S24E20: Case Competition Applications Close Sunday at Midnight

More from Strategy Simplified

1. 

   S24 · E23 · 23 Sep 2026 · 41 min

   S24E23: 3 Case Interview Math Mistakes That Cost You the McKinsey Offer

   Send us Fan Mail Midway through a practice case, one of George Cary's clients did the math and said 90,000 when he meant 900,000. George didn't care. After 5 years and 100+ interviews at McKinsey, George will tell you the right answer is the bare minimum. The offer comes from how you got there and what the answer means for the client. In this episode, he walks through the 3 case math mistakes that cost strong candidates the offer, even with the math right. If case math is the part you dread, ...

2. 

   S24 · E22 · 18 Sep 2026 · 49 min

   S24E22: Ex-McKinsey Coach Says This Case Passes Round 1

   Send us Fan Mail Divya spent 8 years at McKinsey. She sat down with Sanya, a senior at Penn, and ran a case with her, live. Divya told her afterward it would've passed a McKinsey Round 1. Listen to learn how Sanya did it – built her structure, worked the math, and landed on a recommendation. Then Divya breaks down what worked and what she'd tighten up. Resources: Bates White is hiring undergrad summer consultants for 2027 and economists for PhD candidates – apply hereWant thi...

3. 

   S24 · E21 · 16 Sep 2026 · 25 min

   S24E21: Why Consulting Demand Is Outpacing Every Firm's Hiring Plan

   Send us Fan Mail Over half the firms in our latest consulting industry survey said demand is outpacing their ability to hire and deliver. Healthcare, energy, PE – the same story across the board. The bottleneck is capacity. Firms can't staff fast enough to keep up with the work already in their pipeline. And that reshapes the picture for mid-market firms getting squeezed from both sides and the candidates those firms are fighting over. We cover: Why buyers want the full economics of AI before...

4. 

   S24 · E19 · 9 Sep 2026 · 14 min

   S24E19: Why BCG Is Racing to Hire Forward Deployed Engineers

   Send us Fan Mail BCG is racing to hire forward deployed engineers – and the application window closes September 17. This year's pay range for campus hires is $110,000 to $190,000, up from $110,000 to $160,000 last year. Same job, new title, $30,000 more at the top of the range. Big Tech has cut entry-level hiring by more than half since 2019, opening a window for BCG to hire AI talent it usually couldn't afford. That window won't stay open forever. But BCG isn't the only firm racing through i...

5. 

   S24 · E18 · 4 Sep 2026 · 49 min

   S24E18: Deloitte, PwC, and 4,500 Firms Can't Find Adobe Talent

   Send us Fan Mail Deloitte, PwC, IBM, and 4,500 other companies use Adobe Experience Cloud products. And they can't find enough people who know how to implement them. Nick Hilton, Tyler Tu, and Brian Au from Adobe's Customer Experience Certifications team named the Adobe jobs they're struggling to fill: MarTech analysts, implementation consultants, solution architects. None of them require a technical degree – what they require is proof you can use the tools. That's what Adobe is puttin...

6. 

   S24 · E17 · 4 Sep 2026 · 18 min

   S24E17: 3 Weeks Before McKinsey and BCG – How Not to Burn Out

   Send us Fan Mail Langston got callbacks from McKinsey and BCG. His first instinct: 10 hours a day of studying for three weeks straight, a fast route to burnout. He'd applied to MBB once before and gotten nothing. But this time, two interviews landed in his inbox. Katie walked him off the cramming ledge and built a plan around the time he actually had. Three weeks is enough – if you spend it right. Resources: If your interview is in 3 weeks (or 3 days), Black Belt builds your plan around the t...

7. 

   S24 · E28 · 9 Oct 2026 · 34 minNew

   S24E28: Top 10 Healthcare Consulting Firms and Who Leads Each Segment

   Send us Fan Mail Almost every large consulting firm has a healthcare practice. Far fewer have a healthcare position. In this episode of The Briefing, Namaan breaks down our 2027 healthcare consulting research. The big finding is that healthcare consulting splits into two sides, care delivery and life sciences, and a firm that’s excellent at one is often absent from the other. So the question for any practice leader is which side your firm has built a position on. McKinsey, BCG, and Bain take ...

8. 

   S24 · E27 · 7 Oct 2026 · 8 min

   S24E27: Busted: The Online Assessment Isn't the Hardest Part of Recruiting

   Send us Fan Mail "I need to start prepping for the online assessment now, because it's the hardest part of getting an interview." Katie hears some version of this on her calls all the time, and it's easy to see why. The test can feel like a weird game you have no way to practice for, and it's the first thing standing between your application and an interview. So in our first episode of Case Busters, Katie puts it to the test. Should you really be grinding practice tests months before you appl...

9. 

   S24 · E26 · 2 Oct 2026 · 6 min

   S24E26: The 3-Part Case Interview Closing That Can Rescue Your Score

   Send us Fan Mail In most cases, your interviewer already knows how they'll score you by the time you reach the closing. But when it's a close one, the closing is the tiebreaker, and it can rescue your score. Namaan breaks down the 3 parts of a closing that works: the recap, the recommendation, and the risks and next steps. Practice it in every case, so the closing is ready to rescue your score when you need it. Resources: Start my free Case Foundations course – it covers all 5 core components...

10. 

    S24 · E25 · 1 Oct 2026 · 26 min

    S24E25: Ex-Deloitte and Bain Coach: Big 4 Interview Formats You Haven't Practiced

    Send us Fan Mail Big 4 interviews are around the corner – and most candidates need 6–8 weeks of prep to be ready. Mitali Jalan spent years at Deloitte and Bain, then coached 400+ candidates. She sees one gap sink strong applicants again and again: they practice 1-on-1 cases and never practice the other formats the Big 4 use. Think group cases, written cases, presentations, and AI-assisted or Excel cases. And behavioral prep matters just as much – at some firms, it carries equal weight to...

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