Zero chances it seems

Long story short... I have zero finance/business/econ exp/knowledge. Science background for the associate position. Somehow landed a first round interview at MBB. Interview is 10 days away. Cramming case practice books, realizing how difficult and technical the problems are. I know people study for MONTHS for these things.

Is passing the first round an impossibility? Seems like it would take a miracle. Should I ask if I can take the interview the following week?

Help.

9 Comments
 

The interview is in early/mid October, whcih Ive accepted the date for. Would it look bad if I tried to postpone to the following week or so?

 
Best Response

Congratulations on landing an interview!

Given this, chances are you are a decently intelligent person and this is really the main thing the cases are designed to test, by assessing your logic and rational reasoning ability. As Roy-Ray says, it does not hurt to brush up on doing simple maths on the fly/interpret data so you feel comfortable with numbers being thrown at you, but the most important thing is to get the structure of the case right.

Your focus should therefore be on practicing how to structure cases, learning how to attack a problem from the top, and not worry too much about "technical" aspects. You are not hired on what you know about any given business, but rather your ability to quickly grasp the concepts and then apply structured thinking to solve problems (which as an Associate mainly means having your data in order, ensuring your slides are consistent and being able to ask senior people intelligent questions). Of course you have a slight advantage if you come from a business background as you already know the vocabulary, but that is something you're able to pick up.

Two keys for achieving a good structure is to 1) Take a deep breath and ask for a minute to structure your thoughts before you dive in, and 2) Ask questions rather than assuming things.

If I ask you a simple guestimate about how much paint it takes to paint an airplane, DO NOT jump in to the first thing that comes to mind such as "ah, fueslage, that's big, I must get the length of it, hm, how many seats is there in a plane, and what about business cabin size, and how long is the cockpit, oh, and toilets, ah, and emergency exits..." This can come late.

Instead your first question should be "what kind of an airplane are we talking about? A 777 or a Cessna?". Your second question should be "can I make an "equation" out of this question?" This x that, or a + b etc., something that helps you evaluate which component you need to tackle first. Profit is (revenue-cost) etc. In this case that painting any object has two variables: surface area and amount of paint/area unit. Practice drawing issue trees.

Frameworks are good for remembering which aspects to look at, but don't apply them blindly. Learning a few can be good, especially if from non-business background (3C, Porter 5 forces etc.) but only use them for reference.

Also remember that it is not necessarily the answer that matters, but your way there. In my final case I ended up at a point where the Partner said "So, given that, do you think they should or should not go for it?". I said "no", she said "too bad, I think they should". Still got the offer. Just be clear about your reasoning throughout and make sure to speak your mind, not doing all the logic in your head.

Good luck!

 

So just a week or so left and in total I think I will only be able to do like 5-6 live cases by then. Would it be sufficient to just read as many cases (20-30..) as possible and really study them well? Unfortunately I dont have the luxury of good practice partners at the moment:(

 

If you spend as much time practicing for the case as you do worrying about whether you've practiced enough or not you should be fine...

No one can say what is enough or not. There is no hard rule. Maybe you're lucky and get a case similar to one you've recently solved. Or not. But what I can say is that if you go in there doubting yourself this will show and it will not help you.

So stop worrying if it is enough, if you will do well etc. Just go in there and do your best under the circumstances you have, and believe in yourself.

 

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