Late sending case study
Hi folks, just had a 60-minute case study with a small PE fund. It was a 3-statement model with a DCF valuation, assumptions given (except for the DCF, that was all blank) and excel formatted (except for DCF again). Had to give a few thoughts on the business and perform ration analysis though.
I ended up sending a case study 10 minutes late. I am travelling, and I only have a tablet to work from, so everything is a little slow (eg have to move between excel sheets using a touchpad because the keyboard is not of a standard type that I’m used to at work so can’t use some shortcuts).
Do you think sending a case study 10min late is an issue?
If I got a 60 minute case study 10 minutes late it would for sure be a consideration.
1. you didn’t hit a very hard deadline
2. Big part of the case study is a relative comparison vs. other candidates. You had 15% more time than others, any relative outperformance on your part will be discounted. Any shortcomings will be given very little sympathy.
3. You had a case study and didn’t ensure you had the proper setup to do it? Also a big negative. Have seen candidates schedule their case studies on a borderline unacceptable delay with the excuse of traveling/conference/intense near term live deal timeline etc
That said, if you did a very good job and they already like you, it’s not going to make and break your candidacy.
Thank you. Roughly, what % of candidates in your experience send the case study on the dot?
To be fair, big part of me sending it 10 minutes late and not having a proper setup was my career break. I’ve been out of the industry for six months (and I’m travelling) so this was the first model that I made in a while. They invited me into the process despite this due to my past experience, which was pretty good - Bulge Bracket and lots of deals.
Pretty sure the model is 100% correct but I left myself little time for PowerPoint pres. I started creating it, realised that I’m already 5 min past the deadline, said f*ck it, didnt finish the pres, saved both, wrote an email (all took me another 5min), and hit send.
What % of candidates send their case study in time? One hundred percent.
So your excuse for being late is that you were on a 6 month vacation and couldn’t get good WiFi in Phuket?
I didn’t say I’m taking a vacation. I was out of the industry for a mix of personal and medical reasons. I’m now travelling due to work and the only way to have a proper set-up is to buy two screens, a proper keyboard and a mouse just to throw them away after this round. Unfortunately I cannot afford this at the moment.
If it’s, indeed, 100% in your experience then I guess it’s bad news for me. I feel it in my guts that if the circumstances were a little different, this wouldn’t have happened, which is the reason why I asked this question on WSO. So this is just me being human..
Also it’s probably due to my character as I am too detail oriented, sometimes, at the expense of seeing a big picture, in this case, a deadline - I can get too bogged down in the details. I added details to the model, which were not necessary (now that the test ended, I see this), which costed me time. I am aware of this flaw, and I’m focusing on correcting it. This happened to me in IB too but in the end my seniors didn’t care because my work was always of good quality.
In any case, I’m really grateful for your response. If I go through so be it. If I don’t go through, also so be it. All I can do now is to wait and see what happens and assume responsibility for sending in the response 10 minutes late.
It’ll be fine. Not easy getting an interview much less getting to case study stage if you’ve left the industry. Land another, learn from your mistakes, and come through the next time around.
I made a similar mistake (going into too much detail, spending too much time on model) on a a Principal case study, which is even more egregiously bad.
Dust yourself off and get back in there.
Thank you. Appreciate you taking time to respond.
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