Strategy Simplified
Strategy Simplified is here to demystify the consulting industry and help you land your dream job in management consulting. Hosted by the expert team at Management Consulted - the world's largest resource for consulting news and interview prep - each episode covers topics related to the consulting world, from interview preparation and case study techniques to networking strategies and industry trends. Whether you're just starting your career or looking to make a transition, Strategy Simplified is the go-to resource for anyone looking to break into the consulting industry. With actionable advice, insider tips, and real-life success stories, this podcast is...
S25E6: Busted: Casing Doesn’t Start When the Interview Invite Lands
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“I’ll start casing once I get an interview invite. No point prepping for an interview I might not get.”
Katie hears some version of this from candidates on her calls, and it’s easy to see why. The invite is uncertain, interviews feel far off, and your schedule is already packed with classes, club events, and coffee chats.
So in this episode of Case Busters, Katie puts it to the test. Should you really hold off on casing until the interview invite lands? And what if the invi...
S25E5: Bain Evaluates MBA Candidates Before Interview Invites Even Go Out
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Whether you’re targeting McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or Tier 2 / Big 4 strategy firms, your evaluation can start before interview invites even go out.
Many firms bring MBA candidates in for a group case or a 1-on-1 session first – the sessions are evaluative.
Maile Dyer, a former Bain manager and Chicago Booth MBA, went through one of these sessions as a first-year and later helped decide who got interviewed.
She joins the podcast to share how to prep for an evaluation that happens before the invite, and the...
S25E4: MBB Raised Starting Pay Even as AI Targets Junior Consulting Jobs
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AI was supposed to kill junior consulting jobs. Then McKinsey, BCG, and Bain raised starting pay to $120,000 for pre-MBA hires and $200,000 for post-MBA hires.
So why would 3 firms lock in higher base pay for junior consulting jobs?
And is the raise as big as it looks? Namaan shares his take, plus what it means if you’re an undergrad, an MBA, or an experienced hire.
The pay data behind it comes from candidates who shared their offers – listen, then add yours below.
Reso...
S25E3: Inside Healthcare Consulting: 2 Partners on AI, Specialists, and Hiring
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Ben van der Schaaf of Arthur D. Little and Stephane Budel of DeciBio land in the same place on AI – it makes everyone faster, but the experience to know which questions to ask is what clients still pay for.
Ben’s example: a colleague with 25 years in quality systems built a 17,000-line model over a weekend. Someone without those 25 years couldn’t have built it.
And that idea runs through the rest of the conversation: specialists are winning work against firms 50 times their size, clients want measurable outcomes over slide...
S25E2: Ex-Bain Consultant Coaches a Live Bain Case Interview, Step by Step
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Juliane Hoss spent 3 years at Bain, and she’s interviewed plenty of candidates since. In this live Bain case interview, she coaches Abhirav after every step.
The case: a UK healthcare consulting firm wants to double its revenue in 3 years. Abhirav, an engineer turned DJ turned finance student, solves it from clarifying questions to recommendation while Juliane coaches him.
But the moment that sticks isn’t a framework. Juliane says the question she and other interviewers keep coming back to is whether they’d want you on their team<...
S25E1: Mini Case Interviews at McKinsey, Bain, and BCG Explained
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Mini case interviews are often the first test you face at McKinsey, Bain, and BCG.
And if you’ve heard them called market sizing questions, you’ve already met the most common version.
But a mini case interview plays by different rules than a full case, and the interviewer isn’t going to guide you through it.
Namaan breaks down what to expect, how mini cases are scored, and how to finish one the right way.
Resources:
Want to know how you’d handle...S24E30: Why US Case Interview Prep Fails in European Consulting Interviews
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Most case interview prep is written for US interviews. If you’re recruiting for a European office, you’ll walk into a different interview than the one you practiced.
Laura Ackerman worked at McKinsey and BCG and has coached European candidates for 4 years. She breaks down where US prep falls short in European consulting interviews: the case formats, the case topics, and how conversational the fit interview gets.
And she shares how one client with a diplomacy background landed a McKinsey London offer after 10 coaching sessions in 1 month.
S24E29: Bain Interviews Have Different Rules – Here’s How to Prep
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Bain interviews have different rules, and Abi Chen spent 6 years at the firm learning them from the inside.
As a former Bain manager and now an MC coach, she interviewed candidates and helped decide who got an invite. So she knows where strong candidates lose ground.
In this episode, she walks through 4 of those mistakes – and what to do instead so you can get your offer.
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Practicing cases but can’t tell what’s holding you back? See how Black Belt coaching works – 1-on-1 wi...S24E28: Top 10 Healthcare Consulting Firms and Who Leads Each Segment
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Almost every large consulting firm has a healthcare practice. Far fewer have a healthcare position.
In this episode of The Briefing, Namaan breaks down our 2027 healthcare consulting research.
The big finding is that healthcare consulting splits into two sides, care delivery and life sciences, and a firm that’s excellent at one is often absent from the other.
So the question for any practice leader is which side your firm has built a position on.
McKinsey, BCG, and Bain take the top three spots. See wh...
S24E27: Busted: The Online Assessment Isn't the Hardest Part of Recruiting
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"I need to start prepping for the online assessment now, because it's the hardest part of getting an interview."
Katie hears some version of this on her calls all the time, and it's easy to see why. The test can feel like a weird game you have no way to practice for, and it's the first thing standing between your application and an interview.
So in our first episode of Case Busters, Katie puts it to the test. Should you really be grinding practice tests months before...
S24E26: The 3-Part Case Interview Closing That Can Rescue Your Score
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In most cases, your interviewer already knows how they'll score you by the time you reach the closing. But when it's a close one, the closing is the tiebreaker, and it can rescue your score.
Namaan breaks down the 3 parts of a closing that works: the recap, the recommendation, and the risks and next steps.
Practice it in every case, so the closing is ready to rescue your score when you need it.
Resources:
Start my free Case Foundations course – it covers all 5 core co...S24E25: Ex-Deloitte and Bain Coach: Big 4 Interview Formats You Haven't Practiced
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Big 4 interviews are around the corner – and most candidates need 6–8 weeks of prep to be ready.
Mitali Jalan spent years at Deloitte and Bain, then coached 400+ candidates. She sees one gap sink strong applicants again and again: they practice 1-on-1 cases and never practice the other formats the Big 4 use.
Think group cases, written cases, presentations, and AI-assisted or Excel cases.
And behavioral prep matters just as much – at some firms, it carries equal weight to the case.
So if your interview is coming...
S24E24: 80% of AI Projects Fail. These 2 Firms Explain Why.
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80% of AI projects fail.
Only 10 to 20% of enterprise AI pilots reach production, and 2 firms break down why.
Ugo Philippart of Emerton Data calls his firm the fire squad companies phone after an AI project has failed. Damien Chan of Adastra says over 75% of its pilots make it.
Both measure performance from day 1. Most teams wait until a system is underperforming. That gap turns a pilot into a failed project.
And if you want a career in consulting, this is what the work looks like. 80% of...
S24E23: 3 Case Interview Math Mistakes That Cost You the McKinsey Offer
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Midway through a practice case, one of George Cary's clients did the math and said 90,000 when he meant 900,000. George didn't care.
After 5 years and 100+ interviews at McKinsey, George will tell you the right answer is the bare minimum.
The offer comes from how you got there and what the answer means for the client.
In this episode, he walks through the 3 case math mistakes that cost strong candidates the offer, even with the math right. If case math is the part you dread, all 3 are...
S24E22: Ex-McKinsey Coach Says This Case Passes Round 1
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Divya spent 8 years at McKinsey. She sat down with Sanya, a senior at Penn, and ran a case with her, live.
Divya told her afterward it would've passed a McKinsey Round 1.
Listen to learn how Sanya did it – built her structure, worked the math, and landed on a recommendation.
Then Divya breaks down what worked and what she'd tighten up.
Resources:
Bates White is hiring undergrad summer consultants for 2027 and economists for PhD candidates – apply hereWant this type of feedback from an ex-McKi...S24E21: Why Consulting Demand Is Outpacing Every Firm's Hiring Plan
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Over half the firms in our latest consulting industry survey said demand is outpacing their ability to hire and deliver. Healthcare, energy, PE – the same story across the board.
The bottleneck is capacity. Firms can't staff fast enough to keep up with the work already in their pipeline.
And that reshapes the picture for mid-market firms getting squeezed from both sides and the candidates those firms are fighting over.
We cover:
Why buyers want the full economics of AI before they sign – and what firms need to p...S24E20: Case Competition Applications Close Sunday at Midnight
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Applications for the Case Competition World Cup close this Sunday, September 13, at 11:59pm PT.
APPLY NOW
More information:
Undergraduate Track, presented by Grant Thornton StaxGraduate Track, presented by AdobeThis is an opportunity to get in front of top employers, including Accenture, EY-Parthenon, KPMG, Kearney, Charles River Associates, OC&C Strategy Consultants, and more.
Connect With Management Consulted
Create a free MC account or download the MC app (Apple, Android) to start your prep todaySchedule aS24E19: Why BCG Is Racing to Hire Forward Deployed Engineers
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BCG is racing to hire forward deployed engineers – and the application window closes September 17.
This year's pay range for campus hires is $110,000 to $190,000, up from $110,000 to $160,000 last year. Same job, new title, $30,000 more at the top of the range.
Big Tech has cut entry-level hiring by more than half since 2019, opening a window for BCG to hire AI talent it usually couldn't afford. That window won't stay open forever.
But BCG isn't the only firm racing through it. McKinsey and Deloitte are already building similar te...
S24E18: Deloitte, PwC, and 4,500 Firms Can't Find Adobe Talent
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Deloitte, PwC, IBM, and 4,500 other companies use Adobe Experience Cloud products.
And they can't find enough people who know how to implement them.
Nick Hilton, Tyler Tu, and Brian Au from Adobe's Customer Experience Certifications team named the Adobe jobs they're struggling to fill: MarTech analysts, implementation consultants, solution architects.
None of them require a technical degree – what they require is proof you can use the tools.
That's what Adobe is putting in front of graduate students this fall in the Case Competition World Cup...
S24E17: 3 Weeks Before McKinsey and BCG – How Not to Burn Out
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Langston got callbacks from McKinsey and BCG. His first instinct: 10 hours a day of studying for three weeks straight, a fast route to burnout.
He'd applied to MBB once before and gotten nothing. But this time, two interviews landed in his inbox.
Katie walked him off the cramming ledge and built a plan around the time he actually had. Three weeks is enough – if you spend it right.
Resources:
If your interview is in 3 weeks (or 3 days), Black Belt builds your plan around the ti...S24E16: AI Took the Grunt Work – Consultants Are Getting Promoted Faster
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Paul Edwards has led more than 1,000 private equity deals. AI took the grunt work, and now Stax consultants are getting promoted faster.
He leads the PE practice at Grant Thornton Stax. Inside the firm, that's 3 to 4 more projects a year for every consultant.
But the one thing AI still can't do, he says, is teach curiosity. You either bring it or you don't.
That's the exact bar Stax is judging this fall in the Case Competition World Cup Undergraduate Track – free to...
S24E15: McKinsey's Cases Are Interviewer-Led – Most Candidates Practice the Wrong Way
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Most consulting interviews let you drive the case. McKinsey doesn't.
McKinsey is one of the only firms that runs interviewer-led cases – the interviewer leads the case, not you.
So candidates who prep the way BCG or Bain expects walk in ready for the wrong format.
And the case is only half your score – the PEI (Personal Experience Interview) is the other half.
Ex-McKinsey coach Mark Di Giorgio breaks down why the interviewer-led format catches strong candidates off guard, how to build your PEI story bank, plus...
S24E14: Why McKinsey Asks up to 25 Follow-Up Questions in the PEI
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Most candidates prep for the McKinsey PEI like a regular behavioral interview.
McKinsey built it to do more than that. One story, and up to 25 follow-up questions testing whether what you said the first time still holds.
That's why memorized answers fall apart under the PEI. Scripted stories crack under repeated follow-ups. The ones that hold up are built to survive being asked the same thing five different ways.
In this episode, Namaan breaks down the four traits McKinsey scores in the PEI and how to build s...
S24E13: Top 10 AI Consulting Firms and the Hire They All Want
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Every firm on our new 2027 Top Enterprise AI Consulting Firms ranking wants to hire the same person right now. And none of them can find them.
Namaan calls it the unicorn hire: technical enough to deploy AI, business-minded enough to define the problem, and clear enough to explain it to a non-technical client.
That's the same skill behind telling deployment from transformation, the mistake costing firms deals right now.
The people who can spot that difference are the ones every firm wants, and t...
S24E12: A McKinsey Coach's Playbook for Winning Case Competitions
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Last year, 500 students on 100 teams competed in the Case Competition World Cup. Before they saw the case, coach Divya – 8 years at McKinsey – taught them the first move that separates winning teams from the rest.
It's the day 1 answer: a hypothesis you lock in before you have the data, even though it feels premature. But skip it, and teams start boiling the ocean – expanding the question until there's no path left to a real recommendation.
This fall, the competition returns with two tracks – undergraduate, presented by Grant Thornton Stax, an...
S24E11: Inside Private Equity Consulting: AI Bets, Harder Exits, and Real Diligence
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A private equity firm bought a paint company. Turned out their sales reps were handing out 50% discounts to any contractor who asked nicely.
That's the kind of blind spot 3 PE leaders talk through in this episode – what actually happens once a private equity deal gets underway.
Carl Evander (OC&C), Sean McDevitt (Arthur D. Little), and Dave Clement (Simon-Kucher) break down how a deal actually gets picked, checked out, and sold for a profit.
You'll learn:
S24E10: The Toothbrush Test: Why Most Case Frameworks Fail at MBB
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If your case framework doesn't pass the toothbrush test, it's too generic for McKinsey, Bain, and BCG.
Ex-Bain coach Abi Chen walks through the toothbrush test, the 3 mistakes that cost most candidates their offer, and the 4-step process to build strong frameworks.
Finally, she walks through two full framework examples – an M&A case and a pharma product launch.
Resources:
If your frameworks keep failing the toothbrush test, Black Belt is how you fix the processWant to build a framework like this on a re...S24E9: Inside a Bates White Economic Consulting Case Interview
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Bates White let us inside a real economic consulting case interview.
Annie Olecki, a senior consultant in Bates White's antitrust practice, ran a live case interview with a volunteer from the MC community. And economic consulting cases don't look like the strategy cases at McKinsey or Bain.
The case: a phone manufacturer suing its battery suppliers for price-fixing. The candidate has to size the damages, then revise the number - twice - as new evidence shifts the picture.
That's the instinct Bates White is testing for. Annie...
S24E8: Top 10 Private Equity Consulting Firms and the Sameness Problem
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Namaan talked to dozens of PE practice leaders for our 2026 ranking. Almost every one said the same three things: 1) Cross-practice integration. 2) Strategy through execution. 3) Deep sector expertise.
Strip the logo off 7 of 10 firms and you can't tell them apart. That's the sameness problem.
And it's expensive. Sponsors stop evaluating and default to relationships, brand, and price instead.
On this episode of The Briefing, Namaan breaks down what the standout firms did differently.
Resources:
Management Consulted's full research is in the 2026 Top Private E...S24E7: MBA Case Prep in 2–4 Weeks: An Ex-Bain Interviewer's Plan
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Most 2nd-year MBA candidates have 2 to 4 weeks to get case interview-ready this cycle, not the usual 6 to 8.
More cases won't close that gap for McKinsey, Bain, and BCG.
Former Bain interviewer and LBS MBA Mitali Jalan compressed her prep into under 4 weeks and landed her offer. This session is her plan for doing it on a short runway.
The fix isn't more volume. It's knowing what to drill, and when. Listen for:
Mitali's 4-step sequence for compressing 6 to 8 weeks of prep into 2 to 4Why 30 cases with...S24E6: McKinsey Solve Game 2026: What It Is and How to Prepare
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McKinsey screens candidates with a video game – McKinsey Solve – before they ever see a case interview. Most candidates either try to copy other people's answers or panic because they don't know what it's measuring.
So here's the breakdown: what Solve is, what McKinsey is testing for inside it, and how to approach it.
The answer isn't Solve-specific prep. It's the same problem-solving fundamentals that carry you through the entire McKinsey recruiting process.
We cover:
What the Solve scenarios look like and how the timing worksThe 5 cognitive abil...S24E5: McKinsey Case Interview Example: Electric Truck Market Entry
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George Cary spent five years as a McKinsey EM. In this live case, he coaches candidate Harvey through a real McKinsey market entry study: should a diesel truck manufacturer build and sell electric trucks.
Harvey builds a framework, runs the full cost-of-ownership math, and lands a final recommendation. George pauses after every section to break down good vs. great in real time.
You'll learn:
Why McKinsey calls it "problem solving," not casing – and the vocabulary that signals you already think like a consultantHow Harvey turns a good, structured fr...S24E4: She Bombed MBB Her First Try – Then Landed 2 Offers the Next Time
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Sharon had everything going for her. Top-tier MBA. MBB interview invites across the board.
She'd done 50–60 cases – but didn't make it past a single first round.
What held her back wasn't her profile. It was her approach.
So she came back the next year when the stakes were even higher. This time, she did it differently – and landed McKinsey and Bain.
Katie breaks down what shifted and what re-recruiters (and first-timers who want to avoid the same trap) can take from Sharon's story<...
S24E3: 3 Questions That Kill Your Case Interview Opening
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"Any other objectives?" sounds polite. But in a case interview opening, it costs you points.
Namaan breaks down the 3 questions that kill candidates in the first 2 minutes of a case.
The case opening is the first section that gets scored. And it's nearly identical every single time.
So if there's one part of the case you can walk in ready for, it's this one. Get the opening right, and the rest of the case gets easier.
Resources:
If you struggle...S24E2: How Consulting Firms Really Score Case Interviews
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You can nail every case you practice and still get rejected.
That's because firms aren't grading you on vibes. McKinsey scores you piece by piece – opening, structure, math, brainstorming, closing. Other firms use 3 buckets instead: structure, problem solving, communication.
Either way, a 4 out of 4 in math won't save a 1 out of 4 in brainstorming. Firms want you solid across the board.
In this episode, Namaan breaks down exactly what's being scored – and why doing 100 more practice cases won't fix a gap you haven't identified.
S24E1: The Hottest Consulting Sectors to Target in 2026
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McKinsey is making 12% more hires this year than last. But the jobs aren't going to the same profile of candidate.
Energy and utilities is projected to grow 11% in 2026 – one of the least sexy practices in consulting, and one of the hottest right now. Healthcare, private equity, and consumer/retail are all shifting too.
If you're aiming at the wrong sector or the wrong skill set, you're competing for the smallest slice of the market.
Namaan breaks down where the hiring is concentrated, which skills fi...
S23E30: Top 10 Retail Consulting Firms and the 4 Lanes Reshaping the Market
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Consumer and retail consulting used to be one market. Now it's 4.
Each lane pulls a different lever – growth, margin, or talent. Firms that used to compete on "we do consumer and retail" are getting picked apart by specialists who can prove which lever they actually move.
In this episode of The Briefing, Japheth sits down with Namaan to break down the 4 lanes reshaping a $70B market, why AI stopped being enough on its own, and why private equity's longer hold periods are turning growth and profitability into the same co...
S23E29: How to Build Business Acumen for Consulting
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Building business judgment is learnable – most candidates just go about it the wrong way.
Tauseef Charanya spent 10 years at BCG, conducted over 300 case interviews, and coached hundreds of candidates through the process.
In this episode, he explains what business acumen actually looks like in a case interview, why work experience alone doesn't build it, and the 4 layers you need to hit to get an offer.
Resources:
If you're ready to work on your business acumen with an MBB coach, Black Belt is the program bui...S23E28: How to Use AI in Case Prep (And How Not To)
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Using AI for case prep? For most candidates, it's costing them the offer.
McKinsey and Bain are already grading how you use AI in interviews this cycle.
Most candidates ask AI for answers, skip the hypothesis, and accept whatever it hands back. That skips the exact skill firms are testing: how you think through a problem, not just the answer you get to.
In this episode, Namaan breaks down the 3 AI case prep mistakes, and the right way to use it like a directed junior analyst instead.<...
S23E27: Former BCG Consultant Runs a Live Higher Education Case Interview
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This episode is presented by Bates White, one of the world's top economic consulting firms. If you're an undergraduate rising junior (Class of 2028), Bates White internship applications open in August. Learn more.
Consulting firms are moving towards non-traditional cases. They want to see if you can think, not just if you've memorized a framework.
This one is a BCG-style case built around two universities launching a joint degree from zero.
Ex-BCG coach Yusuf Shaikh runs candidate Wasif through it live – the structure, the math behind a 24...
