All right. Welcome, everybody. My name is Craig Jones and welcome to case interview overview. My pronouns are he, him, his and I'm the Career Education in advising associate for Cornell Career Services. And I'm joined with my colleague Kay. Hi everyone. I'm having a little better video trouble, so I will be turning that off momentarily. Welcome to this session. Again. As Craig said, my name is Kay, I use she, her, hers pronouns and I work in Arts and Sciences Career Development as one of the career associates there. And I will be mostly doing the technical roles today. So I will be paying attention to the chat box. So if anyone has questions, that is the place to put them, I will be paying attention to that and adding those question in if we have time during the presentation or we can be doing more of that after the presentation. All right. So we're gonna go ahead and get started. Once again, welcome everybody. So tonight's agenda is why employers conduct case interviews, components of a case interview. Case interview guidelines, resources to prepare for your case interviews. Next steps and questions. And I just want to go a little more detail about why employers conduct case interviews In the past, it used to be predominantly consulting firms that would administer case interviews. But we've seen lately a lot more employers are incorporating the case component in their interviewing process. Because its one thing to say you're a good problem are, but it's another for you, to kind of demonstrate it. So some other employers that are also conducting case interviews is financial services, engineering firms, retail. So a Lot more employers are conducting the case as opposed in the past. So why a case questions given they want to assess your analytical ability, your creativity, your logical structure, thought process, your communication skills, your comfort working with ambiguous data, your ability to manage time, your interest in problem-solving. and then types a case questions are typically given and this can change and adapt. So in the past, brain teasers weren't given that often, but now we are discovering that more employers are incorporating the brain teaser component during the interview. There's market sizing case problems, business operations, business strategy, a hybrid kind of a combination brands and market-sizing and business. And this is something that happened last semester, research based. So an employer to give you a topic to research, to compile data, to put that into a PowerPoint presentation and present that. And then there's also interviewer led and more interviewee led base case questions. And something to keep in mind. Some case questions will have specific numerical data to work with and some will not. So it's interesting when I give case practice questions to students, if they don't have a concrete numerical data, they find it quite difficult to solve the case. So I think just keeping that in mind that sometimes you're not going to have that specific numerical data to work with, so don't panic. So once again, a case questions help employers assess yourcreativity, right? So sometimes this is what's lacking when I give case interviews that students are so focus on solving the case that they don't try to demonstrate your creativity, but keep in mind they are assessing you on that. So are you able to apply unique perspective to business solutions? Are able to see the big picture, draw conclusions from partial information, make assumptions, see patterns, and generate theories. Then your poise, are you able to demonstrate enthusiasm with this kind of issues that consultants would face. So would you enjoyed doing this type of work? Are you able to maintain composure in the face of uncertainty, process or problems? Are you able to assimilate information both quickly and effectively and ask insightful questions. And then also assessing you on your analytical abilities. Are you able to provide structure to unstructured problems? Are you able to break problems into components? Apply transparent logical thinking to each components. Are you able to synthesize discussion into possible solution or solutions? So here are some case interview guidelines that you should keep in mind. You want to confirm the allotted amount of time. Sometimes it's implied that you might have 30 minutes or 45 minutes to solve the case. But I think it's always good to state in the beginning. How much time do I have actually work on the case? Because if they give them 30 is 20 minutes analysis and 10 minutes for questions or let's say the allotted time isn't given to you by asking that you could find out, oh, it's only 15 minutes. Okay. Wow, So I need to really work more effectively and efficiently, doing short amounts of time. So keep him I always try to confirm the allotted time. You want to listen to the problem. Also assessing you on your active listening skills. So you want to make sure that you're accurately listening to what they're saying. You want to restate the problem. You want to verify the objective or the objectives. Sometimes it could be an applied objective. So I always tell students to say, Is this my main objective or objectives or something else you'd like me to work on because you want to keep that in mind. If you only 15 minutes and now you thought you only had 2 objectives to find out you have three objectives. You want to ask clarifying questions. I think this is another concern that when I provide case the interview prep for students, they have a fear factor of asking questions. So to me, if I'm your client, I want to know that you feel comfortable asking for clarifying information or additional information because you don't then a lot of your analysis could be made on assumption. So I think it's always good to ask for additional information. You want to take notes. And you want to think about how are you going to structure the problem? You want to once again organize your answer and manage your time effectively. Once again, be creative, be coachable. I think this is something to, to really keep in mind like after asking you for clarification about your approach or your analysis, you want to be competent and comfortable saying this is why you came up with this approach. And that they're kinda deciding that maybe you should think about it differently. You need to be able to kind of take it in and process like, okay, maybe that is a better approach. You don't want to be confrontational during your analysis. You want to think out loud, but you want to think first. And then you always want to make sure that you bring closure and summarize. So if you're given three objectives, you really want to make sure they're able to answer all three of those objectives within those time constraints. So this is how you should map out the case. So you want to ask right and once again, clarify, ask for additional information. If it's provided, fine if not then you're going to have to hypothesize some information. And that regards to assume, right? So if you don't get information, you gotta have to make some general assumptions. You want to make sure that you come up with your structure, then you need to assess. So based on the information that you've provided are not provided, how are you going to synthesize all the information and then make those recommendations at the end. So ask, assume, assess, and then recommend at the end. So here are a few tips for success. So you want to scratch your analysis and math on paper. Use facts provided to develop and support your conclusions. You want to, once again, that communication. You want to ask for more data or clarifying information. You want to keep your framework in mind. You want to stay focused and calm, If you are challenged. You want to think out loud and more importantly you also want to keep it interactive. You want to make sure, especially when a lot of cases lately I've been giving virtually you want to make sure that you're being engaged with your interviewer or interviewers. You want to be mindful of too much silence and negative phrasing. You don't want to be doing a lot of your analysis on your own and not kind of guiding your interviewer what your approach is or what you're calculating, or what you're framers going to be. You really want to, it's okay to kinda take a few seconds in the beginning, kind of collect your thoughts. But also, I would kind of ask questions to why are kind of coming up with your framework or your reasoning. So once again, we want to make sure that's interactive. And you want to show enthusiasm and have a positive attitude. A lot of times they're assessing you once again on that positivity, right? So are you able to do this type of work? So even though case interview that might be new to you, you really want to convey that you enjoy doing that type of work. I can't stress that enough. And then you want to be comfortable asking questions or getting clarification. And then don't make a lot of unnecessary assumptions. So I think it's always better to ask for information and if it's not provided, then it's okay to say Okay, I'm going to make an assumption then. Then when in doubt, talk it out. So if you're thinking about going down this path or this path, I would recommend talking it out. So that way you're ensuring that you're going down the right path. And then once again, you want to expect the unexpected and try to stay calm. And here's something that was brought to my attention to some employers is that they really value to include your interviewer's name into your analysis. I think that's something that I've been trying to strongly encourage students to kind of incorporate the interviewer's name into your analysis and your framers. So that way you're making it more inclusive and you're kinda role-playing, being consult and they're your client. So keep that in mind to try to interject your interviewer's name throughout your analysis. And here's something else to really think about too, and to keep in mind is the impact of COVID-19, right? So a lot of cases if somebody's introducing a new product or sales could be down, really incorporate the pandemic because I think that's something that's going to really impact just about every type of possible case question, to really think about that, that how it's going to, to impact the analysis. And then tips for success for framework. So once again, do's use one to structure your answer. You want to explain your insights derived from using that framework. How did you go about choosing that? Once again, keep in mind that creativity is key. And you want to make sure you get that buy-in from your interviewer. And some don't, when choosing framework says, Don't force fit a framework. So once again, a lot of students, you've gotta memorize some of these frameworks. So a lot of the cases are given today. You can't choose just one framework. So then force fitting analysis set to fit one those frameworks yet memorized. So they're also looking once again, remember that creativity. So I think it's okay to come up with your own framework instead of using a framework to have memorized. And you definitely don't want to use a framework that you don't know well and you don't want to overuse. buzzwords like hey, I'm not going to be talking about Porter's five forces. Then once again, you don't want to ignore the directions from your interview. You want to make sure that your analysis is inclusive. As tips for success. I always recommend that you should do put your paper and landscape bulb because when it's in portrait mode, sometimes it's kinda hard to see all the data because it's all interconnected. But I think utilize your paper in landscape mode and kinda create three columns on the left side the page give me your case question and your objective. You want to make sure that you're starring or boxing. What your objectives is because sometimes it's really easy to kind of lose focus like, Oh, I actually get three objects. So you want to make sure that those are really highlighted on the left side. And the middle column could be your framework, you're thought process. And on the right side of your page could be your math calculations. So I think this is a good rule to kinda keep in mind to kind of utilize your paper in landscape mode in order to kind of stay organized with your data. Here's some tips for virtual case interviews. So technology application. So before your initial interview, find out what application you'll be using, install it prior to your interview. Know how to use the application example like whiteboard and how to share screen. It's shocking to me, like when I'm meeting with student, they're not sure how to share their screen or they've never used the whiteboard feature. So I think it's good to kind of be aware on how to use the platform. Because you might be asked to utilize a whiteboard teacher or just share your screen. And once again, be sure to run any updates before you're actually interview. You want to make sure that it's running smoothly and for your device, you want to turn off any notification alerts. Check your Internet connectivity. Make sure your device is fully charged and confirm your camera and microphone are working correctly. Also, you want to make sure in regards to your microphone that you're able to hear you, that sometimes I get students cover up the microphone with paper or do utilizing the headphones and it's hard for them to know whether or not they could be heard. So I think it's always going to do it like a practice run to make sure that you're interviewers able to hear you. And if you have grainy visuals or muffled audio, it might be time to kinda invest in external webcam or microphone. You really want to make sure that they can see you as well as hear you. And then keep in mind that digital technologies, one of the top traits employers are looking for in candidates and can be easily gauged during a virtual interview. Tips for virtual case interviews continues. So during the interview, you want to remember to connect with the interviewers. So once again, I think interjecting their names, I think would be quite helpful. Periodically, lean into the camera when you want to express it points. I think it's good to lean in utilized hand gesture to kind of be more engaged because a lot of times if you're sitting back and select appearance like you're disengaged, right? So you want to make sure that everybody feels included in your analysis. Once again, use hand gestures as long as they don't become too distracting. Be comfortable asking questions and follow-up questions. I can't stress that enough. And once again, keep in mind that avoid long periods of silence because I think the more silence then the anxiety builds in your interviewer it can build in you and what are they going to say? What are they going to say something? So once again, I think it's going to kind of collect your thoughts for a few seconds, but making sure that your periods of silence doesn't go on for too long. So troubleshooting tips for virtual case interviews, don't panic, stay calm. Try turning off the video to see if that, corrects the situation. Close the application and rejoin the session. Dial in from your phone. Or most applications have this feature, e-mail or call recruiting contact immediately. I think that's always helpful. What is the case interview or any kind of virtual interview is before the interview starts ask what the procedure is. If you should experience technical debates because it could be on their end as well. So I think it's good to kind of ask that at the beginning so you are ready to adapt to the situation a bit should it arise that you're having trouble, or it could be on the other end. You just want to make sure what the procedure or expectations are. So here's some cases we don't focus on a lot of do's but here's some don'ts. So you don't want to worry about not having a business background I think so many students are so worried that their not a E or econ major that, that works against them. But a lot of employers, they want students with different backgrounds. They want different majors because you see things differently, right? So I think embrace what you do have and don't be worried what you don't have. You don't want to waffle. Be indecisive. So you want to have a point of view and confidently support it. Don't forget the original question. Don't lose sight of the issue or get lost in details. Sometimes when there's like math calculations. Sometimes students spend a lot of time calculating and then recalculating. And it just consumes and then lose track of time. So once again, be aware and don't get lost in any of the details. Once again, you don't want to lose contact with the interviewer and I think that's easier to do virtually so this why I think once again, lean towards the camera utilizing name, bringing them into your analysis will be quite helpful. And don't ignore when analytics prove your original theory. So if it's being questioned. Let this approach you need to say, okay, take it in and listen to what they're saying. You definitely don't want to keep your thought process. You want to make sure they communicating how you're approaching the case question. And don't forget to include the case regardless of progress or time, progress made or time constraints. You always want to make sure that you give your complete answer at the end. And here's something to keep in mind don't want to forget the behavioral interview portion. Sometimes students spent so much time on preparing for the case, the interview portion that they forget there's also behavioral portion. So once again, keeping that in mind. So once again, some case interview tips recap. So you'll want to ask how much time you have to work on the case. Write down the case question and recite it back to them. Restate the problem and establish the objective or the objectives. Ask questions, be comfortable working with numbers, use common sense and have a reality check. So I think always good to keep my at the end there. Really step back and think about, does that number seem logical. So once again, really utilizing your common sense and have that reality checked at the end. So here's some case interview resources. So print resources, our case in point. This is to be the only case prep material, available. But now there's several case books available. This is another great case book resource, Victor Cheng's Case interview secrets. And then I really like this book case interviews for engineers because if you're worried about not having that business background, this allows you to kind of really think about the approaches that they use. So once again, all three of these are great resources, but they're not the only resources available. So the Johnson school actually pays access for case and point interactive, but it's only available for current Cornell students only. And here is the link. And also Career Services pay for you to have access to management consulted website. Once again, this just for current Cornell Students only unfortunately. And then recently Career Services has developed a Toolkit Canvas module. So once again, for case practice, this is a great resource and some consulting industry online resources. So once again, I highly recommend this website, so consulting.us gives you great news about what's going on. Consulting firms, types of projects your working on, the career path. They break it down by country the consulting into three segments. So I think this is a really good resource to kind of periodically look at to see what's going in the world of consulting. So case interview practice so once again, I want to mention that case interview toolkit for our case interview through Canvas. And I would recommend practice case questions both individually, in pairs and groups. And here's a document that I created last semester and update it. So this semester that if you want to find casing practice partners that you can sign up utilizing this Google Sheets. And then it's kind of broken down by your proficiency. If you have basic, if you're proficient or if you're an expert. So I think once again, this is a good way for you to practice in pairs as long as well as in groups. And then if you'd like to schedule a case practice interview with me, Here's the booking link that you can set up a case of you practice. So some next steps that you should keep in mind. So once again, get familiar with the resources. Learn about the employers you're interviewing with view case interview materials on the firm's website and YouTube channel. A lot of times you've got great case prep on their websites, but typical questions that you could be asked. So once again, you want to make sure that you're doing your homework and going to the firm's website. Something also to keep in mind a lot of the firm's website. I've got. Some guidelines on how they want their application materials submitted so some firms actually want the dates on the left side the page, instead the right side the page. Some firms want like SAT scores on there. So once again, doing your homework to find out what are the guidelines for that particular firm that you're applying to. You want to make sure that you're doing what's expected. And here's something to keep in mind that you also want to hone your Excel and PowerPoint skills. And then once again, Cornell pays for you to have full access to LinkedIn Learning modulus for current students once again. So here's the link for that. And the reason that you should really hone your Excel and PowerPoint skills is because consultants 70 percent of their day in Excel and 20 percent using PowerPoint. So once again, you really want to make sure that you hone those Excel and PowerPoint skills. So here are some frequently asked questions regarding case interview, prep, and then we'll open up to other questions at the end. How should you best prepare for case interviews? Once again, I think it's practice, practice, practice and a lot of times students like, Okay, how many cases should I do? I don't know. You don't want to be so robotic in your analysis by think it's good to do a practice. Behavioral questions. You want to practice, market sizing, you want to practice scenario. So you really want to make sure that the different types of case questions that you have a basic understanding and should I memorize framework? So once again, I will recommend no because once again, once a lot of employers where the case questions that they select for you, you can't choose one framework, so you don't want to force fit your analysis to utilize one of those frameworks that you have memorized, but I think it's good to know your frameworks. But once again, try to come up with your own frameworks. And how do I overcome nerves? I think it's a really common question and what I would, recommend is you know, that role-playing you need to really convey with confidence enthusiast that you're a great problem solver, that you enjoy doing this type of work. I think that comes with practice. Just that self-assurance. And what are the biggest mistakes people make in case interviews is a really common question. I think the biggest mistake I've mentioned it several times is that fear or that initial anxiety to ask questions, you feel like you need to be able to solve this case on your own. But once again, if they're your client, you really want to make sure that you're conveying that. I want to ask for clarifying information. I wanted to ask for this information. So that way, you won't have the majority of your analysis based on assumptions that could be based on facts that were provided. How do I practice case interviews by yourself? I think that's a good question. So typically, I don't know what the best approach is, but I think once again, going to the firm's websites would be good practice because a lot of times you can type in your answer compared to the actual answer. Also management consulting website, you can type in your answer compared to actual answer. So I think that's a good way to kind of practice on your own. And then once you do that initial practice to schedule a case interview prep practice interview with either myself in Barnes Hall Career Services or with your college office. And then how do you make yourself stand out? So once again, I think it's a confidence and that creativity, right? Are you able to kind of think outside the box when you're coming up with your recommendations. Are you able to interject your personal knowledge in the area. I think that's always good to kind of include that in your analysis when you can, sometimes you can't, but I think when you can try to demonstrate that creativity, you want to be an active listener. And more importantly, you want to be a strong communicator. So I know we asked, gave you a lot of information. So I'm going to open up to questions that anybody might have, about something that wasn't covered or you want a little bit more additional information on. You can put that question in the chat box or you can do a hand raise if you want to ask it verbally. Either way, it's fine. And just to highlight the conversation that has been going on in the chat box. These slides will be sent to you all that you'll have these links. This presentation is also being recorded and will be captioned and put up in the media library that usually takes a little while so we will send these slides out to folks can have the resource we talked about.  Something to keep in mind too, a lot of times employers are going to be doing information sessions. They could be doing a session on case interview prep. What they told us is, it's great that you attend but they also want you to be active participants in something as simple as turning on your video, right? So you might not feel, comfortable to ask questions, but they want to know that it's great that you attend but they want your video on to show that next step, right? That you really are an active participant, right? So even though you might ask questions, just something as simple as turning your video on. I have a question that comes up from a lot of students when they're working for case interviews. That question asking verses making assumptions Can you talk a little bit more about some questions that might be good to be asking in some of these type situations and when would be a good time to make those assumptions? Well, I think it's good to ask us any question about the case. Question itself, I think it is a really good tip because sometimes that data that's presented to you in a case question is quite vague. So once again, I think asking a follow-up question, like a question that's been asked in the past. How many tennis balls are in the air on a Saturday afternoon? So once again, okay. That's very vague. So what are some clarifying questions that I would ask, right? So Saturday afternoon is that during the summers, during the fall, maybe what colored tennis balls are we talking about? Can you define in the air right to once again, any clarifying questions about the case question itself. I think it's important. And then for market sizing, something like if it's depending on you knowing the populationin the United States. And you're not really sure. You can say, okay, I'm not really sure what the population is, but you can make an assumption and then you could say, is that an accurate assumptions, then they can say, Oh, that's too high or too low. But something like the population, that's something that you should have some kind of answer for that. And it's shocking to me like when students don't know the population of the United States, they don't know if it's in the millions and the billions. So that's something that you could ask, but I would make sure that I would come up with some kind of answer first and then asking, is that an accurate assumption? So you don't want to say, okay, what is the population of the United States? You want to show that you're attempting to solve it on your own by making sure that you know that you come up with a realistic number. Any other questions or concerns? Do you have any tips for specific employers? More so geared towards around like the Big Four. Are there specific things we should talk about with each company that sort of demonstrates their values. Do you have any tips for that? That's a really good question. So I would recommend once again going to that firm's website and also management consulted, they have a lot of case interview questions based on particular firm. So there's case expressions for Mckenzie and Deloitte and PWC. So once again, doing your homework, going to the firms website. And as well as going to management consulted prep website, and also interacting with alumni, right? So utilizing CUeLINKS and maybe talking to somebody that works at that firm or utilizing LinkedIn define alumni that are working there. So I think networking, going to the firm's website as well as management consulted Good questions. Do we have this book for our library, the books you say like Engineering Interview case Oh, what library are they available in it that your question? Yes. Some of them might be in the Cornell library. I know we have those in our Career Library, but once again, we're not reopening until July first. So I think those books are good, but I would highly recommend utilizing the online resources. Okay, can you talk a little about like, you say consulting management team and engineering is more technical, so how are they interconnected like consulting company, like some management company how they relate to the engineering aspect? Well, some employers like Apple, like, I mean, there's some firms that are incorporating the case component into their interview approach. Okay Thank you. Any other final questions from anyone? Yes. So what is the timeline look like for consulting? Well, that's a very good question. So in the past, the fall semester used to be particularly when the majority of recruiting. And I think because of the pandemic, there's still a lot of uncertainty. A lot of employers, they don't know what their hiring needs are yet. So some firms have started the interview process in early June, early this month. So I think it's kinda hard to say what the timeline is because I think it's constantly changing, So I think to be prepared, keep checking for Cornell handshake, going to the firm's website to see when the deadlines are because I think it's going to be a while until we get back into the norm of recruiting. Yeah, we are seeing them start a little earlier this year. It sounds like a number organization trying to recruit in more similar timelines to what we see financing recruiting for, to make sure they're not missing out on some good candidates. So we've noticed that there are some earlier folks planning on opening in June, July, timelines as opposed to waiting a little bit later as well. Any other questions about preparing for those case interviews or any other questions around those timelines or consulting applications, any of that. kind of stuff.  When you were talking about well, when Craig was talking about using CUeLINKS, sort of what things should we put in our filters, and what type of alumni do you think we should, we should contact? And sort of also the timeline of that. When is it appropriate to start contacting them or when do you recommend starting to contact them for the process? I think it's always good to start early and then maybe you can see if you're interested in a certain pharmacy, what Cornell on my work there, maybe your interested in finding alumni, they have your major, that's in consulting. So I mean, there's multiple ways that you can kind of approach utilizing CUeLINKS or LinkedIn by these good to kind of start early. And then keep in mind that you might not hear back from some alumni and that's okay because they're busy as well. So once again, I think keep trying, and I think it's always good to kind of start early. Thank you. Any other questions or concerns? Actually I also have a sort of market sizing question. How many consultants are sort of hired from Cornell every year on average, do you think? Well, on our website, you can look at the postgraduate report and it will tell you how many go got into consulting. Thank you. At the top of my head. Significant number. Yes. Good to know.