The following emails come from readers who have successfully landed internships at consulting firms all over the world. I hope that their stories will help you if you are in a similar situation.

Email:

I came across caseinterview.com a few months ago and I am very glad that I did. I have previously been interviewing with several of the big firms but without success (especially in the case interview part).

I just received an offer to join a European McKinsey office as an intern. Without the methods presented in your training videos and other material I doubt that I would have been able to get this offer. I am therefore very grateful that you have been providing the material on your site for free and will more than happily make a donation to www.kidpower.org .

My Reply:

Congratulations on your McKinsey internship offer!

Email:

I just got an offer for Associate Consultant Internship position with Bain, and I, like all your fans, would like to thank you for the online resources, tips and advice you have provided.

I look forward to your online seminar, and also the list of books you recommend new consultants to read.

With regards to the books you intend to recommend, I hope you could create a list by priority, if recommending just one book is not possible. =)

My Reply:

Congratulations on your Bain offer and I’m glad my resources were helpful to you.

I plan to organize my reading list into “core” books, books that all new consultants should read, and “supplemental” books, those books that might be worth reading depending on your particular area of focus.

Email:

I received today an internship offer from McKinsey in Paris after two rounds of interviews.

First, I wanted to thank you for the advice you gave in your 6 hour tutorials, and in all the great examples of cases you put on your website:

– I only had one week to prepare the first round, and another week before the second round.

The videos and a bit of preparation with a friend were exactly what I needed to prepare the interviews in such a short time.

– I used your frameworks for every case, and I followed your advices for the personal part of the interview.

Especially the advice about taking notes as if you were drawing a slide on powerpoint.

This trick really impressed the consultant, and it was very useful, during the interview, to return my pad to the consultant and explain him my reasoning.

Second, my business school does not have any class to teach those skills to the students. With my modest experience, I would like to follow your path and open a case interview association next year.

I hope I’ll be able to invite you to the campus to exchange with the wanna-be-consultant students from the school.

My Reply:

Congratulations on your McKinsey Offer.

I wanted to comment on your use of taking notes in an issue tree format and then turning around your note pad to show the interviewer and explain your thoughts.

(For more information on how to draw an issue tree diagram, see the samples in Look Over My Shoulder®.)

My first response when I read this was, “Yes, Yes, Yes!”

This works for the simple reason that it is what consultants do when in a working meeting with clients.

And once you start working at McKinsey, you will be doing this fairly regularly with your colleagues, the firm’s partners, as well as clients.

As consultants, we do this all the time. Sometimes it is on a pad of paper, other times it is on a whiteboard or flip chart.

So I’m not surprised the interviewer was impressed, though I am surprised more candidates don’t do this in interviews — but maybe given your email they will.

Email:

Thanks to your deliveries I got the Summer Intern offer at McKinsey in Shanghai. ?

Now I am really excited about the coming Mckinsey life and ambitious to make it through to a return offer for the full time job. I would love to hear any advice about how to make it happen in only two months, I mean, I’m probably younger than anyone else in the company, how do I get trusted in my very first project and make it in an upward stream?

Thank you again for your sharing of the case interview and I really appreciate that. Please let me know if you happen to come and visit China, I will be more than willing to be your guide!

My Reply:

Congratulations on the internship offer!

It takes about 8 hours to answer your question effectively. The short answer – no math mistakes, welcome suggestions on how to improve your performance, never verbally give a conclusion that isn’t factually supported.

I have recently released a new training program on this topic, specifically for interns to get full-time offers. For more information, see my video here: Consulting Internship Secrets Good luck!