Rant alert. I'm not sure if I'm the only one facing this. I have interviewed for senior business roles at zepto, pocket fm, meesho. There are junior folks with very questionable credentials in VP/SVP level roles who are the interviewers. They have never worked in Strategy or Consulting at any company of meaningful scale. Yet they try to give case studies but really struggle to conduct the interview.
I've worked in MBB for several years and I'm getting tired of the weak interviewing skills of these "senior leaders" at startups. If you are one of these leaders, pls understand -
Case study is not treasure hunt with only one right answer.
Candidate does not have insight into your mind and the exact thoughts inside it. So be gracious and allow the candidate to think. Engage in the candidate's thought process and question and challenge it instead of expecting the candidate to give the exact one right answer that's in your mind. You need to test if the candidate can think logically and quickly on their feet, not if they can look inside your head.
Case study is about testing if the candidate can think holistically, cover all possibilities and then knock off whatever doesn't make sense from an outside in POV, and prioritize what to focus on.
No, the candidate does not have access to internal company info so if you penalize them for not accounting for it in your answer, you are not a good interviewer
Pls do not abuse the case study interview method. It is a very effective way to filter candidates but only if the interview is conducted in the right manner. Pls learn how to interview first before rejecting deserving candidates randomly. And pls do not act like you know structured thinking if you have never received training through apprenticeship at a reputed firm with solid talent and a culture of coaching. Accept that you don't know and make the effort to learn it first. Only then can you be in a position to judge others.
Off-topic: How can someone learn structured thinking if one hasn't been part of any consulting firm? I remember following case books during my MBA, but did not find them very helpful.
I can help you learn for a fee. 😛
At the very core, it is about laying down all options logically before jumping into a solution.
And then breaking down a problem into logical steps and tackling them one by one so you have a plan instead of being haphazard or doing ad hoc work.
The frameworks from the case books are a starting point. They give you a flavor of how to think. But you can always come up with your own framework and not just apply whatever the case book says. That comes with practice.
I would suggest go through some mock interviews on YouTube from people who have cracked these interviews and try to observe their approach. And go through the case books.
Then pick a new video and try to solve it at every step and then compare your answer vs the video to get a sense.
The best approach is to practice with someone who has cracked these interviews though.
Same have done case rounds for PM roles and some of the people just expect you to arrive at answers...and internals of the business..like I'm interviewing for a fintech role how would I know what is the trigger for payment for add placement in your ecom business
Yeah that's unfortunate. My bigger issue is the lack of mentorship and the rampant relationship based hiring in startups which means some of these people never learn any better
Insight #1: "Build as much pedigree as you can."
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Please share your thoughts about what should one keep in mind while applying for a position of an analyst with a VC firm.
most of us have come across at least one of the following bad interviewer type:
Not knowing why they are asking that specific question, which skill are you testing ?
Those who ask questions in a Google doc. It's the worst, t...
