The case interview. Specifically, the case interview and the structure of the three
rounds of the case interview. These are some of the most repeated questions that
we get through our website, from our clients, and in sessions. And I thought
today I would just lay it all out for you so you understand what you can
expect, in the different rounds in the case interview. There are three rounds of
a standard case interview. First of all, there's round zero. The case interview
round zero. And the case interview round zero is used as an optional round, only
for people who do not go through on-campus hiring or recruiting. Second,
there's round one. Which is the standard first round of the interview. It can be
conducted either in office or on campus or on Skype. And finally, the second round
interview which is almost always conducted in the office with the
exception, of a few offices that will bring interviewers to a localized place.
Such as the Greater China offices that will interview in the United States. They
will fly people to Boston or to Chicago or to another place, in order to conduct
all of the final round interviews. So they'll bring the interviewer team
instead of bringing the interviews to the office. Let me break down what
happens in each one of these interview rounds, so that you can understand when
you're preparing for a case interview, how best to succeed. For round zero, round zero
is a screaming round. Round zero is a round that is evaluative. So it's not just you
have a buddy who's offering to do a case interview with you, but it's usually
conducted by either HR, or by someone who is more junior in the firm. And their
goal is to identify if you are a definite no. And there are a couple of
ways that they figure this out. First of all, they try to ask you some basic
questions that you'll get inside the interview. You might get a market sizing
question, or a simple math question. But you also will get a number of the fit
questions. "Why consulting?", "Why this firm?", "Why this office?", and if your answers are
too long or too unfocused, they're not going to take you on, into the next round.
In addition if they don't think do you have executive presence which is more
intangible measure of your fit with a firm, then they won't take you to the next
round. But in reality, about 80% of people passed round zero. And they pass because
they do have good experience, they have experience interviewing, and they're
prepared. If that's not you, you need to make sure that you're doubly prepared. So
if you don't fit all of those categories, make sure you're ready to go for round zero.
For round one, that's the big cutoff period. Only about 30% of people make it from
round one to round two. And then sometimes it's even a smaller number. So at Bain, we
would take for example, about 60 people, and of those 60 people that went into
the first round, we would take maybe 12 to final rounds- maybe 20. But it was not
anywhere higher than that. So that 12 to 20 number really represented a big cut
off in that round. And that is basically where we say not only can you do a
case interview, but also can you do a case interview in a way that is
relevant to our firm. And that's the basic test. Usually you'll have two
interviews in that round, and like I said before, it will be on campus. If you're
doing on campus hiring, or the team of interviewers will come to you, or it will
be at the firm's offices. If you are doing it as an experience higher and
you're in the same city. Or, it will be on the phone, if you're not in the same city.
The final round, round two, is where everything comes together and offers or
handed out. About 50% of people that go into round two get offers. 40% to 50%
depending on the firm, but really ultimately, it's about 50%. At this point
it's been determined that you can do a case. Which means, you could do the work.
What they're gonna test in round two is the advanced decision-making. So they're
going to push on certain key areas of your analytics. They're going to push on
insights. They're going to give you more graphs, more charts, and more pressure in
the second round interview to see how you handle it. And finally they're gonna
ask a lot more fit questions, more advanced, more honest,
and more detailed fit questions. And the interviewers, usually partners in that
round, are going to have authority over whether they would want you on a team of
theirs. In fact, at Bain in particular, the common question that was asked was,
"Would you accept this person on their first project on the job?". If their answer was "Yes.",
then you got a thumbs up. You had a recommendation for hire. If the answer
was "No.", you got a thumbs down. And if the answer was, "I haven't quite seen enough.
I think they could get there, but I'm not sure." Then you were usually held off until
the end of the day, where some people got offers immediately, some people didn't get
offers immediately. And then they looked their hiring targets. So ultimately depending
on the round that you're going into of your case interview. Round zero, round one, or
round two, you want to make sure that you're prepared for what's about to come.
If you have questions about expert case interview coaching we would love to help.
You can reach out to us at www.managementconsulted.com or on social.