By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant · Updated June 2026 Most experienced hires walk into the case interview assuming their track record will carry them. It won’t. The case interview for experienced hires runs to a higher bar than the entry-level version, with less margin for error and less hand-holding, and it rejects more…
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Updated July 2026. By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant. Consulting terms and jargon are the shorthand management consultants use to move fast: terms like MECE, deck, deliverable, boiling the ocean, and buy-in that pack a whole idea into two words. You do not need to memorize all of it to break into consulting. But…
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By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant · Updated July 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…
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Updated June 2026 · By Florian Smeritschnig, Former McKinsey Senior Consultant Post-interview thank-you notes in consulting will not win you any offers, and they will not rescue a weak interview performance. In structured recruiting at McKinsey, BCG, and Bain, your result is decided in a scored debrief among the people who evaluated you, usually within…
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Updated July 2026 · By Florian Smeritschnig, Former McKinsey Senior Consultant The MBB consulting ban period (also called the “cool-off period” or “reapplication policy”) is the time you must wait after a rejection before applying again to the same firm. McKinsey enforces a 18-24-month ban. BCG enforces 12 months for undergraduate / Master’s candidates and…
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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.
