Messed up Case Study what do I do?
Recently did a case study for a buyside role focused on real assets where I had some time to build out a model and a presentation. The model’s mechanics work fine but I used a low EBITDA multiple for the purchase price, which led to a 40% IRR. I did think it looked super weird while doing it but I was kind of stressed out since I’ve never actually built a model before (have only studied it in theory). I ended up just ignoring it since the model was working properly and was running out of time. The asset in the case study wasn’t that risky, realistically should’ve used a 10/11x EBITDA but I’ve already submitted it so can’t change it. I have a debrief of the case study tomorrow, should I just own upto it and explain the mistake, is there even a point of doing that or am I just going to get dinged? Appreciate any advice.
Move on and do better next time. you probably just not the plug and play lateral hire they want
Do you think I should attend the debriefing session or just cancel it, I’ve passed 4 rounds of interviews so far this was meant to be the final stage.
If theres debrief then stil some hope. Go for it. Typically nobody gets back to you if you screw up a model test
I bombed a lateral modeling case study due to time constraints (3 statement, DCF, LBO) and still got hired. I messed up the 3 statement due to some weird assumptions they gave and trying to cut corners to save some time. They didn't really care since I had already met with a lot of the team. Similar to your situation so I wouldn't give up hope.
Worst case scenario, you go in and they say they can't hire you. You learned a valuable lesson about being able to sniff out things that don't look right, which somehow a lot of people still don't have.
Update: just had the run through and went well. I explained the mistake and how I would’ve used a 10-11x EBITDA given the risk profile and mentioned how that impacted the underlying IRR & MOIC. They said it made sense, and asked why I used 8x EBITDA and I just told them that honestly I was more focused on making the model work mechanically so just slapped 8x on there. Everything else went well in terms of the line items and presentation (i.e. where we should focus our DD and what more I would incorporate in the model if I had time).
Thanks everyone for your advice!
Did u get the job???
Just got the rejection email
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