Author: Florian Smeritschnig

Illustration of a management consultant standing with a briefcase overflowing with money in front of a city skyline, with business travelers at an airport, rising financial charts, a chessboard on a desk, and a boardroom meeting in the background, symbolizing high consulting salaries and high-pressure decision making.

Why Management Consultants Are High Earners

Management consulting is consistently one of the highest-paying careers in the corporate world. Entry-level consultants at top firms earn salaries that exceed many senior industry roles, while partners can make multiple millions per year. But high pay is not primarily about prestige. It is a function of economic value, scarcity of talent, and extreme working…
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Human consultant and humanoid robot touching fingertips in a modern office, symbolizing collaboration between artificial intelligence and junior consultants.

Artificial Intelligence and Junior Consultants: How Recruiting, Training, and Work are Changing

Between efficiency promises and reality Artificial intelligence is widely regarded as the most significant transformation of consulting work in recent decades. Within just a few years, large language models have entered everyday project work, from market analyses and presentation drafts to internal knowledge databases. Hardly any other technology has been rolled out so quickly and…
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Cover image for an article on the McKinsey AI Interview, showing a robotic hand reaching toward a network of digital nodes, with the title “The McKinsey AI Interview” and the StrategyCase.com logo.

McKinsey AI Interview: What It Is, How It Works, and What It Means for Candidates

McKinsey & Company is quietly piloting a new interview component that reflects a deeper shift in how consulting work is done: the McKinsey AI Interview. Based on recent feedback from my MBA coaching clients in the U.S., candidates in select U.S. offices are now being asked to collaborate live with McKinsey’s internal AI platform, Lilli,…
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Yellow dart hitting close to the bullseye on a black-and-white target, symbolizing precision and the difference between success and failure in case interview preparation.

Why Some Candidates Get MBB Offers — And Others Don’t

The Hidden Difference Between Success and Failure Case interviews don’t reward hours logged. They reward how you prepare, how you think, and how deliberately you build the skills firms actually test. Every season, you’ll find two candidates who both grind through their case prep, read the same books, and block out the same study hours.…
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cover for an article on the best case interview books ranked

Best Case Interview Books 2026: 9 Ranked by an Ex-McKinsey Consultant

The best case interview books for 2026 are The 1%: Conquer Your Consulting Case Interview (modern theory) and The 1%: Case Interview Workbook (realistic practice cases). Case Interview Secrets by Victor Cheng remains a useful starter, while Case in Point by Marc Cosentino is the book I’d actively warn you away from. Its framework recitation…
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