Case Interview Workshop

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Case Interview Workshop October 12th, 1999
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Todays Agenda

• What is a Case Interview?
• Purpose
• Approach
• Preparation Advice
• Logistics and Ground Rules for This Afternoon
• Questions Answers

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Before We Begin - 3 Things to Remember

• Focus on explicit logic and structure - it needs
  to be clear what you are doing
• Strive for the creative use of new and existing
  frameworks - whatever is appropriate!!!
• Practice a lot and practice a wide variety of
  cases...

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What is a Case Interview?
Simply put, a question and answer session on a
business situation.

• It is a way to see HOW you think and analyze
  problems, situations, and/or questions
• Oftentimes, it is prefaced with a brief fit
  interview. If not, fit is concurrent with the
  case...
• Typical roles
• Interviewers provide background, answer
  questions, and guide the discussion (if theyre
  nice)
• Interviewees listen carefully, think through
  approach before starting down one track, and then
  verbalize the approach, analysis, etc...

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What is a Case Interview?
Highly interactive They typically look like
this

• 2-5 minutes Quick Fit - chit-chat
• 5 minutes Case Data Presented, Clarification
  Questions
• 3-5 minutes Framework Development
  Communication
• 15-25 minutes Analysis, Question and Answer
• 2-5 minutes Summary, Recommendations, Next
  Steps, etc.
• Bye-bye
• Total Time approx.. 30-45 minutes per
  interview...

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Purpose of the Case Interview
Test beyond your knowledge of canned frameworks,
work/life experience, resume, and the latest
b-school rankings...

• Can the candidate think on his/her feet?
• How well does the candidate organize the
  information?
• Does the candidate develop and utilize an
  appropriate framework for the business situation?
  
• Is the candidate comfortable discussing strategy,
  operations, organization, people, and technology?
  
• Is the candidate a good problem solver?
• Is the candidate insightful?
• Is the candidate creative?

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Purpose of the Case Interview
Gauge candidates performance on a client
engagement.

• Will the candidate establish trust and build
  confidence with colleagues and clients?
• Is the candidate open minded and flexible?
• Does the candidate form reasonable hypotheses and
  answer questions thoroughly?
• Does the candidate unafraid to tackle tough
  questions?
• Is the candidate a good listener?
• Is the candidate relaxed and confident?
• Does the candidate actively engage?

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Approach to the Case Interview
All of your effort should focus on logical and
structured progress.

• Listen to the problem
• Clarify the problem
• Ask questions to identify and clarify the issues
• Restate the problem in your own words
• Develop a hypothesis - this may or may not be
  vocalized...
• Establish suitable analytical framework to
  analyze problem
• Collect information and assess the problem
• Structure, refine and build hypothesis
  synthesize findings
• Make recommendations plan next steps

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Approach to the Case Interview

• The dreaded case. Just break it down

Establish Framework
Gather Data
Synthesize Findings
Make Recs/ Next Steps
Develop Hypothesis
Listen to the Problem
Clarify the Problem

• Backtrack if needed
• Stay organized and calm
• Provide a clear path till the end

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Approach to the Case Interview
Frameworks Whats up with Frameworks?

• Avoid using a canned framework out of your bag
  of business school tricks (unless its really
  obvious theres only one framework that is
  relevant)
• Be creative in combining elements of canned
  frameworks and, most importantly, your own
  thought processes
• Frameworks will help make sure youve covered
  most of your bases and are great backups if you
  draw a blank
• Use our Strategy Analysis Tools to make sense of
  all the frameworks.

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Preparation Advice
Practice, Practice, Practice! Variety, Variety,
Variety!

• Practice a lot, with a variety of people, and a
  variety of types of cases
• dont just focus on high level strategy cases,
  PwC consultants do much more than strategy
• Work on cases that would originate from a
  variety of sources, such as
• departments or divisional areas within a
  company (I.e. marketing, hi-tech products )
• levels within the organization (I.e. The Board,
  middle management)
• consultant project team, project managers, etc.
• Leverage your own experiences to create cases
  that make sense to you, where you know the
  content really well
• past work experience (types of cases might
  include firm strategy or product development)
• extracurricular activities (building a team,
  managing a project)
• school (leading organizations, change
  management)
• life in general (conflict resolution)
• When practicing, ALWAYS state assumptions along
  the way. WHY did you say/do/recommend what you
  did?

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Memory Test Gift Giveaway
What were the 3 Things to Remember?
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Logistics and Ground Rules
Logistics

• 30 minute interviews (including a quick fit
  a case)
• MCA has the schedule of who is in what room
  at what time
• All interviews in the CMC
• Timeframe 25 minute interview 5 minute
  evaluation

Ground Rules

• Be present and on time, just like the real
  thing!
• Dont stress - well throw our notes away
  when were done
• Have fun!

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Questions Answers
Questions???