteria that need to be met in order to answer it.

In the vast majority of cases, value creation will be the central element – essentially, this means generating profit over a certain time period.

From there, you can build a tree structure to isolate the numerical drivers of your solution, and then map out the relevant "framework elements" to the sub-branches of the tree.

This approach, visualized through a driver tree, is much clearer and more rigorous than any framework found in a casebook.

However, this approach requires time and qualified coaching to master. But it is ultimately the way that consultants think about problems – how can we optimize for value creation? By following this approach, you can give yourself the best chance of success in your case interviews and increase your chances of landing a consulting job.

If you, as an applicant at one of the big strategy consulting firms, would like to learn how to ensure success in your interviews with McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, then feel free to apply for a free initial consultation with us. In this free session we will find out whether we can help you, and if so, how we can help you to reach your goal of joining a firm like McKinsey, BCG, or Bain & Company.