A lot of candidates ask this:
“What if I get a case in an industry I don’t know anything about?”

It’s a common worry, and it makes sense. No one wants to feel unprepared.

But here’s what most people don’t know:

Consulting firms don’t expect you to be an expert. They want to see how you think when the topic is new.

Trying to study every industry often just adds stress. What works better? Learning how to break things down, ask the right questions, and make smart guesses.

In this blog, we’ll talk about:

• What firms are really looking for
• What type of industry knowledge helps (and what’s a waste of time)
• How to prep without getting overwhelmed

Let’s start.

What Interviewers Are Really Testing

Let’s clear one thing up:

Consulting interviews are not a quiz on industry facts.

Again, McKinsey, BCG, and Bain are hiring you for how you think when you don’t have all the answers.

So, what are they really testing?

Structured Thinking

Can you stay calm and organized when a big, messy problem is dropped in your lap?

This means:

• Starting with a clear question
• Breaking it down into smaller parts
• Tackling each part one step at a time

For example:

If you’re asked why a supermarket’s profits fell last quarter, a good structure might be: revenue vs cost → then break revenue into price and volume, and cost into fixed vs variable.

It’s always about showing that you can think in straight lines, even when the topic is new.

Business Intuition

Do you understand how most businesses work?

You don’t need to have an MBA. However, you do need to demonstrate that you can think critically. 

For example:

• If profits dropped, you ask: “Was it revenue or cost?”
• If a product is losing market share, you ask: “Are customers switching to something else?”

These questions show that you get the basics.

Handling the Unknown

Top candidates don’t panic when they see a word like “mining” or “biotech” in a case prompt. 

They ask questions. They stay logical.

And most of all, they stay calm.

“Top candidates don’t pretend to know everything.
They make what they do know go further.”

That’s what interviewers remember.

3 Common Misconceptions (That Hold Candidates Back)

A lot of candidates worry too much about industry knowledge, and end up prepping the wrong way. 

They think knowing more facts means doing better in interviews. 

It doesn’t work like that.

Let’s talk about a few common beliefs that tend to slow people down:

1. “I need to know every industry trend.”

Most interviewers won’t ask about current events or market news. 

What they’re watching is how you think through a business problem, especially if it’s something new to you.

If you spend hours reading deep reports and memorizing numbers, it might help a little, but it won’t make a big difference. 

You’re better off learning how to ask the right questions and build a solid structure.

Take note: Industry facts are nice to have, but not required to do well.

2. “I should memorize frameworks for every industry.”

This sounds smart at first, but it often backfires. 

The more you memorize, the more you’ll try to force the same answers, whether or not they fit the case.

You don’t need a “retail framework” or a “tech framework.” 

What you need is a way of thinking that works in any case: break things down, stay logical, and ask clear questions.

Great candidates don’t recite frameworks. They build them on the spot.

3. “If I haven’t worked in that industry, I’m at a disadvantage.”

Not true at all. Some of the best candidates we’ve worked with came from medicine, engineering, and even the arts. 

They didn’t know the industry, but they stayed calm, used logic, and asked good questions.

Quick case scenario:

One of our strongest candidates, who studied classical music, had never worked in business. But by mastering the value chain logic and staying calm under pressure, she cracked BCG

In short, consulting interviews don’t test your past job. They test how you think today.

You don’t need experience for this, but you need to have a structure.

What Industry Prep Actually Matters in Case Interviews

Now that we know what interviewers are actually looking for, the next question becomes:

What kind of industry prep is worth doing?

The answer: not much, but it has to be the right kind.

Think of it as the 80/20 rule applied to your case prep. 

You don’t need deep industry knowledge. You need just enough to move through a case confidently, even if the topic is new.

What does that look like in practice?

Here are 3 focus areas that build useful, light-touch business intuition, without wasting hours on dense reports or technical reading.

1. Value Chain Logic

Understand how businesses make money at a high level. 

In any case, you’ll usually need to figure out where revenue comes from and where costs are hiding.

Some examples:

• For airlines: ticket sales, fuel cost, seat capacity (load factor)
  Here, you might ask: ‘What’s the load factor?’
• For SaaS: subscriptions, churn rate, server cost
  Try to ask this: ‘What’s the churn rate?’
• For retail: product margin, shelf space, logistics
  Ask this: ‘What’s the product margin across different categories?’

Remember, you only need to know where the levers are.

In most cases, business problems are just value chain problems in disguise.

2. Customer and Cost Drivers

What makes people buy? What drives costs up?

Try to identify:

• Who the customer is (B2B vs B2C)
• What influences demand (price, quality, brand, convenience)
• What are the most significant costs (labor, raw materials, tech, etc.)

You won’t always know the numbers, but asking which variable matters most shows good instinct.

In case interviews, strong logic beats specific knowledge, every time.

3. Trends and Tensions

You don’t need to follow every industry headline. 

But it helps to know one or two things that are shaping a sector today.

Examples:

• In pharma: patent cliffs, R&D costs, regulatory lag
• In energy: rising renewables, geopolitical risk
• In food delivery: last-mile cost, customer loyalty, pricing wars

This is where light reading (e.g. summaries, not whitepapers) can help you sound grounded, even if the case is in a space you’ve never worked in.

Quick Tip: It helps to know they’re capital-intensive, cyclical, and tied to global supply chains.

So, if your prep covers these three areas, you’ll be more than ready to handle most industry prompts with confidence and without the overwhelm.

How to Talk About Industries Like a Consultant

You don’t need to know everything about an industry to sound like you do.

You just need to show that you think like someone who understands business, and that you can adapt when the topic is unfamiliar.

This is where smart prep (not heavy prep) makes all the difference.

Use this light-touch checklist to build surface-level fluency:

• Pick 3–5 major industries to focus on (retail, airlines, SaaS, pharma, etc.)
• For each, ask:
   – How do they make money?
   – What drives cost?
• Practice explaining a business model in 30 seconds or less
• Don’t fake certainty. Frame your logic using what usually matters in that type of business.
• Watch case interview debriefs in those industries, and notice what comes up again and again.

Sample phrasing that shows calm business logic:

“I haven’t worked in this sector, but typically in B2B services, volume is more stable than price, so I’d start by exploring pricing pressure as a key factor.”

Or:

“I’m not an expert in mining, but I know it’s a capital-heavy industry. So I’d want to understand how fixed cost recovery impacts profitability.”

This kind of framing does two things:

• It shows you’re not faking expertise.
• It shows you can still move forward with logic and structure.

That’s what firms are looking for.

A clarity, confidence, and the ability to stay sharp, even when the topic is new.

Tip: Most common case industries: Retail, Airlines, Pharma, SaaS, and Private Equity. Start here to cover 80% of the cases you’ll see.

When Industry Knowledge Does Matter

So far, we’ve made it clear: you don’t need to be an industry expert to do well in case interviews.

But there are a few situations where having some industry context can help.

Let’s talk about those exceptions.

1. Final-Round Interviews with Industry Insiders

In some final-round interviews, your interviewer might be a Partner or Project Leader who specializes in a certain industry. 

If your case happens to land in that space, say, pharma, mining, or tech, they may expect a bit more fluency.

This doesn’t mean you need to “match” their knowledge. 

But it does mean they’ll notice if your examples are generic or if you overlook key issues that are obvious in that field.

Tip: If you know your interviewer’s background (often shared ahead of time), take 15–30 minutes to scan a few industry headlines or annual reports. Look for patterns and tensions.

2. Post-Offer Placement Conversations

Once you receive an offer, MBB firms will typically ask about your sector interests during onboarding. 

This helps them place you on your first projects.

If you’re targeting a specific practice (e.g. Financial Services, Healthcare, Digital, Sustainability), it helps to speak about that industry in a way that shows real curiosity.

3. Experienced Hire Interviews

If you’re coming in with prior experience, you may be expected to speak about your domain in simple, business terms.

This doesn’t mean knowing everything. However, you should be able to clearly explain key dynamics and connect them to business outcomes.

Quick Advice:

If you’re applying to something like McKinsey Digital, BCG Climate, or a sector-specific team:
Know the basics. Understand the significant challenges. Learn how to talk about them simply.

Even then, you’re not expected to sound like an industry veteran.

You’re expected to think like a consultant.

Why Industry Expertise Won’t Make or Break You

Let’s end with this:

Confidence in case interviews doesn’t come from knowing every stat.
It comes from being able to face something unfamiliar and think through it anyway.

Confidence looks like:

• Asking the right questions when the context is unclear
• Breaking down problems with structure, even without full information
• Speaking in plain language, even when the topic is complex

You’re being tested on how you think when you don’t.

If you’re building toward that kind of thinking, step by step, skill by skill, we built something to help.

Our Module 1 at High Bridge Academy is part of the most complete consulting prep course we’ve ever built. If you’re someone who wants to train correctly, not just cram cases, you’ll feel right at home.

And if this article helped bring you one step closer to that mindset, then you’re already on track.

See you at the next step.