Case Study Walkthrough Script (VP Interviews)
Hi everyone - two years post-MBA and looking to move from current VP role at a later-stage fund. Targeting a mid-level role at growth-oriented shops, which more directly aligns with my pre-MBA experience (COVID-impacted + election-impacted 2021 class = super weird year for recruiting).
My question: does anyone here have a template script/outline/guide for case study walkthroughs/debriefs? In case that was vague, I'm referring to the part of the interview process that comes directly after submitting your case study ppt/excel model, where you (at the very least) present an executive summary-level overview of the potential investment, the company's business model, investment thesis/risks, and overall recommendation to a few folks on the team you're interviewing with (prior to a more holistic discussion and targeted questions). This doesn't happen super often, but there are obviously places that try to simulate investment committee experiences, and ask that you walk through the materials in a more structured presentation.
I'm essentially looking for something that I could use across different case studies so that I don't have to develop a script from scratch each time. So slightly more detailed than bullet points on the topics to cover (I'm familiar with the topics to touch on). If more context is helpful to understand what I'm hoping someone here will have given thought to, I'm comfortable walking through things generally in the day-to-day aspects of the job, am a relatively structured thinker, and don't have issues with people/social anxiety/etc. However, I can't help but feel awkward in these situations and have a hard time getting the simulation dynamic out of my head (it's clear the interviewers have done this before, there's something unnatural, etc.). In the context of my current firm, I'm a few years away from completely carrying conversations at investment committee (just a cultural norm) and/or opening the discussion with an overview/update, so have less experience than I'd like with this. Lastly, my firm tends to have a somewhat specific approach to conversations evaluating potential investments, which I don't believe would translate well to case study situations (aspects of those discussions at my firm take some getting used to).
Long-winded way of saying that I don't feel 100% confident in my ability to deliver in this part of the interview process, and I'm looking for ways to improve/resources to supplement my thinking. With humility, I'm really hoping this community can help me out!! Thank you.
PS - I haven't purchased interview guides (WSO/BIWS/etc.), though I'm open to looking into one if there's a consensus around which resource is most helpful.
Bump
Interested as well…In my experience of being in sell-side meetings with senior bankers when they talk to PE partners …These tend to be unstructured except for the first few 5 mts of giving quick biz description, some financial and management info - PE then tend to pepper with random questions (some anticipated) depending on each fund's focus.. point being practice is the best template
Happy to be a practice partner as am also looking to develop this skill set
OP here, appreciate the response. I am overly-protective of my anonymity here so will choose to decline your practice partner offer, but wanted to acknowledge that up front before diving in below.
Totally get what you're saying around practice. I generally agree, objectively you're better off having spent time practicing than going into these situations cold. Also agree with how you characterize these discussions; the vast majority of my experiences have been consistent with what you described, i.e. all you really need is a prepped intro upfront and the discussion thereafter is more similar to a regular interview (that happens to reference specific content/knowledge). I don't have much to add/comment on within your post, so my further engagement below should be taken as offering more context for others in case helpful to frame what I'm looking for.
As I alluded to, I recruited for my current seat while I was in business school. I was going through other interview processes at the time so it's not as though anything about this is new. I progressed as far as I wanted to in each of those b-school processes (dropped out in certain cases for different reasons, some processes got put on hold, etc.), which I'm taking as evidence of the fact that my performance in the case study/case study debrief phase isn't overtly disqualifying.
I think where I get hung up involves some combination of the following: 1) I never felt confident in the case study debriefs to begin with, they're scenarios I've always approached as something to tolerate/get through rather than as an opportunity to differentiate myself, 2) This is the main difference from what you described with your MDs, but the awkwardness of the simulated pretext in these debriefs always felt really palpable (from my POV), i.e. it was super clear that the interviewers had already had this conversation so their engagement never feels authentic which throws me off to a frustrating degree (frustration towards myself, not them), and 3) Regardless of how short the prepared/structured intro part of the conversation ends up being, I never feel as though I'm setting the tone optimally - if the overall conversation ends up going well, I typically ascribe it to luck/interpersonal chemistry vs. my ability to manufacture that outcome - and would love to feel better about my capacity to deliver so that I can focus more intently on navigating the more unstructured portion of the discussion.
It's worth acknowledging that I might appear to be overly-fixated on this given the content/tone of my posts. I am very aware that these exercises in 99% of cases are nothing more than check-the-box components in the context of the overall interview process. However, it's the only area in my interview skillset that feels noticeably behind everything else, and any progress/improvement hasn't been satisfying. Plus, why not try to improve things you can control?!
Ever diligence an investment so much that you actually believed in it and wanted to talk about it / defend it? You should notice if you think back on it there was a pretty simple story / narrative for why.
recreate that confidence for case studies, and don’t overthink and get anxious about the details - bucket those as further DD and key risks.
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