Interview Copilot guides
How do I prepare for a consulting case interview?
Consulting interviews usually come as case interviews and fit interviews. Case interviews look at how you break down the problem, form a hypothesis and check it with numbers more than at a right answer, so practice thinking out loud and leading with your conclusion. Fit interviews ask why consulting, why this firm, and about leadership.
Case types
- Market sizing: how big is the market for EV chargers in a country? They watch how you set assumptions and multiply through.
- Profitability: revenue is flat but profit fell. Whether you split it into revenue and costs and narrow down the cause.
- Market entry and new business: should the client enter a new market? Whether you weigh the market, competitors, capabilities and returns to reach a call.
- M&A and investment: should the client buy this company? Whether you put synergies and risks in numbers.
Working through a case
- Restate the question and confirm the goal and scope. Ask about anything you're unsure of now.
- Take a moment to sketch a structure, then say where you'd start and why.
- When you get data, do the math out loud and say whether the result fits your hypothesis.
- Close with the conclusion, two or three reasons and next steps.
How to prepare
- Practice with a case partner several times a week, taking turns as interviewer. On your own, have ChatGPT's voice mode play the interviewer.
- Practice mental math and estimation a little every day. Getting the units of big numbers wrong is the most common slip.
- Write up three fit stories (leadership, persuasion, failure) as situation, action and result.
- Read the firm's published reports and insights, and go deep on one industry you care about.
Practicing with SpeechShield
Add your resume to an interview context, and the firm's reports and industry material as reference material. In a mock case, it transcribes the interviewer and suggests answers in the Full style: conclusion, reasons and an example. If you get a chart or table on screen, press ⌘K to attach it.
A case interview is a test of how you think. In real interviews, use it only where the rules allow it; in practice, say your own structure first and then compare it with the suggestion. Finished practice sessions stay in your history to review.
Related questions
Should I memorize frameworks?
Interviewers spot a memorized framework quickly. Learn the basic splits, like revenue and costs for profitability, and adapt them to the problem in front of you.
Will a math mistake sink me?
Small slips are fine if you catch them. If a result looks off, say you'll double-check the units and fix it. Carrying a wrong number all the way to the conclusion is the bigger problem.
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