DECEMBER 2020. SURVIVE AND ADVANCE. DECEMBER 1 - 29.

Case Interview Bootcamp
REGISTER NOW

Build Your Case Cred!

8 intensive December boot camp Zoom sessions

Weekly assignments

Run through 7 actual case interviews and multiple structuring exercises

Learn to communicate like a consultant

Meet like-minded peers to practice with throughout the summer

Earn a CaseQuestions.com December Boot Camp certificate to highlight on your resume!

90 minutes each, offered at two different times to accommodate international students.

Recordings of each week’s sessions will be available.

Build an excel spreadsheet model for consulting and turn it into a clear and concise PowerPoint presentation

Develop networking and interviewing tips

Garner unique insights on the recruiting process from a recently completed PhD project focused on consulting recruiting. Learn more about the project here

Purpose

This immersive program is designed to help students, recent grads, as well as individuals interested in making a career pivot gain the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to excel during fall recruiting season.  During this program, students will learn a hypothesis driven structured problem-solving approach used by many top strategy consulting firms and apply this approach to help improve their own skills in case interviewing. Students will also gain valuable experience with two important skills 1) data analytics for consulting using excel and 2) storytelling for consulting using power point. Both of these skills are often tested as part of second round interviews and are key skills for success on the job.

Students completing the course will earn a CaseQuestions.com December Boot Camp certificate to highlight on your resume!

While case interviews were once strictly a practice of management consulting firms, in recent years, case interviews have been more broadly used at firms like 3M, Google, Chevron, Microsoft, T-Rowe Price and Proctor & Gamble.

Training Objectives

  • Familiarize students with what consultants do in practice
  • Demystify the networking and case interview process and help students gain confidence for both interview season and summer internships
  • Give students experience with hypothesis-driven problem-solving approaches
  • Provide students with tactical skills necessary for consulting success
  • Help students avoid the most common pitfalls of new consultants
  • Individually improve students’ core skills in data analytics using excel and data driven storytelling using power point and storyboarding for consulting
  • Give students a sense of the roles and responsibilities of members of a consulting team
  • Have fun and take chances in a risk-free environment

JOIN TODAY!

Bootcamp begins December 1, 2020.

Tuition is $295 for the 8-session course.

You will also be expected to purchase the supporting material – estimated at $70.

Success

High Level Overview

8 Sessions over 4 weeks (meet twice per week) – Two time slots offered to accommodate a variety of schedules across all time zones. A recording of each session will also be provided.

Each session runs 1.5 hours

Sessions will also cover topics on:

Intro to consulting, communicating like a consultant (the pyramid principle), tips for networking, tips for “telling your story”, data analytics for consulting using excel, and data driven storytelling for consulting using story boarding and power point

Students will walk through 7 interactive case interviews over the 4-week series

1-2 hours of voluntary drills and homework provided in between sessions

Two required deliverables (an excel model and power point presentation) will be due by the 7th and 8th session. The assignments will each take about 6 hours of time, 12 hours total.

Required Books and Online Modules

Module and Session Descriptions

Module 1

(4 Sessions covering consulting and case interviewing skills as well as networking for consulting offers)

Session 1, Consulting 101

Part I: Intro to Consulting
What is management consulting and what skills are needed? This session will provide an overview of the management consulting industry and different functional focuses within the industry (e.g. strategy, operations, human capital, etc.).

Part II: Intro to Case Interviewing and begin Practice Case #1- Case interviews are becoming an increasingly prevalent part of the interview processOnce strictly a practice of management consulting firms, in recent years, case interviews have been more broadly used at firms like 3M, Google, Chevron, Microsoft, T-Rowe Price and Procter & Gamble.  This session will provide an introduction to structured problem solving and case interviewing using the FOCUS [1] analytical problem-solving framework leveraging interactive videos to model case interviewing best practices:

  • Framing the Problem
  • Organizing an Analysis
  • Collecting Data
  • Understanding the Data
  • Synthesizing a Recommendation

[1] The McKinsey Engagement, by Paul Friga

Session 2: Communicating Like a Consultant, Complete Practice Case Interview #1:

This session will start with a lesson on communicating like a consultant using a technique known as the Pyramid Principle.  This session will also build upon the intro to case interviewing session from the previous week.  We will link some of the core concepts from the pyramid principle to case interviewing and demonstrate the importance of designing MECE (Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive) structures.

Session 3, Practice Case Interview #2: 

In this session we will see an example of a Bain style “interviewee led” case as well as delve deeper into case interview math and market sizing problems. This session will also discuss tips and strategies from the field of cognitive psychology for developing solid business judgement intuition.

Session 4, Practice Case Interview #3 and Networking for Consulting:

How can one effectively conduct primary research to learn more about consulting? Effective networking is a critical part of the job search process and doing it well is particularly important to enter the field of management consulting.  As part of this session we will conduct a live exercise that demonstrates some core elements of an effective networking phone call. Additionally, this session will include another practice case interview. 

Module 2

(4 Sessions covering advanced case interviewing/structured problem solving, telling your story, data analytics and storytelling for consulting using excel and power point)

Session 5, Practice Case Interview #4

In this session we will explore a McKinsey style “interviewer led” case. We will also discuss more about case frameworks and case starts. As part of this session, we will dig even deeper into how case interviews are evaluated by reviewing an actual evaluation form used by a top management consulting firm.

 

Session 6, Practice Case Interview #5 and Telling Your “Why Consulting”Story:

In this session we will discuss tips and strategies to best frame your experience to tell a compelling story for why you are a good fit for a career in consulting. We will review some answers to the question “walk me through your resume,” as well as practice some more advanced mock networking drills. We will then conduct another practice case interview. 

 

­­­­­­­­­­­­­Session 7, Practice Case Interview #6 and Data Analytics for Consulting: 

Prior to this session, participants will be asked to purchase an online module that will walk them through the building of an excel model for consulting. Students will hone skills within areas related to: importing and cleaning data, using vlookups and index matching to look up and connect key data, create and conduct dynamic analysis of data using pivot tables and sensitivity analysis, and much more.  The module will also help students begin to master time saving keyboard shortcuts.  During the session, students will be asked to explain the findings of the model to a “skeptical” client. Lastly, we will discuss techniques to create a clear and concise PowerPoint presentation to walk a client through the excel model by using a concept known as storyboarding.  We will then conduct another practice case interview.

 

Session 8, Practice Case Interview #7 and Data-Driven Storytelling for Consulting:

Prior to this session, students will be asked to purchase an online module which walks them through how to convert their excel model into a simple and clear power point presentation. Once again, student volunteers will be asked to present their analysis. We will then conduct another practice case interview as well as leave some time to answer any final questions you may have. 

Dates and Times

Week 1

Tuesday, December 1st and Thursday, December 3rd

Week 2

Tuesday, December 8th and Thursday, December 10th

Week 3

Tuesday, December 15th and Thursday, December 17th

Week 4

Tuesday, December 22nd and Tuesday, December 29th

Class A times: 7:30am ET / 12:30pm BST / 1:30pm CET / 7:30pm SGT

Class B times: 12:00pm ET / 5:00pm BST / 6:00 CET / 12:00am SGT

JOIN TODAY!

Bootcamp begins December 1, 2020.

Tuition is $295 for the 8-session course.

You will also be expected to purchase the supporting material – estimated at $70.

Success

Instructor Bio

Professor Brendan Boler is currently a Presidential Fellow in Data Science at the University of Virginia School of Data Science. He previously spent seven years as an award-winning Professor at the UVa’s McIntire School of Commerce. Boler has extensive experience within the fields of management consulting and banking, having worked at Accenture, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. Throughout his corporate career, Professor Boler was heavily involved in the recruiting process and has leveraged this experience to conduct research on decision making, talent assessment and selection, and high-performance coaching. 

For his PhD dissertation, Boler and a research colleague travelled to six to top MBA programs where they filmed and analyzed over 230 mock case and behavioral interviews with students who had been invited to interview at top consulting firms.  More about the project can be found here.

At McIntire, he taught courses in management consulting and strategic thinking. Given his teaching and research interests, he’s also passionate about coaching students to achieve their peak levels of performance during high stakes employment assessments including:  Behavioral interviews, Case interviews, and Case competitions

Prior to joining the McIntire School of Commerce, Boler was a Lecturer and Career Advisor at the Darden School of Business, where he coached thousands of students preparing for case and behavioral interviews and helped them gain offers from such firms as McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, Accenture and AT Kearney. He also led and further developed the popular Second Year Coaching and Career Development course and served as a faculty adviser for the Darden Military Association. Following college, Boler spent four years on active duty as an officer in the US Army.  He is currently in the process of completing his PhD dissertation in Organizational Behavior and Strategy from the Darden Graduate School of Business.