3 Reasons Why You Should Sign Up For A Business Case Competition

If your school has some on-campus presence of consulting firms or F500 companies, chances are, these employers are hosting business case competitions at your school. I have so far participated in two as a sophomore, one hosted by a Big 4 firm and another one hosted by a F50 company. And I urge you -- especially if you’re a freshman/sophomore and don’t have much on your resume or have a low GPA -- to go sign up for the next business case competition ASAP on campus, especially if it is hosted by a firm for which you would like to work. Without further ado, here are the reasons:

The Networking
Competing in a business case competition has a tremendous effect on your networking -- that is, if you approach it with the right mindset. Firms don’t waste their time and money setting these things up on your campus for no reason. They do it to identify top talents. However, here is the catch: Unlike other competitive early identifier programs that require you to have a killer resume, high GPA, or at least a certain skin color or gender, there is usually no barrier to entry for these case competition programs. If you fucked up your GPA for some reason and aren’t getting past any resume screens, this is your chance to level the playing field and compete purely on merit. And if you deliver, hiring managers will want to keep you on their radar -- given you have good enough social skills to make the best out of the usual networking sessions that follow the competitions -- even though they wouldn’t have considered you on paper.

This is pretty much what happened to me. I have a mediocre GPA ( all-out on the case competition. If you’re signing up for one without the intentions of absolutely impressing the firm, you won’t get much out of it. On the other hand, you can impressive the shit out some partners all you want but they are not going to reach out to you first to hand you an internship unless you initiate conversations and network .

An added bonus is that these events are team-based and you get to know and work with some driven, smart peers -- if you pulled from the right pool -- that stay in touch after the competition. This is a great practice for teamwork because unlike bullshit team projects for your average business course, the case materials are usually quite interesting and your teammates are smarter and more driven than the random guy you got assigned for your marketing course.

Preparation for Case Interviews
The case competition materials closely resemble consulting case interviews, especially if a consulting firm is throwing the event. My first case material was a general strategy one with focus on creative thinking and my second case involved some intense operational consulting stuff (at least for undergrads) regarding logistics and fp&a. Difficulty levels vary wildly between different case competitions, but all of them cover the basics of any case interviews. You will see basic finance & accounting (profit margin, NPV, ROI, etc.) and the three statements in almost all cases, and some of the more advanced ones will require you to go into industry-specific stuff whether it be to test your quantitative or qualitative thinking. I got my WSO Consulting Guide after I had competed in these events and didn’t find most of the materials in the Guide completely foreign as a sophomore. Plus, you’ll find that most judges (partners or senior managers at hosting firms) will put you on the spot and ask some hardball questions after your presentation, which is a good practice for dealing with high-pressure interviewers. The professional presentation experience doesn’t hurt, either; most of your presentations for school will feel like a cake walk after having delivered one to 5-10 partners with 20+ years of industry experience trying to grill you.

Replenished Drive
After pulling several all-nighters during the couple weeks of preparation period, feeling the rush with your teammates (who by this time should be your good friends) on the day of presentation, and beefing up your resume and networking book, you will experience an elevated sense of ambition and drive. You’ll feel like you’re one step closer to the goal, and at the same time, realize how much more hard work will have to be put in to be successful. If you can channel this into your networking efforts, job search, and academic & social life, you’ll come out a winner whether or not you won the case competition.

In closing, I will reiterate the most important points of this post:

• The business case competition will level the field for those of you who are less-than-stellar on paper -- grades, non-target, lack of work experience, whatever.
• You have to really commit yourself to the cause and be socially active at the networking sessions if you want that case competition to eventuate in a summer internship.
• You’ll feel good about doing productive things with your life.

So don’t hesitate and sign up for the next business case competition that comes to your campus. The sacrifice of your free time will absolutely be worth it and it is truly what you make of it.