Case Interview on a Short Notice

Hey Monkeys,

I unexpectedly got a call from a top firm telling me that they want to interview me this Friday. I wanted to reschedule, but they said they can't do it.

I haven't done a single case interview in my life. I will only have 20-25 hours to prepare because there is unfortunately a thing going on in my life this week that I simply cannot put on hold.

How do I prepare?

Additional (ir)relevant info: I'm a fresh college grad. I decided 10 days ago that I don't want to pursue a PhD. I have a copy of Victor Cheng's book but I haven't read it (yet).

4 Comments
 

I'm currently preparing too. The most time efficient prep I've found are the Victor Cheng "Look Over My Shoulder" recordings. They're 15 to 20 hours. Listen to those and try to get at least a few practice cases in, and I think you'll have a fighting chance. Books are useful for familiarising yourself with frameworks, so just read those sections if you're time crunched.

 
Best Response

Congrats first off on knowing yourself well enough not to do the Ph.D. Would love to be in your shoes if I had do-overs.

For the practice cases: gotta recommend Preplounge. It's a free site for matching up with other people doing case interviews: you just pick a time slot that works for you. Prepare by reading through a couple of cases (Google "Business School Consulting Case Book" for PDFs) so you can give them to your partner, and by installing Skype.

 

I also have one coming up on short notice this week, and have never done any cases before.

I bought the wso guide, but not sure really how intuitive it is. I think it takes some time to wrap your head around the ambiguous nature of the cases.

Personally, I found Firmsconsulting vids to be very insightful - but they definitely put the fear of God into me. I am no longer optimistic about my chances...

 

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