Am I being played here? Ridiculously long case study

OP here, sorry about text looking like one paragraph also, tried adding spacing but had to type this from my phone

So you have 24h to complete it and you're complaining it's going to take you 12 hours? 10 page memo seems a bit long but the whole thing sounds reasonable.

I mean this is a standard case study format, though typically you would have only 3-4 hours in front a computer (and probably shorter memo expected). I agree it is a pain to have it open ended as it inevitably means a higher quality output is expected and all candidates use almost the whole 24 hours period.

It is what it is, don't think you can bargain on this though and that it will be materially different than what other firms do. This is quite standard practice, the hiring processes in PE/PC are very painful (especially offcycle).

Indication of culture. Wouldn’t do this if I was in other processes and coming from a good bank / group.

Idk this seems pretty doable...

Keep the model and memo structure simple and it should be doable. But given the people you interacted with are douchebags, do you want to work with them?

This is literally standard case study format

One time I had to try and do a 1hr lbo modeling test over Zoom, was a FoF type of platform so just thought it was a chill standard 1 hour long practice LBO you see in the interview guides.

Nope. Was a full 3 hour LBO and had to finish it in 1 hour. Has anyone had to do something like this?

they probaby send these out to people to get a head start on actual IC memos they need to pull together. OP is just doing free work for lazy VPs (source, am a lazy VP)

This isn't standard...that would be typical for a weekend case, but 24 hours is tight. 3-4 hour in-person cases are usually <5 slides or a Word memo...

OP - shitty situation unfortunately, sorry to hear. Similar thing happened to me before back in my banking days...given you have a lot of other options (and you wouldn't like the culture of a place like this) if I were you, tell the recruiter or firm you had some family emergency OR you have another offer elsewhere and want to bow out. Think those reasons are reasonable enough that people can't get mad at you for 

“Also in the process with 7 other firms…” yeah I wouldn’t do this case study. Sounds overkill.

I'm going to take the flip side -- it's not really about the quality of your work as much as filtering for candidates who care enough to do a ridiculous case study. Strikes me that a lot of/most candidates will turn and run. If you care enough to stick with it.. feels like the job is yours..

Don't do it. These guys are trying to fuck you nice and slow...ghost them and move on

The 2 VPs being dicks during the interview is already enough indication to tell them to fuck off.

If you have 7 other processes and didn't like the guys, I would say just drop this one. It's one thing for your dream firm but sounds like you wouldn't even take this offer

I don't think this amount of work is totally unheard of, but usually over a weekend (do I think that is a fair ask - still no). IMO the 3-4 hour cases and a good presentation/Q&A is plenty to get an idea of your skillset without wasting your time.

I've had to do case studies like that for multiple private credit firms. 3-statement model  (base case and downside sensitivity case) and 10-page memo from an old CIM (usually at least 10 years old). Wouldn't consider it out of normal.

Seems the 24 hour window to complete the case study has already passed, so these thoughts below are for others who may find yourself in this situation:

First, if the interviewers were douchebags then that alone can very well be a reason to drop out of the interview process. It is very much a sign of the culture and the excuse of “maybe they were just pressure testing me to see how I respond” is almost never the case — almost always the people are really just douchebags.

Second, it would be virtually unheard of for someone to send you a CIM for an active deal they are evaluating. Other than the obvious confidentiality breach (which admittedly people sometimes ignore), you don’t want to spread the word on companies you’re interested in. Lastly, from what I’ve seen of case studies from analysts, a lot of them materially miss the mark — it is unlikely that the PE firm wants rushed work product from someone who is only 6 months into their career. The VP is much more likely to just push it down on their associate instead.

Third, as mentioned multiple times above, this sort of case study is very commonplace in PE recruiting. The only thing that could potentially be strange is the 10-page investment memo. Is this expected to be in word or PowerPoint? If it is actually written prose then I agree with you, the task seems quite miserable and I wouldn’t enjoy doing it myself. If it is just a 10-page PowerPoint then that feels very par for the course and shouldn’t take you 12 hours. Reading an 80-page CIM could take 2 hours (I’m sure a handful of those pages are cover pages, table of contents, appendix, etc.). The model could take another 2 hours. Then you’ve allocated 8 hours to write 10 pages. Understandable if you have to do a bunch of outside research (such as running comps as part of the valuation), but otherwise the PE firm is going to expect this to be at the absolute most a 5 hour task (30 minutes per slide). All that said, I think it can be a bit obnoxious to only give someone 24 hours when they are working banking hours, and definitely not during the week …

If you are involved in 7 other processes, by all means you can drop this one and focus your attention elsewhere. I’d be prepared though for some of these processes to have their own case studies. Regardless, goodluck!