Case Interview Secrets: A Former McKinsey Interviewer Reveals How to Get Multiple Job Offers in Consulting

This author should be getting paid by the firms who hire users of this book. The reader will indeed hit the ground running on day one as an consultant.Before you even begin to read - the author offers bonus tools that will assist the reader with achieving their objectives. Additionally, current informative feedback from former readers of the book are inspirational for the consultant job hunter.This book is a great tool for anyone who wants to get over the hurdles. It is alarming how many minutes it takes to actually knock yourself out of a job opportunity. The author states that " the interview is essentially over even before it has begun"; this reveals how critical it is to answer case questions.The best quote for a job seeker " the candidate who stands out the most in an interview is the one who acts like a consultant already." This book will get you there. He will show you a core problem solving tool that can be used during an interview as well as on the job.This book has ample examples that will get you through the interview process. You can't put a price on the value of information that you will learn to enhance your own career.The author emphasis is that "if you hate case interviews then you likely will hate the job."Other items worth mentioning"Chp 6 - (A Gem) What every interviewer looks for and why. . .Chp 11 - synthesis has a powerhouse of information that gets you closer to the offer letter.CHP 24 - leads you to How to get multiple Job offers - The Benchmark of hours practice for success.

After trying to prepare with Case In Point and various other materials, I still didn't know what I was doing; practice cases with current and former consultants were average at best, and I somehow never seemed to really understand most of the feedback.I found Victor's site via a google research, and immediately spent hours perusing the many free articles and watching his 6hour video; next step was purchasing his LOMS (Look Over My Shoulder) product, about 20 hours worth of audio cases + comments where you hear Victor grill and dissect CIB (Case Interview Beginners)'s performance. Listening to this about 5 times (i.e., about 100 hours worth of work right there) really took my performance to the next level; a couple more practice cases just before my interviews convinced me that I was ready.I have the kindle version of this book, and could see immediately it was the same high quality stuff that Victor has gotten me used to; I am actually buying the paper version as well just to be able to put my hands on it at all times.What is Victor's secret? He explains what to do, then shows us why that's working AND shows us why not doing it leads to failure (e.g., start with a hypothesis, explain the structure & why you each piece will help confirm the hypothesis (or not); do regular interim conclusions as you move from one part of the case to another; start the final conclusion with the answer before the rationale... all things that really make sense but typical applicants don't do. I know I didn't! Oh - and how do I know it works? I've successfully passed all 6 case interviews I've taken since then :)

Quick note - this book has 4.7 out of 5 stars, with 81/101 full 5 star reviews - very high for any book on Amazon. This book was also distributed for a short time for free to the author's email list subscribers, which I also benefited from. I tend to think that many of those high reviews are a directly related to that fact and if you read through, many have little actual comment on the content.That being said, this is a quality book with a lot of useful information to anyone interested in consulting and preparing for a case interview. The author's website (caseinterview.com) also has a good amount of free information about case interviews, application tips, and consulting work/lifestyle. I think it is a great idea to read it thoroughly if you're serious about this kind of work, because it is very competitive and competition can be fierce. But the "secrets" that Cheng claims to have are nothing groundbreaking or new - its the same stuff as in Case in Point and any other case interview book. His approach might be a little more unique and easier to follow, but there isn't much new and it certainly doesn't live up to the absurd claims in the description.Worth the $20? Maybe, as the difference between getting a top tier offer and a mid level firm offer is tens of thousands of dollars. But can you do just fine and rock a BCG, Bain, or McKinsey interview without this book? Of course. Ultimately, whether or not you get the offer is going to depend on: your background, your actual true interest in consulting, and your performance. This book may help your performance in the case interview, but practicing - with current consultants, and with colleagues - is the only way to improve yourself. Having a general understanding of the process and how to approach an issue and frame it is necessary and it will give you that, but its not a magic ticket in.