PE case study mistakes
Hi all - have a couple of case study interviews coming up for pe. Range from 1 to 3 hours. Although I am an ex-banker and am comfortable building models from scratch, i can make silly mistakes when under significant time pressure. this is not the case if I have 24 hrs + to build a model.
the purpose of this thread is to ask PE Pros as to what kind of mistakes made by candidates could be overlooked and what would result in instant dings. over the top of my head, i would think that 3 statement model not working (ie B/S not balancing) would be an immediate ding as far as a 3 hour case study (starting from a bank excel and given a 10k goes) but could be ignored if the time was restricted to an hour. would love to hear from those of you who've gone through the process multiple times / involved in recruiting. thanks in advance
PS - Once interviewing for a top fund in the US, i went to the final round where i was one of the three. the firm did not extend me an offer but told me that the case study was the most comprehensive of all they'd seen since giving that one so i am not really sure how much it matters. for context, i had a week to prepare it. was overlooked for a guy who had direct pe experience unlike me
In my opinion, balance sheet not balancing is always an insta-ding, unless literally everything else is flawless and it's due to a minor, honest mistake. It's probably the first thing everyone checks.
Otherwise, some of worst case studies I've seen have just been when people are not able to justify their assumptions. Don't just plug in blind assumptions on growth, margins, capex, leverage, etc. Be able to support your assumptions when asked. Anyone can build a model with practice but, in my view, the ability to think critically about companies and defend your assumptions is much more important.
One trick that worked for me is: if at the end the balance sheet doesn't balance or some other calculation that you just can't figure out, just put in "#######" in the cell(s). Chances are when they see it they'll just assume it's a formatting issue with their Excel and won't ding you for it.
-That's how I got into PE.
Cheers