Case Interview Fundamentals: Lesson 3 [3 Mindsets to Prepare Effectively For Your Cases] — Transcript

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1. 0:00One clear sign of how much potential a
2. 0:02candidate has that I noticed while
3. 0:04coaching them was how much they owned
4. 0:06their preparation. That doesn't mean
5. 0:08only doing whatever drills and cases and
6. 0:10homeworks they were supposed to do. It
7. 0:12means actually being in charge and
8. 0:14taking control of their preparation. A
9. 0:16candidate who's not in charge of their
10. 0:18preparation does what everyone else is
11. 0:19doing.
12. 0:20They follow generic tips from their
13. 0:22university career center. Their only
14. 0:24solution for improvement is doing more
15. 0:25and more cases and they're always
16. 0:27looking for that one silver bullet that
17. 0:29will allow them to crack every case.
18. 0:31A candidate who is in charge of their
19. 0:33preparation is completely different.
20. 0:35Here's some examples of what they're
21. 0:36doing. They find patterns and learn from
22. 0:38the businesses they interact with every
23. 0:40day. They debrief their cases and try to
24. 0:43think of questions that could have been
25. 0:44asked. And they keep a log of their
26. 0:46feedback and actively look for patterns
27. 0:49of what they should be improving on.
28. 0:51It's surprisingly easy to differentiate
29. 0:52yourself from other candidates cuz
30. 0:54everyone else is doing the same stuff
31. 0:56over and over again.
32. 0:57But you've got to have the right
33. 0:58mindsets. So I'm going to give you right
34. 1:00now the three mindsets to internalize
35. 1:02that are going to step up your chances
36. 1:04of getting an offer cuz they're going to
37. 1:05make your preparation worth your time.
38. 1:08Mindset number one, cases are meant to
39. 1:10be crafted not cracked.
40. 1:12Everyone talks about cracking cases so
41. 1:14they try to look for the right answer
42. 1:16for the case no matter how they do it.
43. 1:18And that's not what that's about at all.
44. 1:21Cases are simulations of real life
45. 1:22problems and real life problems don't
46. 1:24have one right answer.
47. 1:26So what we do in real life and what
48. 1:27consultants do is to craft the best
49. 1:30possible argument or answer or plan
50. 1:33based on the best information we can
51. 1:34get. Everyone knows you can get to the
52. 1:36right answer in a case and still get
53. 1:38rejected. And you know what? In one of
54. 1:40my cases, I got to the wrong answer and
55. 1:42I got the offer anyway.
56. 1:44And here's why. What they're looking for
57. 1:47is not an answer. They're looking for
58. 1:49someone who can think and solve problems
59. 1:51like they do. So what this means to your
60. 1:53preparation is that you need to focus on
61. 1:55learn to think like a consultant. What
62. 1:57this means to your cases is that you
63. 1:59need to build the strongest possible
64. 2:02argument rather than blindly looking for
65. 2:04an answer hidden somewhere.
66. 2:06Consulting's not a test where you need
67. 2:08to find the one right answer.
68. 2:11Consulting's a line of work where your
69. 2:13job is to build, to craft the best
70. 2:15possible argument so your client can
71. 2:17make decisions and take action based on
72. 2:19that. In fact, the consulting job in
73. 2:22itself is a craft. Once you get in,
74. 2:24you're going to go through a long
75. 2:25journey to master that craft until you
76. 2:27make partner.
77. 2:28And a huge part of mastering that craft
78. 2:31is sharpening the way you think, which
79. 2:33is why the whole point of case
80. 2:34interviews is seeing if you can think
81. 2:36like they do. Mindset number two, my
82. 2:38preparation is a case in itself.
83. 2:41The most successful candidates we've met
84. 2:43treated their preparation as a problem
85. 2:45to be solved. And as good aspiring
86. 2:47consultants, they solved that problem
87. 2:49the consulting way. Instead of winging
88. 2:51it, they planned their preparation in a
89. 2:53structured way. Instead of tackling
90. 2:56symptoms of poor performance, they
91. 2:58tackled root causes. And instead of just
92. 3:00using easy cases from casebooks, they
93. 3:02used the toughest cases they could find
94. 3:05and prepared for the worst. It's a bit
95. 3:07like Inception. If you want results and
96. 3:09you want them quick, you need to apply
97. 3:10the consulting principles to your own
98. 3:12preparation. Here's a simple framework
99. 3:14to prepare effectively. First, you find
100. 3:16your weaknesses. Second, you find a best
101. 3:19practices plan to fix it. And third,
102. 3:21practice until you internalize. Rinse
103. 3:23and repeat. If you think about it, this
104. 3:25is much like solving a profitability
105. 3:27case. First, you need to find the root
106. 3:29cause of the profit decrease, the
107. 3:30company's weakness. Then, to fix it,
108. 3:33you're going to look for benchmarks and
109. 3:34best practices. And third, since you're
110. 3:37implementing your own solution, you need
111. 3:38to practice yourself. Of course, knowing
112. 3:41the best practices is not enough. If you
113. 3:43implement this simple framework, find
114. 3:45your weakness, find a best practice, and
115. 3:47practice until you internalize, what
116. 3:49you're going to end up with is a
117. 3:50systematic, well-planned preparation
118. 3:52that's so much more effective than just
119. 3:54doing more cases. That will effectively
120. 3:56guarantee you're never going to reach a
121. 3:58learning plateau and will guarantee that
122. 4:00you're always focusing on the area that
123. 4:01you need the most improvement on.
124. 4:03Mindset number three, I should be
125. 4:05curious and ask why.
126. 4:07All that talk of structured and
127. 4:09systematic preparation for mindset
128. 4:10number two might leave you thinking that
129. 4:12case prep and case solving is something
130. 4:14rigid. Nothing could be farther from the
131. 4:16truth. Great consultants are curious
132. 4:18thinkers. They like to understand why
133. 4:20things happen and they like to
134. 4:22understand things from first principles
135. 4:23and they love curious candidates.
136. 4:26Mindset number three is all about being
137. 4:28curious about your cases and being
138. 4:29curious about your preparation. I once
139. 4:31interviewed a candidate in a coaching
140. 4:33session using a production bottleneck
141. 4:35case.
142. 4:36And his initial framework was a business
143. 4:38situation framework. So, he had a
144. 4:40customer's bucket in it. In that bucket,
145. 4:42he asked me questions like,
146. 4:44"What is the customer's price
147. 4:46sensitivity? Their sensitivity to price
148. 4:48sensitivity to price increases? What are
149. 4:50the customer segments?
150. 4:52How do customers use the product?" And
151. 4:55later on, I showed him why all of those
152. 4:57were irrelevant to that case. And he was
153. 4:59extremely frustrated. He told me,
154. 5:01"That's so obvious. I should have seen
155. 5:03that before." And indeed, what I was
156. 5:05pointing out to him was obvious and he
157. 5:07could have realized it by himself. But
158. 5:09to do that would have involved freeing
159. 5:10himself from a common mentality.
160. 5:13There's a notion among beginners that
161. 5:14you can solve a case by first applying a
162. 5:17framework and then trying to figure out
163. 5:19how to get to the answer. What they
164. 5:21should be doing instead is laying out a
165. 5:23tightened-up customized framework that
166. 5:26is sure to get to the answer. A plan
167. 5:28that considers everything beforehand and
168. 5:30that has no loose ends. Your feeling at
169. 5:33minute five of the case should be that
170. 5:35you know that you're going to get to the
171. 5:36answer, not that you're hopefully going
172. 5:38to figure it out. And to do this, the
173. 5:40thinking work is done to build your
174. 5:42framework before you present it, not
175. 5:44afterwards. And the key to that is
176. 5:46asking yourself why. Why do I need to
177. 5:48know the customer segments? Why do I
178. 5:50need to know price sensitivity? If my
179. 5:52coaching client had asked himself those
180. 5:54questions, he would know that those
181. 5:56answers would never help him solve the
182. 5:58bottleneck problem, no matter what they
183. 6:00were. So, you need to be systematic
184. 6:02because this is how consultants work.
185. 6:04But, you also need to keep yourself
186. 6:06flexible and curious.
187. 6:07The types of systems we teach in this
188. 6:09course are the ones that will allow you
189. 6:11to always ask why, to keep your
190. 6:13curiosity up, and to think about each
191. 6:15problem with its uniqueness. This is
192. 6:17very different from the systems most
193. 6:19candidates use. Specifically, pre-made
194. 6:22frameworks like Victor Cheng's business
195. 6:23situation framework will keep your
196. 6:25curiosity and your critical reasoning
197. 6:27down. And even if you didn't use a
198. 6:29specific method,
199. 6:31any system you use to help you solve
200. 6:32problems should help you think and be
201. 6:34curious, not stand in the way. But, this
202. 6:37mindset about curiosity is not only
203. 6:39about curiosity within your case. It's
204. 6:41also about curiosity within your
205. 6:42preparation.
206. 6:44One thing we hear all the time is people
207. 6:46asking, "What are the rules of case
208. 6:48interviews?" As if at some point in
209. 6:50time, the old prophets of management
210. 6:52consulting had walked up to the top of a
211. 6:54mountain and found ancient scrolls with
212. 6:56the 10 commandments of Mr. McKinsey. And
213. 6:59that's not the mindset you should have
214. 7:01at all. As everything in consulting,
215. 7:03things have their logic. The rules are
216. 7:06only useful if you know why they're
217. 7:08there cuz sometimes you're going to have
218. 7:09to break them. Do you really think
219. 7:11there's a rule book hidden somewhere in
220. 7:13McKinsey's or BCG's office with all the
221. 7:15procedures a candidate must follow to
222. 7:17get an offer?
223. 7:18Did he take less than 120 seconds to
224. 7:21build his issue tree?
225. 7:22Or do you think the interviewer is just
226. 7:24using a case to assess how you think and
227. 7:27if you could do the job? Which one do
228. 7:28you think is more likely? You're going
229. 7:29to notice throughout the course that we
230. 7:31always explain why things are the way we
231. 7:33teach.
232. 7:34And we also expect you to ask why
233. 7:37to the things you learn with us and to
234. 7:38the things we learn you learn anywhere
235. 7:40else.
236. 7:41It's [snorts] only by asking why enough
237. 7:42times that you're actually going to
238. 7:43learn and internalize the principles.
239. 7:45Now, there's a final aspect in being
240. 7:47curious in your preparation, and that is
241. 7:49being curious with the feedback you
242. 7:51receive. Never take the feedback that
243. 7:53you get at face value. Always ask, "Why?
244. 7:56How did you perceive that? Can you give
245. 7:58me some examples?" Until you really
246. 8:00understand the feedback that you're
247. 8:01getting. That's the only way you can
248. 8:03really, really take control of your
249. 8:05preparation and take steps towards
250. 8:07getting better. So, to recap, the three
251. 8:10mindsets that I want you to internalize
252. 8:11right now to step up your preparation
253. 8:14and get yourself closer to the offer are
254. 8:17Cases are meant to be crafted, not
255. 8:19cracked.
256. 8:20It's not about getting to the one right
257. 8:22answer. It's about finding a strong
258. 8:24answer while showing a systematic,
259. 8:26trustworthy thinking process.
260. 8:29My preparation is a case in itself.
261. 8:32You should prepare with a well-thought,
262. 8:33structured plan that incorporates one,
263. 8:36identify your weaknesses, two, finding
264. 8:38best practices to solve them, and three,
265. 8:41practicing until you internalize.
266. 8:43I should be curious and ask why about
267. 8:45all problems.
268. 8:47You should ask why and be curious during
269. 8:49the case regarding preparation rules and
270. 8:52as you receive feedback.
271. 8:54Now, it's time to put all these tools
272. 8:56and mindsets to work and start crafting
273. 8:58your cases. Head on to the estimations
274. 9:00module. I'll see you there.