Blog posts

Cover image for Roland Berger Consulting article showing consultants in a Berlin boardroom, emphasizing why the European MBB is often underestimated by US candidates.

Roland Berger Consulting: The European MBB Most US Candidates Underestimate

If you’re applying from the US, Roland Berger probably hasn’t appeared once in your interview prep stack. If you’re applying from Munich, Frankfurt, Vienna, or Zurich, it’s a top target firm. That asymmetry isn’t a market mistake. It’s a 60-year story about how the only globally significant strategy consulting firm founded outside the US built…
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Cover image showing consultants discussing compensation data, global salary differences, and MBA pay in a modern boardroom for a Kearney salary guide.

Kearney Salary 2026: Why MBA Pay Tops $288K (And Where the Geography Bites)

The high end of Kearney‘s post-MBA compensation reaches roughly $288,000 in total cash, placing the firm among the highest-paying consulting firms at the MBA-entry level — alongside Bain, AlixPartners, and Alvarez & Marsal, and ahead of EY-Parthenon, Strategy&, and most of Big 4 strategy. That number surprises candidates who still treat Kearney as a tier-2…
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Cover image showing two consulting interview scenes side by side, representing the comparison of Kearney vs McKinsey across culture, history, and career paths.

Kearney vs McKinsey 2026: The Siblings That Diverged for 80 Years

Kearney and McKinsey share a 1926 ancestor. Tom Kearney was the first partner James O. McKinsey hired, and after McKinsey died in 1937, the firm split into pieces. Marvin Bower took one piece and built the McKinsey & Company we know today. Tom Kearney took another piece and renamed it A.T. Kearney in 1947. Eight…
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Cover image showing consultants reviewing candidate profiles and a recruiting funnel, illustrating the Kearney application process, filters, and disqualifiers.

Kearney Application 2026: The Funnel, The Filters, The Silent Disqualifiers

The Kearney application funnel runs four stages and rejects somewhere between 95% and 98% of applicants depending on the office. Most candidates fixate on the case interview because that’s the most-discussed stage. The honest reality: the case interview rejects fewer candidates than the application screen and the Kearney Recruitment Test combined. Most rejections happen before…
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Cover image showing a consultant explaining Kearney case interview archetypes on a whiteboard with charts, illustrating structured Kearney case interview preparation.

Kearney Case Interview 2026: The 4 Archetypes That Cover 80% of Cases

A Kearney case interview is candidate-led, runs 25-40 minutes, and skews heavily toward operations, procurement, and supply chain. Roughly 80% of cases I’ve seen Kearney deliver across coached candidates fall into one of four archetypes. If you can recognize the archetype in the first minute, your structure choice and analytical priorities are already set. If…
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