▶▶▶ Case In Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Case In Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation

Case In Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation Review

I used this book as part of the interview process and landed a job at one of the Big 3 firms. That being said, I did most of my practice in groups and only used the book to review the week before the interview.

Here is how I used the book:

I spent a lot of time looking at the Ivy Case System. I think that summary is the most interesting/important part of the book. When you think about a case interview, prep is most important when getting those first few ideas down on paper so that you can start the discussion. For me, once I had done that, the rest of the interview was completed without actively thinking about a single thing from my preparation. The case system is great for just thinking about what large buckets you should be considering so you don't miss something important. I also read a few of the sample cases to get the juices flowing a few days before the interviews. The morning of the interview I carefully read the case system to keep things fresh. This prep worked out well for me.

Note: I'd stay far away from the other frameworks in the book (Porter's 5 forces, etc). I heard that the big consulting firms hate those frameworks because they are never applied properly.