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

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1. 

   S24 · E20 · 11 Sep 2026 · 3 min

   S24E20: Case Competition Applications Close Sunday at Midnight

   Send us Fan Mail Applications for the Case Competition World Cup close this Sunday, September 13, at 11:59pm PT. APPLY NOW More information: Undergraduate Track, presented by Grant Thornton StaxGraduate Track, presented by AdobeThis is an opportunity to get in front of top employers, including Accenture, EY-Parthenon, KPMG, Kearney, Charles River Associates, OC&C Strategy Consultants, and more. Connect With Management Consulted Create a free MC account or download the MC app (Apple,...

2. 

   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...

3. 

   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...

4. 

   S24 · E16 · 2 Sep 2026 · 46 min

   S24E16: AI Took the Grunt Work – Consultants Are Getting Promoted Faster

   Send us Fan Mail Paul Edwards has led more than 1,000 private equity deals. AI took the grunt work, and now Stax consultants are getting promoted faster. He leads the PE practice at Grant Thornton Stax. Inside the firm, that's 3 to 4 more projects a year for every consultant. But the one thing AI still can't do, he says, is teach curiosity. You either bring it or you don't. That's the exact bar Stax is judging this fall in the Case Competition World Cup Undergraduate Track – free to enter, te...

5. 

   S24 · E15 · 1 Sep 2026 · 41 min

   S24E15: McKinsey's Cases Are Interviewer-Led – Most Candidates Practice the Wrong Way

   Send us Fan Mail Most consulting interviews let you drive the case. McKinsey doesn't. McKinsey is one of the only firms that runs interviewer-led cases – the interviewer leads the case, not you. So candidates who prep the way BCG or Bain expects walk in ready for the wrong format. And the case is only half your score – the PEI (Personal Experience Interview) is the other half. Ex-McKinsey coach Mark Di Giorgio breaks down why the interviewer-led format catches strong candidates off guard, how...

6. 

   S24 · E14 · 28 Aug 2026 · 12 min

   S24E14: Why McKinsey Asks up to 25 Follow-Up Questions in the PEI

   Send us Fan Mail Most candidates prep for the McKinsey PEI like a regular behavioral interview. McKinsey built it to do more than that. One story, and up to 25 follow-up questions testing whether what you said the first time still holds. That's why memorized answers fall apart under the PEI. Scripted stories crack under repeated follow-ups. The ones that hold up are built to survive being asked the same thing five different ways. In this episode, Namaan breaks down the four traits McKin...

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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