Vault_2-_Cases

CAREER-

GUIDE

APPENDIX

CASE INTERVIEW PRACTICE GUIDE

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Sample Guesstimates/

Brainteasers

•How many telephone booths are there in Manhattan?

•How many manhole covers are there in Manhattan?

•How many cell phones are there in the U.S.? How many residential landlines are there in the U.S.? How many business landlines are there in the U.S.?

•How many cups of coffee are consumed in the U.S. on a daily basis? How many are sold at Starbucks vs. Dunkin’ Donuts? How many are consumed at home vs. outside the home?

•How many elementary school textbooks are used in the U.S. on a daily basis?

•How many K-12 school teachers are there in the U.S.?

•How many credit cards are there in the U.S.?

•How many televisions are there in the U.S.?

•How many iPods are there in the U.S.?

•How many cars are there in the U.S.?

•How many new cars are purchased each year in the U.S.?

•How many pets are there in the U.S.? How many dogs? How many cats?

•How many cans of cat food are sold in the U.S. on a weekly basis?

•How many cans of soup are sold on the U.S. per month on average?

•How much do you think Home Depot’s sales will grow next year?

•How much do you think Wal-Mart’s sales will grow next year?

•How much do you think Starbucks’s sales will grow next year?

•How much do you think Pfizer’s sales will grow next year?

•How much to you think Universal Music’s sales will grow next year?

•What will the price of a cup of Starbucks coffee be in five years?

•What will the price of a gallon of milk be in 10 years?

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Appendix

Data points to know for brainteasers:

•Population of the U.S.: 300 million (this could range from 250 to 300 million, so make your assumption clear)

•Number of households in the U.S.: 100 million (this could range from 100 to 150 million, so make your assumption clear)

•Annual GDP growth in U.S.: 3 to 5 percent

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Sample Non-Case

Interview Questions

Walk me through your resume and explain how it’s led you to be here today

Follow-ups/other versions:

•Tell me more about your role at Company X. How did that grow/change over time? Why did you leave?

•Your last two jobs are in completely different fields/functions—why is that? What connects them?

•You seem to have moved around a lot. Why have you not stayed at any one job for very long?

•Why did you decide to take a job at Company X?

•X job seems like a step down. Why did you decide to take that job?

•You have a one-year gap on your resume. How do you explain that?

•Your results in job X are very impressive. How do you explain those? How much of that was a team effort vs. an individual effort?

•Tell me about how you chose the college that you attended. What was your process? What was your criteria in selecting that school?

•Tell me about any one of your past jobs that you think shows how you’d be good at this job.

•Where do you see yourself in five to 10 years?

•Is there anything on your resume that we haven’t talked about that you’d like to talk about?

•What are you most proud of?

•Tell me something about yourself that’s not on your resume.

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What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?

Follow-ups/other versions:

•Tell me about a time that you failed.

•What would your last boss/team say were your strengths and weaknesses?

•What would your friends say were your strengths and weaknesses?

•What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome? How did you rise to the occasion?

Tell me about a time where you had to change the opinion of a group

Follow-ups/other versions:

•What was your plan going in? How did that plan change over time? Why did it change?

•Was your opinion swayed by anyone else’s over the course of the process?

•What would you do differently today? What did you learn from the process?

•Describe a situation where you had to be persuasive.

Describe a time when you did something differently than it had been done before

Follow-ups/other versions:

•How did you convince others that this new way of doing things was good/better?

•What did your new process achieve that couldn’t have been had you done it the old way?

•What have you done that’s innovative?

•Would you describe yourself as an entrepreneur?

•Have you ever founded a new organization or team?

•Tell me about a time that you approached an analytical problem creatively?

•Describe your creative skills.

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Tell me about a time when you worked as part of a team

Follow-ups/other versions:

•Tell me about a time that you had to work in a cross-functional team.

•Tell me about a time when you didn’t agree with the direction/leadership of the team. How did you handle it? What would you have done differently? What did you learn during the process?

•Tell me about a time that you had to manage conflict at work. How did you handle it? What would you have done differently? What did you learn during the process?

•Tell me about a time that you had to manage a team/group of people.

•How do you foster teamwork?

•Describe a setting in which you used your leadership skills.

How do you manage risk?

Follow-ups/other versions:

•Give me an example of a shortcut that you took to get something done.

•Describe a time when you took a calculated risk. How did it turn out? Would you do it again?

•Tell me about a time that you had to manage risk and how you dealt with it.

•Describe a situation where you faced an ethical dilemma. How did you handle it? Is there anything you would have done differently?

Why should I hire you?

Follow-ups/other versions:

•What one thing makes you different from all the other candidates here today? All the other people at your school?

•What would you specifically bring to my company/team?

•If I were a student at your school, why would I want you on my team?

•Are you a leader, a team player or a creative type? What are some examples that demonstrate that?

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• How would you describe yourself?

Why this company/firm?

Follow-ups/other versions:

•Why not one of our competitors? How are we different? Why are you most suited to/interested in us?

•What criteria are you using to evaluate the firms that you’re looking at?

•How do you think you will fit into the culture here? How would you describe the culture here?

•Who have you talked to/met with so far at the firm?

•When/how did you first hear about us?

•If you don’t end up working here, where will you go?

•What other firms are you looking at?

•What do you see as the most important issues this organization will address in the next five years?

•Why consulting/strategic planning/corporate or business development?

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Acing the Case:

Checklist

Having the Correct Mindset is Key to Acing the Case Interview

Think like you are actually the consultant on the case

•Come equipped with the 10 different frameworks you have practiced and memorized. Really listen to the problem as if you are the consultant or client involved, and think about how you will actually solve the problem. Try to bucket ideas in a MECE (mutually exclusive comprehensively exhaustive) way, and in a natural fashion (i.e., logic tree). Trying to force a framework onto a case is a clear path to being dinged.

•Engage the interview and drive the case forward. Get into the driver’s seat and ask the right questions, ask for data, and share insights. The person giving you the case is also analyzing what it would be like to work with you in a team situ- ation—give him or her the chance to guide you, too.

•Try to take a step back when developing and forming a framework to proceed with the case. Should you

Think like a CEO or a Partner

Customize your approach to the interviewers

actually cover everything that is important? Are you too detail-oriented? Are you thinking like a partner, CEO or owner of the business? Always take a step back mentally and make sure you are actually answering the case question itself.

• For the first rounds, you may have to be more detailfocused and prove you can do the math. The standard timing is: developing framework/logic tree with clarifying questions, one to two minutes. Driving to solution: 20 to 25 minutes. Conclusion: one minute.

• For the second/final rounds, be sensitive to the interviewers. A senior partner may be more interested in whether you can think like a partner or CEO rather than

how you crunch the numbers or cross the Ts and dot the Is. Focus on having an intelligent, structured discussion and engaging the partners/senior partners.

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Appendix

Assess whether you are having fun

•The case interviews are really good indicators of the problem-solving aspects of consulting. Think about if you actually like the ambiguity, researching different industries and business areas all the time. If you really do not like the case interview process, and even if you do them really well, consulting may not be for you.

Proper Framework Development is Critical for Success

Answer the

question

Prioritize your framework

Refer back to your framework

•Do you know the key questions? Make sure you answer the question before coming up with the framework. Don’t sidestep answering the question because you think another area is more interesting.

•To push the case ahead, explain those areas you are planning to focus on first and why you chose these areas. Being 80/20 is extremely important in the case interview, given the limited time you have. You may not be right, but at least the consultant knows you are pushing the case forward.

•Your framework is your path to solving the case. Try to refer to it when you finish analyzing a discrete piece of information.

•If you realize your framework is wrong in the first 10 minutes of the interview, try to revise your framework or create a new one so that you can still ace the interview.

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