Welcome!

You’ve found the work-in-progress version of our upcoming book “Case Interviews:
everything you need to know”.

We’ve found that, while some are helpful, the existing books available about consulting
interviews are all lacking guidance on at least one important step in the process.

So, our vision for this book is that it will serve as an effective one-stop-shop for candidates
preparing for interviews with consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, or Bain.

We would love for YOU to get a sneak peak of what we’re working on by reading through
this document as we write and edit the content here live.

For this book to be the best it can be, we also need YOUR HELP, and would love it if you left
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comment feature.

Lastly, if you’re interested in getting email notifications about the launch of this book (and
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Case Interviews: The Only Book You’ll Need To Read

How to get an offer at McKinsey, BCG, or Bain
Welcome! 1

Introduction 4

Part 1: Getting an Interview 7

1. How to Network Your Way Into an Interview 7
2. How to Craft an Impressive Resume 12
3. How to Write an Unforgettable Cover Letter 26

Part 2: Cracking Case Interviews - Basics 36

4. Understanding Case Interviews 36
5. Situation Questions 41
6. Framework Development Questions 45
7. Framework Exploration Questions 52
8. Data Interpretation Questions 55
9. Maths Questions 63
10. Creativity Questions 72
11. Recommendation Questions 75
12. Summary of Case Interview Question Types 78

Part 3: Cracking Case Interviews - Advanced 81

13. How to Become Better at Creating Frameworks 81
14. What are Some Common Consulting Frameworks 82
15. How to Solve Market Sizing Questions 89
16. What Finance and Maths Formulas Should You Learn 90
17. How to Become Faster at Maths Questions 95

Part 4: Acing Fit and Behavioural (PEI) Interviews 101

18. What Are Fit and Behavioral Questions? 101
19. Top 5 Fit Questions and How To Answer Them 103
20. Top 5 Behavioural (PEI) Questions and How To Answer Them 110
21. Questions to Ask at the End of Your Interview 118

Part 5: Practice Case Interviews 122

Case #1: Auto Firm (BCG & Bain Case) 123
Case #2: Thailand Lottery (McKinsey case) 134
Case #3: Joe’s Cookies (BCG, Bain case) 153
Case #4: Indian Nappies (BCG, Bain case) 160
Resources 164

Bibliography 164

Cover and Backcover 164

Cover 164
Backover / Book Description 164
Introduction
Why This Book

Management consulting shouldn’t only be accessible to those who are personally

connected to someone at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or another top consultancy. This book is
our small contribution to try to level the playing field and make consulting more open. We
believe this can benefit both candidates and employers alike.

You, the candidate, can better prepare yourself for interviews if you know what to expect.
In this book, you’ll discover what recruiters look for in your resume and cover letter. You’ll
learn a proven and repeatable method to crack case interviews, which is a famously
difficult part of the consulting recruitment process. And you will also learn how to describe
your past accomplishments in a way that sets you apart from other candidates.

Employers, in turn, get more qualified and diverse candidates. Did you know McKinsey
sometimes pays coaches to prepare selected candidates for their upcoming interview? This
is because they want to see what your peak performance - they want to seeis; what you can
deliver at your best. It’s much easier to assess the potential of a candidate who is prepared
than of one who isn’t.

What You Can Expect

You can’t graduate with a degree in management consulting. The only way to become a
management consultant is to get hired by McKinsey, BCG, Bain or another top consultancy.

This is both good and bad news. The good news is that you can become a management
consultant whatever your background. It doesn’t matter if you are a fresh engineering
graduate or an experienced hire with 10 years of business under your belt; large
consultancies will have an entry point that matches your profile. The bad news is that a lot
of people apply for consulting roles and it can be extremely difficult to get hired.

For example, at the time of writing this book, McKinsey receives ~200,000 applications
every year but only ends up hiring ~2,000 candidates. So, how does one land a strategy
consulting job then? That’s what this book is here to teach you.
Jon and I have worked with thousands of aspiring consultants at IGotAnOffer.com.
Everyday we teach candidates how to position their resume to maximise the number of
interviews they get, and we train them on how to ace case interviews and get multiple
offers. This book translates the countless hours we’ve spent coaching candidates like you
into written form.

Here is what you should expect from this book:

● This book is comprehensive. It covers the full process you’ll need to go through to
get an offer, from resumes and networking to case and fit questions. To the best of
our knowledge, this is the only book that gives you a full overview of the process.
● This book is concise. We could have made it 300 pages long, which is the standard
for business books. But we haven’t done that because your time is precious. We’ve
worked hard to pack all the information as succinctly as possible.

Here is what you should NOT expect from this book:

● This book is not going to land you an offer by itself. You’ll need to roll up your
sleeves, improve your resume and cover letter, study fit and case questions and
practice them to have a chance. To give you a benchmark, the candidates we work
with at IGotAnOffer routinely spend 50+ hours preparing for their interviews.

Who We Are

IGotAnOffer has been training ambitious candidates to land jobs at McKinsey, BCG, Bain,
and other top consulting firms since 2015. At the time of writing this book we’ve worked
directly with more than 2,000 candidates through our online courses and 1-on-1 coaching
service. We’re proud to report that more than 80% of the candidates who have trained with
us have received offers in the past. We know this because we give 50% of their money back
to candidates who don’t.

About half of the candidates we work with are undergraduates, postgraduates, MBAs,
PhDs, MDs, or JDs. The other half are experienced hires switching careers or wanting to
change consulting firms. Over the years we’ve also been recommended by the career
services and consulting clubs of numerous universities including Harvard, Columbia and
Imperial College to name a few.
That’s all well and good but it doesn’t tell you who we really are and why we’re here writing
a book about how to become a management consultant.

I (Max) started IGotAnOffer after struggling to get into consulting. I started my career as a
Research Analyst at Bloomberg, but realised after a few months that this wasn’t the job I
wanted and decided to switch to management consulting. I wasn’t a graduate anymore so I
had to apply as an experienced hire. I spent 18 months networking, sending applications,
interviewing and eventually got an offer at Oliver Wyman where I spent four years,
including two as an engagement manager.

Once I got an offer, I started helping other friends in my network going through a similar
journey and that’s how IGotAnOffer.com was born. The website has had a lot more success
than I ever imagined. We’re now a full time team of 4 running the website and are
supported by 15+ ex-interviewers from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and other firms who work
directly with candidates on the platform. Our goal is to help people like you avoid the
mistakes we’ve made ourselves, and break into the consulting industry.

Jon (my co-author) joined IGotAnOffer as our Lead Consulting Instructor at the beginning of
2019. Prior to working with us, Jon started his own company providing resources to help
new consultants succeed in the industry. Jon’s consulting journey first began in college
when, after much preparation and several rounds of interviews, he received his #1 choice
offer from Accenture. Jon spent four years at Accenture, and had the privilege of working
with four Fortune 500 clients.

Making management consulting more accessible is both important to both Jon and I. We
believe this will benefit everyone and this is why we’ve written this book.
Part 1: Getting an Interview
The toughest challenge in becoming a consultant is getting an interview in the first place.
To illustrate this point, McKinsey receives more than 200,000 applications every year and
only invites about 10% of candidates to interviews.

More than 80% of the candidates we work with at IGotAnOffer get an interview. In our
experience, tThere are three things successfulthat the candidates we work with do
differently. First, they network to get referrals and significantly increase their chances of
success. Second, they craft a resume that highlights the actual skills consulting firms look
for. Third, they use the cover letter as a secret weapon to set themselves apart. The
candidates we work with at IGotAnOffer follow that advice and 80% of them get an
interview. We therefore strongly encourage you to apply the tips described in the next few
chapters.

1. How to Network Your Way Into an Interview

If you truly want to maximise your chances of getting an offer, then it’s a great idea to get a
consultant to refer you to their HR team. Referrals are a form of internal approval and can
often compensate for weaknesses in your application (e.g. weak or average academic
achievements).

In this chapter we will review which types of candidates are most likely to benefit from
internal referrals, how to tell your story in a way that makes you stand out, and how to
make positive connections with consultants that will make them open to referring you.

1.1. Who Needs Referrals

Top consulting firms can be a bit snobby when it comes to recruiting. They mainly target
undergraduates and MBA students from specific colleges (e.g. Harvard, Stanford, Columbia,
etc.) and it can be a real struggle if you’re an experienced hire out of school, or if you
haven’t studied at one of their target univer sities.

In these situations, your best bet is to network your way into an interview by getting a
current consultant to recommend you internally. This is often called a “referral”, and in
some firms there are even incentives in place (like cash bonuses) for current employees to
recommend quality candidates.

To summarise, here are the situations where we would recommend investing in

networking to get a referral:
● Experienced hires who are out of school and looking to transition into consulting
from another industry
● Candidates currently studying at non-target schools where top consulting firms
don’t recruit on campus
● Candidates currently at target schools but who feel their resume isn’t strong enough
(e.g. average or poor academic performance, few leadership activities, no work
experience with major brands, etc.)

If you’re in one of the situations described above, then submitting a cold application will
usually result in a rejection unless you have some seriously impressive achievements under
your belt (e.g. you started and grew a company to 50+ employees, you were a professional
athlete, etc.) But, don’t let this discourage you. Effective networking can help you overcome
these challenges and get your foot in the door

In a minority of cases, you might be able to get an interview without networking at all. Here
are the most common situations where you could skip networking entirely:
● Candidates from target schools with a really strong resume (e.g. top of your class,
strong leadership activities, internships at well-known firms, etc.)
● Experienced hires who already have a few years of experience at a top consulting
firm (e.g. BCG) and are looking to switch to another consultancy (e.g. McKinsey)

That being said, even if you fall into one of the two categories above, you could still
consider networking to maximise your chances of being invited to interviews. So, let’s jump
right in and walk through the steps you need to follow to get consulting interviews.

1.2. Define Your Story

At this stage of the process, the number one mistake we see candidates making is not
being targeted enough in their applications. They apply for every firm and every location.
This is the “spray and pray” approach. The success rate of this approach is extremely low -
close to zero in our experience.

On the other hand, the candidates who are the most successful tend to know exactly what
firms, industry, and location they want to target. This enables them to have a very specific
pitch that’s differentiated and stands-out to recruiters.

Consultants are often asked for coffee chats through friends of friends or LinkedIn. Think
about it from their perspective. Which of the two emails below do you think is most likely to
get an answer? The generic email, or the targeted email? In our experience it’s the second
one by far.

Generic email

“Hi Jen,

I’m Mike, I’m looking to apply to consulting firms and saw that you worked at
McKinsey.

Would you be available for a coffee chat?”

Targeted email - Experienced hire

“Hi Jen,

I’m Mike, I worked in the finance industry for the past 5 years and I’m looking to
transition into a consulting role in New York as this is where my family is based. I
saw that this is where you’re based too and that you’re in the finance practice at
McKinsey.

I was wondering if you’d be free for a coffee chat at some point. I’d love to pick your
brain on consulting in the finance space. Would you be free next week? Maybe
Friday at 5pm?”
Your first step before starting to network should therefore be to answer the following
question: what are the locations and industries you’re interested in?

If you’re an experienced hire you’ll most likely be targeting the industry in which you are
currently working. You might also have geographical constraints around your family. Use
those to tell a unique story about yourself.

If you’re applying for your first job, then you should still think about the industries and
locations you’re most attracted towards. You can use the internships you’ve done or the
subjects you’ve studied to justify an interest in a particular industry. And you can use the
places where you have family or spent time at university to explain why you’re interested in
a particular location.

Here’s an example of a targeted email you could write as an undergraduate student.

Targeted email - Undergraduate student

“Hi Jen,

I’m Mike, I’m a finance major at Columbia and I’m hoping to get a job in consulting in
New York. I saw that this is where you’re based too and that you’re in the finance
practice at McKinsey.

I was wondering if you’d be free for a coffee chat at some point. I’d love to pick your
brain on McKinsey and consulting in the finance space in general. Would you be free
next week? Maybe Friday at 5pm?”

Once you’ve defined your pitch you can start thinking about identifying the consultants
who are most likely to be interested in talking to you.

1.3. Finding Consultants to Talk to

The candidates we work with tend to find referrals at top consulting firms using one of the
following three sources:

● Family and friends

 ● Groups of common interest (e.g. alma mater, church groups, sports leagues, etc.)
● Events (e.g. company events, case competitions, etc.)

1.3.1 Family and friends

Your first step should be to make a list of family and friends you’re comfortable reaching
out to. That list should be as long as possible because you never know who other people
know. When you reach out to your contacts, tell them the pitch you’ve defined in the
previous step and ask them if they might know anyone in the consulting industry.

Don't be picky about who they introduce you to. If you are targeting McKinsey’s financial
services practice in New York, a connection at Deloitte in Denver is still valuable.
Consultants know other consultants and that initial connection might introduce you to
someone from Deloitte’s financial services practice in New York. You’ll be one step closer to
your objective.

Remember, all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. So, even if
you think your family and friends won’t know any consultants, that might not be the case.
We encourage you to leave no stone unturned and to really exhaust the family and friends
option as it’s usually your best route to a referral.

1.3.1 Groups of common interest

Your second best option after family and friends is to look for consultants in groups that
you’re part of. This can be any group: alma mater, church groups, sports leagues, online
communities, etc. There’s a small chance that someone in that group might either be a
consultant themselves or know someone who is.

For instance, we’ve worked with a candidate who got a referral from someone who had
gone to the same high school and was now working at BCG. A single connection can be the
starting point of a network you build over time. We therefore encourage you to list all the
groups you’re part of and explore if you can find consultants within them.

1.3.3 Events

Finally, we would also recommend that you try attending events. There are two types of
events where you’re likely to meet consultants in our experience.
The first one is case competitions that are organised by consulting clubs. These case
competitions are often open to anyone, not just students from the university where it is
hosted. They are a great opportunity to meet other candidates preparing for consulting
interviews. And, if you’re lucky, the consulting firms sponsoring the event might also have
sent some of their employees to be present at the competition. We therefore encourage
you to keep an eye on your local consulting clubs’ activities.

The second type of events is the one organised by the top consulting firms themselves.
McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and others often do a great job at organising events and regularly run
series targeting specific applicants including women, LGBTs, veterans, etc. You should
therefore visit the event section of the website for firms you’re interested in joining. If
there are any events relevant to you and your area, then sign-up!

1.4. Getting Consultants to Refer You

If you follow the steps above persistently enough, at some point you’ll be talking to
consultants. So, how do you get them to refer you to their HR team? Networking is a little
bit like dating, you don’t ask people to marry you on the first date. Getting a consultant
you’ve never met before to support you can take time.

Your first step should be to tell them the story you have defined above and to try to learn
more about what they and their firm do. For instance, let’s imagine you’re interested in
doing consulting in the financial services space in New York. After you explain your
situation, you could ask some of the following questions:

● Who are the big players in financial services consulting in New York?
● How is McKinsey different from other players in that space?
● What are some of the interesting projects that you’ve worked on?
● What’s the best way to get interviews in your experience given what you know about
my situation?

After asking the questions above, the conversation will have a natural conclusion. Maybe
you’re lucky and the consultant will say: “That all sounds great, why don’t you send me your
resume when you apply and I’ll pass it along to our HR team.” That means they’ll refer you
which significantly increases your chances of getting an interview.
However, in some cases the consultant you talk to won’t make that offer at the end of your
conversation. This can feel frustrating but there are many reasons it could be the case. For
instance, some consultants are just more proactive than others when it comes to referrals,
and the person you’re talking to might not be used to doing this. Or, they simply might not
feel like they know you well enough to refer you.

Networking isn’t an exact science but here is what we would generally recommend in these
situations.

First, you should end the meeting by asking if they know anyone else they think you should
talk to. As mentioned previously, consultants know other consultants and they might
introduce you to one of their more senior colleagues or someone they know at another
firm where they think you might be a better fit.

And second, you should let them know you’ll keep them updated with your progress. The
consultant you’ve talked to has invested time in talking to you. They want you to succeed.
And they’ll appreciate knowing how you are progressing. For instance, you should send
them a quick note when you start applying to different firms. And you should also let them
know if you receive any invitations to interview at other firms. These updates will help you
maintain the relationship with them and it might prompt them to mention your application
to the HR team if they haven’t already done so.

In the next chapter, we’ll walk through some key techniques for creating a resume that
grabs the attention of consulting recruiters.

2. How to Craft an Impressive Resume

Crafting an impressive resume is essential if you want to get noticed and get interviews at
top consulting firms. In this chapter we will review what consulting recruiters look for in
your CV, what rules you should follow, and how you should go about writing your
document from end-to-end. Let’s get started!

2.1 What Top Consulting Firms Look for in Your Resume?

Top consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain score the resumes they receive using a
rubric. A lot of the candidates we work with think that the scoring is done automatically by
a computer or an Application Tracking System (ATS). But that’s not the case. An actual
human being will look at your resume and score it against a set of criteria. This is done by
the HR team, or consultants themselves depending on the firm and the exact position for
which you’re applying for.

So, what do consulting firms actually look for when scoring your resume? You can find a
summary below that’s heavily inspired from the scoring sheet used at McKinsey. Please
note that the exact items in the scoring sheet and their respective weights will vary slightly
depending on firms and your experience level (e.g. undergraduate, MBA, etc).

● Academic achievements
○ Academic institution selectivity (e.g. Ivy league, Top 20, Top 50, etc.)
○ Academic performance (e.g. GPA, awards, grants, etc.)
○ Standardised tests (e.g. SAT, GMAT, GRE, etc.)
● Skills (work and non-work)
○ Problem solving
○ Personal impact
○ Leadership
○ Entrepreneurial drive
● Other
○ Referral from employees or clients of the firm
○ Presence at recruitment events
○ Multiple languages (e.g. Spanish, French, etc.)
○ Deep quant skills (e.g. SQL, R, Python, etc.)

For each criteria, your resume will get a certain number of points depending on the quality
of your achievements and experiences. Let’s imagine that you’re currently enrolled in an
MBA programme and applying for consulting firms. If you are in a Top 10 MBA programme
you might get 2 points. If you are in a top 20 programme you might get 1 point. And 0
points otherwise.

Your total number of points will then be added up. If your resume scores above a given
threshold, you’ll be invited to interviews. If it doesn’t, then you won’t get selected and you’ll
be invited to apply again in the future. Let’s review each of these criteria one by one so you
know what to focus on in your resume.

2.1.1 Academic achievements

The education section of your resume will get scored on three dimensions:
● Academic institution selectivity (e.g. Ivy league, Top 20, Top 50, etc.)
● Academic performance (e.g. GPA, awards, grants, etc.)
● Standardised tests (e.g. SAT, GMAT, GRE, etc.)

As you might have guessed, this section carries more weight for candidates who are
currently at university than for experienced hires. But you’ll still get graded on these
dimensions in both situations.

As mentioned above, the more selective the university or programme you attended, the
more points you get. Similarly, if you graduated with a high GPA (3.5+) or equivalent and
have obtained prestigious awards and scholarships, then that will play in your favor too.
Finally, if you’ve done well at standardised tests like the SATs, GMAT or GRE, then you
should include that in your resume as you’ll get extra points for that.

2.1.2 Skills

Consulting firms will also look for certain skills in your resume in addition to your
achievements at school. Experienced hires typically have demonstrated these abilities at
work. But if your work experience is limited, you should highlight key strengths using the
projects you’ve worked on at university (e.g. clubs) or on your own (e.g. charity).

The good news is that all top consulting firms broadly look for the same skills and you
therefore will only need to create a single resume for your applications. Here are the four
main skills consulting firms like McKinsey will look for in your resume:

1. Problem solving. This means you have strong intellectual abilities to solve
problems which you demonstrated at University and during your work experiences.
You’re not afraid to break down complex problems into manageable pieces you
tackle one by one.
2. Personal impact. This means you have a strong impact on most of your projects
thanks to your ability to work with and influence teams and clients.
3. Entrepreneurial drive. This means you have a track record of innovating and
taking initiatives. You are not satisfied with doing things the traditional way and like
challenging the status quo.
4. Leadership abilities. This means you can easily lead groups of people. You’ll also
have an advantage if you’ve worked directly for clients or with senior leaders (e.g.
CEOs, CFOs, etc.) in the past since that's what consultants do.
As you put your resume together, you should try to highlight relevant parts of your
experience that clearly demonstrate you possess these skills. Each bullet point in your
resume should specifically target one of these skills. Overall, your bullet points should be
balanced across these different categories.

For instance, let's assume that there are 20 bullet points on your resume. Broadly speaking,
five of your bullet points should show that you are a strong problem solver. Five should
illustrate that you deliver impact by collaborating and influencing teams and clients.
Another five should outline that you have a track record of starting new initiatives. And
another five should demonstrate that you can effectively lead groups of people.

Doing this will take you a long way in crafting a successful application. That approach works
both for entry level and experienced hire resumes.

2.1.3 Other

Finally, there are some other aspects of your application that will get graded. Here are the
four most common ones:
● Referral from employees or clients of the firm
● Presence at recruitment events
● Multiple languages (e.g. Spanish, French, etc.)
● Deep quant skills (e.g. SQL, R, Python, etc.)

As mentioned in the previous chapter, a referral from an employee can go a long way in
helping you land an interview. It’s typically worth quite a lot of points and can help
compensate for a weakness in your CV (e.g. poor academic achievements). Some firms also
accept referrals from former clients but this is not as common.

In addition, if you’re currently at university and consulting firms are organising events on
your campus, then it’s also a good idea to attend those. Some firms give extra points if you
attended their events since it shows a sustained interest in joining the company.

Moreover, one other important aspect that's not often discussed, is languages. You’ll get
extra points if you speak multiple languages because your value to the firm will be higher.
Indeed, most firms operate a global staffing model. So, if you are based in the London
office but speak French and Spanish, that means your firm will be able to send you on
projects in the UK, France, Spain, but also North and South America and many countries in
Africa.
Finally, consulting firms have to deal with increasing amounts of data everyday. A few years
back, consultants did all of their data analysis in Excel. But that’s sometimes not possible
anymore given the sheer volume of data available to clients today. Consequently, you could
also get extra points if you have advanced data analysis or data science skills and are
familiar with languages such as SQL, Python, R, etc.

2.2 The 10 Rules of Consulting Resumes

Now that you know what consulting firms look for, let's turn our attention to how you
should package that information in your resume. We've reviewed and edited hundreds of
resumes over the past few years and here are the top 10 rules we recommend following to
make your CV consulting-ready.

Rule #1: Keep it short, one page ideally

We know this is challenging. But it's one of the unwritten rules of consulting resumes. If
you have less than 5 years of work experience, you should keep it to one page. If you have
5 to 15 years, consider using 1.5 pages if you really struggle fitting everything on one page.
We only recommend using 2 full pages if you have 15+ years of work experience.

Condensing your entire lifetime's achievements in 500 to 1,000 words is difficult. There are
two keys to achieving this.

First, you should select the right experiences based on the skills we have described in the
previous section. And, you should describe these experiences in a way that makes it clear
you will be a great consultant.

Second, you should remove work experiences that don’t add value to your resume. The
only exception is when removing an experience creates a time gap in your document. In
that case, you should keep the experience but only provide the minimum amount of details
required.

Rule #2: Use 5 sections

All consulting resumes should have 5 sections. Don’t worry if you’re not 100% sure what
exactly to include in each section, we’ll cover this in more detail in the next section of this
chapter.
This is the layout we recommend using for candidates currently at university (e.g.
undergraduates, MBAs, PhDs, etc.):

1. Personal information
2. Education
3. Work experience
4. Extra-curricular achievements
5. Additional skills

One of the most common mistakes we see in CVs from candidates currently enrolled at
university is not having an "Extra-curricular achievements" section. This is a big mistake,
because you can use it to highlight skills (e.g leadership) that consulting firms look for that
you might not have had a chance to demonstrate during your work experience.

If you’re an experienced hire and have graduated from university more than three years
ago, then you should consider using a slightly modified layout:

1. Personal information
2. Work experience
3. Extra-curricular achievements (Optional)
4. Education
5. Additional skills

You should list your work experience before your education as it’ll be more recent. And if
you have been extremely busy with work and don’t have strong recent extra-curricular
achievements, you might consider removing that section from your resume altogether.

Rule #3: Use a standard format and standard font

Using a special format with a slightly unique font is tempting. You might think it will help
you stand out but you actually won't get extra points for it. What should stand out is the
content of your resume and not its format or font.

Many resume templates use the left side of the page for headings such as “Work
experience” or “Education”. This looks attractive but can waste 20% of the available space.
Pick a layout that uses the full width of the page and gives you enough real estate to
describe your achievements. But it should still have enough white space so that the content
is easily readable.
We recommend sticking to common fonts such as Arial, Calibri, etc. We typically use font
size 14 for section headings (Work experience, Education, etc.), font size 12 for company
and university names, job and degree titles, as well as dates (e.g. Associate at McKinsey
from 2015 to Present), and font size 11 for bullet points (e.g. Lead a team of 15 junior
analysts, etc.)

Most good resume templates meet these criteria. You can find the template we use on
igotanoffer.com.

Rule #4: Use bullet points that start with action verbs

Your resume screener won't read your resume. They will scan it. You have 10 seconds to
make a good first impression. The key to making your resume highly scannable is to use
bullet points and action verbs.

Bullet points are typically shorter than paragraphs and therefore easier to engage with.
You should aim for your bullet points to be one to two lines long. In addition, your bullet
points should start with action verbs that highlight one of the consulting skills that firms
look for.

For instance, you should have bullet points on leadership which start with: "Led a team of
10 people..." And bullet points on problem solving which start with: "Solved one of the
toughest engineering problems..." These action verbs are extremely important because
they are at the beginning of sentences and make it easier for your resume screener to
convince themselves that you have the right skills.

Below, we’ve put together a list of example action verbs, that you can use to highlight the
types of skills that consulting firms look for in resumes.

Problem solving action verbs

● Performed an analysis
● Resolved a problem
● Generated actionable insights
● Developed a quantitative model
● Designed a solution

Personal impact action verbs

● Delivered a project
 ● Implemented a solution to a problem
● Achieved success X
● Built successful relationships
● Presented in front of large audiences

Entrepreneurial drive action verbs

● Started a project
● Grew a project from X to Y
● Redesigned a process
● Took an initiative
● Obtained backing / support

Leadership abilities action verbs

● Led a team
● Organised an event
● Managed a project
● Trained new colleagues
● Mentored junior colleagues

Rule #5: Focus on achievements, not responsibilities

Recruiters don’t care about your past jobs’ responsibilities. They want to know what you
achieved. Responsibilities are about what you were supposed to do, and focusing on them
won’t enable you to set yourself apart. In addition, responsibilities are often obvious based
on your job title. If you were a Business Analyst or a Marketing Associate your recruiter will,
at least generally, know what you were supposed to do.

Instead you should focus on what you actually delivered or contributed to deliver for your
team and company. This will prove to your resume screeners that you had an actual
positive impact.

Here’s an example of two bullet points, one that’s focused on responsibilities and the other
on achievements.

Responsibility focused: “Build and update financial models for M&A transactions in the
retail industry”
Achievement focused: “Led the development of an M&A model for an American clothing
retailer, resulting in a 10% decrease in the price paid for the target company”

The first bullet does a good job of explaining the types of activities you undertake day to
day. But the second bullet point achieves the same objective while also outlining the impact
you’ve had.

Rule #6: Quantify your bullet points

Consultants are obsessed with quantification. A big part of their job is to crunch numbers
to back up ideas they present to clients. If your idea is not backed up by numbers it's just a
point of view. If it is rooted in data analysis it becomes an argument and has more gravitas.
You should use this to your advantage in your resume and quantify your achievements as
much as possible.

For instance, if you were awarded a scholarship to study abroad you should write
something like: "Awarded Entente Cordiale Scholarship to study in the UK (2 scholarships
for 1,000+ applicants)" This will make you stand out much more than if you had just
written: "Awarded a competitive scholarship to study in the UK."

Each of your bullet points should ideally quantify the difficulty or impact of your
achievement. If you don’t provide numbers to the recruiter reading your resume, it will be
very hard for them to assess your application which will ultimately play against you.

Rule #7: Simplify your experience as much as possible

Recruiters usually won’t read your resume in extreme detail. It’s therefore important that
you make your achievements easily digestible for them. This is particularly important if you
have written a PhD or Master thesis, or if you work in a field that’s very technical (e.g. cyber
security, equity derivatives, etc.)

Your resume screener often won't be familiar with your industry or job. And they won't
take the time to google anything they don't understand. It is your responsibility to simplify
your experience sufficiently for them so it’s understandable.

A good test for this is to ask a friend or relative to highlight anything that they don't easily
understand in your resume. If they're having to scratch their head to make sense of a bullet
point, then it’s too complicated. Simplifying your experience in simple terms can be hard
work, so you should start this process early.
Rule #8: Be unique

Your resume screener will literally have looked at hundreds of CVs before they look at
yours. We’ve both reviewed resumes for consulting applicants first-hand and the reality is,
a lot of candidates have very similar documents.

So, if there's something a little bit unique that you have done, don’t hesitate to mention it.
For instance, you might have worked for six months in a surf shop in Australia, or you
might have done a six-month unpaid internship for charity. Everything that differentiates
you in a positive way should be clearly mentioned on your resume.

Rule #9: Ask for feedback

Once you have put together a first version of your resume you need to ask for feedback to
improve it. If you know any consultants or former consultants you should not hesitate to
reach out to them to get their thoughts. If that doesn’t work out, then asking for feedback
from peers is also helpful. They'll be able to cast a fresh eye on your resume and flag typos,
inconsistencies, or sentences that they find difficult to understand.

Rule #10: Proofread multiple times

Finally, you should proofread your resume multiple times. This is the last step of crafting
your CV. And it is crucial. One of the tangible deliverables of consulting projects are
PowerPoint decks and Word documents. These documents are proof-read before being
handed over to clients, likewise you should make sure your resume is totally polished
before you submit it. In particular, make sure to triple check your contact details.

2.3 How to Write Your Resume?

Now that you know the 10 most important rules to put your consulting resume together,
let's use them to build a resume sample you can reuse for your own applications.

As mentioned previously, here is the layout you should use if you are currently at university
or if you have graduated less than three years ago:

1. Personal information
2. Education
3. Work experience
4. Extra-curricular achievements
5. Additional skills
If you are an experienced hire and have worked for more than three years you could
consider using this alternative layout:

1. Personal information
2. Work experience
3. Extra-curricular achievements (Optional)
4. Education
5. Additional skills

For our example we will use a recent graduate called Mary currently working in the finance
industry and trying to switch to consulting. We’ll assume Mary is writing her resume in
January 2020 and has graduated in June 2017. She has therefore graduated less than three
years ago and we will use the first layout. Please note that the resume below looks
impressive and is for a best-in-class candidate. Even if you have not achieved as much as
this person, you can still get an interview.

Let’s step through each section one by one and build the resume.

2.3.1 Personal Information

Mary Taylor
1 Case Street, London N1 2AB, UK | Mobile: +44 7 123 456 789 | Email: mary.taylor@gmail.com

In this section you should include all the basic personal details the consulting firm you are
applying for is requesting. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you put this section
together:

● Use a bigger font for your name than for the rest of the section to make it stand out.
We recommend font size 14.
● Don't insert your headshot, date of birth or gender unless it’s customary in the
country where you’re applying.
● Use a neutral or professional email address. This might sound obvious but you’d be
surprised by some of the emails we’ve come across!
● Double check all your details including address and phone number before sending
your resume.

2.3.2 Education
 EDUCATION
MEng Chemical eng, Cambridge University, UK (Sept 2013 - June 2017)
Undergraduate course with a focus on Chemistry, Thermodynamics and Statistics.
● Graduated with 1st Class honours (Grade: 78 / 100).
● Received two competitive scholarships and awards:
○ Distinguished achievement undergraduate award (10 awards for ~1,000
students).
○ Chemical engineering department scholarship (5 scholarships for 120
applicants).
● Dissertation: Comparative economic analysis of different electric car batteries.

This section should summarise the different degrees you graduated with from university
onwards. Here are a few tips on how to write this section:

● Start this section with an “Education” header. We recommend using font size 14.
● If you have multiple degrees (e.g. a BA and an MBA), you should write a subsection
like the one above for each degree, starting with your highest level of education first
(e.g. your MBA).
● For each degree, include the name of the degree, university and dates in the header.
We recommend using font size 12 for your degree headers and font size 11 for the
rest of the subsection.
● You should use one line to describe relevant course content briefly before you begin
your bullet-points.. List your grades (e.g. GPA) as well as results to other
standardised tests you have taken if any (e.g. SAT, GMAT, etc.)
● Detail all the awards and scholarships you have received in the past, and most
importantly how competitive they were (e.g. 2 awards for 1,000 students).
● If you have written a thesis or dissertation, you should also summarise the topic in a
way that's very easy to understand.

2.3.3 Work Experience

WORK EXPERIENCE
Associate at JP Morgan, New York (US) (Sept 2017 - Jan 2020)
JP Morgan is the largest investment bank in the retail industry.
● Advised senior clients who regularly asked to work with me again on a range of
topics including mergers and acquisitions, stocks and bonds, as well as other
 financial opportunities.
● Developed an M&A model that led to a 10% decrease in the price paid by our client
for their target acquisition.
● Led a team of 2 analysts on the acquisition of a $120m Asian beer company by one
of our North American clients.

Strategy Intern at Tesco, London (UK) (Jul 2016 - Aug 2016)

Tesco is the largest grocery retailer in the UK by revenue and number of stores.
● Presented a new strategic approach to 100 senior buyers in charge of negotiating
with suppliers.
● Analysed 5 years of purchasing data to shape a new strategy which was ultimately
adopted by the retailer.
● Contributed to reviewing the firm’s supplier negotiation which led to a 3% decrease
in cost of goods in the first year of implementation and another 1% the following
year.

The work experience section should include the previous work positions you have held as
well as your main achievements in these roles. Here are some important points to help you
put this section together:

● Start this section with a “Work experience” header. We recommend using font size
14.
● Include the name of the position you held and the employer as well as the location
and dates in the header. The first line of the section should then describe your
employer / department in one sentence. Notice that this mirrors the structure used
for the Education section and that we recommend using the same font sizes as
mentioned above.
● Your different work experiences should be ordered from the most recent to the
oldest one.
● Start each of your bullet points with an action that matches one of the capabilities
consulting firms look for (Leadership, Entrepreneurial drive, Personal impact,
Problem solving).
● Balance the skills you demonstrate as much as possible. For instance, notice how
some of the bullet points above are about leadership while others are about
problem solving.
 ● Focus on the results of what you did and quantify them as much as possible to
highlight the tangible contributions you have made. This is not the time to be shy
about your accomplishments!

2.3.4 Extra-curricular Achievements

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACHIEVEMENTS
President of Cambridge University’s Consulting club, (Aug 2016 - Jun 2017)
The consulting club’s main aim is to help students to get a job in consulting.
● Led a team of 5 students running the club for nearly a year.
● Grew the number of members by 20% from 100 to 120 and signed a corporate
sponsorship.
● Organised 6 events throughout the course of the year, which attracted 300+
attendees combined.

Founder of Literacy Project at London Shelter, (Nov 2016 - Jan 2018)

The project aimed to improve literacy amongst the members of the London Homeless
Shelter.
● Created a team of 5 volunteers and led them from ideation to implementation.
● Generated donations of £10,000 worth of books by partnering with 15 different
shelters.
● Supported 30+ members of the homeless population in improving their literacy.

This section is particularly important if you have limited work experience, because it's a
great way to show additional achievements outside of a formal job or internship. The
experiences you list should ideally be no more than three to five years old.

As mentioned previously, if you’re an experienced hire and have been extremely busy with
work and don’t feel you have strong recent experiences to list in this section, consider
removing it.

The way you write about your Extra-curricular experiences should follow the same format
and tips as for the Work experience section. Here are different types of activities you could
write about (not exhaustive):
 ● University clubs: if you have held a position at a university club (e.g. Consulting club,
Finance club, Theatre club, etc.) you should definitely mention it. The "higher" the
position the better as it could highlight your ability to lead and manage others.
● Sports teams: if you were part of a university sports team you should definitely
highlight that along with the achievements of the team. This will highlight your
ability to work with others.
● Side businesses: if you have set up a side business that’s had some success, you
should mention it. Include a metric to highlight the impact of your business, like the
number of customers, revenue, etc. This will show your ability to start new
initiatives.
● Writing and arts: if you enjoy writing, or any other art form, and have published your
work online or elsewhere, don’t hesitate to mention it. This can help to showcase
your creativity.
● Charity and community: if you are particularly active in a given charity or community
group, you should include the work you’re doing and quantify your contributions.
● Business advisory: if you’re an experienced hire and are advising companies either
as a board member, observer, or expert, then this section can be a great place to
expand on this role and your contributions.

2.3.5 Additional Skills

ADDITIONAL SKILLS
IT: Proficient in Excel, PowerPoint and Word. Working knowledge of SQL and Python.
Languages: English (native), Spanish (fluent), Chinese (basic)

Finally, you should focus the last section of your resume on other valuable skills that might
be helpful on the job. Our recommendation here is to keep things simple and to list any
notable foreign language and technology skills that you have. For each skill, you should
specify your level of proficiency.

Now that we’ve covered consulting resumes, we’ll turn our attention to consulting cover
letters next.
3. How to Write an Unforgettable Cover Letter
Cover letters are often overlooked by candidates. But in our experience, they can actually
be a powerful secret weapon to help you get interviews. In this chapter we will review the
situations when it makes sense to invest in a cover letter, the 10 rules you need to follow
for your cover letter to be consulting-ready, and how you should approach each paragraph
of your letter.

3.1 Do You Need a Cover Letter and How Will It Be Used?

Not all firms actually require a cover letter. For instance, cover letters are optional for
McKinsey at the time of writing this book. The candidates we work with therefore often ask
us if they should invest in writing a letter or not. The answer is: “it depends”. At a high level,
the situations where we recommend writing a letter are the same as the ones where we
recommend trying to get a referral.

Here are the situations where we would recommend investing in a cover letter:
● Experienced hires who are out of school and looking to transition into consulting
from another industry
● Candidates currently studying at non-target schools where top consulting firms
don’t recruit on campus
● Candidates currently at target schools but who feel their resume isn’t strong enough
(e.g. average or poor academic performance, few leadership activities, no work
experience with prestigious companies, etc.)

Here are the situations where you might be able to get an interview without a letter:
● Candidates from target schools with a really strong resume (e.g. top of your class,
strong leadership activities, internships at prestigious companies, etc.)
● Experienced hires who already have a few years of experience at a top consulting
firm (e.g. BCG) and are looking to switch firms (e.g. McKinsey)

In addition, if some of the firms you’re applying for require a letter, then you might as well
submit one for all your applications. Indeed, as we’ll discuss, you can write your letter in a
way that only requires changing a single paragraph for each of the firms you target.

Finally, you are probably also wondering how your letter will be used to determine whether
you should be given an interview or not. In most cases, there’s no separate scorecard for
cover letters. Instead your recruiter will use your cover letter to help them fill in the
scorecard we presented in the resume chapter of this book.

Let’s take a simplified example to illustrate how a cover letter can strengthen your
application. After reading your resume, your recruiter might have given you one point for
your problem solving abilities. But, after reading your cover letter, they might realise that
you have done more advanced problem solving than they had initially thought, and they
might bump up your problem solving score to three points.

3.2 The 510 Rules of Consulting Cover Letters

Now that you know if you need a cover letter or not, let's turn our attention to the rules you
should follow to write your document. We've reviewed and edited tens of letters over the
past few years and here are our top 10 tips for writing an effective document.

Rule #1 Don't use a template letter

Writing cover letters is painful. But trust us, reading hundreds of them can be at least as
painful. That's why you should make every effort to write a letter that’s interesting and
genuine. It's ok to get inspiration from templates. But every sentence in your letter should
be written from scratch.

Rule #2 Use standard format and font

Similar to resumes, your cover letter should stand out because of its content, not because
of its format. We recommend using standard fonts (e.g. Arial, Calibri, etc.), reasonable font
size (e.g. 11 or 12) and the default margins and line spacing in Google Docs or Word.

Rule #13 Start reflecting and writing early

Writing an outstanding cover letter requires stepping back and reflecting on your past to
identify your most relevant experiences. This can take time and sometimes requires
discussions with former co-workers, managers, friends or relatives to clearly articulate your
story.

The process of writing can also be time consuming and take multiple iterations if it’s not
something you’re used to doing. Our recommendation is that you start as early as you can
and try to keep going even when progress seems slow.
Rule #24 Keep it short and structured

Your letter doesn’t have to be long. In fact, we’ve never actually come across a situation
where more than one page was needed. We recommend structuring your letter in three
main sections:

1. Why you? Here you should clearly lay out why you think you’ve got the skills
required for the job by summarising your most relevant achievements.
2. Why consulting? In this section you should explain why you’re excited about
working as a management consultant.
3. Why this firm? And in this final paragraph you should outline why you’re attracted
to the specific firm to which your letter is addressed.

Don’t worry, if you’re not 100% sure what to include in each of these sections, we’ll cover
that in more detail later in the book.

In addition, similar to resumes, your cover letter should stand out because of its content,
not because of its format. We recommend using standard fonts (e.g. Arial, Calibri, etc.),
reasonable font size (e.g. 11 or 12) and the default margins and line spacing in Google Docs
or Word.

Rule #5 Write one letter per firm

Finally, oOne question we often get is: "Should I write one letter per firm?" The answer is
yes. But it's not as hard as it might sound. The only paragraph you will need to change in
every letter is the one about "Why this firm?" For each firm, you will ideally read and talk to
enough people to understand why you actually want to work for that specific company
instead of it’s competitors.

Rule #36 Start with your most impressive achievements

First impressions are important. If you went to Harvard and have three Olympic medals, it’s
a good idea to mention it in your cover letter! Most of us don't, and that's fine. But the
point is, you should really push yourself to bring your most impressive accomplishments
forward in the first paragraph of your letter.

If that’s something that comes to you naturally, great. If it’s not, then you should ask peers
or relatives to help you present your most impressive achievements in the “Why you?”
section.
Rule #47 Network and read, network, network

This might sound surprising, but a big part of the cover letter is how much networking you
have done. Having networked with people from your target firm is helpful for multiple
reasons. First, as we explained in the networking chapter of this book, they might directly
recommend you to the HR team.

FurthermoreIn addition, the employees you talk to can also give you insights into what
makes their firm unique. You can use that knowledge in the “Why this firm?” section of your
cover letter and play back some of the information you have gathered to explain why
you’re interested in a specific company.

Rule #8 Read, read, read

In addition to networking, it’s a good idea to read the content that has been published by
the firms you’re applying for, particularly publications on topics or industries that interest
you. For instance, if you did your master’s thesis on electric vehicles, try to find who works
on this topic at the firm and what they have to say about it. And then mention what you
have found in your cover letter.

A good place to start is on the websites of the firms to which you are applying. Most of
them have an “Insights” section where partners publish articles and reports on the
industries they cover.

Rule #59 Address red flags, if necessary

If your resume is generally strong then you should just use your cover letter to dive deeper
into some of your most impressive achievements and clearly articulate why you’d make a
great consultant at the firm you’re targeting.

If there are red flags in your resume (e.g. time gaps, job hopping, etc.), then you should
tackle those head on in your cover letter. Here are the most common resume issues we
come across when working with candidates and how we typically suggest tackling them.

● Time gaps. If you’ve taken a long parental leave, time away to travel or had health
issues, that’s completely fine. Consulting firms are generally progressive and as long
as you’re transparent, you won’t be penalised for these time gaps. You’ll only be
penalised if your recruiter does not understand it. In these situations we
recommend adding one line to fill the time gap in the resume (e.g. Travel around
the world with family, Sept 2016 to Sept 2017). In addition, you should also cover
 that gap in your cover letter with one or two sentences explaining what you’ve
learned from that time break.
● Job hopping. Changing jobs frequently is more common today than it was ten or
fifteen years ago and it shouldn’t prevent you from being invited to interview, as
long as you’re able to connect the dots for your recruiter. The trick here is to use
your cover letter to tell a story that links all of your different experiences. For
instance, let’s imagine that you’ve worked as an investment banker for 2 years, and
then in the operations team of a start-up for 1 year. You could say that you enjoyed
the client-facing aspect of investment banking as well as the strategic aspect of your
start-up job, and that you’re hoping to combine both as a management consultant.
● Overqualification. Finally, in some cases, we work with candidates who are willing
to apply for entry level consulting positions despite having fairly deep work
experience. They are therefore a little bit overqualified for the job. In these
instances, we recommend using part of your cover letter to address that concern
and clearly explain why taking a step down in terms of seniority is the right thing for
you to do at this stage of your career.

Rule #10 Get feedback and proofread multiple times

The same rule applies to both resumes and cover letters. It’s important that you get
feedback and that you proofread your document multiple times. If you know any
consultants or former consultants you should not hesitate to reach out to them to get their
thoughts. If that’s not possible, asking for feedback from peers or relatives is also helpful.
They'll be able to cast a fresh eye on your cover letter and flag typos, inconsistencies, or
sentences that they find difficult to understand.

3.3 How to Write Your Cover Letter?

Now that you know the 10 most important rules to put your consulting cover letter
together, let's use them to build a sample you can reuse for your own application.

Here’s the full structure we recommend using for your letter:

1. Introduction
2. Why you?
3. Why consulting?
4. Why this firm?
5. Conclusion
For our example, let’s write a cover letter for Mary Taylor, the same candidate from the
resume in the previous chapter. Again, note that the letter below is for a best-in-class
candidate. Don’t let the letter intimidate you, use it to think about how to best describe
your own career. Even if you feel your achievements aren’t as impressive as this person’s,
you can still get an interview.

Let’s step through each section one by one to build the sample cover letter.

3.3.1 Introduction

Example - Introduction

Mary Taylor - mary.taylor@gmail.com

DD / MM / YYYY

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to apply for an Associate position at McKinsey in London.

This section is a formality. It should simply state the following information:

● Your name and email address. You can replace your email address by a postal
address although those are not commonly used anymore.
● The date on which you are sending your letter.
● The position, company, and office to which you are applying.

Keep it short and sweet.

3.3.2 Why you?

Example - Why you?

There are several reasons why I’m a strong fit for this position. First, I was quickly
promoted to Associate in a year and a half instead of the average four years after joining
JP Morgan as an Analyst in September 2017 in New York. While at JP Morgan, I advised
a broad range of clients who constantly gave me positive feedback and regularly asked
to work with me again. Second, before joining JP Morgan, I graduated as the top student
of my Masters in Chemical Engineering at Cambridge University (UK). While studying, I
 received two competitive scholarships, representing more than $35k in total funding.
Finally, I have also developed my leadership skills as the President of the Cambridge
University Consulting Club. High energy was essential to lead a team of 5 managing the
club and growing the number of members by 20%.

This is your "gold medals" section. It is the first section of your cover letter and probably
the most important one. It should state your top three achievements that are relevant to
consulting.

Here’s how to write this paragraph once you’re clear on the three achievements you want
to bring forward.

First, we recommend using the first sentence to explain the purpose of the paragraph
you’re writing. Here are a few example sentences you could use:

● “There are several reasons why I am a strong fit for this position.” (Used in the
example above)
● “I believe I am a strong fit for this position for a few reasons.”
● “The strong impact I’ve had on my previous projects makes me think I could greatly
contribute to your team.”

Then, you should simply summarise the three most impressive achievements about your
career so far. It’s a good idea to introduce each of your arguments with “First / Second /
Third” or similar prepositions to make it easy for your reader to scan your different points.

Finally, notice how achievements are quantified in the example above. Saying you have
been promoted "in a year and a half instead of the average four years" is much more
powerful than saying you have been promoted "quickly". Take the same approach as in
your resume, and quantify your achievements whenever possible.

3.3.3 Why consulting?

Example - Why consulting?

I want to pursue a consulting career for three reasons. To start with, I know I will enjoy
 being a strategy consultant because I have already worked in a strategy team in the
past. This was in the summer of 2016, when I was a Strategy Intern at Tesco in London.
In addition, I think consulting is a unique opportunity to learn about business by working
on a range of company challenges. Over the past two years, I have built strong financial
skills at JP Morgan and I look forward to learning more about strategy at McKinsey.
Finally, I want to work in consulting because I enjoy interacting with clients. Throughout
my work experiences I have built a successful track record of developing and maintaining
relationships with clients including, for instance, the senior strategy team at Tesco.

Once you have convinced your reviewer that you have impressive achievements under
your belt they'll be thinking: "Ok, this candidate has an interesting background. But, do they
understand what consulting is about and what they’re getting into?"

The third section of your letter should therefore answer the "Why consulting?" question.
Here is how to go about writing that section.

First, you should introduce the paragraph with a variation of one of the following
sentences:

● “I want to pursue a consulting career for three reasons.” (Used in the example
above)
● “I’m particularly attracted towards management consulting for a few reasons.”
● “There are several reasons why I want to pursue a career in consulting.”

Second, you should think about three reasons you’re excited to become a management
consultant. Here are common reasons that you could state in your letter beyond the ones
we’ve already touched on in the example above:

● You will work for senior execs and have a strong impact
● You will learn a lot and progress quickly (for new graduates)
● You will work at the forefront of your industry (for experienced hires)
● You will make friends and work with bright colleagues
● You will work on solving challenging problems
● Etc.

You should introduce each of your arguments in the letter with prepositions such as “To
start with / Then / Finally” like we have in the example letter here. As mentioned previously,
this helps recruiters scan your letter more efficiently.
Finally, every time you state one of the reasons you want to work in consulting, you should
support that statement with some facts from your prior experience to make your argument
stronger (argument = statement + supporting fact). This is also a great way of continuing to
pitch yourself beyond the “Why you?” paragraph.

Let’s take the final argument in the “Why consulting?” paragraph above as an example.
Notice how we first make a statement regarding why the candidate wants to be a
consultant. And how we then back that statement with supporting facts to reinforce it.

● Statement: “Finally, I want to work in consulting because I enjoy interacting with

clients.”
● Supporting fact: “Throughout my work experiences I have built a successful track
record of developing and maintaining relationships with clients including, for
instance, the senior strategy team at Tesco.”

A helpful tip to find supporting facts for your different statements is to think about the
aspects of your past experiences which have been similar to consulting. For instance:

● You could make the point that you enjoy working with senior execs, and that you
know that for a fact because this is something you did in your previous job in
finance, marketing, etc.
● You could make the point that you enjoy solving challenging problems, and that you
know that for a fact because this is something you’ve done as an engineer, PhD, etc.
● You could make the point that you enjoy being at the forefront of your industry, and
you already strive to do that today by presenting at conferences, writing, etc.
● Etc.

When they read this section, your recruiter should think: "Ok, this person is impressive and
they know what they are getting into."

3.3.4 Why this firm?

Example - Why McKinsey?

McKinsey appeals to me for three reasons. To start with, I’ve worked with several former
McKinsey consultants and they’ve all told me they truly enjoyed their time at the firm. In
fact, for the past two years, I have worked for Michael Smith, a former Engagement
Manager from the London office. Additionally, I regularly read McKinsey’s reports on
financial services and think the insights delivered by Sarah James and others in the
 Finance practice are superior to those of other consultancies. By joining McKinsey, I
know I would have an opportunity to work with the best consultants in the industry.
Finally, the fact that McKinsey was selected by Barclays to shape its digital strategy also
played an important role in my decision to apply. This was a first-of-its-kind contract in
finance and it shows that while at McKinsey, I could get the opportunity to work on truly
unique projects.

If you letter screener has read this far it’s a good sign. The only question that's left for you
to answer is: "Why this firm?" Why do you want to work for their company and not one of
their competitors.

After all, top consulting firms have a lot in common. In most regions, they cover the same
industries and work for similar clients. They also pay similar salaries, and the career path is
more or less the same from firm to firm. So, what should you write about in this section?

In our experience, the most efficient way to set yourself apart in this section is to write
about three specific elements:

● People
● Reports
● Projects

When you write "I've met with Michael Smith", or "I've read report X" or "I've heard about
project Y", you are making an argument that's specific enough for your reviewer to think:
"Ok they've done their homework and actually understand how we are different".

If you stay too generic, your argument will be much less credible. For instance, writing
something like "While at McKinsey, I'll be exposed to a broad range of industries which I'm
excited about" is a weak argument because you could swap McKinsey for BCG or Bain in
that sentence.

In fact, this is a test some cover letters screeners use. If you can swap McKinsey with
another name in your "Why McKinsey?" section you are not being specific enough. You
need to work on your paragraph again and mention specific people, reports, and projects
that you find interesting.
Once you have identified three specific reasons you want to work for a given firm, you can
start writing this final paragraph. And the structure we suggest using for this section is
actually very similar to the first two.

You should open the paragraph with a variation of one of the following sentences:

● “Firm X appeals to me for three reasons.” (Used in the example above)

● “I’m particularly attracted towards Firm X for a few reasons.”
● “There are several reasons why I would be excited to join Firm X.”

And similarly to the previous paragraphs, the three arguments you make should be
introduced with: “First”, “Second” and “Third / Finally” or similar prepositions to make the
letter more scannable.

3.3.5 Conclusion

Example - Conclusion

For all these reasons, I am very enthusiastic about the chance to work at McKinsey. I am
available for an interview at any time and look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Mary Taylor

The last section of the cover letter is a formality again. It should include the following
elements:

● A sentence or two saying that you are enthusiastic and available for interviews at
any time
● Your signature and name
Part 2: Cracking Case Interviews - Basics
Now that you know how to network and craft the perfect resume and cover letter, you
should be well on your way to get interviews. So, let’s turn our attention to the interview
process and, more specifically, how to crack case interviews.

4. Understanding Case Interviews

Prepare yourself. We are now entering the most important part of this book. If you take
nothing else away, we urge you to learn the case interview question types covered in this
chapter, and the method outlined for each one in chapters 5-11.

Let’s begin with a little background on case interviews, and how they are structured across
different consulting firms.

4.1 What are Case Interviews?

Strategy consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG or Bain use case interviews in their recruiting
process for new hires. Case interviews last about 30 minutes during which you will analyse
and solve a business problem. These cases are usually based on past consulting projects
on which your interviewer has actually worked.

The objective of a case interview is to recreate the conditions of a real consulting project so
that your interviewer can see how you will perform on the job. Case interviews have been
used by McKinsey for decades and it looks like they are here to stay!

Here are a few typical examples of cases you could come across in your consulting
interviews.

● Your client is Coca-Cola, and their profits have been declining in recent years. Can
you help find the root -cause of the profit decline and turn the situation around?
● Your client is Nike, and they want to launch a new line of sneakers in Europe. How
would you go about advising the CEO what new product to launch?
 ● Your client is the UK Department of Foreign Affairs who is seeking to restructure its
organisation. What are the different elements you would consider to make a
recommendation?

Most consulting firms give a few good examples of case interviews on their website. The
ones provided by McKinsey, BCG, and Deloitte are particularly helpful. In addition, we have
put together 4 realistic practice cases that you can find in part 4 of this book.

But, before you start practicing with example cases, it’s important to understand the basic
structure of case interviews.

4.2 The Seven Case Interview Question Types

Case interviews all boil down to the same seven types of questions. As a result, the key to
success is actually straightforward. If you learn how to consistently crack each of the seven
types of case questions, then you will be able to consistently solve any case interview you
encounter.

Let’s turn to a brief overview of the question types, and then we’ll divego into themore
details ofn each one.
 1. Situation questions: At the beginning of a case interview, the interviewer will
explain the situation of a company (e.g. the client). This should enable you to
identify the specific business issue that they want your help to solve.
2. Framework development questions: Next, your interviewer will ask you to identify
the key areas you’d consider in order to address the business problem. The
interviewer will expect your response to take the form of a structured framework.
3. Framework exploration questions: In certain cases, you’ll be expected to explore
the framework you developed. This applies to cases where you are looking for a
root -cause. For instance, if the company’s profits are going down, it could be
because revenues are going down or costs are going up. Exploring your framework
here would make sense. For other types of questions, you will not have to do this.
○ Data interpretation questions: Once you have agreed on a framework with
your interviewer, they will often provide you with data in the form of text,
charts, or tables. This is usually the sign that your interviewer is about to ask
you a data interpretation question, and they’ll expect you to analyse the
insights that can be drawn from the data.
○ Maths questions: You will probably also encounter a maths question in
every case. However, the nature of this maths question will vary. You may
have to answer a maths question where data has been provided. Or, your
interviewer may ask you to solve a maths question without giving you any
data, which means you’ll need to make estimates.
○ Creativity questions: Case interviews also include qualitative questions to
test your creativity. For example, they might ask you about new product
ideas to help a company increase profits, or for new ways your client could
cut costs.
4. Recommendation questions: Finally, at the end of the case, your interviewer will
ask for your recommendation or conclusion. This is similar to a client asking a
consultant for their recommendations at the end of the project. You could consider
Tthis is the final deliverable of the case interview.

Don’t worry iIf this list feels overwhelming at this stage, don’t worry. In chapters 5-11 we
will:

1. Teach you the IGotAnOffer Method for each type of question, which will allow you to
solve them using a repeatable process
2. Provide a realistic case example with thea best-in-class answer outlined in detail
But before we do a deep-dive into each question type, it’s important to first understand the
firm-specific differences you may encounter during your case interviews.

4.3 McKinsey vs. Other Firms (Interviewer-Led vs. Candidate-Led)

There are important differences between McKinsey cases and cases at other firms like BCG,
Bain, Deloitte, etc. Below we’ll dig into the specifics for each type of case. But first, here’s an
overview of the differences:

As you can see in the image, McKinsey interviews tend to be more controlled, whereas
interviews at most other consultancies tend to be more open-ended. For this reason, these
two styles of case interviews are often referred to as “interviewer-led” (which is used by
McKinsey), and “candidate-led” (which is used by most other firms).

Knowing the firm-specific differences before you begin your interviews is extremely helpful,
because it will allow you to prepare for the right types of questions. During interviewer-led
cases, you will probably only face five of the seven question types. However, during
candidate-led case interviews you could face any of these seven question types.
There’s a visual overview of these differences below. In the image, a black circle indicates a
question type that is typically included. A white circle indicates a question type that is
usually not included. And a half black circle indicates a question type that is only used in
certain cases.

Let’s now review the details of interviewer-led and candidate-led cases in greater depth, to
give you a better feel for their differences.

4.2.1 McKinsey specificities (interviewer-led)

During McKinsey cases, you will find that your interviewer is more active than at other
firms. Most of the time they will be leading you from one question to the next and will also
be challenging your results a bit more than at other companies. They will control the pace
of the interview and sometimes even interrupt you to go to the next question.

McKinsey case interviews are a lot more structured than other case interviews and the flow
of questions you will get is usually quite standardised. In fact, it closely follows the list of
case interview questions we reviewed earlier.

Also, as you have probably guessed, the bar to get into McKinsey is higher than at other
consulting firms. This is why it’s so important to develop a consistent approach for solving
case interviews. This consistent approach will really make a difference by helping you
perform at a high -level, interview after interview. Even if you’re targeting another firm,
preparing with this kind of approach will pay off.

4.2.2 BCG, Bain and other firms’ specificities (candidate-led)

Let's now turn our attention to firms that use candidate-led cases. We loosely refer to these
firms as BCG and Bain. But in reality, this applies to nearly all other consulting firms. For
example: LEK, Oliver Wyman, Roland Berger, Deloitte, Accenture, Strategy&, etc.

The interviews at these firms are called candidate-led because you will be expected to play
a much more proactive role. Your interviewer will let you decide in which direction to take
the case, and will adapt their questions based on your approach. You will still come across
the seven types of questions that we discussed previously, but the order of those questions
can sometimes be unconventional.

In addition, whenthe fact that you are leading the case, means you will sometimes need to
take a hypothesis-led approach. For example, making a hypothesis is particularly helpful in
framework exploration questions when you need to find the root -cause of an issue.

If you are having a hard time conceptualising the specific elements of McKinsey cases and
cases at other firms, you might benefit from watching some live case examples. We’ve done
everything we could to make this book as clear as possible, but sometimes a book just
doesn’t compare to hearing realistic case questions. You can watch free examples of case
interviews on the IGotAnOffer YouTube channel. For instance, you might find our video
extracts of McKinsey, and BCG & Bain case interview examples helpful.

In the next few chapters, we’ll dig into each of the seven case interview question types,
including a step-by-step method for solving each one.

5. Situation Questions
As mentioned earlier, the objective of case interviews is for you to solve a business
problem. At the start of the conversation, interviewers will therefore lay out the case
scenariocasee’s scenario. Your job at this stage is to make sure you understand the
situation correctly by listening carefully and asking the right follow-up questions.
Here is a typical example of a situation question.

Example: Situation [QUESTION]

Your interviewer would start the interview by saying something like:

“Your client is Rusty Strings, a popular local guitar shop in Nashville, Tennessee
(USA). Rusty Strings builds and sells all of their guitars out of a single location that
serves as their manufacturing facility and retail store.

Over the past 5 years, Rusty Strings’ profits have been declining. The owner of the
business is worried about this trend, and has hired you to help increase profits
again.”

After your interviewer states the situation, they are expecting you to follow two steps. Here
is the IGotAnOffer Method for solving this type of question.

IGotAnOffer Method: Situation Questions

● Step 1: Play back the company’s situation

○ Confirm your understanding
○ Emphasise key elements
● Step 2: Define and state the objective of the case
○ In scope vs. out of scope
○ Quantify

It’s helpful to know that situation questions aren’t usually framed as questions. Your
interviewer will just provide you with the background story for the company. They will not
explicitly ask you to play back that situation and define the objective of the case. But, they
are implicitly expecting you to do both.

This is one of the subtleties of acase interviews. At different stages during your interview
there are actions you should take to make sure you crack the case, but your interviewer
won’t necessarily give you guidance to do them.
Let’s now wal k-through the IGotAnOffer Method for situation questions in more detail.

Step 1: Play Back The Company’s Situation

The first thing you should do after the interviewer gives you the situation is to play it back.
But, what do we mean by “playing back the situation”? We mean that you should
summarise and repeat the business scenario back to the interviewer.

This might sound like a waste of time, but it’s actually extremely important. This technique
is used by partners in consulting firms, to confirm details with client CEOs and other
executives.

The reason they do this is that misunderstanding the objective of your client or interviewer
is a recipe for disaster. If you’re not solving the right problem then you have zero chance of
making your client or interviewer happy. Playing back the situation takes 15 to 30 seconds
and will help you avoid costly mistakes.

When you summarise the details of the case at the beginning of your interview, your
interviewer won’t hold it against you if you misunderstand a key piece of information. After
all, mishearing something can happen to anyone. However, it will reflect negatively on you
if this happens 10 minutes after the start of the case, because it’s your responsibility to
ensure that you understand the details upfront.

Here’s how you could approach this step for the Rusty Strings’ case.

Example: Situation [ANSWER]

 Step 1: Play back the company’s situation

You should summarise the situation for your interviewer by saying something like:

“Let me make sure I understand the situation correctly before trying to solve the
case. Here are the three most important points I took away from what you said:

1. Our client is Rusty Strings, it manufactures and sells guitars in Nashville

2. Over the past 5 years Rusty Strings has had declining profits
3. The owner has hired us to help increase profits again

Is that right? Or am I missing anything important here?”

Once you’ve done this, your interviewer will confirm your understanding or add any
important details you have missed.

At this stage, you’re not yet finished with the situation question. There is one additional
step you will need to take.

Step 2: Define and State the Objective of the Case

Once you have confirmed the details of the case with your interviewer, you will need to
clearly define the objective. The best way to achieve this is to confirm with your interviewer
what is in scope and what is out of scope for the case. You’ll also need to try to quantify the
objective of the case as much as possible. A great way to accomplish this, is by asking some
follow-up questions.

Here is how you could do this for the Rusty Strings example.

Example: Situation [ANSWER]

Step 2: Define and state the objective of the case

To clarify the scope of the Rusty Strings case, you could ask the following questions:
 ● “It sounds like the owner’s primary objective is to increase the business’
profits, but do they also need to know the root cause of their profit decline?
● Does Rusty Strings sell related products like guitar strings, or other
instruments like pianos?”

And here’s some example questions you could ask to quantify the objective:

● “By how much have profits declined over the past 5 years? Has the decrease
been regular or sudden?
● By how much does the owner want to increase profits, and by when?”

Let's imagine that we learn the following information after asking the above
questions:

● The owner’s objective is to increase profits, but he would like to know the
root cause of their profit decline first
● For every guitar purchased, Rusty Strings gives their customers a guitar case
and extra strings, but they do not sell any products separate from guitars
● The owner hasn’t taken the time to quantify the profit decline, and that’s
partly why he needs your help
● The owner wants to surpass the level of profit the business was earning 5
years ago, and the timeline for reaching this target is 2 years

After receiving these responses, you should summarise the primary case objective to
your interviewer. For this case, that would sound something like this:

“So, if I’m understanding correctly, our objective is to first identify the source of
Rusty Strings’ profit decline and then to surpass the level of profit the business was
making five years ago. In addition, it sounds like the owner wants to accomplish this
objective within the next two years. Am I missing anything?”

After you’ve summarised the objective, your interviewer will either confirm the
details you’ve provided, or correct anything you may have missed.

The answers to your initial questions will significantly influence how you solve the case and
what framework you develop. For instance, if Rusty String’s owner had told us that they
already knew the profits issue is caused by decreasing revenues then we would have
focused all our attention on revenue. In our example we don’t know what’s causing the
issue yet and we will have to look at more than just revenues as a result.

It’s also important to note that some cases won’t have obvious scope or quantification
follow-up questions for you to ask. So, if you encounter a case where scope and
quantification are already clear (or are not relevant), then there’s no need for you to force
any follow-up questions. However, you should still play back the situation to confirm that
you haven’t missed any important details.

Finally, the situation question is also a great opportunity to start identifying elements that
you will include in your framework. Pay close attention to what your interviewer says and
how they react at this stage, as it can give you clues on what they want to see as part of
your answer to the next question.

6. Framework Development Questions

The next question you’ll face during a case interview, will require you to create a structure
to solve the case problem. This structure is called a “framework” which makes it sound
more difficult than it really is. In practice, a framework is basically just a list of areas you will
analyse to solve the problem the company is facing.

Here is an example of a typical framework development question.

Example: Framework Development [QUESTION]

For a framework development question, your interviewer will say something like:

“What are the different areas you would look at to find the root-cause of Rusty
Strings’ profit decline?”

Note that not all interviewers will actually ask you the framework development question.
Some will just expect you to proactively list the areas you would look at to solve the
problem. As a result, it's a good idea to get into the habit of developing a framework
automatically after you have completed the situation question.
Here is the IGotAnOffer method for solving framework development questions.

IGotAnOffer Method: Framework Development Questions

● Step 1: Ask for time to gather your thoughts

● Step 2: Create the framework
○ Extract the main elements from the case question
○ Break down the main elements into components
● Step 3: Communicate the framework
○ Spin your paper around
○ Begin with an overview
○ Highlight 3-5 considerations for each framework branch
○ Summarise your points
○ Prioritise next steps

Step 1: Ask for Time to Gather Your Thoughts

Creating a framework is not easy. You should therefore always ask for a few moments to
gather your thoughts to prepare your framework. Interviewers expect you to do this and
will always be ok with you thinking silently before sharing your thoughts.

As a rule of thumb, you can take 30 seconds to 1 minute to silently outline the areas you
want to explore to solve the case problem. One minute of silence can feel extremely long at
first and it’s a good idea to practice this step a few times with a stopwatch. Here is a simple
example for how you could ask time to gather your thoughts.

Example: Framework Development [ANSWER]

Step 1: Ask for time to gather your thoughts

You could say something like:

“Do you mind if I take a minute to structure my thoughts on the different areas to
analyse?”
 Your interviewer will always give you that time.

Step 2: Create the Framework

Once the interviewer has given you some time, you’ll need to put your framework together.
If you’ve already done some research about case interviews, you may have heard about a
variety of pre-made frameworks, like Porter’s 5 Forces, the 4 P’s, etc. It’s very important that
you don’t blindly apply these tools to your case interview. This may surprise you, but
interviewers actually view the use of pre-made frameworks negatively.

Think of it this way, consulting firms make their money by providing customised advice,
services, solutions, etc. Your interviewer will be looking for candidates that can come up
with thoughtful and creative frameworks, which can be applied to unique business
situations. This might sound a little intimidating at first, but it becomes pretty easy with
practice.

Although it is best to create your own models during case interviews, it can be helpful to
review a few pre-made models to get an idea of how they work and to get some
inspiration. You can find examples of popular pre-made frameworks in the FAQ section of
this book. If you’re brand new to frameworks then we encourage you to pause reading this
chapter and spend some time studying the frameworks in the FAQ section before coming
back.

So how do you create one of these custom case frameworks? The basic process is to break
the objective down into its component pieces. You want to capture all reasonable variables
that the business may need to adjust in order to accomplish their goal. As you draft your
case framework, one specific thing you will need to consider is the concept of “MECE”,
which means Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive. Let’s break this down further.
Mutually exclusive means that each branch of your framework is unique, and does not
overlap with any of the other branches. Collectively exhaustive means that all the relevant
topics are covered, and no branch is “missing”.

MECE is an important idea, which is used regularly by consultants. However, candidates

often get a little obsessed about their structure being MECE. Our advice is to not overfocus
on this. It’s more important for your framework to be relevant to the case, than it is for it to
be 100% MECE. In the real world, consultants often use frameworks that are 80% (not
100%) MECE.

In the answer box below, you’ll find a good example of a MECE framework for our Rusty
Strings case. During your case interview, it’s helpful to sketch out something similar on a
piece of paper. This will help you organize your analysis, and will also help you to clearly
communicate your framework to the interviewer.

Example: Framework Development [ANSWER]

Step 2: Create the framework

At this stage, take 30-60 seconds to sketch your framework on a piece of paper.
 Here’s an example of what a simple framework sketch might look like for our
example question:

Once you have a rough framework like this on paper, you can spin it around and begin
explaining it to your interviewer. This is the next step in the method.

Step 3: Communicate the Framework

Drafting your framework is only half the battle, you’ll also need to communicate it to your
interviewer in a clear and structured way. It can be difficult to know exactly how to go
about explaining your framework, so we’ve outlined five tips to help you through this
process:

● Spin your paper around. Seeing your framework on paper will naturally make it
easier for your interviewer to understand, and it is a great way to demonstrate that
you have good communication skills.
● Begin with an overview. Before jumping into the details, you should first introduce
the high-level buckets within your framework and tell your interviewer the order in
which you plan to cover the branches.
● Highlight 3-5 considerations for each branch. As you walk-through a particular
branch, mention the considerations that came to mind when you were developing
the framework. This doesn’t need to be comprehensive, but should demonstrate
careful thinking.
● Summarise your points. Don’t ramble, pause occasionally to clearly re-state your
key points. It’s particularly good to do this at the end to bring everything together.
 ● Prioritise next steps. Tell your interviewer how you would prioritise the first 2-3
next steps. Rank them based on importance or ease/speed. Most candidates don’t
do this, and it’s a great way to demonstrate that you are thinking proactively.

Approaching the communication of your framework strategically will help you set yourself
apart from other candidates. Now let’s see what this would look like for the Rusty Strings
case.

Example: Framework Development [ANSWER]

Step 3: Communicate the framework

Once you’ve put together your framework, simply spin it around to show to your
interviewer. Then walk them through it step by step.

First, give your interviewer an overview of the primary business drivers in your
framework, and tell them how you intend to walk through the details. For example,
you could say something like this:

“Rusty Strings’ profitability problem is either caused by an issue with revenues or

costs, or a mix of both. I’ve therefore broken down profits into revenues and costs in
my framework. Let’s discuss revenues in more detail first and then come back to the
cost area.”
Now it’s time to get into the details and dive into each branch. As you walk through
each branch, mention any considerations that you’ve noted in your framework. We
like to state these considerations in the form of rhetorical questions. But, you could
also just state the type of analysis you would carry out. Both formats are acceptable.

Here is how this could look for each branch of the Rusty Strings case:

● Revenue: “Revenues can be broken down into the average price per guitar
times the number of guitars sold. If revenues are going down it’s because of
declining prices, volume, or both.”
○ Price per guitar: “Let’s discuss the different factors that could lead to
a decrease in the average price per guitar.”
■ “Does Rusty Strings charge different prices for different models
of guitar?
■ Is Rusty Strings being undercut by competitor prices?
■ Does Rusty Strings offer discounts to customers that reduce
the base price?
■ Do customers see Rusty Strings as being a premium brand, a
budget seller, or somewhere in between?”

○ Number of guitars sold: “Now let’s discuss the different factors that
could lead to a decrease in the number of guitars sold.”
■ “Does Rusty Strings have inventory problems? Do they have
trouble keeping up with demand?
■ Has the popularity of guitars declined, causing demand for
Rusty Strings’ guitars to go down?
■ How skilled are Rusty Strings’ guitar salespeople? Is additional
training, or more selective hiring necessary?”

“The decrease in profits might also be driven by a cost problem, so let’s turn our
attention to the cost side of the framework now.”

● Costs: “Costs can be broken down into variable costs and fixed costs. Costs
could be increasing because of an increase in variable costs, an increase in
fixed costs, or both.”
○ Variable costs: “Let’s discuss the different factors that could lead to
 an increase in variable costs.”
■ “For each guitar, what is the cost of raw materials?
■ What is the direct labor cost for each guitar?
■ What does Rusty Strings’ pay in sales commissions or bonuses
to their sales reps?”
○ Fixed costs: “Now let’s discuss the different factors that could lead to
an increase in fixed costs.”
■ “What are Rusty Strings’ rent or mortgage costs for their
facility?
■ What is the staff overhead for salaries, benefits, etc?
■ What is the cost of any marketing done at the brand level?
■ Does Rusty Strings have additional overhead like insurance
expenses?”

After you have outlined your framework, you should take a moment to summarise
your points. For example, you could say something like this:

“The main drivers of profitability for Rusty Strings are revenue and costs. Revenue
can be further divided into factors affecting the number of guitars sold and the price
per guitar. And costs can be further divided into variable costs and fixed costs. As I
mentioned, there are a number of considerations for each of these areas that we
would need to analyse further in order to determine the root cause of Rusty Strings’
profit decline.”

Finally, you should proactively recommend some next steps. For instance, you could
say:

“This is a lot of areas to consider, so let’s prioritise them. Since sales data is usually
easier to obtain than cost data, I’d suggest that Rusty Strings begin by analysing their
revenues. For example, they could do an analysis of their pricing and inventory.
Does that make sense?”

This is a good way to close your framework development answer. It will show your
interviewer that you are thinking proactively, and it also gives them an opportunity
to guide your next step.
In the next chapter, we will turn our attention to the method for framework exploration.

7. Framework Exploration Questions

The third type of question that you may encounter on a case interview, is a framework
exploration question. This type of question is only used when the objective of the case is to
identify the root cause of a problem.

Framework exploration questions are not used in case interviews at McKinsey, but are
sometimes used in case interviews from other firms like BCG and Bain (e.g. candidate-led
case interviews). As a result, if you are only preparing for McKinsey interviews and are short
on time, you can skip this chapter and move onto chapter 8. Otherwise, you should
prepare and learn the method for solving framework exploration questions.

Let’s dive into an example:

Example: Framework Exploration [Question]

For a framework exploration question, your interviewer would say something like:

“As mentioned previously, the owner of Rusty Strings wants to identify the source of
their drop in profits. Given what you now know about the business, what is the root
cause of Rusty Strings’ profit decline?”

After your interviewer states the question, they are expecting you to take two steps. Here is
the method we recommend you use to successfully solve framework exploration
questions.

IGotAnOffer Method: Framework Exploration Questions

● Step 1: Make a hypothesis

○ Pick a framework branch
○ Hypothesise that branch is the root-cause of the problem
● Step 2: Ask for information to test your hypothesis
 ○ If hypothesis is invalid: cross-out the branch and update your hypothesis
○ If hypothesis is valid: continue digging down

Here is how you could answer this type of question for the Rusty Strings case.

Example: Framework Exploration [ANSWER]

The best method to use for this type of question, is to systematically test hypotheses
based on the framework you created in the previous step.

Step 1: Make a hypothesis

For Rusty Strings, the profit could be declining because the revenue is dipping, or
because the costs have gone up, or a mix of those two reasons. Let’s start by
investigating if the revenue has been declining (this is our first hypothesis). You
could begin by telling your interviewer something like this:

“We don’t have much information on the source of the profit decline at this stage,
but let’s make a hypothesis and assume that it’s a revenue problem to start with.”

Step 2: Ask for information to test your hypothesis

After stating your hypothesis, you should ask your interviewer if the client has any
relevant data that you could use to test it. At this stage, your interviewer may give
you data, or they may give you input that proves or disproves your hypothesis.

For example, let’s imagine that your interviewer tells you that Rusty Strings has
increased their revenue by 5% over the last 5 years. If everything else was equal, that
means Rusty Strings would have increased their profits over the past 5 years.

However, we know that profits have gone down, despite this 5% revenue increase.
This disproves our initial hypothesis about Rusty Strings’ revenue being the root
cause of the profit decline. In addition, the fact that profits have declined despite
increased revenue, suggests that there must be some problem with Rusty Strings’
costs.

We now need to cross-out the revenue branch of the framework, and move-on to
the costs branch as a new hypothesis. Here you could tell your interviewer
something like this:

“Since Rusty Strings’ revenues have increased, while profits have gone down, this
implies that there is a cost problem and not a revenue problem. As a result, I’m
going to update my hypothesis and investigate the cost side of the framework.”
 After you state your new hypothesis, you should again ask your interviewer if the
client has any relevant data that you could use to test it. In this example, let’s
imagine that your interviewer informs you that Rusty Strings’ costs are indeed a
problem, and they provide you with the data you’ll find in the next chapter.

When you do find the source of the problem in a framework exploration question, your
interviewer will likely provide some data, tables, etc. This is a sign that you are about to
begin a data interpretation question, which is the question type we will cover in the next
chapter.

8. Data Interpretation Questions

When your interviewer provides you with charts, tables, or other data during your
interview, this is usually a sign that you’re about to begin a data interpretation question.
For this type of question, your interviewer will expect you to extract insights from the
provided data, and communicate these insights back to them.

Let’s explore data interpretation questions further by looking at an example from our Rusty
Strings case.

Example: Data Interpretation [QUESTION]

For a data interpretation question, your interviewer would present you with the
figures below and then they would ask you something like this:

“What insights can you draw from the chart and table below that are relevant to
Rusty Strings’ current situation? “

Note: Spruce, Mahogany, and Laminate are different types of wood used for
manufacturing guitars.
And here is the IGotAnOffer Method we recommend using to perform data interpretation.
IGotAnOffer Method: Data Interpretation Questions

● Step 1: Understand headers, axes, and units

● Step 2: Analyse each chart or table vertically and then horizontally
● Step 3: Combine insights across graphs and tables
● Step 4: Relate back to the initial question and suggest next steps

Extracting one or two insights from a graph is relatively easy, but it’s difficult to extract all
insights in a structured way. However, the method for this type of question should enable
you to do that.

First, you should make sure you understand all the headers, axes, and unit labels and ask
your interviewer for clarifications as needed. And as you analyse the provided data, you
should tell your interviewer what you are finding (out loud), so that they can follow your
thought process.

Next, you should read the graphs vertically, and then horizontally. Segmenting the analysis
of the materials in two steps will ensure that you do not overlook any important insights.
This approach might feel overly rigid at first, but over time it will begin to feel more natural
and will also allow you to work much quicker.

Finally, once you have extracted all the information from individual charts or tables, you
should try to derive additional insights by combining the information available in each of
them. You’ll often be able to learn new information that was not visible in the individual
figures.

At the end of a data interpretation exercise, it’s very important to connect your findings to
the overall case question. Most candidates do not do this proactively, and wait to be asked
by their interviewer. If you take the initiative to summarise your answer to the question,
and at the same time suggest next steps, this will reflect very positively on you.

Here is how you could answer this question for the Rusty Strings example.

Example: Data Interpretation [ANSWER]

Note: we have copied the data chart and table here for your convenience, these are the
exact same figures as were included in the question box above.
Step 1: Understand headers, axes, and units

You should begin your analysis by scanning the headers, axes, and units in the chart
and table that have been provided. This should be done quickly, but do not skip this
step, as it will help you to make sure that you don’t miss any important elements of
the data.

In addition, you should continue communicating with your interviewer. You won’t
need to mention everything you see in the data, as some points (like chart titles) will
be quite obvious. However, you should state important points periodically to keep
them engaged. To begin, you could tell your interviewer something like this:

“To start with, let me quickly confirm that I understand all of the headers, axes, and
units presented in the data. I’ll begin by looking over the chart, and then I’ll review
the table as well.”

From there, you would begin walking-through to confirm your understanding of

each figure. For instance, you might identify the following points and mention a few
of them to your interviewer:
Chart
Headers
● The information we’re provided with seems to be about “Guitar sales and
materials” for Rusty Strings

Axes
● The Y axis is the number of guitars and the X axis is the year, so the overall
chart is showing the number of guitars sold per year over time

Units
● The two primary units used in this chart are guitars sold and years
● It appears that the units are exact and not abbreviated (e.g. not listed in
hundreds, thousands, etc.), but you can confirm this with your interviewer if
you are unsure
● The chart also has a color key that indicates the type of wood used in each
guitar that was sold (e.g. Spruce, Mahogany, Laminate, and total sales)

The table would be examined in a similar way, but would yield the following:

Table
Headers
● The table doesn’t have a title. However, there are three headers which are
“Costs”, “5 years ago”, and “Last year”. So, it looks like this table provides a
comparison between costs last year and five years ago for Rusty Strings.
● Then, if we read the row titles down the left side of the table, we learn that
the table is providing a list of variable cost and fixed cost categories

Axes
● Since we’re dealing with a table, and not a chart, there are no axes to
consider

Units
● The only unit used in the table are exact dollar values

At this stage, we want to reiterate that this step should not take very much time. You
can do this quickly and you should only mention the main points out loud to your
interviewer. But it’s still an important step to take to ensure you understand all of
the data properly before trying to draw any insights. It’s a common mistake for
candidates to misread a unit or label which can derail your analysis. You can easily
avoid that.

Step 2: Analyse each chart or table vertically and then horizontally

After understanding the headers, axes, and units, the next step is to analyse the data
within the chart and table. It’s good to begin by letting your interviewer know how
you plan to analyse the data, and you could accomplish that by saying something
like this:

“Alright, I’ll analyse the data in the chart first. And then I’ll turn my attention to the
table.”

After this brief summary of your plan, you can begin walking-through each piece of
the chart, highlighting key insights out loud to your interviewer. Here’s what those
insights would look like for Rusty Strings:

Insights from Chart 1

Vertically
● Five years ago, Spruce was the most commonly used wood for Rusty Strings’
guitars and accounted for 452 of their 907 sales
● Five years ago, most of Rusty Strings’ other guitars (aside from Spruce) were
made of Laminate wood, with a small share of about 6% being made of
Mahogany

Horizontally
● Total guitar sales are fairly stable at around 900 per year
● Over the last 5 years, sales of Spruce guitars have remained fairly stable
● Over the last 5 years, sales of Mahogany guitars have increased by nearly 300
● Over the last 5 years, sales of Laminate guitars have decreased by nearly 300

To conclude on this chart, it looks like customers have been shifting from Laminate
guitars to Mahogany guitars over the last 5 years.
Here you could naturally transition to analysing the table by telling your interviewer
something like: “Rusty Strings customers seem to have been shifting from Laminate
to Mahogany guitars over the last 5 years. If Mahogany guitars have a lower profit
margin than Laminate ones then this might explain the profitability issue
experienced by the company. Let’s move on to analysing the table to see if we can
find any related cost information.”

Insights from Table 1

Vertically
● Five years ago, Rusty Strings’ largest variable cost was materials at $103k
● Five years ago, Rusty Strings’ largest fixed cost was staff overhead at $203k
● Five years ago, total costs (variable + fixed) were $520k

Horizontally
● Over the last 5 years, total variable costs have increased by $35k
● The increase in variable costs was primarily driven by a $27k increase in
material costs
● Over the last 5 years, total fixed costs have stayed approximately the same
(e.g. $5k decrease)
● There has also been an $8k increase in direct labor costs

To conclude on this table, it looks like the increase in Rusty Strings’ costs are being
driven by variable costs, specifically material and direct labour costs.

Step 3: Combine insights across graphs and tables

Let’s combine the main insights from both exhibits. Based on the table it appears
that Rusty Strings’ variable cost for each guitar has increased. And based on the
chart, it looks like customers have been switching from Laminate to Mahogany
guitars over the last five years.

The cost increase we’re noticing might therefore be driven by the fact that
Mahogany material is more expensive and more difficult to work with compared to
Laminate wood.
 In addition, the fact that the switch from Laminate to Mahogany triggered a profit
decrease suggests that Rusty Strings’ makes less profit per Mahogany guitar then
per Laminate guitar sold. This conclusion assumes that Rusty Strings’ did not
significantly change their guitar prices over the last 5 years.

Step 4: Relate back to initial question & suggest next steps

At this stage of your data interpretation question, it’s important to relate your
findings back to the original question of the case (e.g. how to increase Rusty Strings’
profits). In order to do that, you could tell your interviewer something like this:

“In summary, it appears that there is a connection between Rusty Strings’ profit
decline, and the replacement of Laminate guitar sales with Mahogany guitar sales.
To move the analysis forward, I would suggest the following next steps:

● First, we would need to double check with the owner that manufacturing a
Mahogany guitar is more expensive than a Laminate one, both in terms of
raw materials and direct labor costs
● Second, it would help to confirm the assumption that guitar prices have not
changed significantly over the past 5 years
● Finally, we should confirm that the profit per Mahogany guitar is lower than
the profit per Laminate guitar, and investigate whether increasing the price of
Mahogany guitars would allow Rusty Strings to match or exceed the profit on
Laminate guitars

By conducting this additional research, Rusty Strings should be better equipped to

choose a strategy for increasing their profit.”

In addition to data interpretation questions, your interviewer will generally also ask you to
solve maths questions during your case interviews. We’ll cover the method for solving
these maths questions in the next chapter.

9. Maths Questions
The fifth type of questions found in case interviews are maths questions. Depending on the
case you’re given and the firm you’re interviewing with, you may or may not be given data
to solve your maths question.
Firms that use candidate-led interviews (like BCG and Bain) will usually provide data in their
cases, but sometimes they ask candidates to estimate the data instead. On the other hand,
you will probably never have to estimate your data for an interviewer-led case at McKinsey.

In this chapter, we’ll cover both situations. But first, let’s begin with an overview of the
method that we recommend for solving maths questions.

IGotAnOfferMethod: Maths Questions

● Step 1: Map out your calculations in advance

● Step 2: Do the calculations
○ Make data assumptions (only if necessary)
● Step 3: Sense check your results
● Step 4: Relate back to the initial question and suggest next steps

Next we’ll walk-through an example of a maths question where data is provided, and
afterwards we’ll cover a process for making strong data assumptions and how to solve
maths questions without provided data.

9.1 Maths Questions (Data Provided)

After walking through the data interpretation question from the previous section, you will
likely move straight into a maths question. Here’s what this could look like if your
interviewer has given you data that’s related to their question.

Example: Maths Questions (Data Provided) [QUESTION]

Your interviewer would say something like this:

“The owner has confirmed that Mahogany guitars are more expensive to
manufacture, and that they have a lower profit per guitar compared with Laminate
ones. In order to address this issue, the owner is considering increasing the price for
Mahogany guitars by 10%. Will a 10% price increase for Mahogany guitars fully
 replace the drop in annual profit that Rusty Strings experienced between last year
and five years ago?

Your team has already found some additional information from an earlier analysis,
and you should be able to use it to help answer the owner’s question.”

If your interviewer has additional information to provide, they will then provide it to
you either orally or in writing. See below:

● 5% of the customers who would buy a Mahogany guitar under the current
price, would decide not to purchase a guitar after the 10% price increase
● The total variable cost to build and sell Mahogany guitars is $300
● Revenue from Mahogany guitars last year was $245k
● Last year Rusty Strings made $20k less in profits than 5 years ago

Maths questions will require you to perform calculations to find the answer. As with other
aspects of case interviews, it’s helpful to develop a structured method for solving this type
of question consistently.

First, you should clearly map out on paper, a step-by-step approach for how you will find a
solution to the question. Once you’ve written down your high-level steps, walk your
interviewer through it. If your interviewer agrees with your approach, you can then start
doing the calculations. Otherwise, make revisions until the interviewer agrees with your
approach.

As you perform the calculations, it’s important that you simplify the numbers so you can
get to a result faster and also minimise the risk of making mistakes. A good rule of thumb
is that you can round numbers up or down by 10% to make your calculations easier. You
can find some additional tips to help you with case interview maths, in the FAQ section of
this book.

After getting a result, most candidates think that the job is done. It’s actually not. The first
thing you should do when you get a result is to sense check it to make sure it’s in the right
order of magnitude.
Then you should consider what your results tell you about the company, and how your
results might be useful in answering the case question. Showing your interviewer that you
are proactively considering these types of questions is extremely important. This is a core
skill you will have to develop as a consultant. It shows your interviewer that you are not just
crunching numbers, but that you can actually solve the business problem.

Finally, once you have extracted the insights from your numerical results, you should
suggest a follow-up analysis which you think will help solve the problem further. Once
again, most candidates do not do this, they just stop at the numerical result and their
interviewer has to push them to draw a conclusion and to think about the next steps.
Taking the initiative to do this can be an excellent differentiator for you.

Here is how you could solve this maths question for the Rusty Strings case.

Example: Maths Questions (Data Provided) [ANSWER]

Step 1: Map out your calculations in advance

Begin the maths question by mapping out the steps you plan to take to perform the
necessary calculations. During your interview, you will want to write this out on a
piece of paper. To communicate your plan for the calculations to your interviewer,
you could say something like this:

“To determine the impact of the 10% price increase, let’s take the following three
steps:

1. Calculate the change in revenue from Mahogany guitars

2. Calculate the change in variable costs from Mahogany guitars
3. Calculate the change in profits from the price increase

Following this approach will allow us to find the expected change in profit from the
price increase, and to determine whether it will allow Rusty Strings to exceed their
$20k profit decline. Does this sound like a good approach?”

As an additional note, increasing the price will increase the revenue per guitar, and it
will also decrease the number of Mahogany guitars sold. We therefore need to
assess the impact of the price increase on revenues and on variable costs (fixed
costs remain unchanged by definition).

Once your interviewer agrees with the steps you have outlined, you can begin to
execute the calculations.

Step 2: Do the calculations

Now let’s walk-through the maths calculations in detail. As you walk through each
step, you should narrate your calculations so your interviewer can follow your logic.
As a simple example of this, you could begin narrating the first calculation below, by
saying this:

“Okay, the change in revenue from Mahogany guitars will equal the revenue after
our price change, minus current revenue. Further, we know that the revenue after
the price change is the same as the new price times the new volume...”

It will probably take some practice to develop the habit of talking through your
calculations out loud, but this is a useful skill for your case interviews. Alright, let’s
continue through the complete set of calculations.

Calculate the change in revenue from Mahogany guitars

= Revenue after the price change - Current revenue

= New price x New volume - Current revenue
= Current price x (1 + 10%) x Current volume x (1 - 5%) - Current revenue
= Current price x Current volume x (1 + 10%) x (1 - 5%) - Current revenue
= Current revenue x (1 + 10%) x (1 - 5%) - Current revenue
≅ Current revenue x (1 + 5%) - Current revenue
= Current revenue x ((1 + 5%) - 1)
= Current revenue x 5%
= $245k x 5%
≅ $250k x 5% (=> we’re rounding $245k to simplify the maths)
= $12.5k

Note: You can add the percentage changes to simplify the maths. (1 + 10%) represents an
increase of 10%. And (1 - 5%) represents a decrease of 5%. You can assume that an
increase of 10%, followed by a decrease of 5% corresponds to a net increase of 5%. In
reality, (1 + 10%) x (1 - 5%) = (1 + 4.5%), but this difference is negligible. This is a useful
maths shortcut to remember for your interviews!

Calculate the change in variable costs from Mahogany guitars

Variable costs before the price increase

= Variable cost per guitar x Current volume
= $300 x 350
= $105k

Variable costs after the price increase

= Variable cost per guitar x New volume
= Variable cost per guitar x Current volume x (1 - 5%)
= $105k x 95%
≅ $100k

Change in variable costs

= Variable costs before the price increase - Variable costs after the price increase
= $105k - $100k
= $5k

Calculate the change in profits from the price increase

The revenue has increased by $12.5k, and the variable costs have decreased by $5k.
All other things remaining equal, the annual profits will have increased by $12.5k +
$5k = $17.5k.

Step 3: Sense check your results

Let’s take a moment to quickly sense-check our results to make sure they are in the
right order of magnitude. We know that the 10% price increase on Mahogany guitars
would raise profits by about $18k (rounded). We also know that Rusty Strings would
be selling about 300 Mahogany guitars.

$18k / 300 = $60.

 This means that Rusty Strings would be making about $60 more profit per
Mahogany guitar after the price change. Given the fact that guitars can sell for
hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars, it seems reasonable for there to be a
$60/guitar increase in profit with the price change. So we’re good to move on.

Step 4: Relate back to initial question and suggest next steps

Given the $17.5k improvement in profit, and low impact on overall sales volume,
implementing the 10% price increase for Mahogany guitars appears to be a good
strategy for Rusty Strings. However, this falls short of the $20k profit decline the
business has experienced over the past 5 years ($17.5k < $20k).

As a result, Rusty Strings should move forward with the 10% price increase on
Mahogany guitars, and the business should look for other opportunities to increase
their profits (e.g. increase the price of other guitars, cut costs, etc.).

Now that we’ve walked-through maths questions where data was provided, we’ll turn our
attention to maths questions that require all data to be estimated.

9.2 Maths Questions (No Data Provided)

In this section, we’ll cover an approach for making good assumptions and how to use those
to solve maths questions. You may also like to know that the below technique can be used
for solving standalone estimation questions, like market sizing questions.

Let’s return to our Rusty Strings case to see an example of a maths question without data.

Example: Maths Questions (No Data Provided) [QUESTION]

Your interviewer would ask you something like this:

“How many guitars are sold each year in Nashville, Tennessee?”

It’s very likely that you will not be able to answer this type of question off the top of your
head. But, by piecing together a few assumptions, you should be able to reach a
reasonable ballpark estimate. In order to develop high quality assumptions, there are three
important steps you should take.

First, before making any assumptions, ask your interviewer whether any data is available.
This might sound surprising, but you should only make assumptions if you really have no
other option. If data is available to make the calculations you need, you should use that
data.

Second, it’s important to pick simple numbers for your assumptions. In other words, you
should round the numbers you pick to make them easy to multiply and divide. So, for
example, instead of using 365 for the number of days in a year, you should round the
number to 350. This will enable you to do calculations faster, and to minimise the risk of
making a maths mistake.

Third, you should back all of your assumed numbers with specific data points or personal
experiences. For instance, you could base the percentage of people in Nashville who play
the guitar, on the percentage of people you know who play the guitar.

It’s important to understand that there is no right or wrong answer for these numbers. The
key is that you can credibly defend your assumptions. This is why you need a piece of
information to back up what you are saying. The data does not have to be very
sophisticated, but it should be reasonable. Your interviewer is mainly looking to see if you
are thinking through the questions carefully.

If you follow these three tips and use the rest of the maths question method (from the
previous section), you will be able to consistently solve these problems without any
provided data.

Now let’s look at an example for our Rusty Strings case.

Example: Maths Questions (No Data Provided) [ANSWER]

Step 1: Map out your calculations in advance

First, map out the steps you plan to take to perform the necessary calculations, just
like we did in the maths question from the previous section. But this time, keep in
mind that you’ll be missing some data points. Here’s what the steps would look like
in this case:

1. Find the population of Nashville

2. Find the percentage of people in Nashville who play the guitar
3. Identify how often guitar players will replace or buy additional guitars
4. Calculate the annual guitar sales in Nashville

Once your interviewer agrees with the steps you have outlined, then you can
proceed to the calculations.

Step 2: Do the calculations

Since the calculations you need to make are dependent on specific data, you should
begin this step by asking your interviewer whether there is any available data that
can help you to complete the calculations. We only want to estimate numbers if
there is definitely no data available.

Here is how you could ask this: “Do we have any specific data available on the guitar
market in Nashville?”

For this example, let’s assume the interviewer does not give us any data. That means
that we will need to form estimations for all the necessary data inputs. Let’s begin by
making an assumption for the population of Nashville.

Estimate the population of Nashville

● You may already know the population of Nashville, but if not, you can still
estimate it through comparison
● For example, you may be from the Seattle area, and know that Nashville is
just slightly smaller than Seattle
● The population of Seattle is about 750k, so a good estimate for Nashville
would be about 700k

Note: if you’re interviewing outside the US, then you wouldn’t be expected to know the size
of Nashville, and a more relevant city would probably be used.

Estimate the percentage of people in Nashville who play the guitar

● It’s helpful to use your personal experience for this estimate, for example,
what is the percentage of people you know who play the guitar? 1% (e.g. 1-in-
100)?
● Unless you live in Nashville, you’ll also want to consider the fact that Nashville
is a hub for musicians (it’s called the Music City) and will likely have a
significantly higher percentage
● So, let’s estimate that the percentage is twice as high in Nashville and 2% of
the population plays the guitar

Estimate how often guitar players will replace or buy additional guitars
● There is a wide range of people who own guitars, some will own just one
guitar in their lives, others (like professionals) may buy 10+
● To generalise the frequency, you can use someone you know as an example
● For instance, maybe your brother plays the guitar and he buys a new one
every 5 years, we can use that as our benchmark

Calculate the annual guitar sales in Nashville

● Putting these numbers together, if 2% of the 700k population are guitar
players, that means that about 14k people in Nashville are guitar players
● Further, if those 14k people buy a new guitar every 5 years on average, that
means that 14k X 0.2 = 2800 people buy a new guitar in Nashville annually
● As a result, about 2,800 guitars are sold in Nashville each year

Step 3: Sense check your results

It’s a good idea to sense check your estimation after you’ve finished the calculation.
For example, we could calculate the ratio of people in Nashville who would buy a
new guitar each year based on our estimation: 700k / 2.8k = 250. In other words, 1
out of every 250 people in Nashville would buy a new guitar each year. This seems
pretty reasonable, so we’re good to go!

Step 4: Relate back to initial question and suggest next steps

 Once we’re done calculating the estimate, we also need to relate the result back to
the initial question and suggest next steps in the analysis. That could sound
something like this:

“My estimate suggests that the annual sales for guitars in Nashville is 2,800. An
important next step would be to refine some of the assumptions we’ve used. For
example, the most uncertain part appears to be finding out the exact percentage of
the Nashville population that plays the guitar.”

Next, we’ll turn our attention to methodically solving creativity questions.

10. Creativity Questions

In most cases, your interviewer will ask you a creativity question. The purpose of this type
of question is to assess your capacity to brainstorm new ideas for solving business
problems. When facing creativity questions, most candidates manage to find a few good
creative ideas. But this isn’t enough to set yourself apart. Let’s go back to our example.

Example: Creativity [QUESTION]

For a creativity question, your interviewer would ask you something like this:

“What are some cost cutting ideas that Rusty Strings could use to further increase
profits?”

After your interviewer has asked you a creativity question, you should use the following
method to solve it systematically.

IGotAnOffer Method: Creativity Questions

● Step 1: Ask for time to gather your thoughts

● Step 2: Brainstorm within a mini-framework
● Step 3: Prioritise your ideas and highlight potential risks
First, you should ask for a few seconds to gather your thoughts. Most people do not ask for
this time and start enumerating new ideas randomly until they run out of inspiration. You’ll
be able to communicate your ideas more clearly by taking a few moments to prepare.

However, your interviewer will not always grant you this time, depending on the timing of
the case and the interviewer’s personality. When you ask for time during your interview,
you can expect to always get it for framework development questions, but not necessarily
for creativity and recommendation questions. You should still ask, but be mentally
prepared in case they do not allow you this time.

Assuming you are given time, you should use it to develop a mini framework to structure
your brainstorming. This will make it easier for your interviewer to follow your logic. The
framework you use here will be much simpler than the one you used earlier in the case,
and it’s entire purpose is to help keep your brainstorming structured and easy to follow.

Here are a few examples of mini frameworks you could use:

● The supply chain (e.g. source materials, manufacture, sell in store, etc.)
● The customer journey (e.g. see an ad, go to the store, come back for service, etc.)
● Costs vs. benefits
● Short-term and long-term factors
● Quantitative and qualitative factors
● Internal and external factors

If your interviewer does not allow you to take time to gather your thoughts you should still
use a mini framework. But, you’ll have to think quickly and will probably need to choose
one of the simplest frameworks.

You may even find it valuable to choose a “favorite” mini framework, which you will be able
to use for most cases. For example, nearly all cases will have quantitative and qualitative
factors, so you could use that as your back-up plan if you don’t have time to develop
something more specific.
Once you have selected your mini framework, you should present it to your interviewer
and start brainstorming orally within it’s different areas. When you do this brainstorming,
you should talk out loud and directly to your interviewer.

If you find it difficult to generate new ideas, here are two tips that we personally find very
useful for coming up with creative ideas:

1. Draw parallels between industries, companies, countries, etc. For instance, you
could try to apply the way something is done in industry X to industry Y. This tends
to work quite well and is often used in brainstorming sessions in consulting.
2. Imagine the future of the industry, company, or product you’re addressing. In
our experience, this can help you come up with ideas that are more radically
creative.

Once you have gone through each area of your mini framework, it is useful to take a step
back and recognise that the company will not have time to implement all of the ideas you
generated. As a result, you should prioritise the ideas you have and tell your interviewer
which ideas you would look at first.

There are many different ways you could prioritise your ideas, but the most common ones
are probably by ease and impact. Prioritising by ease just means you will implement your
ideas from the easiest to the hardest. Prioritising by impact means you will implement your
most impactful ideas first and the other ones afterwards.

Finally, after you have prioritised your ideas, highlighting potential risks is a nice touch. This
will show your interviewer that you have carefully considered your main ideas, and it can
help to further set you apart from other candidates. Let’s take a look at an example.

Example: Creativity [ANSWER]

Step 1: Ask for time to gather your thoughts

For the creativity question it’s a good idea to begin by asking for some time to gather
your thoughts. For example, you could simply say this:

“Do you mind if I pause briefly to gather my thoughts?”

For this example, let’s assume that they do grant you the time you requested. Your
next step will be to use that time in order to develop your mini framework.

Step 2: Brainstorm within a mini framework

For the Rusty Strings example, let’s use the supply chain for guitars as our mini
framework. We’ll use the steps in the supply chain to organise our brainstorming on
how Rusty Strings might reduce their costs. In particular, you could look at the
following stages in the supply chain: sourcing materials, manufacturing, and selling
in the store.

Once you’ve mentally selected your mini framework and the steps that you will focus
on, you should present your mini framework to your interviewer. For example, you
could say something like this:

“To organise my ideas for helping Rusty Strings cut costs, I’d like to focus on their
supply chain, and specifically the following three steps: how they source materials,
how they manufacture, and how they sell in their store. Does that make sense?”

Your interviewer may agree with your approach, or they may give you small
suggestions for how to tweak it. Let’s assume that they agree with your approach for
this example. The next step is to generate ideas for each of the stages in the supply
chain that we have selected, like this:

Sourcing materials
● Negotiate bulk discounts by purchasing materials from fewer total suppliers
● Consider using more pre-built components, such as strings and tuning pegs,
since it may be cheaper for Rusty Strings to purchase them from a wholesaler
than to produce them in-house

Manufacturing
● Identify bottlenecks in the production process (e.g. assembling the body,
installing strings, etc.) and invest in equipment to optimise the process
● Start an apprenticeship program, which could help Rusty Strings reduce their
costs for labor by bringing in new employees at a lower wage
 Selling in the store
● Rent out part of the retail space to independent musicians who give music
lessons, in order to offset the cost of the rent/mortgage
● Create (or improve) an online store for Rusty Strings, to reduce retail
overhead by selling and shipping directly to customers

Step 3: Prioritise your ideas and highlight potential risks

Clearly, this is a lot of work for Rusty Strings to organise. So, you should also
prioritise your ideas for them. Rusty Strings’ two biggest costs are staffing and
materials, so let’s prioritise the ideas that could have the highest impact on those
areas:

1. Negotiate bulk discounts with suppliers

2. Address production bottlenecks with new equipment
3. Start an apprenticeship program

It’s also a good idea to highlight potential risks that you notice during your
brainstorming. For example, you could suggest that Rusty Strings evaluate potential
declines in product quality that may result from these changes.

Depending on what you come up with during your creativity question, you may incorporate
some of your ideas into your final recommendation for the case. We’ll cover the method for
developing your recommendation in the next chapter.

11. Recommendation Questions

During the final few minutes of your case interview, you will encounter the
recommendation question. This is exactly what it sounds like, and the intention is to test a
candidate’s ability to formulate and defend a recommendation. This is something that
consultants do on the job. Here’s an example of what this looks like:

Example: Recommendation [QUESTION]

 Towards the end of the case, your interviewer will usually say something like this:

“The owner of Rusty Strings gives you a call and wants to know your final
recommendation on what the company should do next, what would you tell them?”

And here’s how you should go about providing your final recommendation for the case.

IGotAnOffer Method: Recommendation Questions

1. Step 1: Ask for time to gather your thoughts

2. Step 2: Give your recommendation first
3. Step 3: Provide 3-5 supporting arguments
4. Step 4: Outline next steps and potential risks

Similar to the creativity question, you should ask your interviewer for time to organise your
thoughts, but in some cases they may not grant you that time. For example, if you’re
running short on time to complete the interview, they may want to hear your
recommendation right away. If your interviewer does grant you the time you requested,
you should only take about 30 to 60 seconds to prepare.

A critical thing to do in this portion of your interview, is to provide your recommendation

first. This is extremely important. You might be tempted to summarise your analysis before
giving your conclusion, but this is not the best practice used by consultants in real life.

The reason consultants always give their recommendations before their supporting
arguments is that CEOs are busy. At the end of a project, most CEOs get in the meeting
room and want to know what the answer to their question is. If you start by telling them
the details of the analysis you carried out, they will likely get frustrated and ask you to jump
to the conclusion. The same goes for case interviews. Your interviewer will want to know
your recommendation first.

In certain cases, you will only have had time to scratch the surface of the problem and you
might feel that you are not in a strong position to give a recommendation. This is perfectly
fine. It is okay to caveat your recommendation by saying something like: “Based on early
findings from our analysis, my recommendation is X for three reasons”. You should still
provide your best recommendation based on the limited information you have.

After you have given your recommendation, you should back it up with three to five
supporting arguments. To be clear, your recommendation should be based on facts or
findings from the analysis you carried out earlier in the case.

Some of your supporting arguments should be quantitative as these are usually stronger
points. But it’s fine to use qualitative arguments as well. In fact, you may not be able to find
enough quantitative evidence alone to sufficiently defend your recommendation.

Most candidates stop after giving a few arguments supporting their recommendation.
However, real consultants do not stop there. They actually outline a series of next steps
and risks to follow-up on the work they have already done. When partners do this, they are
naturally trying to sell the next project. If you take the time to do this during your interview,
you will sound like a consultant, which can really help you stand out from the competition.

Here’s what a good recommendation would look like for the Rusty Strings case.

Example: Recommendation [ANSWER]

Step 1: Ask for time to gather your thoughts

It’s a good idea to begin by asking for some time to gather your thoughts. For this
example, we’ll assume that your interviewer does grant you that time. Use ~30
seconds to prepare your recommendation and how you will communicate it to your
interviewer.

Step 2: Give your recommendation first

Begin by telling your interviewer your recommendation upfront. For example, you
could say something like this:

“Our analysis suggests that Rusty Strings should move forward with the 10% price
increase on Mahogany guitars, and then focus on cutting variable costs. There are 3
main reasons that support this.”
Step 3: Provide 3-5 supporting arguments

Once you’ve stated your recommendation, you should immediately provide 3-5
arguments which support your conclusion. For example:

1. Rusty Strings’ variable costs were $35k higher last year vs. 5 years ago
2. The increase in variable costs is due to ~300 annual Laminate guitar sales
having switched to Mahogany guitars which are more expensive to
manufacture
3. Increasing the price of Mahogany guitars by 10% will generate $17.5k in
additional profit, but this is not enough to recover the annual profits from 5
years ago (which was $20k higher) and Rusty Strings needs to focus on
cutting additional variable costs

Step 4: Outline next steps and potential risks

Once you’ve delivered your recommendation and supporting arguments, you should
close by proactively outlining next steps and potential risks to the business. For
example, you could tell your interviewer something like this:

“As Rusty Strings looks to increase their profits, some additional analysis will be
required to evaluate:

● What approach they should take to decrease material costs

● How they might reduce their direct labor costs
● The risks associated with supply chain changes, such as quality issues”

When you’ve finished providing your recommendation, be prepared for your

interviewer to ask you some follow-up questions.

For example, they might challenge your recommendation to focus on variable costs.
This is normal, because your interviewer will want to see how you react. It doesn’t
mean your recommendation is wrong.

In fact, for most business cases there is no single “correct” answer. Instead, there is a
 range of solutions that are all valid. If your recommendation is well thought out, and
supported by reasonable arguments, then addressing your interviewer’s questions
should be pretty straightforward.

12. Summary of Case Interview Question Types

Before we close the case interview section of this book, let’s do a brief recap of the method
for each of the seven question types that you could encounter during your case interviews.
Specifically, we’ve listed each of the seven question types below, and then summarised the
method for solving them in sub-bullets.

IGotAnOffer Method: Summary

1. Situation Questions
○ Play back the company’s situation
i. Confirm your understanding
ii. Emphasise key elements
○ Define and state the objective of the case
i. In scope vs. out of scope
ii. Quantify
2. Framework Development Questions
○ Ask for time to gather your thoughts
○ Create the framework
i. Extract the main elements from the case question
ii. Break down the main elements into components
○ Communicate the framework
i. Spin your paper around
ii. Begin with an overview
iii. Highlight 3-5 considerations for each branch
iv. Summarise your points
v. Prioritise next steps
3. Framework Exploration Questions
○ Make a hypothesis
i. Pick a framework branch
 ii. Hypothesise that branch is the root-cause of the problem
○ Ask for information to test your hypothesis
i. If hypothesis is invalid: cross-out the branch and update your
hypothesis
ii. If hypothesis is valid: continue digging down
4. Data Interpretation Questions
○ Understand headers, axes, and units
○ Analyse each chart or table vertically and then horizontally
○ Combine insights across graphs and tables
○ Relate back to the initial question and suggest next steps
5. Maths Questions
○ Map out your calculations in advance
○ Do the calculations
i. Make data assumptions (only if necessary)
○ Sense check your results
○ Relate back to the initial question and suggest next steps
6. Creativity Questions
○ Ask for time to gather your thoughts
○ Brainstorm within a mini-framework
○ Prioritise your ideas and highlight potential risks
7. Recommendation Questions
○ Ask for time to gather your thoughts
○ Give your recommendation first
○ Provide 3-5 supporting arguments
○ Outline next steps and potential risks

That brings us to the end of Part 2: Cracking Case Interviews. If you can learn to
consistently apply the method for responding to each of the seven question types, then
we’re confident it will set you apart from other candidates. You’ll find practice cases to
apply the method you’ve just learned in Part 4 of this book.

But, doing well at case questions is not enough. In order to get an offer in consulting, you’ll
also need to be prepared for fit and PEI questions, which are the focus of the next section.
Part 3: Cracking Case Interviews - Advanced
The IGotAnOffer method to solve case interviews has been successfully used by thousands
of candidates. As they start using the method, candidates often ask us the following
questions which we will answer in the next few chapters of the book:

● How can I become better at creating frameworks?

● What are some common consulting frameworks I can draw inspiration from?
● How should I solve market sizing questions?
● What finance and maths formulas should I learn?
● How can I become faster at answering maths questions?

If you have any other burning questions that are not covered below, we would encourage
you to search for an answer on IGotAnOffer.com. You’ll most likely find an article that
addresses your question.

13. How to Become Better at Creating Frameworks

The framework development question is one of the hardest ones in case interviews. If
you’re struggling with this don’t worry, you’re not alone. One of the questions we are asked
most often, is how to become better at putting frameworks together. Here are three tips
which you might find helpful.

Tip #1 - Structure decisions in your daily life

Consultants love frameworks. If you go to dinner with a consultant and are trying to decide
what restaurant to go to, they might even start creating a framework to make that decision!
Price, Distance, Healthiness, etc. You might think we’re exaggerating here, but you’d be
surprised by how passionate some consultants are about thinking and communicating in a
structured way.

So, why not act like a consultant before you become one? This might sound strange, but we
would encourage you to take every opportunity in your daily life to think and communicate
using frameworks. If you do this in the run up to your interviews it will help you strengthen
your “framework muscle”.

What are you going to wear today? Should you accept that dinner invitation? Where should
you go on vacation next? Should you walk there or take an Uber? Etc. Take every
opportunity to create frameworks and make daily decisions in a structured way.

Tip #2 - Don’t over-worry about MECE

In our experience, a lot of candidates worry too much about their frameworks being MECE
(If you’re not sure what this means, refer to the framework development chapter of this
book). The most important aspect of your framework is that it's relevant to the case you
are trying to solve. Your framework has to cover the right areas to accomplish the case’s
business objective.

In other words, relevance comes first, and MECEness comes second. When you become a
consultant you'll soon realise that a lot of the frameworks you use are 80% MECE (not
100%). Consultants focus on the areas that are important to solve the client problem as a
priority. And then, they try to be as comprehensive as possible.

Tip #3 - Study some frameworks for inspiration

Finally, as we’ve mentioned in the framework development chapter, we don’t recommend

reusing existing frameworks “as-is” in your cases. Interviewers want you to create a custom
framework that’s tailored to the business problem you’re solving. And if you reuse an
existing framework to your case it will reflect negatively on you.

That being said, it can sometimes be helpful to have a few frameworks at the back of your
mind to help you create your own frameworks. We’ll cover some common frameworks in
the next section.

14. What are Some Common Consulting Frameworks

We’ve listed seven popular frameworks below which you can study and use for inspiration
in your case interviews. As we’ve mentioned multiple times now, you should not reuse
these frameworks as-is in your interviews. You should only study them to get a feel for
what a good framework looks like.

14.1 Profitability Framework

The profitability framework is the most basic framework in business analysis. It simply
breaks down profits into its basic revenue and cost components and is commonly used to
identify the root cause of profitability issues.

● Revenue can simply be broken down in the Number of units sold by the business
times the Price per unit.
● Costs can be broken down in Variable and Fixed costs. And Variable costs can be
further broken down into the number of units produced and the cost per unit.

14.2 The 4Ps Framework

The 4Ps framework is widely used by company executives to design their marketing
strategy. There are different variations of this framework and it’s sometimes referred to as
the “marketing mix” framework. This framework is commonly used when launching a new
product or when reviewing the positioning of an existing product.
Below, you’ll see what each “P” represents, including examples for each one.

● Product: What are the key characteristics of the product sold? Key elements of the
product definition could include: customer need fulfilled by product, product usage
(E.g.: who, where, how, etc.), good vs. service, product lifecycle (new vs. established),
competing products and substitutes, etc.
● Price: At what price should the product be sold? Different considerations need to be
taken into account here: the customer perceived value of the product, the price of
competitive products, the customer price sensitivity, the cost of producing the
product, etc.
● Promotion: Which promotion strategies should be used to sell the product? Key
elements to consider include: promotion messages, media type (E.g.: TV, social
media, radio, etc.), best time to promote, competitors’ strategies, etc.
● Place: Through which channels should the product be distributed? Key elements to
consider include: possible channels to distribute the product (E.g.: in store, web,
mail-to-order, etc.), customer expectations in terms of channel, requirement of a
sales team or not, competitors’ strategies, etc.

14.3 Porter’s 5 Forces

Porter’s 5 forces is a framework commonly used by CEOs to explore the competitive
dynamics of industries. Indeed not all industries are structured the same way. Some
industries are really hard to get into (e.g. banking) while others have got very low barriers
to entry (e.g. newspapers). Suppliers have got strong bargaining power in some industries
(e.g. high-end medical equipment) but little power in others (e.g. small milk producer), etc.
Understanding these dynamics is extremely important when considering entering a new
industry or when assessing the competitive dynamics of a company’s current industry.

● Customers’ bargaining power: How much bargaining power do customers have? If

there is only one buyer but multiple suppliers then that buyer will be at a strong
advantage. Key elements to consider here include: customer concentration
(percentage of industry revenues from top 3 buyers), customer price sensitivity,
customer information availability, etc.
● Suppliers’ bargaining power: How much bargaining power do suppliers have?
Similarly to the previous point, if there is only one supplier but multiple buyers then
that supplier will be at a strong advantage. Key elements to consider include:
concentration of suppliers (percentage of industry revenues to top 3 suppliers),
difficulty of switching from one supplier to another, differentiation between
suppliers, etc.
● Threat of substitutes: What are the substitutes for the product and are they
increasingly popular? As a simple example, water is a substitute for Coke while Pepsi
 is a competitive product for Coke. Key elements to consider here include: potential
new substitutes, ease of substitution, evolution of customer propensity to
substitute, etc.
● Threat of new entrants: How difficult is it for potential new players to enter the
industry? Key elements to consider here include: regulation authorisations, capital
requirements, economies of scale, network effects, etc.
● Existing rivals: How competitive are existing rivals in the industry? Key elements to
consider include: number of competitors and their market shares, similarity
between their products and products of the firm analysed, financial health of
competitors, etc.

14.4 The 3Cs Framework

The 3Cs framework is also commonly used to put together strategies for companies. As
you will notice below, a lot of its components overlap with Porter’s 5 forces.

● Customers: Who is the customer? Key elements to consider include: customer

demographics (e.g. age, sex, income, etc.), customer needs, customer segment size
and growth rates, customer willingness to pay and price sensitivity, etc.
 ● Competition: What are the competitive dynamics? Key elements to consider
include: competitors’ value proposition and brand, competitors’ market share and
growth, competitors’ financial health, etc.
● Company: What defines the company? Key elements to consider include: product
offering, profitability, core competencies, unique selling point, financial performance
and resources, etc.

14.5 Market Entry Framework

As the name suggests, the market entry framework is commonly used to make decisions
on whether a company should enter a new market or not. For instance, you could use it to
decide if Starbucks should enter the Chinese market. Or if Nike should enter the sports
broadcasting business.

● Market: What are the characteristics of the market we are trying to enter? Key
elements to consider include: market size and profitability, products already
available in the market, intensity of the competition, heaviness of the regulation etc.
● Client capabilities: Does the client have the right capabilities to enter that new
market? Key elements to consider include: differences between the client's current
market and the new one they are now targeting, number of times the client has
entered new markets successfully, other companies already in the new market, etc.
 ● Financials: Does it make financial sense to enter the new market? Key elements to
consider include: the current financial situation of the client, cost to enter a new
market, ongoing costs after entering the market, expected revenues and return on
investment, etc.
● Entry strategy: How should the client go about entering the new market? Key
elements to consider include: timing of market entry (now vs. later), scale of market
entry (test region vs. whole country), opportunity to buy competitors or do a JV,
management approach (control from HQ vs. decentralise), etc.

14.6 Pricing Framework

Companies always face a difficult question when launching a new product or service. What
should the price be? The pricing framework is extremely helpful when answering that
question.

● Cost-based: What price do we need to set to cover all our costs? Key elements to
consider include: fixed costs and their allocation across products, variable costs and
the number of units produced / sold, profitability targeted, etc.
● Value-based: How much are customers willing to pay for our product? Key
elements to consider include: price of the next best alternative to our product,
 features that make our product better than the next best alternative, value of these
features, etc.
● Competitor-based: What is the competition charging for similar products? Key
elements to consider include: available substitute products from the competition,
price of these substitute products, value of our product vs. substitutes, etc.
● Overall strategy: Given the elements above, what should our pricing strategy be?
Key elements to consider include: objective of the pricing strategy (e.g. high
profitability or high market share), opportunities for upselling / cross-selling that
should be taken into account (e.g. Kindle and ebooks), possibility to sell different
versions of the same product (e.g. iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus), etc.

14.7 Merger and Acquisition Framework

Finally, the merger and acquisition framework is used when companies are looking to
acquire or merge with other firms. These situations are not very frequent in a CEO's life,
but they are highly stressful, which is one reason why consultants are often asked to
support such initiatives.
 ● The market: What are the characteristics of the market of the target company? Key
elements to consider include: market size and growth, market profitability and
intensity of the competition, market regulation, etc.
● The target: How attractive is the target to be acquired? Key elements to consider
include: current and future financial position of the target, important assets or
capabilities owned by the target, quality of the target's management team, target /
buyer culture fit, etc.
● The buyer: What's driving the buyer to make the acquisition? Key elements to
consider include: acquisition rationale (e.g. target undervalued, etc.), acquisition
financing, buyer's acquisition experience, acquisition timing, etc.
● Synergies and risks: What are the acquisition synergies and risks? Key elements to
consider include: value of individual and combined entities, cost synergies, revenue
synergies, biggest risks of failure, etc.

15. How to Solve Market Sizing Questions

You’ve probably heard of market sizing questions such as: “What’s the market size for
smartphones in the US?” Sometimes candidates get really stressed out about market sizing
questions, but there’s actually a straightforward approach for solving them.

Market sizing questions can be solved using the same approach as maths questions where
no data is provided (section 9.2 of this book). Here’s a brief recap of the method for this
type of question:

1. Ask if there is any available data

2. Map out your calculations in advance
3. Do the calculations
a. Estimate data where none is provided
b. Pick simple numbers
c. Back your assumptions with data points
4. Sense check your results

If this doesn’t look familiar, we would encourage you to go back to section 9.2 and review
the Rusty Strings example question. The answer provides detailed steps, which shows how
you could estimate the market size for guitars in Nashville.
16. What Finance and Maths Formulas Should You
Learn

If you don’t have a business background you might be wondering whether you are at a
disadvantage against other candidates who might have studied economics, finance, or
accounting. In our experience, you’ve got nothing to worry about for two reasons.

First, you only need to know a handful of finance metrics to get an offer and we will cover
them below. Second, about half of new hires recruited by consulting firms don’t have a
business background. So, you’re not alone!

We’ll break down business concepts into two categories here: the finance metrics you
absolutely must know to get an offer, and those which are optional in our experience.

16.1 Must-Know Maths Formulas

Let’s first cover the six maths formulas that you must know.

16.1.1 Revenue = Volume x Price

Revenues, sales, or turnover (these three terms are synonyms) are the total amount of
money that the company receives from customers by selling its products or services.

Let’s take an example. Imagine you work for an airline, such as American Airlines or British
Airways. You sell plane tickets to your customers. The total amount of money you collect
from customers in exchange for plane tickets (and any additional services you provide) is
your company’s revenues.

There are two main ways you could be asked to calculate revenues for a company:

You might be given the number of products the company sold (the volume) and the
average price of the products. From this, you can obtain revenues using the following
formula: Revenues = Volume x Average Price.
Alternatively, you could be given the total sales in an industry (total market sales), and the
share of the industry’s revenues represented by the company (the market share). The
company’s sales would then be given by: Revenues = Total Market Sales x Market Share.

Either way, remember that revenues or sales are measured in terms of money (US Dollars,
Pound Sterling, Euro, etc.).

16.1.2 Cost = Fixed costs + Variable costs

Costs, or expenses, are the payments the company makes to run its business. In the case
of the airline mentioned above, this will be the money that the company pays for fuel,
leasing airplanes, the salaries of the crew, as well as the cost of running their headquarters,
their website, or even taxes and interest on loans.

As you can see, the term ‘costs’ covers many different items. This is why companies are
often interested in tracking costs really closely.

Businesses incur two types of costs. Variable costs are the costs that increase with higher
sales or higher production. Fixed costs are the costs that would have to be paid regardless
of how much is produced. In other words, variable costs change with the level of business
activity, while fixed costs don’t.

Let’s imagine you are the CEO of a handbag manufacturer. The cost of the material you use
to manufacture the bags is a variable cost: the more bags you produce, the more leather
you will need. If one day you don’t produce any handbags, then you don’t have to pay for
any extra material. In contrast, the rent you pay for your factory has to be paid every
month, regardless of whether you sell or produce any bags. So, your rent would be a fixed
cost.

As you may already understand, the distinction between fixed and variable costs is not
always straightforward. For instance, labour costs can be either fixed or variable. As a CEO,
your salary is a fixed cost as it will be paid independently of how many bags the company
produces. However, during periods of peak production you might hire extra workers at
your factory and their salary will therefore be a variable cost.

Even though these difficulties might arise, your interviewer will always allow you to
determine easily from the context which cost is fixed and which is variable.
16.1.3 Profit = Revenue - Cost

The most important relationship in business analysis is probably the following: Profit =
Revenues – Costs.

Profits, also known as net income or net earnings (these three terms are synonyms),
represents the money left to the owners or managers of the business after all expenses
have been paid. Many questions in case interviews revolve around whether or not a
company is profitable and what it should do to become more profitable.

Profits are always calculated over a certain period of time, usually a month, a quarter, or a
full year. If you are given revenue and cost data, you would first have to calculate the
revenue and cost totals over the relevant period of time, and then you’d be able to
calculate the profits.

For instance, in our handbag manufacturing example, you could calculate your total costs
by adding all fixed costs and all variable costs for one year. Annual profits would then be
given by subtracting total costs from annual revenues.

Given this definition of profits, there are two ways companies can increase their profits:
increase revenues, or decrease costs.

16.1.4 Profit margin = Profit / Revenue

Profit margin or profitability, measures how efficient a company is at turning revenues into
profits.

Comparing profits between two companies can be misleading. Let’s say you own two
handbag manufacturing companies (A and B) which operate in the same market and sell
very similar products. Now let’s assume both companies generate $1m in annual profits.
On the surface, these two companies might look very similar.

Now let’s imagine that Company A and B generate $5m and $100m in revenue respectively.
Company A is therefore much more efficient at turning revenues into profits ($1m profits
for $5m in revenues) than Company B ($1m profits for $100m in revenues).

Profit margin, or profitability, is a measure of that efficiency. It is calculated by dividing

profits by revenue and it’s expressed as a percentage. In our example here, Company A
and B have profit margins of 20% (= $1m / $5m) and 1% (= $1m / $100m), respectively.

16.1.5 Return on investment (ROI) = Profits over given period / Initial investment
Return on investment (ROI), measures how much profit is generated by $X invested in a
given project or business.

Let’s say you set up a lemonade stand with an initial investment of $1,000 to pay for a
stand, a lemon press, etc. Let’s now assume that you sell $500 worth of lemonade
throughout the year and that you incurred $400 in costs to make those sales (e.g. lemons,
sugar, electricity, etc). Your profit for the year is $100 and your return on investment is
$100 / $1,000 = 10%.

The formula for return on investment is therefore given by: Return on investment (ROI) =
Profits over given period / Initial investment.

Return on investment is expressed as a percentage and is calculated over a given period of

time, usually one year. But nothing prevents you from calculating a daily or monthly return
on investment.

To do so, you just need to divide a day’s worth of profits, or a month’s worth of profits, by
the initial investment. For a given project, profits made in a day are lower than profits
made in a month or year, and the daily return on investment is therefore lower. In our
example, assuming we make $100 / 365 = $0.27 of profits in a day, the daily return on
investment is $0.27 / $1,000 = 0.027% which is lower than 10%.

Now let’s focus on the initial investment part of the equation. In your case interviews, you
will most likely have to calculate ROIs when a company is investing in a new project. Here,
the initial investment will be the upfront expenses the company needs to make to start the
business.

For instance, if the company wants to start producing cars, building the car factory will be
the main initial investment. Similarly, if the company wants to start a supermarket, the
main initial investment will be the building, refrigerators, and shelves to set up the
supermarket (assuming it buys the building). Initial investments are typically only incurred
once, at the beginning of the project.

Finally, there are two ways to increase ROI: growing profits or decreasing the initial
investment. Sometimes, the return on investment for a project will be negative. This
indicates that profits are negative and that the project is losing money.

16.1.6 Breakeven period (aka Payback period) = Initial investment / Profits over a given
period
The Breakeven period, also sometimes called Payback period, measures how much time it
takes to earn back your initial investment. In our lemonade stand example, it takes 10
years of profits at $100 per year to pay back the initial investment of $1,000. The payback
period is 10 years.

The formula for payback period is therefore given by: Breakeven period = Initial investment
/ Profits over a given period.

Payback periods are usually expressed in years by dividing the initial investment by the
profits per year. But notice that they can also be expressed in days or months too simply by
dividing the initial investment by the profits per day or the profits per month.

Finally, notice that the payback period is simply the inverse of the return on investment. In
our lemonade stand example, the yearly return on investment was 10%. To calculate the
payback period we could have simply done 1 / 10% = 10 years. Also keep in mind that the
payback period could be negative, which indicates negative profits and that the project is
losing money.

16.2 Optional Maths Formulas

In our experience, having an in-depth knowledge of the business terms below and their
corresponding formulas is not required to get offers at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and other
firms. But, having a basic understanding of these equations could be handy.

16.2.1 EBITDA = Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortisation

If you take a company's profits, and add the interest, depreciation, and amortisation
expenses (all of which would have been previously deducted), you get EBITDA. This metric
is useful for comparing companies across industries as it takes out the accounting effects
of debt and taxes which vary widely between say Facebook (relatively little debt) and
Exxonmobil (tons of debt to finance infrastructure projects).

16.2.2 NPV = Net Present Value

Let's say you invest $1,000 in project A and $1,000 in project B. You expect to receive your
initial investment plus $500 from project A in one week. And you expect to receive your
initial investment plus $500 from project B in 5 years. Intuitively, you probably feel that A is
more valuable than B because you'll get the same amount of money but quicker. NPV aims
to adjust future cash flows, to make it easier to compare different investments like A and B.
16.2.4 Return on equity = Profits / Shareholder equity value

Return on equity (ROE) is a measure of financial performance similar to ROI. ROI is usually
used for standalone projects while ROE is used for companies.

For publicly listed companies, shareholder equity value can simply be calculated by
multiplying the number of shares outstanding in the company (e.g. 1 million shares), and
the share price (e.g. $10 per share). In this case, ROE is a measure of the financial return
provided by owning shares in the company.

16.2.5 Return on assets = Profits / Total assets

Return on assets (ROA) is an alternative measure to ROE and a good indicator of how
profitable a company is compared to its total assets.

Now that we’ve covered the key finance concepts and formulas for case interviews, let’s
cover some important concepts to help you increase your speed and accuracy on maths
questions.

17. How to Become Faster at Maths Questions

You should have two objectives when answering maths questions: accuracy and speed. But
the first objective (accuracy) is much more important than the second one (speed). In other
words, your interviewers want you to get to the right results at a reasonable pace.

Your first objective should therefore be to refresh your memory on how to calculate
additions, subtractions, divisions, and multiplications accurately by hand. Some of you
might not need to do this because you use mental maths on a regular basis or if you just
have a good memory. But in our experience, a lot of candidates find it beneficial to spend a
little bit of time on this. There are plenty of detailed resources to do this on the Internet so
we won’t cover the basics here. If you don’t know where to start, we suggest using Khan
Academy’s free online arithmetic tutorials.

Once you’ve refreshed your memory, you should be able to consistently calculate the right
answer on maths questions. And at that point you might start wondering how to solve
maths questions more quickly. Indeed, the standard long division and multiplication
approaches are great because they're generic and you can use them for any calculation.
But they are also quite slow.
In our experience, you can calculate much faster by using a few of the non-standard
approaches we've listed below. All these approaches can be boiled down to a single tactic:
they all aim to rearrange and simplify the calculations to find the easiest path to the result.

Let's step through each of them one by one.

17.1 Rounding numbers

The first step towards becoming faster is to round numbers whenever you can. 365 days in
a year becomes 350. The US population of 326m becomes 300m. Etc. You get the idea.

The difficulty about rounding numbers is that if you round them too much you risk
distorting the final result, or even your interviewer telling you to round the numbers less.

Rounding numbers is more of an art than a science, but in our experience the following
two tips tend to work well:

● Round numbers by a maximum of +/- 10%. This is a rough rule of thumb, but it has
provided good results based on conversations with past candidates.
● You also need to alternate between rounding up and rounding down so the effects
cancel out. For instance, if you're calculating A x B, we would recommend rounding
A up, and rounding B down so the roundings compensate each other.

Note you won't always be able to round numbers. In addition, even after you round
numbers the calculations could still be difficult. So, let's go through a few tips that can help
in these situations.

17.2 Handling large numbers

Large numbers are difficult to deal with because of all the zeros (e.g. 120,000,000). To be
faster you need to use notations that enable you to eliminate these annoying zeros. To
achieve this, we recommend using labels and scientific notation.

Labels (k, m, b)

Use labels for thousand (k), million (m), and billion (b). You'll write numbers faster and it will
force you to simplify calculations. Let's use 20,000 x 6,000,000 as an example.

● No labels: 20,000 x 60,000,000 = ?

 ● Labels: 20k x 6m = 120k x m = 120b

This approach also works for divisions. Let's try 480,000,000,000 divided by 240,000,000.

● No labels: 480,000,000,000 / 240,000,000 = ?

● Labels: 480b / 240m = 480k / 240 = 2k

Scientific notation

When you can't use labels, the scientific notation is a good alternative. If you're not sure
what this is, again we would recommend studying the Khan Academy tutorial on the topic.

● Multiplication example: 600 x 500 = 6 x 5 x 102 X 102 = 30 x 104 = 300,000 = 300k

● Division example: (720,000 / 1,200) / 30 = (72 / (12 x 3)) x (104 / (102 x 10)) = (72 / 36) x
(10) = 20

When you're comfortable with labels and the scientific notation you can even start mixing
them:

● 200k x 600k = 2 x 6 x 104 x m = 2 x 6 x 10 x b = 120b

17.3 Factoring

To be fast at maths, you need to avoid writing down long divisions and multiplications as
they take a lot of time. In our experience, doing multiple easy calculations is faster and can
also lead to fewer errors than doing one big long calculation.

A great way to achieve this is to factor and expand expressions to create simpler
calculations. Let's start with factoring.

Simple numbers: 5, 15, 25, 50, 75, etc.

In case interviews, some numbers come up very frequently and it's useful to know
shortcuts to handle them. Here are some of these numbers: 5, 15, 25, 50, 75, etc. These
numbers are frequent but not particularly easy to deal with.

For instance, consider 36 x 25. It's not obvious what the result is. And a lot of people would
need to write down the multiplication on paper to find the answer. However, there's a
much faster way based on the fact that 25 = 100 / 4. Here's the fastest way to get to the
answer:
 ● 36 x 25 = (36 / 4) x 100 = 9 x 100 = 900

Here's another example: 68 x 25. Again, the answer is not immediately obvious, but you
use the shortcut we just covered. Divide by 4 first, and then multiply by 100:

● 68 x 25 = (68 / 4) x 100 = 17 x 100 = 1,700

Factoring works for both multiplications and divisions. When dividing by 25, you just need
to divide by 100 first, and then multiply by 4. In many situations this will save you from
wasting time on long division. Here are a couple of examples:

● 2,600 / 25 = (2,600 / 100) x 4 = 26 x 4 = 104

● 1,625 / 25 = (1,625 / 100) x 4 = 16.25 x 4 = 65

The biggest benefit of this factoring approach is that you can actually use it for numbers
other than 25. To help you get started, here is a brief list of other scenarios where we find it
to be helpful:

● 2.5 = 10 / 4
● 5 = 10 / 2
● 7.5 = 10 x 3 / 4
● 15 = 10 x 3 / 2
● 25 = 100 / 4
● 50 = 100 / 2
● 75 = 100 x 3 / 4
● Etc.

Once you're comfortable using this approach you can also mix it with the scientific notation
on numbers such as 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, etc.

Factoring the numerator / denominator

For divisions, if there are no simple numbers (e.g. 5, 25, 50, etc.), the next best approach is
to factor the numerator and denominator to simplify the calculations. Here are a few
examples:

● Factoring the numerator: 300 / 4 = 3 x 100 / 4 = 3 x 25 = 75

● Factoring the denominator: 432 / 12 = (432 / 4) / 3 = 108 / 3 = 36
● Looking for common factors: 90 / 42 = 6 x 15 / 6 x 7 = 15 / 7
17.4 Expanding

Another easy way to avoid writing down long divisions and multiplications is to expand
calculations into simple expressions.

Expanding with additions

Expanding with additions is intuitive to most people. The idea is to break down a number
into two simpler numbers (e.g. 5; 10; 25; etc.) so the calculations become easier. Here are a
couple of examples:

● Multiplication: 68 x 35 = 68 x (10 + 25) = 680 + 68 x 100 / 4 = 680 + 1,700 = 2,380

● Division: 705 / 15 = (600 + 105) / 15 = (15 x 40) / 15 + 105 / 15 = 40 + 7 = 47

Notice that when expanding 35 we've carefully chosen to expand to 25 so that we could
use the helpful tip we learned in the factoring section. You should keep that in mind when
expanding expressions.

Expanding with subtractions

Expanding with subtractions is less intuitive to most people. But it's actually extremely
effective, especially if one of the terms you are dealing with ends with a high digit like 7, 8,
or 9. Here are a couple of examples:

● Multiplication: 68 x 35 = (70 - 2) x 35 = 70 x 35 - 70 = 70 x (25 + 10) - 70 = 70 x 100/4

+ 700 - 70 = 1,750 + 630 = 2,380
● Division: 570 / 30 = (600 - 30) / 30 = 20 - 1= 19

17.5 Growth rates

Finally, you will also often have to deal with growth rates in case interviews. These can lead
to extremely time-consuming calculations, so it's important that you learn how to deal with
them efficiently.

Multiply growth rates together

Let's imagine your client's revenue is $100m. You estimate it will grow by 20% next year
and 10% a year after that. In that situation, the revenues in two years will be equal to:

● Revenue in two years = $100m x (1 + 20%) x (1 + 10%) = $100m x 1.2 x 1.1 = $100m x
(1.2 + 0.12) = $100m x 1.32 = $132m
Growing at 20% for one year followed by 10% for another year therefore corresponds to
growing by 32% overall. To find the compound growth rate you simply need to multiply
them together and subtract one: (1.1 x 1.2) - 1= 1.32 - 1 = 0.32 = 32%. This is the quickest
way to calculate compound growth rates precisely.

Note that this approach also works perfectly with negative growth rates. Let's imagine for
instance that sales grow by 20% next year, and then decrease by 20% the following year.
Here's the corresponding compound growth rate:

● Compound growth rate = (1.2 x 0.8) - 1 = 0.96 - 1 = -0.04 = -4%

Note how growing by 20% and then shrinking by 20% is not equal to flat growth (0%). This
is an important result to keep in mind.

Estimate compound growth rates

Multiplying growth rates is a really efficient approach when calculating compound growth
over a short period of time (e.g. 2 or 3 years). But let's imagine you want to calculate the
effect of 7% growth over five years. The precise calculation you would need to do is:

● Precise growth rate: 1.07 x 1.07 x 1.07 x 1.07 x 1.07 - 1 = ?

Doing this calculation would take a lot of time. Fortunately, there's a useful estimation
method you can use. You can approximate the compound growth using the following
formula:

● Estimated growth rate = Growth rate x Number of years

In our example, that would give us:

● Estimated growth rate: 7% x 5 years = 35%

In reality, if you do the precise calculation (1.075 - 1) you will find that the actual growth rate
is 40%. So, the estimation method actually gives a result that's quite close to the true value.
In case interviews your interviewer will usually be happy with you taking that shortcut,
because doing the precise calculation takes too much time.

That brings us to the end of the advanced case interview portion of this book. Next, we’ll
turn our attention to fit and behavioral interview questions, which are another core part of
the consulting interview process.
Part 4: Acing Fit and Behavioural (PEI)
Interviews
A common mistake we see candidates making is to spend 95% of their preparation time on
case interviews and to almost entirely ignore fit and behavioral questions. This is a problem
because case questions are mainly used to assess one of the four main capabilities
consulting firms look for: problem solving.

Fit and behavioral questions are used to assess the other three capabilities which you’ll be
scored on: leadership abilities, entrepreneurial drive, and personal impact. TheyThese
questions therefore carry more weight than most candidates think.

You can expect fit and behavioral questions at the beginning of interviews, and they will
often be followed by case interview questions. At some firms, you might even have one or
two “resume interviews” which are purely focused on your experience and where you won’t
have to solve a case at all.

As a consequence, we would recommend allocating at least 25% or your preparation time

on the fit and behavioural section of the interview. In this part of the book, we’ll review the
top questions you’ll come across, and you’ll learn the method you should use to answer
them.

Understanding and preparing for these important questions, is the focus of this part of the
book.

When you're interviewing for consulting jobs, you should always expect to face
questions that are about you, in addition to the case interview questions that we
covered previously in this book. Your interviewer will always ask a few questions about
yourself in addition to giving you a case interview. These questions are usually asked at the
beginning of interviews, and are often followed by case interview questions..

At some firms, you might even have one or two “resume interviews” which are purely
focused on your experience and where you won’t have to solve a case at all. In this part of
the book, we’ll review the different types of fit and behavioral questions you’ll come across,
and you’ll learn the method you should use to answer them.

18. What Are Fit and Behavioral Questions?

In this chapter we’ll define fit and behavioral questions, so that it will be clear what the
differences are between them.

All firms ask a mix of these two types of questions but some are more focused on one type
than the other. For instance, McKinsey almost exclusively asks personal experience
interview (PEI) questions. But Bain tends to put much more focus on fit questions and
barely asks any behavioral questions.

Let’s begin with fit questions.

18.1 Fit Questions DefinitionDefined

Fit questions are used by consulting firms to assess a candidate's “fit” for their company,
based on the candidate's experiences, interests, and motivations for applying.

Consulting firms ask these questions to make sure your expectations of the job and culture
at their company matches reality. want to hire candidates who have career objectives that
are aligned with the firm’s goals, and who have strong reasons for seeking a career in
consulting, and at their specific firm (instead of others).

Some common examples of fit questions would be “Why consulting?”, “Why McKinsey / BCG
/ Bain?”, or “Wwhy should we hire you?”.

See chapter 19 for the top 5 fit questions that you could encounter during your consulting
interviews. Now, let’s turn our attention to behavioral questions.

18.2 Behavioral (PEI) Questions DefinitionDefined

Behavioural questions are, sometimes also calledknown as Personal Experience Interview

(PEI) questions. Consulting firms often use this type of question, in order to assess a
candidate's soft skills, leadership experience, entrepreneurial drive, and personal impact.

It’s fairly easy to identify a behavioral question during an interview, because they typically
start with “Tell me about a…”

For example, These are questions such as “Tell me about a time when you lead a team
through a difficult situation.” Or “Tell me about a challenge you had to push yourself hard
to overcomeTell me about a time where you had to manage a team conflict.”.See chapter
19 for the top 5 behavioral questions that you could encounter duri
All firms ask a mix of these two types of questions but some are more focused on one type
than the other. For instance, McKinsey almost exclusively asks personal experience
interview (PEI) questions. But Bain tends to put much more focus on typical fit questions
such as “Why Bain?” or “Walk me through your resume?” and barely asks any behavioral
questions.

To enable you to use your time as efficiently as possible, we have analysed hundreds of
interview questions on glassdoor.com for McKinsey, BCG, and Bain and have summarised
the top five fit and behavioural questions in chapters 19 and 20. These questions are also
consistent with the type of questions the candidates we work with are currently getting in
interviews.

Let’s dive into those examples next.

A common mistake we see candidates making is to spend 95% of their preparation time on
case interviews and to almost entirely ignore this other type of questions. This is a problem
because case questions are mainly used to assess one of the four main capabilities
consulting firms look for: problem solving.

Fit and behavioral questions are used to assess the other three capabilities which you’ll be
scored on: leadership abilities, entrepreneurial drive and personal impact. These questions
therefore carry more weight than most candidates imagine.

As a consequence, we would recommend allocating at least 25% or your preparation time

on the fit and behavioural section of the interview. To enable you to use your time as
efficiently as possible, we have analysed hundreds of interview questions on glassdoor.com
for McKinsey, BCG and Bain and have summarised the top five fit and behavioural
questions below. These questions are also consistent with the type of questions the
candidates we work with are currently getting in interviews.

19. Top 5 Fit Questions and How To Answer Them

In this chapter, we’ll walkthrough the top five fit questions used in consulting interviews
and briefly discuss each of them. Here is an overview of these 5 questions:

1. Why this firm? (26% of fit questions)

2. Why consulting? (24%)
3. Why you? / Walk me through your resume (14%)
4. Tell me something that’s not on your resume (6%)
 5. Tell me about your greatest accomplishment (4%)

Please note that the percentages listed above are of total fit questions. For instance, for
100 fit questions 26 will be “Why firm X?” Keep in mind that tAs mentioned above, the
balance between fit questions and behavioural (PEI) questions varies from firm to firm.

Important Nnote

If you have already written a cover letter following the advice in chapter 3 of this
book, you may will have noticed that the first three questions on the list above are
the same three questions you have already answered in your letter:

● Why you?
● , WWhy consulting?
● W and Whyhy this firm?.
If you have already written your cover letter using this technique,
If this is your case then you should speed-read the sections for these three
questions or skip go straight to the “Tell me something that’s not on your resume”
question as we will repeat similar points to those we have made in the cover letter
chapter.

19.1 Why this firm? (26% of fit questions)

Almost all consulting firms will ask you why you want to work for them at some point. This
is to check that your interest in their firm is genuine.

But answering this that question isn’t that straightforward because as top consulting firms
actually have a lot in common. At a global level, they cover the same industries and work
for similar clients. They also pay similar salaries, and the career path is more or less the
same from firm to firm. So, how should you answer this question?

While consulting firms are similar at a global level, there can actually be significant
differences between them at the office level. And in In our experience, a great way to
answer the extremely specific when answeringa great answer to answerthe "Why McKinsey
/ BCG / Bain / etc.?" question, is to be extremely specific. question is to be therefore
extremely specific. While these firms are similar at a global level, there can actually be
significant real differences between them at the office level.
To help you get a better idea of what this looks like, let’s reviewweWe have included an
example of how you could answer that question in an interview below. You’ll notice that
the example below is adapted from the cover letter we created in chapter 3previously.
Being consistent between your cover letter and what you tell your interviewer is a great
way to emphasizeinsist on the main messages you want them to remember.

Example Aanswer - Why McKinsey?

“McKinsey appeals to me for three reasons.

To start with, the different people from the company I have met and worked with all
told me they had truly enjoyed their with the firmtime there. For example, over the
past two years, I have worked for Michael Smith, a former Engagement Manager
from the London office who now works at for JP Morgan.

SecondAdditionally, I regularly read McKinsey’s reports on financial services and

think the insights delivered by Sarah James and others in the Finance practice are
truly superior to that of other consultancies. By joining McKinsey I knowtherefore
think I would have an opportunity to work with and learn from the best consultants
in the industry.

Finally, the fact that McKinsey was selected by Barclays to shape its digital strategy
also played an important role in my decision to apply. This was a first-of-its-kind
contract in finance and it shows that while at McKinsey I could have get the
opportunity to work on truly unique projects.”

Notice how the answer above focuses on a specific office and a specific industry: McKinsey
London, and the financial services industry. Also notice And how this focus enables the
candidate to make very unique arguments about why they want to work for McKinsey.

In our experience, a good answer to the "Why this firm?" question should focus on three
elements:

1. The people you have met from the firm / office you are applying for. A
surprisingly big part of answering the "Why this firm?" question is about networking.
Your interviewer wants to know if you have talked to anyone from their firm or,
even better, their office.
 2. Significant The pProjects or and iIndustries or projects that are significant for
the office where you plan to applythe office you will join focuses on. Having
talked to a few people will enable you to understand what type of projects the office
you are joining works on. For instance, iIf you were to join the McKinsey office in
New York office for instance , then you would will likely work on financial services or
media projects because these industries are big in the city. But, if you want to work
in the oil and gas industry, then you may want to apply to the Houston office
instead.New York is not the right destination; instead you should probably apply for
Houston.
3. The reports and other intellectual capital produced by the office you want to
will join. Finally, you should be aware of the recent reports published by the
partners from the office you are trying to join (e.g. New York, Houston, etc.) and the
practice you are interested in (e.g. fFinancial services, oil and gas, etc.) you are trying
to join. This will demonstrate to your interviewer that you have a clear and genuine
interest in their practice, office, or both.in a specific area that the office they belong
to works on.

Here’s a helpful test you can use once you’ve drafted got your answer to the “Why this
firm?” question. Try swapping in a different company name. For example, if you’ve
answered the question for McKinsey, try swapping in the names “BCG” or “Bain”.“McKinsey”
for “BCG” or “Bain”. If your answer still makes sense after swapping the names, then it’s
probably notunlikely to be specific enough and you’ll need to put in a bit more work.

But onceWhen you have ’ve got a specific answer that passes this test, your interviewer will
probably think: "That person has already talked to a few of my colleagues. They also seem
to be interested in fFinancial services which is a big part of the work we do here. They could
be a good fit." That’s the type of impression you want to make in your interviewer’s mind.

19.2 Why consulting? (24% of fit questions)

The second most frequent question you’ll need to answer is: “Why do you want to be a
consultant?” Consulting firms want to check that you know what you’re getting into, and
that you are joining their ranks for the right reasons. They’d rather hire someone who
wants to stay at the firm for the long-run, than someone who is unprepared and will leave
in under a years as this makes you more likely to stay over the long run.

There are many good reasons to join a consulting firm. Here are a few of our favourites:

● You have worked in strategy / consulting in the past and enjoyed it

 ● You like working with (senior) clients and having an impact
● You want to learn about strategy, management, etc (for new graduates)
● You are excited to be at the forefront of your industry (for experienced hires)
● You like working with and being challenged by bright colleagues
● You enjoy solving really difficult problems
● Etc.

You can find an example of what you could tell your interviewer below. Again, it’s a good
idea to repeat the same messages as what’s in your cover letter to make sure you’re
consistent and your interviewer remembers them.

Example Aanswer - Why Cconsulting?

“There are three reasons I am excited about pursuing a career in management

consulting.

FistTo start with, I know I will enjoy being a strategy consultant because I have
already worked in a strategy team in the past. This was in the summer of 20196
when I was a Strategy Intern at Tesco in London.

SecondThen, I think consulting is a unique opportunity to comprehensively learn

about business management by working on a variety of company situations. Over
the past two years, I have started building my business skills while advising clients
on financial matters at JP Morgan. I now look forward to learning more further about
the management practices of different different companies ascompanies’ as a
consultant. management at McKinsey.

Finally, I want to work in consulting because I enjoy interacting with clients.

Throughout my work experiences I have built a successful track record of developing
and maintaining relationships with clients. F including for instance, I’m still in touch
with the senior strategy team at Tesco from my internship. who I am still in touch
with.”

Finally, there are other reasons to be a consultant that are best to keep to yourself. It’ll
probably be obvious to you that the reasons below should not be mentioned in an
interview but we are listing them explicitly to be on the safe side. You’d be surprised by
some of the answers we’ve heard forthe answers we sometimes get to this question!

● Consulting is a safe bet if you are not sure what to do after university or
business school. It’s common to work in consulting for two to four years and then
move on. However, consulting firms prefer hiring candidates who want to become
partners and stay be there for the long -term. So, if you’re only planning on staying
for a short while, it’s safest to keep that to yourself.
● Your firm could sponsor your MBA. ~15% of incoming students at Harvard
Business School are consultants. If you already know you want to do an MBA then
many consulting firms will gladly pay for your tuition fees at a top programme.
While this couldan be one of your motivators, we recommend focusing on reasons
which are more closely related to the priorities of your future employer.related to
the actual job you will be doing with your interviewer.
● You’ll have great exit opportunities. After two or to three years in consulting, you
will have fantastic exit opportunities (e.g. corporate strategy, start-up operations, PE,
etc.). In many cases, you will not even have to look for a job., Hhead hunters will
reach out to you directly on LinkedIn multiple times per month to point you towards
at interesting opportunities. But once again, consulting firms want you to stay for
the long- term, so this reason is best kept to yourself.

19.3 Why you? / Introduce yourself / Walk me through your resume

(14% of fit question)

The third most common fit frequent question you’ll be asked is for your interviewer to ask
you to introduce yourself or walk your interviewer through your resume. This question is a
great opportunity to summarise your past experiences,what you have done in the past in a
way that illustrates you would make a great consultant. If you’ve written a cover letter then
you’ll already have answered this question in the “Why you?” paragraph.

It’s a good idea to remember the four skills consulting firms look for when you’re preparing
your answer. As a reminder, here’s a summary of those four skills:Here is a reminder of the
capabilities you should aim to demonstrate:

1. Problem solving. This means you have strong intellectual abilities to solve problems
which you demonstrated at University and during your work experiences. You’re not
afraid to break down complex problems into manageable pieces you tackle one by
one.
 2. Personal impact. This means you have a strong impact on most of your projects
thanks to your ability to work with and influence teams and clients.
3. Entrepreneurial drive. This means you have a track record of innovating and taking
initiatives. You are not satisfied with doing things the traditional way and like
challenging the status quo.
4. Leadership abilities. This means you can easily lead groups of people. You’ll also
have an advantage if you’ve worked directly for clients or with senior leaders (e.g.
CEOs, CFOs, etc.) since that's what consultants do.
5. Problem solving. This means you need to have shown strong intellectual abilities to
solve problems at uUniversity and during your work experiences. You’re not afraid
to break down complex problems into manageable pieces you tackle one by one.
6. Personal impact. This means you've shown a dedication to achieving great things
in most projects you undertook in the past. You've got a strong personal impact on
most projects thanks to your ability to work with and influence teams and clients.
7. Entrepreneurial drive. This means you should have a track record of innovating
and taking initiatives. You are not satisfied with doing things the traditional way and
like challenging the status quo.
8. Leadership abilities. This means you've shown you can easily work with teams and
lead groups of people. You’ll also have an advantage if you’ve worked directly for
clients or with senior leaders (e.g. CEOs, CFOs, etc.) in the past as this what
consultants do.

Notice how in the example adapted from the cover letter below, the first argument touches
on personal impact, the second on problem solving and the final one on leadership.

Example Aanswer - Why Yyou? / Walk Mme Tthrough Yyour

Rresume

“I’m Mary, I’m currently an Associate at JP Morgan in New York. I think I’ve done three
main things in my career so far that have prepared me for a role in consulting.are
relevant to consulting and motivated me to apply for this job.

First, I’m used to working with senior clients in my current job and regularly get very
positive feedback from them thanks to my project contributions. I’m excited to be
able to leverage this skill as I grow my career at McKinsey.

Second, I think I’m a strong problem solver. The most obvious way I’ve probably
 demonstrated that that in my career so far is by graduating as the top student of my
MEng in Chemical Engineering at Cambridge University (UK).

Finally, I also really enjoy leading and working with teams. This is something I’ve had
the opportunity of doing when I was the President of the Cambridge University
Consulting Club where I lead a team of 5 to manage the club and growin managing
the club, and we grewmanaging the club and growing the number of members by
20%.”

19.4 Tell me something that’s not on your resume (6% of fit

questions)

Some interviewers will also want you to tell them something that’s not on your resume.
When your interviewer asks that question they are trying to get to know you on a more
personal level and to find out what you do outside of work. This might be surprising if you
have not prepared for it so it’s worth thinking about ahead of your interview. This question
is particularly popular at Bain.

Exactly what you do outside of work doesn't really matter. It could literally be anything:
playing basketball, being part of a band, writing a book, etc. In fact the more differentiated
the better. What’s more important is how you do it. Your interviewer will be looking for
signs that you are pursuing that activity with passion, drive, and intensity.

For instance, answering that you are part of the Northern Irish national team for a niche
board game will get you noticed, and your interviewer will think: “That’s pretty unique.”
Whereas if you just say you play basketball once or twice a month your interviewer will
probably think: “Ok, that’s not unheard of.”

Below, Wwe’ve listed one of the most memorable answers we’ve heard to this question as
an example below.

Example Aanswer - Tell Me Something That’s Not on Your

Resumeme something that’s not on your resume

“Most people don’t take board games seriously, but I do! I play a tabletop game
 called Warhammer which simulates battles between medieval armies from different
factions. Most people who play are in their twenties and thirties. I’ve played for the
past ten years or so. It’s a great way to socialise and to meet friends on at the
weekends. I also love the strategic aspect of the game.

The Warhammer game creators have organisedorgnanised a world cup for the past
three years. And I’ve actually made it on the Northern Irish national team which has
been great fun. This means I get to spend a weekend somewhere in the world every
year and just have good fun and play against teams from other countries.”

19.5 Tell me about your greatest accomplishment (4% of fit

questions)

Interviewers are also likely to ask you about your greatest accomplishment in your career
so far. Once again, your answer to this question should target one of the four skills that
consulting firms are looking for in candidateslook for. Our usual suggestion for this
question is to reuse one of the stories you will be preparing for the behavioural questions
that we will cover in the next chaptercover below.

19.6 Other (26% of fit questions)

Finally, there are several other fit questions is a long tail of fit questions that consulting
firms ask less frequently. You should prioritise the top five fit questions above, and the top
five behavioural questions in the next chapter, we are covering here, as well as your case
interview preparation over theose questions. Then,But if if you do have time towards the
end of your preparation, you can come back and study some additional examples. we
suggest coming back to them. In particular, we recommend covering the following:

● What are your strengths / weaknesses? (3% of fit questions)

● Where do you see yourself in 5 years? (3% of fit questions)
● What do consultants do in your opinion? (2% of fit questions)
● Why do you want to work for this specific office? (2% of fit questions)

19.7 Practice Makes Perfect

Once you’ve written down your answer to the most common fit questions, you should also
practice delivering them. Tell your stories to a former consultant you know and ask for
feedback. If that doesn’t work out, you could also, or failing that work with a friend or
relative. Ask them to flag anything they find confusing and tweak your different answers
until they flow naturally.

In the next chapter, we’ll cover common behavioral (PEI) questions and how to answer
them.

20. Top 5 Behavioural (PEI) Questions and How To

Answer Them
Behavioural interview questions are different to fit questions because they are less generic.
They are designed to test the specific skills you need to be a good management consultant
by analysing how you behaved in various past different situations. Here’s an example of a
typical behavioural question example: “Tell me about a time you lead a team through a
difficult situation.”

All consulting firms use behavioural interview questions. McKinsey even has a special name
for them: Personal Experience Interview (PEI) questions. In this chapter, we will use the
termscall this type of questions “behavioural”, “personal experience interview”, and “PEI”
interchangeably.

Below Here are the main five themes that you can expect to come across in your
behavioural interviews. Wee’ve put the numbers below identified these themes by
together by analysing hundreds of interview reports submitted by consulting candidates on
glassdoor.com. These themes are also consistent with the questions reported by the
candidates who use our training and coaching serviceswe work with.

1. Leading others (23% of PEI questions)

E.g. Tell me about a time you lead a team through a difficult challenge

2. Managing a team conflict / situation (22%)

E.g. Tell me about a time you worked in a team and had to manage a conflict

3. Managing a personal conflict (21%)

 E.g. Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with a colleague / your boss

4. Influencing others (17%)

E.g. Tell me about a time you changed the mind of a group of people / an individual

5. Overcoming challenges (11%)

E.g. Tell me about a challenge you had to push yourself hard to overcome

6. Other (7%)

Please note that the percentages listed above are of total behavioural questions. For
instance, for 100 behavioural questions 23 will be a variation of “Tell me about a time you
lead a team through a difficult challenge.”

As mentioned above, the balance between fit questions and behavioural (PEI) questions
also varies from firm to firm.

LIn the next Let’s first In the next section, we’ll discuss how these questions are used at
McKinsey in comparison to other firms. Then we’ll cover how toWe will then lay out how to
answer these questions and how to avoid common mistakes. Towards the end of this
chapter,Finally, we’ve also included a full example a let’s also run through a full example
answer to a behavioural question, to help you get a clear understanding of the process..

20.1 McKinsey vs. Other firms

There are two important things you should know about how McKinsey uses Personal
Experience Interview (PEI) questions.

First, you should expect each of the interviewers you meet to ask you a PEI question. So, if
you meet with six different interviewers, you’ll be asked six PEI questions and given six case
interviews. This is not the case at other firms where you’ll sometimes have separate
“rResume interviews” focused purely on fit and behavioural questions, and “cCase
interviews” focused on case questions. The McKinsey PEI discussion typically lasts about 10
minutes and is followed by a case interview for about 30 additional minutes.

Second, at McKinsey your interviewer will ask you a single question. For instance, they
might ask you: “Tell me about a time you lead a team through a difficult challenge”. And
once you start giving your answer they will follow up with other questions (e.g. “wWhy did
you decide to do this?”, “hHow did people react when you said this?”, etc.). This is different
to most other firms where the interviewers are typically more passive and might ask you
several behavioural questions in a row (e.g. one question about leadership, and then
another one above overcoming a challenge, etc.).

The good news is that even though if McKinsey uses PEI questions differently than to other
firms, you can use the method covered in the next section to answer the behavioral
interview questions asked at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and other top consultancies. still answer
these questions using the same method we will cover in the next section.

20.2 Answering Method

Knowing what to expect in behavioural questions is half the battle. The other half is
providing strong answers to those questions.

In many cases, your interviewer will see another six or seven candidates on the day they
interview you. In our experience, the best way to set yourself apart is to answer
behavioural questions by telling a story.

You should write down five stories; one for each of the themes listed above: leading others,
managing a team conflict, managing a personal conflict, influencing others and overcoming
challenges. During your interviews, you can then adapt these stories to the exact question
your interviewer asks you.

There are many different ways to tell your story, but h. Here is the structure we
recommendthe candidates we work with use:

● Situation: start by giving the necessary context

● Problem: outline the problem you and your team were facing
● Solution: explain the solution you came up with to solve the problem outlined
● Impact: if possible, quantify the impact you had in solving the problem
● Lessons: conclude with any lessons you might have llearned in the process

Once you’ve written down your five stories, rehearse telling them out loud. Getting into this
habit will help you tremendously on the actual day of your interviews.

20.3 Common Mistakes

Now that you know the overall process forhow to answering these questions, let’s step
through the three most common mistakes we see candidates making so you can avoid
them.
Mistake #1: too much time on context

First, a lot of candidates spend too much time setting the context. You should only give the
minimum context needed to understand the problem and the solution in your story.
Nothing more. A good test here is to make sure you don’t spend more than 30 seconds on
this part of your story. Let’s run through an example.

Too much context: “The example I am going to give you dates back to two years ago when
I was in my third year of university. I was playing for the football team and we had just had
a fantastic season. At the end of every season there is always a tournament to determine
who is going to win the championship in the region where my university is. Not all
universities get to competego there, only the best ones do. The first few games we played
went really well. Throughout the tournament, we managed to maintain our performance.
Finally after three very tough games we managed to make it to the finals.”

Right amount of context: “Two years ago, I made it to the championship finals with my
university football team. The story I am going to tell you relates to that final game which
was the most important one in the season.”

Notice how in the second example we go straight to the point and only give the necessary
information. A lot of candidates, both experienced hires and new graduates, fail to do that
when they answer behavioral questions. Making this mistake which results in can reflect
poorly on your communication skills, and yourtheir interviewer may even asking you them
to speed up and get go to the core of the story.

Mistake #2: not talking enough about you

Second, some candidates focus too much on what the team did to solve the problem in
general, instead of giving the specifics of what they did. Behavioural questions are about
you. Your answer should therefore focus on how you demonstrated the skill your
interviewer is evaluatinglooking for.

A good test here is to make sure that you use “I” a lot more than “we” or “us”. When you tell
your story, if you hear yourself saying “I did this”, and “I felt that way” and “I suggested this”,
you are very likely to be on the right track.

Using our football example above, your answer should focus on what your contribution
was in that final game. Maybe you were the best defender oin the team, in which case you
should detail the tactics you used to prevent the opposite team from scoring. Or maybe
you were the captain ofin the team and had to talk individually to players to maintain a
cohesive group. Whatever your role was, you should tell your interviewer about the specific
things you did to secure the victory, not what the team did in general.

Again, a lot of candidates fail to do thisthat, which can leads their interviewer to ask follow-
up questions. Do your best to make your interviewer’s job easy, and make your personal
impact clear in your initial answer.them to talk about what they did and their impact as
opposed to the general team.

Mistake #3: being shy about your accomplishments

The same story can be told in multiple ways, some more impressive than others. This is not
the time to be shy about your accomplishments. You should carefully think about your
story and make it sound as positive and impressive as possible.

To be clear, you don’t want to “brag” or to come across as boastful. Your goal is to shed a
positive light on what you’ve accomplished with a story that is still honest and fair. should
not brag about anything, and you definitely should not say anything that isn’t true. But, but
But, you should try to tell an accurate story that you’re comfortable with, and thatwith
which you are comfortable and that sheds a positive light on what you accomplished. To
get a

To get a better understanding of what this looks like, Llet's return to our football example:
use the football example again.

Negative spin, too much focus on the team: “By the end of the tournament, the
dynamics in the team were not great, because as the games had been really difficultgames
we had played had been really difficult. But, we had a very good midfielder and in the end
we won the competition. I only played the second half of the game because I'm a substitute
and one of our defenders got injured.”

Positive spin, focus on you: “The competition was very stressful for the whole team but
we managed to make it to the final. I took a major role in the second part of the final when
I subbed in for one of our best players as a defender. Although I'm not used to playing in
that position I managed to really step up and prevent my direct opponent from scoring.
This made a big difference in the final outcome and contributed to us winning the
championship”.

Notice how these two paragraphs could describe exactly the same situation. There is no
contradictory information between them, but. But one of them focuses on you and is
positive, while the other focuses too much on the team and is negative. When you put
together your own answers to behavioral questions, you’ll want to focus on your specific
contributions and to present them in a positive light.

20.4 Full Example Answer

Now that you know how to answer behavioural questions, let’s run through a full example
answer. Pay attention to the following two things as you read the answer:

● First, notice that the interviewer is active and asks follow up questions. This is typical
at McKinsey but bear in mind that at other firms, your interviewer will most likely let
you tell your story with limited interruptions.
● Second, notice the type of follow up questions the interviewer is asking. Most of
their questions are about trying to determine the specific impact the candidate had.
As mentioned previously, you should talk about what you did, not what the team did
in general.

The example below is adapted from anone of the experienced hire that s we worked with
previously in the recent past.

Example Aanswer - Tell Mme Aabout a Ttime Yyou Llead a

Tteam Tthrough a Ddifficult Ssituation

Interviewer:
● Okay, so let’s start with your personal experience. The topic I would like to
focus on with you today is leadership. And I would like you to give me an
example in your recent past of a time when you led a team through a really
difficult challenge. I would like you to describe this challenge to me in detail
and to explain what you did to overcome this obstacle. Does that make
sense?

Candidate:
● Yes, sure, that makes sense.

Interviewer:
● Perfect, pleasewhy don’t you go ahead then.
SITUATION: start by giving the necessary context

Candidate:
● This example dates back to when I was Head of Digital Projects for a large
construction company in Northern Europe. My team had two main objectives.
First, we were trying to make internal processes more efficient using digital
technology. And second, we were using technology to make it easier to work
with our clients. In practice, we worked on internal projects like sending
employee payslips via email instead of post, and external projects like
creating a website where clients could track the progress we were making on
their construction sites.

InterviewerNTERVIEWER:
● Okay that makes sense, so were you leading that team? How many people
were in the team?

CandidateANDIDATE:
● Yes, I was leading the team. My role was at the headquarters of the company
in Sweden. MAnd my team included 10 digital project managers. Each of my
team members were based in different countries, such as Norway and
Germany, where they worked with the local teams and Managing Directors.,
each of them in a different country (e.g. Norway, Finland, Estonia, Germany,
etc.) working with the local teams and Managing Directors (MDs).

PROBLEM: outline the problem you and your team were facing

InterviewerNTERVIEWER:
● I see, so what is the challenge you faced with that team and company?

CandidateANDIDATE:
● Our first year of operations went well and the regional and global
management were happy with the progress we were making. I then had to
take a 6-month parental leave to support my family. During my absence, the
plan was for me to be replaced by an interim Head of Digital Projects who
was an external contractor.
● But, due to a number of circumstances, that person was only able to start
 four months into my paternity leave and therefore only covered for me
during two months. As a result, when I came back, my team was demotivated,
and my boss, the global CTO, wanted to cancel some of the investments we
had planned on making.

SOLUTION: explain the solution you came up with to solve the problem

InterviewerNTERVIEWER:
● So, what was your reaction when you came back?

CandidateANDIDATE:
● I was not completely surprised. I knew that the person who was supposed to
replace me hadn’t been able to start at the agreed date. But I wasn’t
expecting team morale to be so low or to find my boss thinking about scaling
back investment. So Mmy objective when I came back was therefore to try to
get things back under control again as quickly as possible.

InterviewerNTERVIEWER:
● Okay, so tell me more about what you didd in practice.

CandidateANDIDATE:
● My first priority was to diagnose why my team was demotivated and why my
boss wanted to scale back investment. To achieve this I talked to the main
stakeholders involved in our digital projects. During my different discussions I
quickly realised that the root cause of the issue came from the country MDs.
● Before leaving, I was regularly updating them with the progress being made
on the digital projects in their country. And I was also constantly reminding
them of how this was part of a company-wide strategy that was benefiting
them. But, while I was away, no one was actually doing that job. As a result,
country MDs gradually started voicing frustration to my team and boss and
saying that the digital projects should not be a priority.
● This wasn’t a new problem. This was the initial reaction country MDs had had
when we had first got started with digital projects. But, the issue resurfaced
because the fact that no one was keeping them up to date and reminding
them of the importance of these projects meant that the issue resurfaced. My
replacement tried to do this while I was away but two months simply wasn’t
 enough time for him to gain the trust of the country MDs trust.

InterviewerNTERVIEWER:
● Ok, wWhat exactly did you tell your team and CTO once you found out about
the issue?

CandidateANDIDATE:
● I was transparent with them and quickly came up with an action plan to
resolve the issue. In summary, I told them something along the lines of: “The
issue here is that the country MDs are not completely up to date with the
digital projects carried out in their country and have lost sight of the benefits
this will bring them. We should do two things to win them over again. First,
we should arrange an individual meeting with each of them where we update
them on progress and reiterate how what we do fits into their country
strategy. And second, we should try to have the top management of the
company restate how digital projects fit within the overall strategy of the
company, at the next management meeting with country MDs.”
● In the end, this is the plan we followed. I asked each of my team members to
organise a meeting with their country MD. We were able to show good
progress during these meetings and we also reiterated the benefits of what
we were doing for them. This enabled us to win back the vast majority of
MDs. InAnd in addition, I worked with my boss to confirm the support of the
global CEO who used the next gathering he had with country MDs to re-
iterateexplain how important the digital projects were to him once again.

IMPACT: if possible, quantify the impact you had in solving the problem

InterviewerNTERVIEWER:
● That makes sense to me. What was your personal impact in all this process?
What are the things your team would not have been able to do without you?

CandidateANDIDATE:
● In hindsight, I think my contribution was to mobilise the team immediately,
come up with a diagnostic of the situation in a few days and resolve the
situation in a month or so. I think that without me the team might have come
to a similar conclusion on the situation, but it would have taken them more
 time to diagnose the situation and bring the country MDs back on board. And
in this case, time was critical.

InNterviewerTERVIEWER:
● Ok, what do you think your team and boss thought of the way you handled
the situation?

CandidateANDIDATE:
● The feedback they gave me throughout the process was actually quite
positive. They agreed with the steps I suggested and thought these steps
were good. I could also noticed the morale of my team improvingpicking up
again as we were winning back support from different stakeholders. In the
end, my boss, our global CTO, abandoned the idea of reducingscaling back
investment and we were able to just stiuck with to the initial plan.

LESSONS: conclude with any lessons you might have learned in the process

InterviewerNTERVIEWER:

● Is there anything you have learned from the process? Anything you think you
should have done differently in hindsightnow that you are looking back?

CandidateANDIDATE:
● Before going leaving on on paternity leave I tried to anticipate think about
the different things that could go wrong. Even in retrospect, I don’t think I
would have been able to predict anticipate that I wouldn’t be replaced on
time. But I certainly wasn’t expecting to have an old issue resurface, like the
support ofsuch as the country MDs support resurface. I thought this was
settled and that we had won them over. So, I think I’ve learned that keeping
all stakeholders engaged and up to date on a regular basis is important at all
stages of a projectwhatever stage a project is at.

InterviewerNTERVIEWER:
● Ok that’s an very interesting thought and a really impressive story. It sounds
like you really managed to turn the situation around, so well done on thatis. I
suggest we now move on to the case interview if that’s okay with you.
 CandidateANDIDATE:
● Yes, that sounds good to me.

20.5 Practice Makes Perfect

Now that you know what a behavioural interview question looks feels like, it’s time to
prepare your own stories based on the five themes we have listed at the beginning of this
chapterabove: leading others, managing a team conflict, managing a personal conflict,
influencing others, and overcoming challenges.

Once you’ve written down your stories, answers, to the most common PEI questions you
should also practice delivering them. Tell your stories to a former consultant you know and
ask for feedback. If that doesn’t work out, practice with , or failing that work with a friend or
relative. Ask them to flag anything they find confusing and tweak your different answers
until they flow really naturally.

21. Questions to Ask at the End of Your Interview

Consulting interviews are a two-way street. As we’ve seen in previous chapters, your
interviewer will test if you have the skills needed to become a consultant. But in addition,
they will also give you about 5 minutes to ask questions, usually at the end of the interview.

In practice, it's actually quite hard to ask good questions at the end of interviews. If you ask
questions that are too generic your interviewer might think that you haven't really
prepared questions in advance. And if you ask questions that are too detailed you might
not learn anything valuable.

In this chapter, we’llLet's go through the top eight questions we recommend asking at the
end of consulting interviews.. And we’ll also coverWe’ve also And let's alsoprovided a list
below, of w the main topics things what you should avoid asking about during your
interviews.when you prepare your own list of questions.

21.1 Top 8 questions to ask at the end of consulting interviews

The questions we've listed below will help you find out if the company is the right fit for
you. And they will also give you the opportunity to continue showing that you are a strong
and motivated candidate for the job. You should read through them and memorise the
ones that resonate most with you.

1. What are the common attributes of consultants who excel and advance quickly in
your company?

This question can often lead to valuable information. For instance, quantitative skills are
more important at some firms than others for junior consultants. Asking that question
shows that you are interested in performing well if you are hired. And it also gives you a
chance to assess if you would really be a good fit.

2. What will I be expected to accomplish in the first 3 months / first year with the
company?

Similar to the first one, this question shows that you are driven and that you intend to be a
high performer. It also gives you a chance to learn more about what you will be doingreally
be expected to deliver in your first few weeks and months as a new consultant with the
firm.

3. If I make it to the next round of interviews, is there anything you'd recommend I

try to improve on before coming back?

You should only ask that question if you think your interview went well. For instance,
there's no need to ask that question if you already know you haven’t done well on the
maths part of the case. But, when asked at the right time, this question will show that you
are willing to receive feedback and you’ll also collect useful information for the next round.

4. How is your company different from other consulting firms in this country / city?
I've asked people around but I'm interested to hear your perspective.

Your interviewers will often ask why you want to work for their company. Consultancies all
look quite similar from the outside, but there can actually be big differences between them
in terms of culture and the type of work in a given country or/ city. Asking your interviewer
about the office they work in, instead of the company in general, usually reveals useful
information to help you decide between options.

5. I'm interested in Energy consulting. Can you share what you know about this area
of the company?
Note: you should replace "Energy consulting" with the area you are most interested in
pursuing.you are most interested in.

This question is really powerful for two reasons. First, it differentiates you vs. other
candidates and shows that you've really thought about what kind of consultant you want to
be. Second, this question can lead to follow up conversations. Your interviewer might not
be able to give you the full picture about a particular practice or industry, but and they
might decide to put you in touch with others at the firm from that area.people from the
practice or industry, after your interviewyou asked them about during your interviewyou
are interested in. This can turn into a big win for your application!

6. What are the biggest opportunities / challenges facing the company right now?

Large consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain are resilient. But their strengths will
vary by office or region. As a result, it’s a good idea to ask your interviewer about future
opportunities and challenges. For instance, you could try to find out what practices are
growing the fastest in the office you are applying for at the moment.

7. What do you enjoy most / least about working for this company?

If you have already learned everything you wanted to know about the company and office
you are interviewing with, it can be a good idea to ask your interviewer slightly more
personal questions. Who doesn't like to talk about themselves? Asking your interviewer
what they enjoy most or/ least about their firm is a good way to learn from get their
perspective.

8. I'd be interested to hear about your most challenging case so far and what you
have learned from it..

This question is similar to the previous one. Getting your interviewer to tell you a bit more
about their experience can be really valuable, and this particular question can also give you
more insight on the way the firm works.

21.2 Mistakes to avoid when asking questions

In our experience, the 8 questions above work really well. But if you find yourself running
out of questions you should feel free to put together new ones about your areas of
interestabout the topics you are interested in. But, Wwhen you do this, you’ll want to avoid
a few specific mistakes. you should try to keep a few best-practices in mind. Here are 3
rules we recommend following to avoid making misstep: to keep your questions on track:.

Rule #1: Don't ask questions you could answer by yourself

First, you should really avoid asking questions you could answer withby yourself by doing a
Google search or by going to recruiting events. These questions would really make you
come across as unprepared. Examples of basic questions to avoid include:

● Avoid: "What's the day-to-day of a consultant like?"

● Avoid: "What kind of projects does your company work on?"
● Avoid: "What will I be expected to do when I join?"

Rule #2: Avoid "Yes / No" questions

Second, your questions should ideally lead to a conversation with your interviewer. "Yes /
No" questions are conversation killers and you should therefore really try to avoid them.
For instance:

● Don't ask: "Do you enjoy working for this firm?"

● Ask instead: "What do you enjoy most or/ least about working for this
firmcompany?"

Rule #3: Don't put the cart before the horse

Finally, you should really avoid any questions about salary, working hours, vacations, or
other benefits, until you are officially given an offer. Asking these questions too early will
come across poorly to some interviewers.

Once the company has decided it wants to hire you, the HR team will be able at your
disposal to answer all of these questions for you. There's no need to rush, you’ll have
plenty of time to ask for further details those questions before signing the contract! So
again, avoid questions like these:

● Avoid: "How much will I be paid?"

● Avoid: "How many vacation days can I take?"
● Avoid: "What are the working hours like?"

That brings us to the end of part 4 of this book. You should now have a much clearer
understanding of fit and behavioral interview questions, and how to prepare for them. In
addition, you have all the information you need to prepare quality questions to ask your
interviewers.

The next part of this book contains a compilation of example cases that you can use to
practice for your case interviews.
Part 5: Practice Case Interviews
Our sample cases are based on past McKinsey, BCG, and Bain case interviews to ensure
you train with the most realistic materials possible. Here are important facts and tips to
make the most of these cases:

1. No calculator

The cases in this document are designed to be completed by yourself or with a partner
interviewing you. In both situations, you should aim to solve the full case without a
calculator and without looking at the answer key.

2. Do cases out loud

If you are practicing by yourself, you should both play the role of the interviewer and of the
interviewee and you should speak out loud. This might sound a little odd but candidates
who force themselves to use this technique are progressing much faster than others
because it better reproduces the conditions of the interview. Trust us, do it!

3. Complete the case in 30 to 40mins

Interviews at McKinsey, BCG and Bain usually last between 45 and 60 minutes. The
personal experience part of the interview takes 25% of the time on average and the case
interview takes the remaining 75%. We therefore strongly advise you to complete each of
the following cases in 30 to 40 minutes.

4. Study the answer key carefully

After completing each case, you should study the answer key in detail. You need to pay
attention both to the content of the answers and to the way it is communicated. Most
candidates are only focused on the content and whether they got to the right answer. But
in reality, your interviewer will also evaluate you on how you communicate. Do not hesitate
to repeat parts of the answer out loud. This will help you develop a habit of communicating
in a structured way.

5. Do cases multiple times

Finally, do the cases multiple times. You might think that you will remember the answers,
but if you wait a couple of days you probably won’t remember them completely. In our
experience, it is better to do 20 cases and to learn a lot from them than 40 cases without
spending time analysing the best way to answer them.

Doing cases a second time will enable you to keep track of your progress and to double
check that you are not making the same mistakes twice. We also recommend that you keep
a notebook where you write down what you've learned at the end of each case. You can
then refer back to it when you do a case for the second time.

Finally, we are here to answer any of your questions, so if you get stuck trying to
understand the explanations in the answer key, just drop us a line at:
support@igotanoffer.com. We’ll be happy to fill any gaps!

Case #1: Auto Firm (BCG & Bain Case)

1. Situation

Your client is Auto Firm, a Japanese car manufacturer which generates a significant portion
of their annual sales from the United States car market. In the US, Auto Firm sells cars that
are marketed as the low cost “budget” option for customers.

Auto Firm’s US Regional President recently received a report that their main competitor,
Car Guys, have an estimated profit margin of 15-20% per car compared to Auto Firm’s
average profit margin of 10% per car.

The company has hired you to develop a strategy to increase Auto Firm’s overall profit
margin per car across all models sold in the USA.

2. Framework development

What are the different areas you would look at to increase Auto Firm’s average profit
margin?

3. Framework exploration
What is the root cause of Auto Firm’s profits being lower than their competitors?

4. Quantitative question – Data provided

There are two types of quantitative questions that you may encounter in a case interview.
First, there are quantitative questions where data is provided. Second, there are also
quantitative questions where no data is provided.

Question 4.a

What insights can you draw from the charts below that are relevant to Auto Firm’s
current situation?

Auto Firm SUV Auto Firm Sedan

Avg. Price $24,300 $18,500

Base price $20,500 $16,000

Added features $1,800 $1,000

 Warranty package $2,000 $1,500

Avg. Cost $19,800 $17,200

Material costs $8,500 $7,200

Labor costs $9,500 $8,800

Other costs $1,800 $1,200

Question 4.b

Auto Firm’s sales targets for next year are 700k SUVs and 1.9m sedans. Using the data in
the charts above, determine if they will make more total profit from SUV or sedan sales,
assuming they hit their sales targets.

5. Quantitative question – No data provided

What is the total annual sales of SUVs in the United States?

6. Creativity question

Can you generate some new ideas to help Auto Firm increase SUV sales?

7. Recommendation

Auto Firm’s leadership wants a recommendation on what the company should do next,
what would you tell them?

Answers

1. Situation

To avoid any misunderstandings, you should ask follow up questions that will help you
understand the situation better. For instance, you could ask:

● How many different models of car does Auto Firm have, and what are they?
● How does Auto Firm calculate profit margin? Should fixed cost be considered, or
 only the variable cost per car?
● What is the target profit margin? 15%, 20%, or something else? And how much time
do we have to reach that target?

Let's imagine that we find the following information after asking these questions:

● Auto Firm sells two models of car, a sedan and an SUV, and they want to increase
their overall average profit margin across these two models
● Auto Firm doesn’t have the ability to change their overhead, so we should not
consider fixed costs when calculating profit per car
● Auto Firm’s goal is to reach an avg. 15% profit per car within the next 2 years

2. Framework development

Once you have clarified the situation, you can prepare a framework to analyse the
question. Since the main focus of the company is on profit per car for SUVs and sedans, the
following areas could be analysed:

First, give your interviewer an overview of how you will walk through the framework. For
example, let them know that avg. profit/car = profit/SUV + profit/sedan, and then tell them
that you’ll first look at SUV profit and then sedan profit.

As you walk through each branch, mention any considerations that you’ve noted in your
framework. For example, mention revenue and cost considerations that contribute to SUV
profit, like pricing and material costs.

● Profit per SUV = SUV revenue - SUV cost

○ SUV revenue considerations
■ What is the pricing of Auto Firm’s SUVs vs. competitors?
■ How much does Auto Firm make per SUV on add on features?
■ Is the sales experience at Auto Firm optimised? Or could it be tweaked
to encourage customers to pay more or add more features?
■ Are Auto Firm’s products competitive? Or are they being outpaced by
competitors or new technology?
○ SUV cost considerations
■ What is the variable cost of materials for Auto Firm’s SUVs?
■ Where are Auto Firm’s manufacturing plants located and how much
does it spend on hourly labor for each SUV they produce?
■ How much does Auto Firm pay in sales commissions for their SUV
sales?
■ Does Auto Firm have any shipping or delivery expenses?
■ Does Auto Firm run promotions? And if yes, do they know the cost of
marketing each sedan and SUV?
● Profit per sedan = sedan revenue - sedan cost
○ It’s reasonable to expect the considerations for producing sedans to be
similar to SUVs, even though the particular numbers will vary

After you have outlined your framework and made any tweaks suggested by your
interviewer, you should take a moment to summarise your points to your interviewer. For
example, you could re-state that avg. profit = profit/SUV + profit/sedan, and that
profitability for SUVs and sedans are both influenced by a variety of revenue and cost
factors, like pricing, add-ons, material costs, etc.

Finally, you should proactively recommend some next steps. For instance, you could
suggest the following:

1. Compare the profit margins between Sedans and SUVs, to see if there are significant
differences
2. Analyse Auto Firm’s revenue per car (for sedans and SUVs) and compare with
industry averages, to reveal insights on pricing, add-ons, and competition
3. Examine Auto Firm’s end-to-end costs (for sedans and SUVs), to see if there are any
 areas that stand-out as money drains

3. Framework exploration

The best method to use for this type of question, is to systematically test hypotheses based
on the framework you created in the previous step.

For Auto Firm, the average profit per car could be low because the Profit per SUV is low, or
because the Profit per Sedan is low, or for a mix of those two reasons. Let’s investigate if
the Profit per SUV is low to start with (this is our first hypothesis).

After stating your hypothesis, you should ask your interviewer if the client has any relevant
data that you could use to test it. At this stage, your interviewer may give you data, or they
may give you input that proves/disproves your hypothesis.

For example, let’s imagine that your interviewer tells you that Auto Firm and Car Guys have
similar production costs for SUVs, but that Car Guys sells their SUVs for $1,500 less than
Auto Firm on average.

That means Auto Firm is actually making a higher profit on each SUV than Car Guys, which
disproves our initial hypothesis that SUV profitability is the root problem. As a result, we
now need to cross-out this branch of the framework, and move-on to sedan profitability as
a new hypothesis.
After you state your new hypothesis, you should again ask your interviewer if the client has
any relevant data that you could use to test it. When you do find the source of the problem,
your interviewer will likely provide some data, tables, etc. This is a sign that you are about
to begin a quantitative question.

In this example, let’s imagine that your interviewer informs you that sedan profitability is
indeed an issue, and they provide you with the data you’ll find in the next section.

4. Quantitative question – Data provided

Question 4.a

Here are the insights that can be obtained by reading the provided data:

Insights from Chart 1

Vertically
● Car Guys is the larger company, and sold nearly 1M more cars this year
● Both companies sold at least 1M more Sedans than SUVs this year

Horizontally
● Total car sales have grown by about 1.2 million for these two firms over the
last 10 years
 ● Car Guys have decreased their sedan sales by 700k, while increasing SUV
sales by 800k over the last 10 years
● Auto firm has nearly tripled their sedan sales, while SUV sales have remained
relatively stable over the last 10 years

Insights from Table 1

Vertically
● The metrics available in the table are avg. price and avg. cost (with sub-
categories)
● The avg. profit margin for sedans is $1,300, or 1300/18500 = 7%
● The avg. profit margin for SUVs is $4,500, or 4500/24300 = 19%

Horizontally
● For each car sold, an SUV brings in $3,200 more profit than a sedan
● In addition to a higher base price, SUV sales typically bring-in $1,300 more in
added features and warranty revenues

Combined insights (table & chart together)

● Combining the main insights from both exhibits, it appears that SUVs are
more profitable and Car Guys have been able to achieve a higher average
profit margin by selling a higher percentage of SUVs vs. sedans
● Auto Firm has grown it’s sedan sales by nearly 3X, but this appears to also be
pulling down their average profit per car sold because their SUV sales have
remained stagnant

Suggest next steps

Given the insights from the provided data, we could suggest that Auto Firm conduct
an analysis on sedan profitability, to see if there are clear issues. For instance, we
could suggest they look into the cost structure of sedans and also look for
opportunities to generate more revenue on each sedan sale.

By conducting this additional analysis, Auto Firm should be better equipped to

develop a strategy to increase the average profit per car.

Question 4.b
Begin the maths question by mapping out the steps you plan to take to perform the
necessary calculations. Since we already found the profit per sedan and profit per
SUV above, we can proceed as follows:

Step 1: Calculate total SUV profit

Step 2: Calculate total sedan profit
Step 3: Find the difference between total SUV and sedan profit

Once your interviewer agrees with the steps you have outlined, you can begin to
execute the calculations.

1. Calculate total SUV profit for 2019

● The profit margin for each SUV is $24,300 - $19,800 = $4,500
● To get the total SUV profit, we can round the profit on SUVs from $4,500 to
$5,000 to simplify the mental maths
● Finally, $5,000 X 700k = $3.5bn in total SUV profit for 2019

2. Calculate the profit per sedan for 2019

● The profit margin for each sedan is $18,500 - $17,200 = $1,300
● To get the total sedan profit, we can round the number of sedans sold from
1.9m to 2m to simplify the mental maths
● Finally, $1,300 X 2m = $2.6bn in total sedan profit for 2019

3. Find the difference between total SUV and sedan profit for 2019
● 3.5bn - 2.6bn = 0.9bn
● Auto Firm would make $0.9bn more total profit on SUVs than on sedans if
they hit next year’s sales targets

Sense check
Let’s take a moment to quickly sense-check our results to make sure they are in the
right order of magnitude. We know that Auto Firm makes $1,300 profit on sedans,
and $4,500 profit on SUVs. That means that SUVs are about 3.5X as profitable as
sedans, which means to make equal total profit between the two models, they
would have to sell about 3.5X more sedans than SUVs.

In reality, they sold 700K SUVs and 1.9M sedans, which is a little under 3X more
 sedans. And so it’s reasonable to expect significantly higher total profit from SUVs,
which is what we determined in our calculations.

Suggest next steps

Auto Firm is actually making a higher percentage of their total profits from SUVs,
despite selling nearly three times as many sedans. As a result, the firm should
investigate opportunities to expand their SUV sales or increase sedan profits, in
order to increase their average profit per car.

5. Quantitative question – No data provided

Begin by mapping out the steps you plan to take to perform the necessary calculations, just
like we did in the maths question from the previous section. But this time, include making
estimates as part of the process. For example:

Step 1: Estimate the total number of cars in the US

Step 2: Estimate annual car sales in the US
Step 3: Estimate the percentage of US cars that are SUVs
Step 4: Multiply total annual sales by the percentage of SUVs

Once your interviewer agrees with your steps, proceed to the calculations. Try to state
specific data points or personal experiences for each estimated number.

1. Estimate the total number of cars in the US

● There are 125m households in the US
● It’s typical for a household to have about 2 cars
● As a result, there are about 125m X 2 = 250m working cars in the US

2. Estimate annual US car sales

● We know that there are roughly 250m working cars in the US
● However, families usually only buy a car about every 5 years, so that means about
250/5 = 50m cars are sold each year
● The majority of car sales in the US are used cars, so let’s estimate that only 30% of
 annual car sales are for new cars
● This would give us 30% X 50m = 15m new cars sold per year

3. Estimate percentage of SUVs

● Based on your personal experience driving, or walking near the highway, you can
estimate the percentage of SUVs you see
● For instance, you could estimate that 50% of the cars you see on your daily
commute are SUVs

4. Multiply total sales by % of SUVs

● Putting these numbers together, total annual sales of SUVs in the USA would be 50%
of 15 million, which is about 7.5 million SUVs.

It’s a good idea to sense check your estimation after you’ve finished the calculation. For
example, we could calculate the ratio of all households who would buy new SUVs according
to our estimation. Let’s round our numbers to 8m SUVs and 120m households to make the
calculation easier. 120m/8m = 15. In other words, about 1 in every 15 households would
buy a new SUV in a year. This seems reasonable, so we’re good to go!

Once we’re done calculating the estimate, we also need to:

● Relate the result back to the initial question
● Suggest next steps in the analysis

Our estimate suggests that the market size for SUVs in the US is 7.5 million. An important
next step would be to refine some of the assumptions we’ve used. In particular, finding out
the exact percentage of SUVs vs. sedans seems like the most uncertain piece at this stage.

6. Creativity question

For the creativity question it’s a good idea to begin by asking for some time to gather your
thoughts.

Use that time to put together a mini framework. For the Auto Firm example, let’s use the
customer journey as our mini framework to generate ideas for selling more SUVs.

In particular, you could look at the following customer journey stages: 1. Before getting to
the dealership, 2. At the dealership, 3. During the test drive, and 4. After Leaving.
Then you can use this simple framework to brainstorm ideas systematically for each of the
4 areas identified:

1. Before getting to the dealership

● Advertise an “SUV test drive month”, where anyone who comes and takes an SUV
test drive during that month can get a % discount on their purchase
● Do “lifestyle marketing” by collaborating with outdoors or family oriented
organisations, to appeal to demographics more likely to purchase SUVs

2. At the dealership
● Offer a supervised play area, so that parents can easily come to the dealership with
their children
● Create displays that show Auto Firm SUV’s with accessories installed, such as bicycle
racks, trailer hitches, child car seats, etc.

3. During the test drive

● Train sales reps on best practices, and coach them on highlighting the most
important features of the vehicles
● Offer a new program that allows customers to do an “extended test drive” where
they can take the car home for 24 hours before purchasing

4. After leaving
● Send people who bought a car, a customized calendar that shows the exact dates
they need to perform oil changes and other maintenance
● Follow-up with customers who did not make a purchase, and re-engage them with a
discount or promotion

Clearly, this is a lot of work for Auto Firm to organise. So you should suggest the next steps
they should prioritise. In this case, we’ll recommend that they start with lower effort
solutions, such as:

4. Creating engaging displays

5. Offering extended test drives
6. Following-up with customers who did not purchase
It’s also a good idea to highlight potential risks that you notice during your brainstorming,
for example, you could suggest that Auto Firm look into the impact that canabilization
might have on their sedan sales.

7. Recommendation

Our analysis suggests that Auto Firm should make their main focus increasing SUV sales,
and they should also begin developing a plan to increase their profit margin on sedans.
There are 4 reasons that support this.

1. SUV sales are more profitable, so to increase their average profit margin, Auto Firm
can sell a higher proportion of SUVs
2. Overall SUV sales for Auto Firm and Car Guys are growing at a faster rate than
sedan sales. As a result, Auto Firm should develop an approach to expand their SUV
market share to take advantage of this market trend, while also increasing their
overall profit per car
3. Auto Firm sells nearly 3 times more sedans than SUVs currently, so a small increase
in the profit per sedan would have a strong impact on the overall profit per car
4. Auto Firm has increased their sedan sales by roughly 3X in the last 10 years,
whereas sedan sales for Car Guys has been declining. This suggests that Auto Firm
may have a competitive advantage in sedans.

As Auto Firm starts to target growth in their SUV sales, some additional analysis will be
required. In particular, Auto Firm will need to understand what has caused their current
SUV sales to remain stagnant over the last 10 years (e.g. product quality, production,
marketing, etc.).

In addition, Auto Firm should look into the risks of cannibalising sedan sales, and do an
analysis to decide if it’s reasonable to expect continued growth in the SUV market.

Case #2: Thailand Lottery (McKinsey case)

1. Situation

Your client is Thailand Lottery. It is the only business allowed to organise a lottery in the
country. Despite this advantage, Thailand Lottery’s sales have been declining over the past
ten years as a result of the emergence of new competitors such as online sports betting
websites.

The CEO wants to increase sales by launching a new product and has hired your team to
help design an expansion plan. He is considering two options:
1. Start a transnational lottery with three other lottery organisations. This new game
could offer a larger jackpot than the lottery in individual countries, as more people
would play the same game.
2. Create a scratch cards product. Players would buy cards coated with an opaque
layer and scratch them to find out if they won a prize.

2. Framework development

What areas would you investigate to determine which product Thailand Lottery should
start?

3. Quantitative question – Data provided

Question 3.a.

Your team assessed the purchase intentions of the Thai population for both scratch cards
and the transnational lottery. They asked the following question to a representative
sample: “Which of the following six options would you be most likely to purchase?”

Each respondent answered the question both for scratch cards and lottery tickets.
What insights on customers’ preferences can you draw from the survey results?

Purchase intentions distribution for scratch cards

Scratch card option # 1 2 3 4 5 6

Price of one scratch card $1 $1 $2 $2 $3 $3

Jackpot $10,000 $20,000 $20,000 $40,000 $40,000 $80,000

Chances of winning jackpot 0.010% 0.005% 0.010% 0.005% 0.008% 0.004%

Purchase intentions 10% 15% 13% 27% 15% 20%

 Purchase intentions distribution for lottery tickets

Lottery ticket option # 1 2 3 4 5 6

Price of one ticket $1 $1 $2 $2 $3 $3

Jackpot $1m $5m $5m $10m $10m $20m

Chances of winning jackpot 1 x 10-6 2 x 10-7 4 x 10-7 2 x 10-7 3 x 10-7 2 x 10-7

Purchase intentions 5% 10% 9% 20% 13% 43%

Question 3.b.

After your initial analysis, the CEO has decided to focus on the transnational lottery. He
has held talks with the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. They agreed, among other
things, on how sales and costs should be split between the four organisations.

All tickets are to be sold at the same price in each country. For each ticket sold, the national
lotteries contribute a fixed amount per ticket to the jackpot. This jackpot is then equally
shared between the draw’s winners.

Summary of the different items discussed during the meeting

Item Value

Price of one ticket $3

Variable costs in Thailand (excluding jackpot) $0.2 / ticket

Fixed costs in Thailand (excluding jackpot) $20m / year

# Lottery draws / month 4

Forecast distribution of the population by frequency of purchase

Frequency Thailand Philippines Indonesia Malaysia Total

Once a week 2% 1% 1% 1% 1%

Once a month 2% 1% 3% 1% 2%
 Once a year 4% 5% 4% 6% 5%

Never 92% 93% 92% 92% 92%

Population 65m 100m 255m 30m 450m

Thailand Lottery wants to achieve a minimum profit margin of 15% in the first year of the
transnational lottery. Is it feasible for the company to aim for a transnational lottery with a
jackpot of $20m (Option 6)?

4. Creativity question

The average age of Thailand Lottery’s customers has been growing from 35 years old to 45
years old over the past decade. The CEO is worried that the new product might not attract
new young customers, and would therefore not significantly increase revenues. How could
the company halt or reverse the aging for their customer base?

5. Recommendation

What is your recommendation to Thailand Lottery’s CEO?

Answers

1. Situation

To avoid any misunderstandings, you should ask follow up questions that will help you get
a better grasp of the situation. For instance, you could ask:

● I understand that the transnational lottery makes it possible to offer higher

jackpots. But how would the revenue from ticket sales be shared? I would assume
that 100% of ticket revenues generated in the Philippines would go to the
Philippines, is that right?
● I understand that the CEO wants to launch only one new product. Is there any
particular reason why?
● Prior to diving into the framework question, it is also advisable to further define the
objective of the case. Examples of questions you could ask include:
○ I understand the CEO wants to increase sales. Do we know by how much and
by when?
 ○ Are sales the only metric the CEO is interested in or is profitability important
to him too?

2. Framework development

In this situation, the following areas could be analysed:

A. Revenue potential

1. Total market size

a. Customer demand: For each product, how many potential

customers are there? How fast is the customer demand for each
product growing over time?

b. Spending per customer: How much do we expect

customers to spend on each product every year? Is this spending
per customer expected to grow / shrink?

c. Distribution: What is the total market size by distribution

channel (online vs. physical)? How much of the revenue would
be captured by Thailand Lottery vs. its distributors?

2. Market share potential

a. Competitors: How many competitors also offer scratch

cards? What is the distribution of market shares between
existing competitors?

b. Customer satisfaction: Are the customers of competing

products satisfied with the existing offering?

c. Customer base overlap: For each new product, what is

the overlap with Thailand Lottery’s current customer base?

B. Regulation

1. Regulatory constraints: What are the regulatory constraints for each

product? To whom could the product be sold (e.g. age restrictions) and via which
distribution channels (e.g. online)?
 2. Regulatory approvals: Would Thailand Lottery need any regulatory approvals
for the different products considered? How long would it take to obtain these
approvals?

3. Policymaker view: Do we know if Thailand’s policymakers are favourable to

an expansion of Thailand Lottery or if they are likely to try to slow it down?

Thailand Lottery should first find out which product offers the best opportunity to
grow sales. Then, it should analyse the feasibility of each product from a regulatory
standpoint.

IGotAnOffer special tip:

During your interviews you should draw your framework on a piece of paper and
present it to your interviewer. If they are sitting across from you, you could even turn
your piece of paper around so that it is easier for them to read. And you could also
point at the different parts of your framework with your pen as you step through them.

Turning your piece of paper and pointing with your pen will help grabbing your
interviewer’s attention and it will show that you are a strong communicator which is
one of the skills consultancies look for in candidates.

3. Quantitative question – Data provided

Question 3.a.

The survey question was: “Which of the following six options would you be most likely to
purchase?” Each respondent answered the question for both scratch cards and lottery
tickets. As a consequence, purchase intentions add up to 100% in each table and the data
therefore indicates customers’ preferences in terms of product features (price, jackpot,
chance of winning). However, it does not directly enable us to say which product customers
prefer.

Let’s first try to understand the correlations between purchase intentions and the different
product features:

● For a given ticket or card price, purchase intentions are highest for the alternative
that offers the highest jackpot. Customers therefore seem to be attracted by high
 jackpots. For instance, options 1 and 2 for scratch cards have got the same price but
option 2 has got a higher jackpot and a higher purchase intention.
● For a given jackpot, purchase intentions are always highest for the cheapest ticket /
card. Customers therefore also seem to take the price of the ticket / card as a
secondary consideration. For instance, options 2 and 3 for scratch cards have got
the same jackpot but option 2 has got a lower price and a higher purchase
intention.
● There does not seem to be a clear correlation between purchase intentions and
chances of winning. The chances of winning therefore only influence customers’
decision to buy a ticket / card marginally. For instance, options 2 and 4 have got the
same chances of winning (0.010%) but very different purchase intentions (15 vs.
27%).
● In summary, purchase intentions are primarily driven by the jackpot and price
levels, not so much by the chances of winning.
● Let’s now analyse which option performs best for each product:
● For lottery tickets, the highest purchase intention is for the highest jackpot option
which is option 6. However, for scratch cards, the highest purchase intention (option
4) is not for the highest jackpot. This could be due to the fact that jackpots are lower
for scratch cards and therefore the card price could be a bigger driver of customer
choice for this product.
● The largest share of purchase intentions for lottery tickets is 43% (option 6), which is
more than 50% higher than the largest share of purchase intentions for scratch
cards (27% for option 4). This relatively high level of purchase intentions reveals a
very strong interest for option 6.
● In conclusion, the data provided does not directly enable us to say if customers
prefer scratch cards or lottery tickets. However, it indicates that the transnational
lottery could be a good option to explore further for three reasons:
○ Option 6 for lottery tickets is by far the one that received the largest share of
purchase intentions. The large jackpot therefore seems to be generating a lot
of interest among customers.
○ Customers consistently show a preference for large jackpots for the lottery
but not for scratch cards. By pooling resources between countries, the
transnational lottery will be in a position to provide large jackpots to
customers.
○ Thailand Lottery’s objective is to maximise sales. The survey indicates that
customers are less price sensitive in lottery tickets than in scratch cards. We
 cannot conclude that sales will be higher for the lottery based on that
information only but it constitutes a good initial indication.
● As a next step, we should calculate the potential sales for each product in Thailand.
This will enable us to make a more informed decision about which product to
choose.

IGotAnOffer special tip:

When your interviewer provides you with data, you should take a few seconds to decide
how you are going to analyse it. A lot of candidates dive in the data straight away and
miss key insights because they have not planned a comprehensive way of analysing the
data.

For instance here, we have analysed correlations between purchase intentions and
product features first and we then moved on to analysing which options works best for
each product. Planning this in advance has enabled us to not miss any insights in the
data.

Question 3.b.

We know that: Profits = Sales – Fixed & Variable costs – Jackpot costs

It therefore follows that: Jackpot costs = Sales – Profits – Fixed & Variable costs

Here is a potential calculation plan we could follow. All the metrics below should be
calculated per year.

1. Calculate the potential number of tickets sold by Thailand Lottery

2. Calculate total sales for Thailand Lottery, given the price of a ticket
3. Calculate fixed and variable costs for Thailand Lottery
4. Calculate the minimum profit to be achieved by Thailand Lottery
5. Estimate the total jackpot available across the four countries

Let’s now do each calculation:

1. Number of tickets sold every year by Thailand Lottery

● “Once a week” customers
= 2% x 65m x 4 weeks x 12 months = 62m
 ● “Once a month” customers
= 2% x 65m x 12 months = 62m / 4 = 16m
● “Once a year” customers
= 4% x 65m = 2.6m
● Total = 62 + 16 + 2.6 ≈ 81m

2. Total sales = 81m tickets x $3 per ticket = $243m

3. Fixed and variable costs

● Variable costs = 81m tickets x $0.2 per ticket = $16m
● Fixed costs = $20m
● Fixed & Variable costs = $20m + $16m = $36m

4. Minimum profit to be achieved

= 15% x total sales
= 15% x $243m
= $36m

5. Maximum jackpot cost

= Sales – Minimum profits – Fixed & Variables costs
= $243m - $36m - $36m
= $170m.

To achieve a 15% margin, Thailand Lottery can give away a maximum of $170m in jackpot
prizes over the course of a year. Thailand has got a population of 65m, so that’s an average
jackpot of 170m / 65m = $2.6 per person per year.

The question is whether it is feasible for the company to aim for a transnational lottery
with a weekly jackpot of $20m (Option 6). We have calculated the annual jackpot just for
Thailand. We therefore need to convert that number to a weekly number for all countries
participating.

The population of the four countries together is 450m. Assuming that the three other
countries allocate the same jackpot per inhabitant, then the total jackpot available across
the four countries for the year is $2.6 x 450m = $1,170m per year. There is a lottery draw
every week so about 50 draws per year. On average each draw could therefore offer a
$23m jackpot (1,170 / 50).
As a conclusion, aiming for an average jackpot of $20m (Option 6) seems realistic. A next
step in the analysis could be to investigate the implementation of the new product:
regulation, distribution of the tickets, etc.

IGotAnOffer special tip:

For questions involving a lot of calculations, you should feel free to simplify numbers to
make calculations easier. A good rule of thumb is that it’s ok to round numbers up or
down by about 5% to 10%.

If you don’t simplify calculations you have got a higher risk of making maths mistake.
Your default behaviour should therefore be to round numbers up and down as you
make calculations. Interviewers will be ok with this as long as you respect the 5% to 10%
rule of thumb.

4. Creativity question

To reverse this trend, and to ensure that the new product successfully attracts young
customers, Thailand Lottery could look into the following four areas:

1. Product distribution

a. Make it possible for customers to buy tickets for the new lottery online
and via a mobile application, as these are distribution channels used by
younger people

b. Sell lottery tickets in locations where young customers tend to spend

time (e.g. bars, cafes, etc.)

2. Product design

a. Add a social media component to existing and new products by

enabling customers to share notifications saying they have played the lottery
with their network of friends

b. Choose themes that are attractive to young customers when developing

new products (e.g. sports)
 3. Refresh brand image

a. Run advertising campaigns for the new product specifically targeted to

younger customers

b. Recruit celebrities that are famous among young people to be brand

ambassadors for Thailand Lottery and to promote the new lottery

4. Refresh company culture

a. Hire younger employees familiar with new technologies and the needs
of younger customers for the team in charge of developing the new lottery

b. Review the list of external marketing and advertising agencies the

company is currently working with

Thailand Lottery should start by distributing existing products via new channels (online and
mobile) as it is a relatively easy change to make and will have a strong impact. Over the
long run, it could work on refreshing its image and company culture as well as designing
new products. However, along the way, Thailand Lottery should be careful not to lose its
older customers.

5. Recommendation

Based on our initial analysis I would recommend that Thailand Lottery creates a
transnational lottery for the following reasons:

1. The survey carried out shows that a transnational lottery with large jackpots
generates a lot of purchase intentions (43% for $20m jackpot). Based on initial
discussions with the three other countries, this level of jackpot seems to be a
realistic option.

2. Thailand Lottery could achieve $243m in sales and a 15% profit margin in the
first year of launching the transnational lottery.
 3. Given Thailand Lottery’s monopoly, there is no other company in the country
that could launch a transnational lottery. This new product should therefore provide
a strong and sustainable revenue source to Thailand Lottery.

However, there are further areas that the firm should explore before actually going ahead
and launching the new product:

1. Thailand Lottery should make the necessary changes to its teams and brand
image to ensure that the new product will attract young customers
2. The company should make sure that the transnational lottery is feasible from a
regulatory standpoint and that Thailand’s policymakers are favourable to the idea
3. The company should find ways to minimise the cannibalisation between the
new transnational lottery product and the other main national lottery products
4. Finally, the company should make sure it is able to secure the financial
resources it needs to launch this new product.

IGotAnOffer special tip:

Make sure you clearly state what your conclusion is in the final part of the case. Here
for instance we clearly say in our first sentence that we recommend for Thailand Lottery
to create a transnational lottery. It is critical that you pick a side in your
recommendation and clearly state what you would do based on the information you
have.

Once you have laid out your recommendation you then need to support it with a series
of two to four arguments. Finally, you should also outline next steps at the end of your
recommendation. This is something partners at McKinsey, BCG, Bain and other
companies always do as this is a way for them to sell the next project.

Case #2: Star Production (McKinsey case)

1. Situation

Star Production is a start-up that produces low-cost movies. Two university friends created
the company after watching “Paranormal Activity”, a low-budget movie that attracted a
larger-than-expected audience.
Very few low-cost movies end up being very successful. Star Production is hoping to
generate profits by producing a large number of low-budget movies and betting that some
of them become very successful. The company forecasts that most of its movies will be loss
making but that a few of them will be big financial hits.

Considering the high up-front cost of production, and the low probability of success of low-
budget movies, the two friends are evaluating the best ways to finance the company. They
have hired you to help them develop a business plan that can convince investors that their
model is sustainable.

2. Framework development

What areas would you look at to determine if Star Production’s business model can be
sufficiently profitable to recoup initial investments in the short term?

3. Quantitative question – Data provided

Question 3.a.

Your team analysed the cost structure related to movie production and summarised its
results below.

Cost of producing and promoting a low-cost movie

Type Expenditure area Min cost Max cost

Production Cost of sound and light equipment / $50 $200

day

Cost of camera / day $50 $10,000

Salary of director / movie $1,000 $100,000

Salary of actors / day / actor $100 $1,000

Salary of other crew members / $100 $300

member / day

Food and travel expenses / person / $100 $500

 day

Cost of renting movie studio / day $10 $100,000

Post-production Cost of post-production / movie $100,000 $200,000

Marketing Cost of marketing campaign / movie $1,000 $100,000

In addition, your team also studied the correlation between a movie’s cost structure and its
revenues using a sample of 1,002 movies released in the past 2 years. The results are
shown in the table below.

Correlation between a movie’s revenues and different types of costs

Cost type Production Post- Marketing

production

Correlation with 0.15 0.20 0.75

revenue

Which cost areas should Star Production aim to minimise in priority in order to generate
high profits?

Question 3.b.

After this initial analysis, your team concludes that each movie would cost on average
$250k to produce and distribute. In addition, the company’s overhead would amount to a
yearly fixed cost of $500k.

In order to evaluate how much profit the company could generate in its first year, your
team also did some research on the total revenues generated by recent movies.

The table below breaks down the average revenue generated in the first year after movies
were released, including revenues from theatre tickets, TV rights, and home distribution
(DVD and on-demand).

Distribution of movies by total revenues generated

 Revenue category Average revenue # of movies

0 - $100k $30k 759

$100k - $1,000k $330k 198

$1,000k - $10,000k $3,300k 41

> $10,000k $40,000k 4

All categories NA 1,002

On average, how many movies does Star Production need to produce every year in order
to break even?

4. Creativity question

The founders expect that a large share of their movies’ revenues will be generated many
years after the movie was produced. As a result, they are worried that the company might
fail to attract investors who expect to rapidly generate returns on their investments, and
that it might run out of cash before becoming sustainable. How could Star Production
accelerate its revenue generation?

5. Recommendation

The founders of Star Production give you a call and ask for your recommendation
regarding their business model. What would you tell them?

Answers

1. Situation

To avoid any misunderstandings, you should ask follow up questions that will help you
understand the situation better. For instance, you could ask:

● How many movies does the client plan to produce every year?
● Has Star Production started making any movies yet? If so, how successful have they
been?
 ● Prior to diving into the framework question, we also recommend that you clearly
define the objective of the case. For example, you could ask:
● How does the client define a “sustainable business model”? Is this equivalent to a
profitable business? If so, how profitable?
● I understand the client is a start-up company. Has it already made any significant
investments we should be aware of?

2. Framework development

Once you have clarified the situation, you can prepare a framework to analyse the
question. Since the main focus of the company is on profitability, the following areas could
be analysed:

A. Revenues

1. Revenue from theatre tickets

a. Units sold: On average, how many tickets does Star Production expect
to sell per movie?

b. Unit price: What is the average price of a ticket? What share of the
ticket price will Star Production receive?

2. Long-term movie distribution (TV, Streaming, DVD, etc.)

a. Units sold: Which channels can Star Production use to distribute its
movies? How many TV deals, DVDs sold and streaming views does the
company expect to achieve?

b. Unit price: How much revenue can Star Production generate from each
TV deal, DVD sold and streaming view?

3. Revenue from licensing

a. Units sold: If the movie is successful, how many licenses does Star
Production expect to sell for merchandising (e.g. T-shirts or accessories)?

b. Unit price: At what price can the company expect to sell those licenses?
Alternatively, what share of the revenues from merchandises does the
company expect to receive as royalties?

B. Costs
 1. Upfront costs: What upfront investments will Star Production need to make to
start producing movies? Will it need to purchase professional filming equipment,
studio space, or post-production equipment?

2. Fixed costs: What are the fixed costs associated with running Star Production?
What would the administrative costs and fixed labour costs be?

3. Variable costs: What is the average variable cost of producing a movie? In this
category, we should include the salary of actors and staff, movie studio rental, the
cost of film and other equipment.

Both areas of this framework are equally important to analyse in order to get a sense of
the potential profitability of the business.
IGotAnOffer special tip:

The profitability framework is often used in cases where you need to analyse the
profitability of your client’s business. When you use it you should make every effort to
adapt it as much as possible to the company you are looking at. Otherwise you run the
risk of your interviewer thinking that your framework is too generic. This is what we
have done here by breaking down revenues into revenues from theatre tickets, movie
distribution and licensing.

3. Quantitative question – Data provided

Question 3.a.

Here are some insights that can be obtained by reading the first table horizontally:

● On the production side, keeping the costs of the director’s salary and the studio
rental low could save as much as $99k per movie and $100k per day, respectively.
These costs are therefore worth keeping under control if the company wants to
minimise costs.
● The other production costs offer fewer opportunities for large savings, as the range
of costs is narrower.
● Finally, keeping post-production and marketing costs low also offers a good
opportunity for cost reduction as it could save up to $100k and $99k per movie
respectively.

More generally, in the first table, we can also notice that:

 ● Six expenses out of nine are proportional to the number of days it takes to produce
the movie. As a result, producing the movie over a short period of time could allow
the company to control costs.
● Three expenses out of nine are proportional to the number of members in the
team. As a consequence, hiring a small team will also help keeping costs low.

From the second table, we can learn the following:

● Production and post-production costs are weakly correlated with revenues

generated. As a consequence, it seems safe to keep the director’s salary, studio
rental costs and post-production costs low.
● However, marketing spending and movie revenues seem to be strongly correlated.
As a result, decreasing the amount spent on marketing could hurt revenues in the
long run. Star Production should therefore consider keeping a large marketing
budget for its movies.
● Finally, it should be noted that correlation does not imply causation. If Star
Production spends a lot on marketing, it is still possible that its movies will not
generate a lot of revenue.

In summary, there seem to be various ways to keep costs low. For instance, up to $100k
per day could be saved on studio rental costs by choosing the low costs options. However,
Star Production should be careful with reducing marketing spending as it is tightly
correlated with the revenues generated by the movie. As a next step, it would make sense
to look into long-run revenues to make sure Star Production is able to make a profit on its
low cost movies eventually.

Question 3.b.

Here is a potential calculation plan to find out how many movies are needed to break even:

1. Calculate the average revenue per movie

2. Calculate the operational profit per movie (revenue per movie – variable cost
per movie)
3. Calculate the number of movies required to cover fixed costs

Let’s now do the calculations and simplify the numbers when possible.
 1. Average revenue per movie
● The average revenue per movie will need to be the weighted average, which
can be calculated by adding two columns to the provided table:

Revenue category Average # of % of movies Weighted avg.

revenue movies in this revenue
category

0 - $100k $30k 759 ~75% $30k X 75% =$ 22.5k

$100k - $1,000k $330k 198 ~20% 66k

$1,000k - $10,000k $3,300k 41 ~4% 132k

> $10,000k $40,000k 4 ~0.4% 160k

All categories NA 1,002 NA $380.5 = ~$380k

● Average expected revenue per movie is about $380k

2. Average operational profit per movie
● The average cost of a movie is $250k
● The average operational profit is therefore $380k - $250k = $130k
3. Number of movies required to cover fixed costs
● Star Production has got fixed costs of $500k per year
● Four movies should therefore be sufficient to cover fixed costs and to be
profitable for the year (4 x $130k = $520k)

With four movies per year Star Production would have a high chance of being profitable
over multiple years. However, four movies per year do not guarantee that Star Production
makes a profit every year. Indeed, for a given year, it is possible that the four movies it
produces are not successful and only generate $30k in revenues (the lowest average
revenue) for example, in which case the company would make a loss.

To minimise the risk of losing money in a given year, Star Production needs to increase the
number of movies it produces. The next step in this analysis could be to find ways for Star
Production to increase the chances of success of each of its movies.

IGotAnOffer special tip:

 If you are stuck trying to answer a quantitative question because you don’t know how to
approach it, it helps to go back to the definitions you know. Here, you probably know
that breaking even means having revenues exactly cover costs. Write down a formula to
calculate revenues and costs and see where the number of movies produced appears.
This will show you how to calculate the number of movies to break even.

4. Creativity question

To accelerate revenue generation, three categories of ideas come to mind:

1. Before making the movie

a. Star Production could crowdfund its movies. Fans would back the
movies they like in exchange for small rewards such as signed copies of the
DVD of the movie, branded T-shirts, etc.
b. It could also auction a dinner with the movie’s actors and director
2. During the movie making process
a. Star Production could sell tickets for people to attend selected parts of
the movie making
b. It might also be able to let fans play small roles as extra in the movie in
exchange for a fee
3. After making the movie
a. Star Production could distribute the movie through new channels. For
instance, it could sell the movies on its website and set up a referral
programme to encourage people to recommend the movie in exchange for a
discount
b. It could also set up a website to enable artists to design merchandising
items (T-shirts, posters, etc.) themed after its movies and share the revenue
with them

Given Star Production is getting started it makes sense to develop the “Before making the
movie” ideas first as they correspond to the phase of development the company is in.

As the company progresses it can then develop the “During the movie making” and the
“After the movie making” ideas. These ideas should allow the company to generate
additional revenues in the early stages of the production cycle and to provide early return
on investments.
 IGotAnOffer special tip:

One way you can generate new ideas for creativity questions is to think about recent
business stories you may have read about. What are the latest product innovations you
have heard of? Were they successful? How could they be applied to the business you
are looking at?

5. Recommendation

Based on the initial findings from our analysis, we can present a strong case to investors
for financing Star Production:

1. First, an average of four movies per year could be enough for Star Production
to be profitable. Producing four movies per year seems manageable
2. Secondly, there also seems to be plenty of opportunities to keep costs low,
such as minimising the number of actors and the number of days to make the
movies
3. Finally, we have identified potential sources of additional revenues that could
help make the business model even more attractive to investors. These include
crowdfunding the development of movies as well as auctioning dinners with the
movies’ actors and director.

However, there are further areas that Star Production should analyse before launching:
1. First, it should calculate how much money it will need to raise to launch the
company and what share of the company the founders are willing to give to external
investors
2. Then, it should build connections with actors, directors and movie distributors
in order to make and distribute the movies
3. Finally, it should recruit a team with the right skills to execute the strategy
developed.

Case #3: Joe’s Cookies (BCG, Bain case)

1. Situation
Joe’s Cookies is a small cookie manufacturer and seller based in California. Joe bakes the
cookies himself in a small workshop. And he then sells them directly in schools where his
employees either bring a cart or stock cookies in the school’s cafeteria.

Sales have been flying since Joe launched the business with 10 schools back in January.
However, he has noticed that sales are growing slower at Millbrook, one of the schools he
is working with. Joe has hired you to help him figure out why Millbrook is growing slower
than other schools and how to turn the situation around.

2. Framework development
What are the areas you would look at to identify the root-cause of the slower sales growth
in Millbrook vs other schools?

3. Framework exploration

As you discuss the framework with your interviewer, you find out about the following
information. Which parts of your framework can you cross out as a result?

● Joe sells exactly the same cookies at the same price in all schools. The quality of the
cookies he bakes for Millbrook is the same as for other schools.
● Millbrook is the only school where cookies are sold in the cafeteria by school
employees. At all other schools, one of Joe’s employees brings a cart every day and
sells directly to students.
● The cafeteria at Millbrook does not sell any other cakes or direct substitutes to Joe’s
cookies. And it gets as much footfall if not more as Joe’s carts in the other schools.
● The number of students and staff has remained unchanged in Millbrook since Joe
launched there. All the schools where the company is present are in the same area.
Joe therefore does not think there is a strong difference in student preferences and
disposable income between schools.

4. Quantitative question – Data provided

Joe summarised sales volume data for you in the following table since his January launch.
What are some of the conclusions you can draw from this data?

Millbrook - Average number of cookies sold per day

Avg sales per day Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Chocolate 50 63 78 98 100 100

Chocolate chip 60 75 94 100 100 100

Ginger 40 46 53 61 70 80

Oatmeal 30 35 40 46 52 60

Other schools - Average number of cookies sold per day

Avg sales per day Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Chocolate 15 19 23 29 37 46

Chocolate chip 20 25 31 39 49 61

Ginger 10 12 13 15 17 20

Oatmeal 10 12 13 15 17 20

5. Creativity question

Joe confirmed that at the moment he is sending 100 cookies of each of the four flavours
every day. Millbrook must therefore be running out of Chocolate and Chocolate chip
cookies. What are some of the things Joe could do to help accelerate cookie sales at
Millbrook?

6. Recommendation

You are meeting Joe to give him your final recommendation on the problem he is facing.
What would you tell him?

Answers

1. Situation
To avoid any misunderstandings, you should ask follow up questions that will help you
understand the situation better. For instance, you could ask:
● How much slower are sales growing in Millbrook vs other schools? Has it always
been the case or is it a recent trend?
● How does Joe sell cookies in Millbrook? Using one of his carts or stocking them in
the school’s cafeteria?

Prior to diving into the framework question, we also recommend that you clearly define the
objective of the case. For example, you could ask:
● What are Joe’s objectives for Millbrook’s sales? To grow in line with the rest of the
other schools?
● Can I confirm that revenue is the only metric Joe is interested in here?

2. Framework development

Once you have clarified the situation, you can prepare a framework to analyse the
question. Since the main focus is on finding the root-cause of the slower sales growth in
Millbrook, the following areas could be analysed:

A. External factors (not controlled by Joe)

1. In-school competition: Are there any substitutes or competition to

Joe’s cookies (e.g. vending machines) in Millbrook that are not in other
schools?

2. In-school visibility: Are Joe’s cookies as visible in Millbrook as in other

schools? Do they get as much footfall?

3. Students and staff number: Has the students and staff number at
Millbrook changed during the period?

4. Students and staff profile: Is the population in Millbrook very different

to other schools? Does it have as much disposable? Is it more health-
conscious and less prone to eating cookies?

B. Internal factors (controlled by Joe)

1. Cookies sold: Does Joe sell the same range of cookies (e.g. chocolate
chip) in Millbrook than at other schools? Are the cookies sold of exactly the
same quality?
 2. Cookies pricing: Does Joe sell the cookies at the same price in
Millbrook as in other schools? Do they feel more expensive in Millbrook
because other food items are much cheaper than at other schools?

3. Cookies availability: Does Joe send the same quantity of cookies to

Millbrook than to other schools? Are cookies always available? Or does Joe
tend to run out of cookies and not be able to meet the demand from
students?

Both areas of this framework are equally important to analyse in order to get a sense of
what is driving the slower sales in Millbrook.

3. Framework exploration

We can cross-out the following parts of the framework based on the information provided:

● In-school competition can be crossed out because you are told that “the cafeteria
at Millbrook does not sell any other cakes or direct substitutes to Joe’s cookies”.
● In-school visibility can be crossed out because you are told that Millbrook “gets as
much footfall if not more as Joe’s carts in the other schools”.
● Students and staff number can be crossed out because you are told that “the
number […] has remained unchanged in Millbrook since Joe launched”.
● Students and staff profile can be crossed out because you are told that Joe thinks
there is no “strong difference in student preferences and disposable income
between schools”.
● Cookies sold and Cookies price can be crossed out because you are told that “Joe
sells exactly the same cookies at the same price in all schools. The quality of the
cookies he bakes for Millbrook is the same as for other schools.”

That leaves us with Cookies availability as the only area of the framework which has not
been crossed out. At this stage your hypothesis should therefore be that the lower sales
growth in Millbrook is driven by lower availability.

IGotAnOffer special tip:

Framework exploration is a step that is specific to cases where you are looking for the
root-cause of an issue. This type of cases is frequent at BCG & Bain but less so at
 McKinsey.

The best way to explore a framework is to make a hypothesis at the very beginning of
your exploration and to then test that hypothesis. For instance here you could have
said “My initial hypothesis is that the slower growth is driven by an external factor. Let’s
test this hypothesis. Would we happen to know anything about competing products at
Millbrook?”

This is a good way to get the conversation going with your interviewer in a structured
way. You should update your hypothesis as you collect more and more information. So
for instance here, once you have crossed out all the parts of your framework in the
external category you could say something like: “That’s interesting, so it looks like we
have ruled out all the external factors here. So my new hypothesis is that the problem
is driven by an internal factor. Let’s now look at this part of the framework”

To get a good sense of how to explore frameworks, we would recommend watching the
BCG & Bain live extract that’s part of this Free case prep course.

4. Quantitative question – Data provided

The two tables list the average number of cookies sold per day broken down by different
flavours and months. The first table is for Millbrook and the second table is an average for
all other schools. Let’s focus on the Millbrook table first and then analyse the second one.

There are three interesting trends emerging from the Millbrook table:

1. The total number of cookies sold in January was 180 cookies, and in June 341
cookies. That’s an additional ~160 cookies in 6 months. The number of cookies sold
in Millbrook therefore grew by ~90%. Growth in other schools should therefore be
higher than 90%.
2. Chocolate and chocolate chip are the most popular flavours. Sales for these
flavours started higher than for Ginger and Oatmeal in January. But have both
plateaued at 100 units. The fact that they both plateau on exactly the same number
strengthens our earlier hypothesis on the fact that the cafeteria might be running
out of cookies.
3. Finally, Ginger and Oatmeal cookies have continue growing while Chocolate
and Chocolate chip cookies have been flat. This illustrates there is still demand for
 additional cookies in the school. And it confirms the hypothesis that the cafeteria
probably only stocks 100 Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies and runs out every
day.

Let’s now move on to the second table. There are two interesting trends there:

1. The total number of cookies sold in January was 55 cookies, and in June 147
cookies. The number of cookies sold in other schools therefore almost trebled in 6
months which is faster growth than in Millbrook as expected.
2. The number of cookies sold at other schools seems to be growing quite
regularly for all flavours – not just Oatmeal and Ginger. Again this illustrates the
Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies problem identified is specific to Millbrook and
does not impact other schools.

The conclusion from analysing these two tables is that Millbrook seems to be running out
of Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies which is preventing it from growing as fast as it
has in other schools.

As a next step, it could be great to double check that this assumption is correct with the
Millbrook staff and to also develop ideas to solve this problem.

5. Creativity question

For sales to grow faster at Millbrook Joe needs to meet the demand for additional
Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies or convince customers to buy the other type of
cookies. There are a few different ways in which Joe can achieve these objectives:

1. Use existing space more efficiently

a. He could change the mix of cookies he sends to Millbrook and increase
the number of Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies while decreasing the
number of Ginger and Oatmeal cookies.
b. He could ask the Millbrook staff to pack cookies tighter on their shelves
so that he can send them more Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies.
c. Similarly, Joe could change the size and shape of his cookies so that
they take less space on the cafeteria shelves and the employees are able to
stock more of them in the same space.
2. Find more space at Millbrook
 a. He could ask the school for extra space or shelves in the Cafeteria so
that he can send more Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies every day.
b. If the school cannot offer more space in the Cafeteria, Joe could send an
additional cart that would sit at the cafeteria entrance and would be stocked
with additional Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies.
3. Change customer demand
a. Joe could modify the demand curve for his cookies by pricing flavours
differently. For instance if he prices Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies
higher than the Ginger and Oatmeal ones this will give an incentive to
customers to switch to Ginger and Oatmeal. This might help to increase
overall sales.
b. Finally, when customers ask for Chocolate and Chocolate chip and they
are not available anymore Joe could authorise the Cafeteria staff to give a
discount on the Ginger and Oatmeal ones to continue boosting sales.

In terms of prioritisation, Joe should start by making the most of the space available to him
in the Cafeteria currently and change the mix of cookies he sends every day. If this is not
sufficient to meet customer demand, then he should look into some of the other options
such as asking for more space or packing the cookies more densely on the Cafeteria
shelves.

IGotAnOffer special tip:

You will sometimes come across creativity questions that look simplistic at first sight.
This is the case here where you might think that the answer is simply to increase the
number of Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies that are sent to Millbrook every day.
In these cases, you should challenge yourself and still find two or three categories of
things you could do to solve the problem at hand and then break those down.

We are trying an experiment. If you got this far it shows you are really motivated and we feel
like you should be rewarded for powering through these cases – great work :) To encourage
you to go even further, here is a secret 20% discount code on our case interview training
programmes: 0PTKKBNHCGQZ_FreeCaseSecretCode. But be quick, only the first 10 people to
find this code will get the discount!

6. Recommendation
Our analysis suggests that sales have been growing slower at Millbrook because the
cafeteria is running out of Chocolate and Chocolate chip cookies on a daily basis. This is
confirmed by three data points:

a. First, the data we have been provided with shows that both Chocolate and
Chocolate chip cookies sales suddenly plateau at 100 cookies per day.
b. Second, 100 cookies per day is the exact number of cookies that Joe sends to
the Cafeteria every day.
c. And finally, the growth in Ginger and Oatmeal cookies has continued in April to
June which suggests there would be enough demand for additional Chocolate and
Chocolate chip cookies if they were available.

In addition, we recommend that Joe looks into a mix of the following steps to turn the
situation around and accelerate growth at Millbrook:

a. First, he should immediately look into whether it’s feasible for him to change
the mix of cookies he sells to the Cafeteria every day and replace some Ginger and
Oatmeal cookies by Chocolate and Chocolate chip ones.
b. Second, he should look into setting up a process to collect feedback from the
cafeteria and know what cookies he runs out of / does not run out of. This would
enable him to adapt his daily deliveries and maximise sales.
c. Finally, Joe should explore whether it is possible to get more space in the
Cafeteria to stock and sell more cookies.

Case #4: Indian Nappies (BCG, Bain case)

Situation

Our client is a large disposable nappies manufacturer in the US. They are thinking about
entering the Indian market.

Quantitative question – No data provided

The client has asked you to estimate the market size for disposable nappies in India. Can
you estimate that number for them?

Answer
To answer quantitative questions where no data is provided, you should follow the same
approach as for regular maths questions.

● Map out the calculations you are going to do

● Present your plan to your interviewer to get feedback before starting the
calculations
● Do your calculations and simplify the numbers when possible
● Sense check your results

If a plan does not come to you naturally when trying to answer the question, it is ok to ask
your interviewer for a few seconds to gather your thoughts.

Here is a potential plan you could have shown your interviewer for this specific question:

1. Estimate the number of kids of the right age to wear nappies in India
2. Estimate the percentage of those kids actually wearing disposable nappies (as
opposed to non-disposable)
3. Estimate how many nappies kids wear per day and then per year
4. Estimate the market size in number of nappies and value

Let’s now do the calculations and estimate the market size.

1. Number of kids of the right age to wear nappies in India

○ There are 1.3bn people in India. Let’s assume that life expectancy is 80 and
that the population is distributed evenly across age buckets to keep things
simple.
○ Kids wear nappies from when they are born to when they are about 3 years
old. So all kids under the age of 3 should be part of the addressable market.
○ Number of kids under 3 = 3 x 1.3bn / 80 ≈ 50m
2. Percentage of kids actually wearing disposable nappies in India
○ Not all parents in India will be able to afford disposable nappies for their
kids. The penetration of disposable nappies is close to 100% in countries like
the US or the UK, but lower in India. Let’s assume a 50% penetration.
○ Number of kids under 3 wearing disposable nappies = 50m x 50% 25m
3. Number of nappies per kid per year
○ Disposable nappies need to be changed multiple times per day. New-borns
need to be changed more frequently than older kids. Let’s assume kids get
 changed six times per day in their first year and three times in their second
and third year. So on average that’s four times per day.
○ Number of nappies per kid per year ≈ 4 per day x 350 ≈ 1,400
4. Market size in volume and value
○ The market size in volume is simply the number of nappies per kid per year
times the number of kids wearing nappies.
○ Market size in volume = 1,400 nappies per kid per year x 25m kids = 35bn
○ Regarding the market size in value, families in the US spend about $20 per
kid per month on nappies. This budget will be lower in India as nappies will
likely be cheaper. Let’s assume $10 per month which is $120 per year.
○ Market size in value = $120 per year x 25m kids = $3bn

A good way to sense-check this result is to calculate the price per nappy. Let’s divide the
market size in value by the market size in volume: $3bn / 35bn nappies is less than 10 cents
per nappy which is reasonable.

Once you are done carrying out your estimate, you need to:

1. Relate the result back to the initial question

2. Suggest next steps in the analysis

Our estimate suggests that the market size for nappies in India is $3bn, or 35bn nappies
per year in volume.

An important next step here would be to refine some of the assumptions we used. In
particular, finding out the exact percentage of kids wearing disposable nappies in India
seems important as this is the assumption that feels the most uncertain at this stage.

IGotAnOffer special tip:

You won’t always have a good number on top of your head for an assumption. For
instance here, you might not have known that kids wear nappies until they are three
years old and use an average of four per day. This is completely fine.
In these instances, you should simply share your best guess with your interviewer and
ask them if it “sounds about right”. If your ingoing assumption is wildly off your
interviewer will let you know and nudge you in the right direction.

Finally, a good way to give authority to your assumptions is to back them up with some
form of evidence. For instance, here you could have said, “I don’t have kids but I know
from my little cousins that kids wear nappies until they are 3 years old and use about 4
nappies per day.” This is a great way to ground your assumptions in real life.
Resources

Note: add a list of references here, in order to cite the articles, websites, etc. which have
informed the content in the book (including content copied from the free case pdf or blog
posts).

Bibliography

Cover and Backcover

Cover

Title: Cracking Case Interviews

Subtitle: Become a consultant at McKinsey, BCG and Bain

Quote: “Super structured, great advice, loved the simplicity, it's the most efficient way of
preparing in my opinion.” Former student. Received a McKinsey offer.

Additional call out: Over 2,000 candidates have received consulting job offers using the
IGotAnOffer method.

Authors: IGotAnOffer.com - Max Serrano & Jonathon Yarde

Backover / Book Description

What should Coca-Cola do to improve profits next year? What’s the market size for mobile
phones in the US? Should Tesla enter the Chinese market? These are exactly the kinds of
case interview questions you’ll need to answer to get a job in management consulting. This
book outlines the step-by-step method to help you understand, analyse, and solve case
interviews.
Max Serrano and Jonathon Yarde are former consultants and instructors at
IGotAnOffer.com, the #1 website for case interview preparation. IGotAnOffer has worked
directly with more than 2,000 candidates who got offers at McKinsey, BCG, Bain,
Deloitte, Accenture, Strategy& (PWC), EY-Parthenon, Capital One, and other companies
since 2015.

This book translates the countless hours the authors have spent coaching
undergraduates, MBAs, PhDs, MDs, JDs and experienced hires on their consulting
applications. The book is designed to be comprehensive and covers each stage of the
application process, from resumes to case and behavioural interview questions.

With this book you willI :

● Learn how to write the perfect consulting resume and cover letter that gets
multiple interview invitations from top consultancies
● Understand the 7 different parts in a case interview and learn exactly what you
need to do in each step
● Master maths tips and tricks to solve market sizing and other case interview
questions quickly and accurately
● Discover the most commonly used frameworks in consulting and how you can
use them for inspiration, without over relying on them
● Practice with 5 full-length sample cases based on McKinsey, BCG, and Bain case
interviews
● Prepare answers to behavioural interview questions, such as: “Why consulting?”,
“Why McKinsey?”, or “Tell me about a time you lead a team”

Candidate reviews on IGotAnOffer.com:

“Super structured, great advice, loved the simplicity, it's the most efficient way of preparing in my
opinion.”
INSEAD MBA candidate, got a McKinsey Offer.

“Great material with a very relevant focus on methodology rather than a bunch of solved cases
with general frameworks that can be found anywhere.”
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“Great program. I was hired!”

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