When Preparation Misses the Mark: The Gap Between Applicants and Consulting Firms

Last Updated on November 4, 2025

As a former McKinsey consultant and now a career coach, I have prepared hundreds of candidates for their consulting interviews in recent years and run through more than 2,000 practice cases. I have been closely observing the consulting market since 2013 and, in particular, the recruiting machinery of the top firms: first as a candidate submitting my own applications, later as a consultant, and today as a coach.

During this time, I have noticed the same pattern again and again: many highly qualified and talented candidates do not fail due to a lack of effort or intelligence, but because they prepare the wrong way.

The core problem is a fundamental gap between how most candidates prepare for interviews and what consulting firms actually expect – and what they really test.

Explaining the Gap in Case Interview Preparation

Most applicants still follow outdated “playbooks” – traditional books, guides, and frameworks. These come either from external career advisors who have never worked in consulting themselves, or from former consultants who left the industry before the turn of the millennium – more than 25 years ago.

These guides reduce complex business problems to formulaic framework templates and largely ignore key components of case interviews, such as hypothesis-driven thinking, creativity, synthesis, insight generation through qualitative and quantitative analysis, or clear communication.

They also convey the impression that there is a limited number of standard case types that get repeated in interviews. Anyone relying solely on this idea ends up training in the wrong direction and develops a mechanical approach that does not stand out in today’s case interviews and rarely leads to success.

These traditional suggestions went unquestioned for a long time simply because there were no alternatives. The content was copied by online platforms, blogs, and copycat authors without validation and has therefore become deeply ingrained in the minds of applicants.

For many generations of candidates, it was the only resource they could access.

At the same time, as an outsider, you do not have real insight into what is actually required. Often you only realize in the interview itself how inadequate your preparation was when what you learned does not help you – and then it is already too late. This fate has hit the majority of applicants over the past 15 years, reflected in hiring rates of around 1 percent at top firms.

Most people fail; and yet continue to recommend the very resources that set them up for failure. A perpetuum mobile.

If you speak to successful applicants and today’s consultants, you almost always hear the same thing: the commonly used materials were not particularly helpful. Many had to figure out their approach to preparation themselves – away from the classical advice. This “survival of the fittest” among candidates mirrors a key trait of strong consultants: they approach problems differently than the majority, and it is precisely this ability that enables them to succeed in a highly competitive recruiting process.

The Consequence: Why Most People Fail

With the wrong preparation approach, interview prep becomes a numbers game and a matter of misplaced priorities: candidates focus on the number of cases they need to do and the different case types they think they must memorize. One of the most common questions I hear from new clients is “How many cases should I do and which ones?” – not “What exactly should I learn and why?”

As a result, candidates repeatedly make the same mistakes because they

• train the wrong skills
• practice with the wrong materials

Instead of first learning the fundamental case skills properly, they “grind” one standard case after another without ever building true competence. Learning by doing only works if you first understand what you are supposed to do.

The result: enormous effort – the average MBB candidate invests around 100 hours into interview prep – but limited progress, often accompanied by mounting frustration and insecurity as the interview approaches.

What Consulting Firms Actually Test

Consulting interviews are not about memorized frameworks, rigid structures, or repetitive problem types. Interviewers want to see how candidates think and solve problems on the spot.

At the core, the following skills are assessed:

• structured problem diagnosis
• analytical sharpness
• quantitative thinking
• sound judgment and common sense
• clear and confident communication

It is explicitly not about what you already know – such as industry-specific or technical knowledge – but how you approach unfamiliar problems, analyze them, and solve them in a structured way, while communicating confidently, logically, and clearly.

Today, the focus is on creative, individualized scenarios, deliberately avoiding plug-and-play or cookie-cutter cases that older sources imply.

The Solution: Smarter Preparation

Success does not come from adding more study hours or completing as many cases as possible. What matters is a thoughtful and targeted approach.

First, candidates need a strong foundation: they must understand which skills are truly assessed in the interview and why these skills matter in consulting practice.

From there, it is about using the right methods to systematically develop those skills step by step. This includes effective theory instruction, tailored practice drills to address weaknesses and build strengths, partner practice with constructive feedback, and high-quality cases that reflect real business situations and current interview trends.

For example: instead of practicing the tenth market entry case, a better exercise could be driving CO₂ reduction in a complex supply chain. Or instead of a standard profitability case, focusing on AI-based optimization of the customer experience. These topics are not only closer to today’s consulting reality (and interviews) – they also require broader thinking, creativity, and the ability to connect multiple perspectives.

Ultimately, one principle matters above all: quality over quantity. Fewer, carefully selected, and deeply practiced exercises combined with structured reflection will deliver far more progress than endlessly grinding standard cases without a system.

Case interview prep works like strength training: without proper fundamentals, technique, and strategy, there is no sustainable progress. Chances are that without all those things, you will get hurt in the process.

The Market Is Adapting

When I started, my goal was to help candidates break away from outdated preparation approaches and learn the right way – with the aim of making the playing field fairer and more transparent. Too many talented and motivated young people have failed in the past because they relied on the wrong advice.

There is enormous potential in helping applicants build the relevant skills in a targeted way so they have a real chance in the selection process. Proper preparation is not a numbers game, but a deliberate process of building capability.

This shift in perspective not only leads to more job offers but also produces stronger and more confident future consultants – candidates who already demonstrate in the interview that they bring the capabilities that truly matter in consulting. It is encouraging to see that the global preparation landscape is slowly but steadily moving in the right direction and that there is now a growing number of insider-driven resources that allow candidates to prepare more purposefully and effectively.

At the same time, many consulting firms have responded after seeing too many poorly prepared candidates. McKinsey, for example, now offers group and one-on-one coaching before interviews, while BCG provides access to online case-prep platforms.

The message is clear: this is not how we work – here is what we actually look for.

May this message continue to spread. Future applicants will benefit greatly from it.