Although you need to read as much as you can before a management consulting interview, the fact remains that the only sure fire way to get things right is to find a partner for a practice interview. The more you practice before the big day then the more likely you are to have a successful interview. When you practice you should take turns with your partner so that you get to know what the interview is like from both sides.
It's worth visiting your local career center as they are used to helping people prepare for case interviews.
Before you go to your interview you should have accumulated a file of case notes. You'll need to know the key information that will help you to take a structured approach to the case interview. The third top tip for consulting case interviews is that the interviewee should be prepared to ask the interview panel some probing questions. A case interview is designed to test the questioning skills of would be management consultants. The fourth tip follows on from this, along with the ability to ask probing questions the interviewee must listen to the interviewer's answer in order to properly phrase the next question.
You need to think about your answers and your response to the case in hand. Taking time for a pause to organize your thoughts is often appreciated by interviewers. The sixth tip for a good consulting case interview is to employ the tools of a management consultant and break the case down into manageable parts - taking this sort of structured approach can be extremely valuable to the interviewee.
Try thinking things through out loud; detailing the approach you might take to a certain aspect of the case means that you can then ask the interviewer whether they feel that is the right approach to this particular scenario. The eighth tip is to be aware of the time, consulting case interviews have a time limit, sometimes the interviewee will have to make assumptions about the case. You should make the interviewer aware that this is an assumption, to discover whether the assumption is credible. Following on from this tip, you should do your best to connect with the interviewers; this is easier to do if you have listened to what they have to say as advised in tip four.
The final tip concerns the conclusion of the case interview. How you conclude a consulting case interview could be the deciding factor for the interviewers. You should review your findings from the case up to that point, so that you can make some recommendations. You should summarize the case, and if you could not complete the case, give some indication of other issues you would like to consider.
