Case Interview Secrets: A Former McKinsey Interviewer Reveals How to Get Multiple Job Offers in Consulting

This author should be getting paid by the firms who hire users of this book. The reader will indeed hit the ground running on day one as an consultant. Before you even begin to read - the author offers bonus tools that will assist the reader with achieving their objectives. Additionally, current informative feedback from former readers of the book are inspirational for the consultant job hunter. This book is a great tool for anyone who wants to get over the hurdles. It is alarming how many minutes it takes to actually knock yourself out of a job opportunity. The author states that " the interview is essentially over even before it has begun"; this reveals how critical it is to answer case questions. The best quote for a job seeker " the candidate who stands out the most in an interview is the one who acts like a consultant already." This book will get you there. He will show you a core problem solving tool that can be used during an interview as well as on the job. This book has ample examples that will get you through the interview process. You can't put a price on the value of information that you will learn to enhance your own career. The author emphasis is that "if you hate case interviews then you likely will hate the job." Other items worth mentioning" Chp 6 - (A Gem) What every interviewer looks for and why. . . Chp 11 - synthesis has a powerhouse of information that gets you closer to the offer letter. CHP 24 - leads you to How to get multiple Job offers - The Benchmark of hours practice for success.

Case Interview Secrets is practical, clear, and concise. It delivers just what you need to know to nail a case interview. It worked for me and I got the job. Here's how the book helped me. I came across this book just 24 hours before my case interview. I worked through the book and zeroed in on sections I thought were most important for me. I focused most on the frameworks that Victor Cheng presents. I learned the frameworks and created practice scenarios using situations I had experienced. At the end of my preparation I felt very confident that I could lead a case interview conversation. And that is what mattered most. Confidence. Because, of course, in the interview, none of the frameworks exactly applied. But my mind was prepared to think in terms of frameworks. That was really helpful. When I arrived at the interview, I was ready to go to the white board and lead a discussion knowing I had frameworks to draw on. But the book is much more than a set of frameworks. The book also explains how to structure your case discussion. There is specific guidance for creating an opening, analysis, and closing for your case. This gives you a great view of how to create a discussion on-the-fly, which is what you have to do in a case interview. This book delivers the content, and sets your frame of mind, so that you can confidently enter a case interview.

Quick note - this book has 4.7 out of 5 stars, with 81/101 full 5 star reviews - very high for any book on Amazon. This book was also distributed for a short time for free to the author's email list subscribers, which I also benefited from. I tend to think that many of those high reviews are a directly related to that fact and if you read through, many have little actual comment on the content. That being said, this is a quality book with a lot of useful information to anyone interested in consulting and preparing for a case interview. The author's website (caseinterview.com) also has a good amount of free information about case interviews, application tips, and consulting work/lifestyle. I think it is a great idea to read it thoroughly if you're serious about this kind of work, because it is very competitive and competition can be fierce. But the "secrets" that Cheng claims to have are nothing groundbreaking or new - its the same stuff as in Case in Point and any other case interview book. His approach might be a little more unique and easier to follow, but there isn't much new and it certainly doesn't live up to the absurd claims in the description. Worth the $20? Maybe, as the difference between getting a top tier offer and a mid level firm offer is tens of thousands of dollars. But can you do just fine and rock a BCG, Bain, or McKinsey interview without this book? Of course. Ultimately, whether or not you get the offer is going to depend on: your background, your actual true interest in consulting, and your performance. This book may help your performance in the case interview, but practicing - with current consultants, and with colleagues - is the only way to improve yourself. Having a general understanding of the process and how to approach an issue and frame it is necessary and it will give you that, but its not a magic ticket in.

After trying to prepare with Case In Point and various other materials, I still didn't know what I was doing; practice cases with current and former consultants were average at best, and I somehow never seemed to really understand most of the feedback. I found Victor's site via a google research, and immediately spent hours perusing the many free articles and watching his 6hour video; next step was purchasing his LOMS (Look Over My Shoulder) product, about 20 hours worth of audio cases + comments where you hear Victor grill and dissect CIB (Case Interview Beginners)'s performance. Listening to this about 5 times (i.e., about 100 hours worth of work right there) really took my performance to the next level; a couple more practice cases just before my interviews convinced me that I was ready. I have the kindle version of this book, and could see immediately it was the same high quality stuff that Victor has gotten me used to; I am actually buying the paper version as well just to be able to put my hands on it at all times. What is Victor's secret? He explains what to do, then shows us why that's working AND shows us why not doing it leads to failure (e.g., start with a hypothesis, explain the structure & why you each piece will help confirm the hypothesis (or not); do regular interim conclusions as you move from one part of the case to another; start the final conclusion with the answer before the rationale... all things that really make sense but typical applicants don't do. I know I didn't! Oh - and how do I know it works? I've successfully passed all 6 case interviews I've taken since then :)

There are a lot of points made by other reviewers, praising the qualities of this book and its author - and I agree with what's been said so far, no need top repeat it. All I want to add is that, comparing Case Interview Secrets to other books about case interview preparation, I found it to provide the most structured, clearly enunciated and solid approach to case interviewing. Sure, it does not include case material; the author is aware you can find those in many other books available. Instead, he insists on the crucial details that help you build the right mindset and habits, and most of all, those that help you build a consistent, logical and focused method for solving cases. Why? Because Victor Cheng is talking to you from the perspective of an actual, experienced consultant, and a seasoned interviewer, and helps you understand what consulting firms are looking for in you. That's a tremendously valuable perspective. This book alone won't be enough for your case interview preparation, but it's the one single book, in my view, you cannot do without.

Let's get one thing straight. This book isn't necessarily about teaching you how to be a good consulting interviewee; it's also about how to be a good consultant period. The one thing that Victor does very well is give you an inside look on how the consulting industry works as well as how a consultant thinks, behaves and approaches a problem. If you have a good grasp of these concepts, then with practise, the case interviews will be a snap. A lot of the other books place too much emphasis on memorizing frameworks. Victor, on the other hand, preaches about the importance of good problem-solving technique and habits. It makes sense. If you understand the importance of formulating a hypothesis and can form robust issue trees, you can crack any case that is presented in front of you. Of course you do require lots of practice and hard work, but it's pointless to practise the wrong way. The ultimate question has to be: do you want to be a good interviewee or a good consultant? If it's the latter, then you can do a lot worse than pick up this brilliant book.

There are a number of resources out there that can be used to prepare for a case interview. I am very glad I chose this one. Victor Cheng does a great job making the case interview relatable and manageable by teaching how to think like a consultant. The book is fairly light and easy-to-read, but packed with good information. To provide an example, I went to a case interview workshop yesterday with a large consulting firm, and I felt well-versed in the principles that they taught after reading just half of Case Interview Secrets. I do wish there were more practice materials that were included with the book or free supplementary materials. Victor's website and emails are great- he does an incredible job maintaining his website and provide daily updates that are useful to read. So sign up for his website and use the materials. Nevertheless, It does seem like part of its purpose is to get you to buy his many programs, which, to be fair, seem extremely thorough and well made. I just do not have the funding to spend $100 on a (seemingly very high-quality) resume builder aid. In short, buy the book, use the book, and you will feel much more confident about your upcoming case interview.

Victor Cheng heavily touts his customers' results on his website. After reading this book and using his other material, I can see why. Cheng is a former McKinsey associate who has a deep understanding of the case interview process and exactly what interviewers are looking for. He has broken down the components of the interview process as follows: Quantitative assessments, fundamentals, frameworks, candidate-led cases, variations on the candidate-led case, and getting the offer. Unlike Cosentino's "Case in Point," there are only a few frameworks to remember. These frameworks are more flexible than Cosentino's and rely more on the candidate's ability to think and analyze rather than the candidate's ability to memorize a large number of more rigid frameworks. On a personal note, using the tools in this book helped me ace the interview process in a professional field other than consulting. Cheng's suggestion that the candidate practice sharing their thought process in a clear, confident, and concise way is key in demonstrating the candidate's potential value to a firm.

This book has helped me in many different ways, I was extremely unsure of what to expect in a Case Interview and this basically sums up every importante detail. Thank you so much for being so clear and passing on your experience, it’s extremely comforting knowing about what to expect and how to deliver.

A great starting point for those considering consulting. Provides good case structures and teaches you to think both as a consultant and as an interviewer. On unfortunate thing, that is hard to ignore, is Victor's constant need to tell us how smart and intelligent he is. Strange that after what he's accomplished and at his age he still needs to "establish credibility" (as he calls it) in almost every second chapter... I hope the whole industry isn't like this...

After reading case in point I felt a bit lost. I could follow interviews but due to my lack of business background I did not know well enough where all those frameworks came from. This book gives a more scientific approach I have found impressively interesting.

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Very good book! Easy to follow and really helpful tips!