Finding case interview practice partners

I should start this entry off with an apology to the person who sent me the email that I’m about to post. He sent it about a month ago and I’ve been swamped with my current study, so I haven’t been able to post his message with a reply any faster than that. I did send him a direct email response, but it was somewhat short, so I’m hoping to make up for that here. It likely won’t benefit him because his McK interview was on Friday, but this may be helpful to others. This is a tough question to give a generalized response to, but here’s my take on it…

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Taek wrote:

“Dear Marquis,

How do you do? I found your web-site while looking for a case interview practice partner near Stanford. I am wondering if you could write an article regarding how to find a case interview partner?

I am interviewing at McK Silicon Valley BTO office on March 30th, and currently am desparately looking for case interview partners.

I could not read all the posts in your blog, but you seem to be helping a lot of people by writing useful articles. It is very impressive.

Hope things are going well in Atlanta. It is very hot and sunny today at Stanford.

Taek”
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My response:

When it comes to finding a case practice partner, it can be easy if one is a business school student. Most business schools have a Consulting club of some kind where students can find peers who either have or are seeking offers from Consulting firms and should have little or no trouble finding someone to practice with. It gets a little more difficult if you’re not an MBA candidate and are preparing for an interview…in that situation, you’ve got to do a little more work. Some options in this case are:

– Reach out to the Consulting club at a local graduate or undergraduate business school in search of a case partner. Members of these clubs are likely looking for as many people to practice with as possible and might just be willing to take an hour or two to run through some cases. Just remember that you’re dealing with students here, so you would have to be flexible in terms of scheduling. This would probably be the preferred method if I were back in the recruiting market for a consulting gig.

– Check out web communities for case practice partners. Sites like Craig’s List and business school/career-focused message boards (Vault for example) are full of people who may be preparing for consulting interviews and it might be worth giving those resources a try. As long as you and the potential case partner have business cases to practice with, you can always run through them over the phone.

– Alumni networks are also a good source of potential case partners. Whether the networks are undergrad, grad school, affinity group, or geography based, a quick email to a mailing list could bring you in contact with a large group of strangers who are potential practice-mates.

– During your recruiting process, you might have met people who work for the consulting firms to whom you’re applying and, while asking questions about the firm, you may have gotten some email addresses for these people. As your interview approaches, try emailing these contacts to see if they would either be willing to do a practice case with you or could refer you to someone else within their company who can practice with you. The worst that can happen would be for them to say “no”, but the upside could result in some great helpful feedback going into your interview.