By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant · Updated June 2026 Yes, you can join McKinsey, BCG, or Bain as an experienced hire, and a large, growing share of every office is exactly that. You apply laterally, outside the campus cycle, and you enter at a level set by your experience: roughly the post-MBA Consultant…
Read more
The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a widely recognized standardized exam designed not only for those seeking admission to esteemed business schools but also for individuals preparing for consulting aptitude and recruitment tests. A critical part of this test, the GMAT Critical Reasoning section, is particularly useful for honing essential skills that are pivotal…
Read more
The GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) is not only a valuable tool for those seeking to gain admission into top business schools but also serves as an effective resource for those preparing for consulting aptitude and recruitment tests, such as the BCG Online Case, BCG Cognitive Test, the Bain SOVA, TestGorilla, the Kearney Recruitment Test,…
Read more
Updated June 2026 · By Florian Smeritschnig, Former McKinsey Senior Consultant The BCG Real Life interview is an experiential, role-play round used mainly in Boston Consulting Group‘s German-speaking offices, where the interviewer acts out a realistic work situation, a tense client, a frustrated teammate, a skeptical partner, and you have to handle it live, in…
Read more
By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant · Updated June 2026 The Pyramid Principle is a top-down communication method created by Barbara Minto at McKinsey: you lead with your main answer (the governing thought), support it with three or four grouped arguments, and back each argument with evidence. Instead of walking the listener through your…
Read more
Florian spent five years at McKinsey as a Senior Consultant and is a highly experienced consulting interviewer and problem-solving coach. Having conducted interviews with hundreds of candidates, he understands exactly what top-tier firms look for in successful applicants.
He founded StrategyCase.com to make top consulting careers more accessible by providing tailored, up-to-date insights into the recruiting process. Recognized as the most successful case and fit interview coach, Florian has helped his clients secure 700+ offers at MBB, Tier-2 firms, Big 4 consulting divisions, in-house consultancies, and boutique firms over the past four years.
He is the author of “The 1%: Conquer Your Consulting Case Interview,” “The 1%: Case Interview Workbook,” and “Consulting Career Secrets”, all available on Amazon.
