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We recommend all case interview clients to start here. Even if you are not an experienced hire. Clients who start here perform significantly better.
Follow this unique 110 episode series (see the full list of episodes below), prepared for the Darden EMBA program, to help experienced hires and EMBAs successfully prepare for their McKinsey, BCG and Bain interviews. This is the only case interview training program in the world dedicated to helping experienced hires / EMBAs, by taking into account their very unique challenges, join elite consulting firms.
This is a much needed program. If you are an experienced hire or an EMBA you usually have to rely on the advice that has been developed for MBAs and sometimes PhDs. But as an experienced hire or an EMBA you are typically ignored because that advice is not very useful.
If you would like to receive sample episodes of our Insider content, please register on this site (its free) or opt-in to our newsletter. That’s also free. This is the only way to receive sample Insider content and find out about our promotional offers.
You are a minority. Yet, you are a minority that we care about.
Firmsconsulting devotes significant attention and time to experienced hires / EMBAs. Experienced hires are one of our largest client segments and we design our programs to manage the unique challenges they face: usually part-time degrees, deep industry specialization, choosing roles to secure a green card, difficulties finding a fit in McKinsey/BCG, limited time to prepare, small window to change careers, sponsoring family members back home etc.
The majority of our experienced hire clients have EMBAs or some form of a part-time graduate degree. Most have undergraduate degrees from state or foreign universities, with Indian schools being a dominant group.
Age need not be a major factor with the right preparation and determination. We hold the record for placing some of the oldest applicants into McKinsey, BCG and Bain; a 44 years old associate, a 45 years old consultant and a 47 years old principal.
We also placed a mother after 5-yrs of maternity leave into McKinsey, that had also never done before, until we did it and a 44 year old into the McKinsey Implementation Group. Lessons from working with those applicants have been built into this program.
EMBA classes are not big and therein lies the problem. EMBAs are not the target hiring category for major consulting firms. Schools don’t devote the majority of resources for career advice and career support to EMBAs. It is just a numbers game.
The pool is not large enough and most people in that pool are not looking to transition into consulting.
The issues experienced hires / EMBAs face, as this series shows, are radically different. They are not even close to the issues that MBAs, PhDs and undergraduates usually face. Following advice for MBAs is a path to failure.
The paths/routes to consulting available to EMBAs are substantially greater than that for MBAs, PhDs and even undergraduates. Therefore, EMBAs have less time to prepare because they have full time jobs, they have a tougher path because they have less support and usually more responsibilities (spouse, children), yet they have more options so they need more time to analyze those options.
Firms are also not sure about the intent of an experienced hire to join and as a result of the above they have a lower probability of getting in.
When we designed this series we decided to put together a program that catered to the limited time available to experienced hires. The reason we decided to put together an audio program, and not a video program, is because EMBAs / experienced hires are generally busy: traveling, coming home and hopefully seeing their children.
And the idea was to create a program that will be very easy for experienced hires / EMBAs to consume while they are working.
This audio training program is specific to experienced hires / EMBAs. It is not generic in any possible way. This program will help anyone going through case interview preparation, obviously, and we recommend you listen to it if you have access to it, but if you are an experienced hire or an EMBA, this is designed specifically for you.
Questions we cover, the advice we give, the topics we choose to elaborate on versus simply touch on to beef up your general knowledge are specific to experienced hires / EMBAs.
We also had a very capable student from the Darden class, Tom, co-host this training program. The program is developed in a conversational back and forth style.
It is a very detailed series. Most clients have been surprised about the depth of the information provided. It is very prescriptive: this is what you need to do, this is why and this is how you do it, and this is some of the interesting stories that happened with other clients if they did it and if they did not do it.
We specifically spend a lot of time talking about the nuances of networking within the context of experienced hires / EMBAs. The entire program links all the pieces of work needed to be done to network. For example, how must a resume be written and shared to lead to an interview.
And we spend a lot of time explaining the differences between BTO, the specialist path, the generalist path and implementation. They are all viable paths at McKinsey and we want people to be comfortable going after them. We wanted to make it clear that the generalist path is not the only path available anymore.
FC experienced hire clients have joined from the senior associate level all the way to director at McKinsey & BCG. It is a mistake to assume that one need only join at the associate level.
So many paths are available and, in addition to the general paths, we have recently been focusing on those seeking specialized roles, BTO and implementation. BTO, in particular, is a path we recommend since it fits perfectly for those with a technology background, is a route to the partnership and teaches all the general problem solving skills.
Furthermore, a lot of time is spent on how to edit a resume and cover letter.
If you have very little time and you just want to focus on the most important things, like what are the most important cases to focus on, what are the most important concepts to focus on because you don’t want to try to memorize everything in your EMBA class, we have designed this program to provide all that material. We teach the core concepts in some detail.
If you are an experienced hire, e.g. if you are EMBA, this program is perfect for you. If you are a fresh MBA or an undergraduate about 70% of material will be applicable. If you are a PhD a lot of the material will be applicable because in a way PhDs are also experienced hires without working experience.
So this program is tailored for experienced hire/EMBA candidates who have very little time. The target audience is someone who is in their car a lot, or commuting a lot, and really does not have time to prepare. They want to be listening and they want to be busy doing other things.
Access to this Program
This program is currently exclusively available to Firmsconsulting Insiders.
Episodes
Each bullet below is a separate episode or a series of separate episodes:
1. Introduction
2. Business Judgment
3. 11 Myths about consulting applications
4. FAQs
5. What do EMBAs need to do differently vs MBAs?
6. What is the truth for minority candidates: Black / Hispanic / Indian / Chinese?
7. What is the truth for female applicants?
8. Roles available to EMBAs
9. Where to apply
10. Preparing to network
11. How to edit a resume?
12. Mid-Point Q&A
13. How to update LinkedIn?
14. When to edit a resume?
15. How are major foreign accomplishments viewed?
16. When/how to write a cover letter?
17. How to build your spike in your profile?
18. Networking
19. When to apply?
20. Managing Expectations on Offers
21. Communication Skills
22. Case Types
23. Behavioral interviews
24. How to build business judgment?
25. Final Advice for Experienced Hires / EMBAs
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Image from Tom Brown under cc, cropped, added text.
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