Virtual Case Interviews - What's Changed? |
Posted: December 4, 2020 |
Strategy consulting houses such as Bain, BCG and McKinsey have used case interviews to assess their candidates for decades. The case interview is the presenting of a business problem and situational context to the candidate and must be solved using a structured approach. Usually this involves finding the root cause of the business problem and then suggesting recommendations to fix it or reverse the trend. There are different ways to tackle the case interview and many frameworks posted online. All of them provide a structured methodology to the analysis and this is what the interviewer is looking for. The interviewer is more interested in how you approach the problem rather than the answer you provide. This is because in a real life consulting situation there is always going to be debate with stakeholders around what the correct answer is and without sound logic and analysis to support the case you are presenting other stakeholders are never going to align around the solution. To provide sound logic and reasoning during a case interview you typically were expected to draw out your solution on paper. This has not changed now that these interviews are hosted virtually. You should still draw out your solution on paper and even hold it up to the camera when explaining your thinking to your interviewer. What has changed is the ability to build rapport as you work through the case. Interacting via a video call is very different to being in an interview room. You need to be even more precise with your questioning as you start to walk through the case and seek answers. This is because it is harder to be conversational with the interviewer and elaborate on the points you are making. You need to know exactly what you are asking for and why you are asking for it during the case. Overall the transition to virtual case interviews has been relatively straightforward. However, it certainly rewards candidates that are analytical and have stronger analytical skills as it is harder to differentiate candidates emotional intelligence. What is clear is that those candidates that do not prepare and practice case interviews beforehand are less likely to perform well in a virtual interview as it is even easier to identify those that have not made the effort to practice beforehand.
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