Case Interview Fundamentals: Lesson 2 [Your Preparation Toolbox] — Transcript

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1. 0:00A lot of candidates tackle their case
2. 0:02prep by just reading a few introductory
3. 0:04books as they're starting out and then
4. 0:06doing more and more cases to get
5. 0:09practice. And while doing these two
6. 0:11things is important, if you just do
7. 0:14these two things, you're leaving out a
8. 0:16lot of useful tools and this could be
9. 0:19harming your preparation. In this video,
10. 0:21I'm going to show you the three key
11. 0:23tools for a good preparation. These are
12. 0:26the options you have to improve whenever
13. 0:29you face a difficulty or find a new
14. 0:32weakness. The core idea of this video is
15. 0:34to introduce you to a powerful tool that
16. 0:37few candidates use. Solo targeted
17. 0:40practice using drills.
18. 0:43So, let's start with the basics. To
19. 0:45learn case interviews well, you need
20. 0:47three different factors. You need theory
21. 0:50so you can understand what's going on.
22. 0:52You need drills, which is targeted
23. 0:55practice for specific skills, and you
24. 0:57need mock interviews, which is general
25. 1:00practice for the whole skill set
26. 1:02combined. Now, you probably know about
27. 1:05mock interviews and you may even have
28. 1:07done some of them, but you might be
29. 1:09asking yourself, what is a drill? Well,
30. 1:12imagine a basketball player. If you want
31. 1:14to get better in the game, one thing you
32. 1:16might want to do is to play matches with
33. 1:19other players that simulates the real
34. 1:21matches you're going to play in real
35. 1:23tournaments. That's the equivalent of a
36. 1:26mock interview to consulting. But you're
37. 1:28not going to stop there. You're also
38. 1:31going to do targeted practice. So, you
39. 1:33might want to try shooting the ball from
40. 1:36a specific point in court or you might
41. 1:38want to practice dribbling specifically.
42. 1:41You can also do targeted solo practice
43. 1:45to improve in your cases just like
44. 1:48athletes do to their specific sports.
45. 1:51Now, let's cover in a little bit more
46. 1:53depth each of the three key tools that
47. 1:55you have to improve as a candidate.
48. 1:57Starting with the theory first.
49. 2:00In this course, you're going to learn
50. 2:01the fundamentals of how to solve
51. 2:04problems like real consultants in the
52. 2:06step-by-step
53. 2:08methods that we have for each building
54. 2:10block. In each of the modules, you're
55. 2:13going to learn what are the principles
56. 2:15that you should apply in each of the
57. 2:16steps. And you're also going to see
58. 2:18examples of how to apply these
59. 2:21principles
60. 2:22to realistic situations. Knowing the
61. 2:25theory, the conceptual knowledge, is
62. 2:27really important because it helps you
63. 2:29understand why consultants always solve
64. 2:31problems following certain patterns. But
65. 2:34it's not enough. You also need to apply
66. 2:37the theory into practice. Otherwise,
67. 2:40it's just like trying to learn how to
68. 2:42drive a car just by reading manuals.
69. 2:45You'll get a chance to practice each
70. 2:47building block, each step-by-step
71. 2:49methods, by using video drills. These
72. 2:53are exercises with specific questions
73. 2:56you can practice with.
74. 2:58Not whole cases, but specific questions
75. 3:01you could get in the beginning or in the
76. 3:03middle of the case.
77. 3:05After you solve the problem, after you
78. 3:07answer the question, you can see our
79. 3:09detailed answer to compare your own
80. 3:11answer to.
81. 3:13We'll also give you specific pointers so
82. 3:16that you can evaluate your own answers
83. 3:18even if it's significantly different
84. 3:20from ours. When using drills, it's
85. 3:23important to give to yourself more time
86. 3:26than you would have in a real interview.
87. 3:29So, if you're doing a framework drill,
88. 3:30for example, you might want to spend 10
89. 3:33to 15 minutes to build your framework
90. 3:36even if in a real interview, you only
91. 3:38have two to three minutes to do so.
92. 3:40This is counterintuitive to most
93. 3:42candidates and the reason for that is
94. 3:45that these skills are hard enough to
95. 3:47learn when you have plenty of time. And
96. 3:50there's no need to put yourself a time
97. 3:52constraint when you're just starting
98. 3:54out. You take way more than three
99. 3:57minutes to learn a three-minute song.
100. 3:59Same with problem-solving skills. You
101. 4:02can't learn to do it fast before you
102. 4:05learn to do it slowly.
103. 4:07So, use the drills to learn at your own
104. 4:09pace. You'll learn better and you can
105. 4:12always learn how to do it quickly when
106. 4:15practicing in real time doing mock
107. 4:17interviews. The third factor you need is
108. 4:21general practice, simulations of the
109. 4:23real thing. You get this by doing mock
110. 4:26interviews.
111. 4:27This course does not substitute mock
112. 4:30interviews. Rather, it is a complement.
113. 4:34If you just do mock interview after mock
114. 4:36interview, you will not improve a lot
115. 4:39because you'll be missing the first two
116. 4:42elements, the theory, the step-by-step
117. 4:45methods, and the targeted practice. But
118. 4:49if you just do this course, you're not
119. 4:51going to be fully prepared either.
120. 4:53You need the simulation of the real
121. 4:56thing. You need the mock interviews.
122. 4:59If you're a more experienced candidate,
123. 5:01chances are that you've spent some of
124. 5:03your time in really basic theory that's
125. 5:06not helping you anymore and the majority
126. 5:09of your time doing 20, 30 cases, doing a
127. 5:12lot of mock interviews.
128. 5:15If that's your case, then this course is
129. 5:17going to be an incredibly quick way to
130. 5:20improve the first two factors in your
131. 5:23performance,
132. 5:24the theory and the targeted practice.
133. 5:28So, if you don't have a lot of time to
134. 5:30prepare every day, the best you can do
135. 5:33is to pause your case practice and go
136. 5:36through the concepts, the step-by-step
137. 5:38methods, and the drills of this course
138. 5:41for the next 7 days. You're going to get
139. 5:45a lot better very quickly.
140. 5:48After you do that, a week from now, go
141. 5:50back to your case practice and you're
142. 5:52going to see the difference. Drills are
143. 5:54going to be an important part of your
144. 5:56preparation from now on because they
145. 5:58make the bridge between the theory, the
146. 6:01concepts, and the full cases you find
147. 6:04when doing mock interviews and in real
148. 6:06consulting interviews.
149. 6:08Think of them as a safe training ground
150. 6:11so that you can practice and perfect
151. 6:13your skills.
152. 6:15Here's what a candidate has to say about
153. 6:17practicing using our drills versus doing
154. 6:20mock interviews with other candidates.
155. 6:24The biggest improvement in my
156. 6:25performance was between 3 weeks of
157. 6:28winter break where I just used your
158. 6:30program and went through every single
159. 6:32drill.
160. 6:33Other than this, I just did three actual
161. 6:36cases on the phone with friends.
162. 6:39Everybody was saying, you have to
163. 6:41practice with friends. You have to
164. 6:43practice actual cases. You have to go
165. 6:45all the way through, get feedback, and
166. 6:48so on. But the thing was that I kind of
167. 6:51felt like you should be able to practice
168. 6:53it on your own the entire time,
169. 6:55especially structures.
170. 6:58Everybody kept saying, you can't
171. 7:00practice it on your own. But I didn't
172. 7:02really understand it because I thought
173. 7:04you could. And then I used your
174. 7:06materials and you can. So, these are the
175. 7:09three main tools in your preparation
176. 7:12toolbox. Number one, the theory,
177. 7:15the concepts, step-by-step methods, and
178. 7:19best practices that you need to master.
179. 7:22Number two, targeted drills to put the
180. 7:25theory into practice and learn the best
181. 7:28way to solve each building block, the
182. 7:31best way to apply each of the key skills
183. 7:33that you need as a consultant.
184. 7:36Number three, mock interviews to apply
185. 7:39these skills in realistic situations and
186. 7:43make sure you do well in your interviews
187. 7:45and also to find your weaknesses, to
188. 7:48find your issues, and where you should
189. 7:50prioritize your learning.
190. 7:53As you go through this course and as you
191. 7:55go through your preparation onwards,
192. 7:58always have in mind, what is the key
193. 8:01issue that I'm trying to solve and what
194. 8:03is the best tool to solve that issue? Or
195. 8:07even better, what is the best mix of
196. 8:09tools? In which proportion should I be
197. 8:11using each of the tools to tackle my
198. 8:14specific issue?