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Consulting 101: Preparing for Case Interviews

Tom Spencer

Case interviews can seem like a daunting task. Thankfully, by taking tangible steps you can be well prepared for your case interviews. In my opinion, a productive place to begin is to watch videos about the case interview. Practice cases. My first case was terrible.

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Case Interview Basics

Tom Spencer

What is a Case? Cases are a tool used by interviewers based on a business scenario; they go beyond behavioural and background questions to assess the actual abilities of a candidate by replicating the steps of a consulting project. Do not just repeat what the interviewer said. Structuring the Problem.

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Case Interview: Beyond Common Frameworks

Tom Spencer

And as more and more candidates start to use them frequently, it is harder to impress the interviewers. Hence, I would like to give you two secret models to help you delight your interviewers. If common frameworks are powerful machine guns, these tools are silver bullets. In short, this tool is call STP.

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How to Assess Entry-Level Product Manger Positions

Tom Spencer

Associate Product Manager (APM) positions are well known in Silicon Valley as rotational, mentorship-focused programs designed to accelerate the careers of young aspiring product managers. These alumni have gone on to become VCs, founders, and product leaders, in addition to starting APM programs at companies like Salesforce.

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Intro to Consulting Case Frameworks

Management Consulted

As you’ve likely already figured out, the case interview is a very unusual creature. In the consulting case interview, your time is even more precious: you have only 4 minutes to develop and present a plan (2 to structure your case and 2 to present). Overview of consulting case frameworks.

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MECE

CaseInterview.com

In case interviews, the MECE principle is a valuable tool for creating issue trees break down complicated problems into basic components you can evaluate and help you get to the root of the problem. It’s important to understand each of these points before using MECE in your case interview with McKinsey or other top firms.

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Value Chain Analysis

Tom Spencer

Value Chain Analysis is another tool that may prove useful during the consulting case interview. It can be used to analyse the cost structure of a company as part of a declining profitability case, or to analyse the supply chain as part of an operations case. (Source: Flickr ).