Mentoree profile page of Ikram Mecheri

Once I felt confident with my resume and cover letter, I decided to reach out to the recruitment manager on Linkedin. I had previously met her through a previous professional engagement and added her on Linkedin right afterward. My message to her was the following:

Hi ________

I hope that you are well! I am very interested in an opportunity at your firm and I would like to know if you are available for a quick chat to discuss whether I am a good fit.

Kind regards,

Signature

The recruitment manager answered me a couple of weeks later and she scheduled a 30 minutes call to explain to me the hiring process. MBB’s have a very thorough and selective hiring process therefore I made sure that I fulfilled all their criteria in terms of grades, past experience, leadership, etc. and that my resume reflected those experiences. I also used this touchpoint as an opportunity to ask the recruitment manager about the office culture and team in order to make sure that I would feel comfortable.

During the touchpoint, the recruitment manager also asked about my commitment for the interview process. She mentioned that case interviews required a lot of studying and that I should not waste an opportunity to interview if I wasn’t going to properly commit and be ready for the interview.

Following my discussion with the recruitment manager, I took some time to reflect and I built myself a study schedule that would allow me to prepare thoroughly for the case interview. My study schedule made me confident that if I stick to the plan, I have a serious chance at the interview.

I called back the recruitment manager and told her that I was ready to apply and go through the process. Lucky enough, I got a call back for an in-person interview.

Interview Prep **********************

My interview preparation was largely based on the study plan I previously developed. The interview consists of two parts: behavioural and case interview, in such, my preparation was split in three distinct parts :
● Preparing for the case component
● Upscaling my problem-solving and mental math abilities
● Preparing for the behavioural component

Some people prepare for months, sometimes years for those interviews. I didn’t have months or years given that I was also working full time. In a way, studying for interviews felt like a distraction from my current job so I needed to find a balance that will allow me to both succeed in the interviews, without slacking at work (and get fired).

My preparation took roughly a month. The first thing I did was to eliminate all non-essential activities from my calendar. In other words, I needed to make sacrifices and cut all social activities to focus on my preparation. I remember missing the Super Bowl to study and feeling terrible FOMO when I saw all my friends' pictures from the viewing parties. When I realized that social media was making me more anxious throughout the process, I also decided to get rid of it (for the time being). The time I “saved” by cutting those non-essential activities was dedicated to my preparation. Being aware of all the sacrifices that I was making also increased my motivation and pushed me to work harder.

A. Preparing for the case interviews
Case interviews are situational situations led by the interviewer in which the interviewee has to solve a complex business problem. A case interview typically lasts 45 minutes and it focuses on a specific industry. All MBBs use case interviews in their hiring process since it is a strong indicator of how well a candidate performs in a high-pressure high stake situation. This type of interview also showcases a candidate's problem-solving and analytical skills, which are key to succeed as a management consultant.

To prepare for the case interviews, I used the Harvard Business School Management Consulting Club Case Interview Guide to familiarize myself with the strategy frameworks. I used the proposed frameworks as a starting point and then built my own summary of these frameworks. I also spent a considerable amount of time reading strategy articles from Harvard Business Review to familiarize myself with industries that I was never exposed to such as agriculture, construction, transport, banking, etc. During the interview, my readings helped me give concrete examples, which in retrospective made my framework suggestions more appealing to the interviewer.

Case preparation requires a lot of time and is more effective when done with a partner that can question you and challenge your framework. Once I was confident enough with my knowledge of the various strategy frameworks, I reached out to all the people I knew that were working for an MBB to ask them if they could help me prepare a case. I also reached out to trusted colleagues, acquaintances, friends and family members to ask for an hour of their time. Most people politely declined and some simply ignored my messages, but luckily a handful of my friends, family and acquaintances said yes.

Once my application was accepted by the firm, I was also assigned a coach (an associate at the Firm) whose task was to answer my questions and guide me throughout the process. I also reached out to my coach and asked her whether she could do a practice case with me.

My practice case interviews were done with the following people:
1. My MBB coach
2. An acquaintance working at an MBB
3. A colleague of mine whose opinion I valued and trusted
4. My significant other
5. My sister

Although five in-person mock cases might seem low, I took advantage of every single minute I had with those people.

General tips when preparing for the case interviews
● Customize your framework to the case and the industry.
● Never say « I will use Porter’s Five Forces Framework », this will make you sound like a robot and the interviewer will think that you are not capable of critical thinking.
● Make sure you understand the problem very well before starting any calculation.
● Break down the math problem into unit economics.
● Lay down your calculations and your units before doing any mental math. Sometimes units will cancel each other and it will save you time and avoid any potential mistake.
● Always review your calculations out loud and explain your thought process to the interviewer.

B. Upscaling my problem-solving and mental math abilities
Solving complex analytical problems is a key component of the case interview process. You need to be able to frame the right hypothesis in order to solve the case. In order to upscale my math calculation abilities, I dedicated a minimum of 30 minutes per day

C. Preparing for the behavioural component
To prepare for the behavioural component of my interviews, I decided to write each and every single one of my “stories” and practiced them every night before going to bed. I prepared a total of 8 stories. Here are the stories I prepared:
● My pitch: a 30 seconds sentence that explains who you are: “I am a technology consultant looking to expand horizons”.
● My life story: a 3 minutes resume of where I come from, what motivates me, where do I see myself in the future and why I chose this firm.
● Three leadership stories: I wrote down three distinct moments of my life (one in my personal life, one during school and one at work) where I demonstrated leadership.
● Three stories of hardship and how I overcome them
● A story about my passion project.
● A story about my time volunteering at a charity.

It is important to prepare and practice each and every single one of these stories before the interview. Some interviewers will specifically ask you not to repeat a story that you may have used in the previous round. With the stress and the fatigue that comes with having multiple interviews one after the other, a strong preparation will make you more confident and less likely to feel nervous.