Don’t Walk Into a Consulting Interview Without Reading These 2 Things

“How many lightbulbs are there in Manhattan?”

This is a common type of question you’ll have to tackle in a consulting interview (and they get even harder). Consulting interviews — especially those at top firms like Bain, McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group — are known to make candidates wrack their brains to come up with their best-educated guess to off-the-wall questions and cases. As intimidating as these interviews may seem, with enough pre-interview study time, you’ll be firing on all cylinders. So, how can you best prepare for expecting the unexpected? Simple: You religiously read the two items in the list below.

1. Current Events

Staying up to date with current events can be a huge advantage in any consulting interview — especially with regard to the economy.  “Business and current events are likely to come up during the behavioral interview, and speaking to employers eloquently will show that you are genuinely interested in business — and hopefully you are,” says Alexa Fishman, a Senior Consultant at IBM. “You never know when a piece of knowledge like the unemployment rate in the US, trends in gas prices or the conversion between the dollar and the Euro — will come in handy, adding color and realism to your response during a case interview.”

Taking a look at articles in The New York Times and The Economist can give you the extra edge you need during your case interviews, and speaking of case interviews, you might want to read…

2. Case in Point by Marc P. Cosentino

Marc Cosentino has dominated the world of case studies for a solid three decades, teaching everyone from MBA candidates (The Wall Street Journal called Case in Point the “MBA Bible”) to graduating college seniors how to think like a consultant. With over 40 practice cases, this book is the perfect way for you and your job-seeking consulting friends to review case studies together and challenge each other to think in new ways that will help you ace your interview. You and your friends can even pitch in to share a book together to save on the cost.

Preparing for your next consulting interview by reading these two things will have you rattling off the answer to “How would you go about advising a hypothetical client on commercializing a teleportation device that they have invented?” in no time. (And yup, that’s a real thing.)