Hey everyone.
I've been applying to consulting jobs just to see and I've gotten actually quite a few responses. One of the firms has expedited me to final round interview in 3 days.
What should I do to prepare? I have never done a case in my life and I'm not from a quant background.
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I am also interested in this.
Could you call them and just ask for more time? Consulting firms know that it's impossible to prepare perfectly in 3 days - if you asked for, say, another week that might not be a problem from their end.
Unfortunately, there is no magic pill to get good at case cracking you need to practice for weeks or months. If it's a last round interview with a respectable firm (i.e. top15 MC), the case interview represents a big part to make the final decision and they hire the candidates who not only are able to demonstrate how to solve the case but represent a good fit with the firm .
Try to read Victor Cheng's summary material on his caseinterview website if you only have 3 days to prepare, focus on understanding (not memorizing) his frameworks and most importantly the thinking that goes behind solving cases, good luck !
Unfortunately, I do not think they will extend my time. They emailed me back on a SATURDAY to schedule my interview. The fact that they expedited me to final round seems like they are really trying to hire someone ASAP.
The interview is 2 hours long. One part is a 45 minute case and the other is a 45 minute behavioral. I have won a case competition at my previous employer and I have done geographic information systems work, but this nothing like Victor's cases.
What do you guys think I should focus on? I find there are a LOT of equations to memorize and I'm finding it a bit frustrating to memorize them all when I need to understand how to talk through a case. I can speak from experience in all my economic classes, I can ace the set up of the problem, I can walk someone through how to solve the problem, but actually solving the math quickly ... I am not the best.
Given the circumstances: first, I would make sure to be 100% prepared for the behavioral interview. Make sure to ace this part.
Now for the case part: understand the most common frameworks (Profitability, Business, M&A, etc.) and specially Victor's issue tree which is an overall adaptable "framework" that will help you structure your thoughts. The most important thing in solving a case is showing your interviewer the methodology/steps on how you solve the case, not the final answer. If you want to practice some mental math, I recommend caseinterviewmath or any mental calculation website.
What you need to do is this. Get an idea of how to structure a framework and think about a case systematically. Just enough so you could actually do one start to finish. Next, find 3 people, 2 of whom should be comfortable with doing cases. Ask if the two experienced people can run through a case or two while you just observe. After that, ask the first one to give you a case, then have the other one give you a case. Repeat this process again tomorrow. Reading Victor Cheng is only going to help you so much, you need reps to get comfortable.
Honestly this shouldn't be too hard. Read up on some of victor's materials and read through case in point. Take your time, make sure to structure your answers, and think out loud if you can. If you've won a case competition that means you probably have a decent business sense to begin with.
Oh and don't neglect the behavioral part, that might be equally if not more important than the case.
I've interviewed over 60 people in consulting, many of which were entry-level. Here's what I look for:
(1) Structure, structure, structure. Is this person able to break the problem down in a structured way? Does he have a plan that he excuses himself for a minute to form? Does she apply a framework tailored to the problem rather than some cookie-cutter bs?)
(2) Get the math right. You screw up a zero, you screw up the interview.
(3) Maturity. Can this person be trusted in front of the client? How well spoken is she? Are his questions interesting? Do I even want to answer the question?
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Fyi, the interviewer often makes up his/her mind in the first 10 mins. In these 10 mins you need to convey interest, motivation, intellect, and a nice personality.
The first thing you gotta do is communicate that you are inexperienced with cases and that the interview came up on very short notice, to manage expectations upfront.
The second thing when it comes to solving the case - sure, you can get acquainted with some of the standard frameworks, but to be honest trying to incorporate those into your approach in a natural way in 3 days is just as likely to trip you up as help you. The interviewer will be looking at how you approach the problem - so just make sure that your approach is always structured and methodical and then the actual framework you use and whether you solve the case or not will be secondary (given that you are inexperienced).
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