Ask for time for brainstorm and chart reading

From my perspective, taking time to think and organize a response is essential in many situations. This applies to charts and other situations you'll encounter throughout case interviews. However, you can't always expect 2 min. Hence, this is what I would suggest with regards to the “time issue” for different stages:

• Ask for time: 
  • If you're being asked a question and you can't answer it well from the top of your head, ask politely for time.
  • For charts, make sure to do a superficial analysis and then go one level deeper for the real insights, which typically requires a bit of math. This applies to almost any chart or table that you'll ever be given, where the insight cannot be unlocked without a bit of number crunching. This isn't easily done on the fly and asking for a bit of time is reasonable - especially when you let the interviewer know what you're attempting to do.
• Be structured: Embrace the MECE mindset for every question you'll be asked, from initial structure ("how would you help this client?") to brainstorming ("what could be possible reasons for x to happen?"). This is your biggest time saver!
• Adopt the 80/20 mindset:
  • Focus on using the time to build a strong structure/buckets that you can later fill up more (80% of the answer taking 20% of the time). Candidates that take “too much” time are often spending it on detail.
  • Talk interviewer through your structure and fill the buckets up as you speak (20% of the answer requiring 80% of the time, which you have now made conversational as opposed to silent). If you have a good structure and have mastered top-down communication, you can do this intellectual work while you're talking.
• Read the room: You will know quite soon what kind of interviewer you have. Adapt to his/her style and don't insist on taking time for each question when they don't like to give it to you. In that case, verbalize your thought process. Good top-down communication will be your best asset here.
• Pitch to the CEO: This deserves a special mention because quite often the CEO suddenly "walks in” and wants to have a recommendation NOW i.e. no time given. In this case, work the case backwards and give a top down response on the spot (very simplified):
  • Recommendation
  • Criteria
  • Supporting facts (optional)

Hi there,

You can definitely ask for time before brainstorming and graphs, there is no penalty. Most of the time the interviewer will expect this, as it is very difficult to structure a good answer / provide a good graph analysis without taking time.

It is totally fine to ask for time:

• Before presenting the initial structure
• Before any brainstorming questions / graph analysis
• Before structuring a math problem
• Before a conclusion

So, basically, whenever you need time to think, you can ask for it. The only situation where you cannot ask for time is if the interviewer explicitly says “Don’t take time, give me the answer right now”, but that’s very unusual.

Best,

Francesco

Hi there, 

agree with the other coaches - it's perfectly fine to ask for time and think, when the situation requires. I can assure you it's typically not a reason for rejection.

Think about it this way: a (quite underestimated) skill that interviewers value is for a candidate to think before he/she speaks.  Reasoning here is quite simple - as a project manager, if I can trust you are diligent with what you say, I'm much more comfortable putting you in front of a client. As simple as that.

Francesco already provided some good examples of situations in a case, where it's common to pause. Would take that even a step further and say, you can pause whenever you need to think, as long as you MANAGE the case process well, i.e. announce that you'd like to take a bit of time (and why), before you do.

Finally, in terms of how much time to think - it really depends on the complexity of the question / information to absorb. If you spend too much time, a bit of an awkward silence will kick-in / the interviewer gets distracted. Hence, make sure you spend the Minimum Time Necessary to give a robust answer. As a rule of thumb, for structuring up to 1.5-2min is ok, for other case parts, keep it shorter (30 sec will suffice mostly). 

Hope this is helpful

Regards, Andi

Hi there,

Others will disagree, but I believe you can ALWAYS ask for AS MUCH TIME AS YOU NEED.  Just like in real life, if you're not ready to answer, you don't.

Of course, it's better to answer quickly.  Especially if the interviewer says, “The CEO just walked in and wants to know right away…”  

But honestly it doesn't matter because being right is always better than being fast.  A better answer is always preferred over a quicker answer.  

Want proof?  I've been part of many many McKinsey decision meetings following interviews and I've frequently heard, “Good answer, a little slow, but good answer.  Pass"  I have never heard, “Really fast.  Not a great answer, but really fast.  Pass.”

So practically speaking, spend more time learning to be right than being fast.  After you've learned how to answer, then you practice learning how to answer quick.

Hope this helps!

Best,

Allen

Hi there,

I disagree with Allen. Just kidding!

I agree that, in principle, you can and should ask for time. There is really one key way to frame this:

If you need time, take it. If you don't need time, don't take it. How long can you take? The amount of time you need to give a good answer and no longer!

Your options are:

1) Give a fast, bad answer

2) Give a slower, good answer

Which to you think wins out? ;)