Interview

Not necessarily! In my experience, interviewers are not always meticulously on the look-out for the perfect, textbook answer. They are testing whether you are comfortable with quantitative analysis, and expect you to round off, take short-cuts etc. which often mean that no two answers will look exactly the same for the same case interview. I've seen instances where candidates which clearly have strong quantitative skills have made some mistakes which the interviewer hasn't failed them on. 

Remember too that case interviews have multiple assessment dimensions - the quantitative aspect being only one of them.

Agree with the other coaches - suggest you don't speculate. This can go either way and only the interviewer's perception on this mistake will matter.

Keep in mind, interviews will never be fully objective - it all depends on perception. If the other parts of the case were strong, the interviewer may not over-index on the faux pas.

Wish you the best of luck!

Regards, Andi

Hi there,

First, you did not fail straight away!

Now, earlier in the case did you state “15” when you solved it initially? And then you just mistakenly said 10? Or, did you solve incorrectly for 10?

If the former, you're probably safe (assuming the rest of the case was great and you didn't make a habit of making those kinds of mistakes). If the latter, it's a bit more serious but also still not the end of the world (you are evaluated holistically).

Next time, please organize your sheets of paper so that you don't miss this kind of information! Feel free to reach out for my casing template which prevents exactly this kind of mistake.

Fingers crossed for you!

The honest answer is nobody except the interviewer knows. Many times they will look over mistakes in one area if the overall performance is good and if there is a reasonable explanation for the error. 

At this point unfortunately it is just a waiting game.

All the best,

Udayan

Hi there,

I would't worry too much about it before knowing the outcome. 

The truth is: I have NEVER seen a candidate the has done a case perfectly, and I have made a calculation error myself when solving the case during my third round. There is a myriad of different factors that goes into evaluating an applicant's performance, and if your underlying reasoning was well-argumented, then you have pretty good chances. Interviewers understand that solving a case live is a stressful situation and often forgive minor errors. 

Keep us updated!

Several different things are taken into account in the evaluation of your performance during the interview.
For instance, the evaluation takes into account

• problem solving
• structuring
• analytical rigor
• communication
• presence

So, it is difficult to say why you made the mistake and how the interviewer saw your mistake.

In general, there is no reason to worry about things you cannot control anymore.

Hi there,

It is difficult to say. One mistake doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to be rejected if you had a great performance in the rest of the interview. On the other hand, many candidates have the wrong impression in terms of their performance, so there may have been other issues as well.

As mentioned by Udayan, no one can really give you a clear answer but the interviewer. Although annoying, the only thing you can do now is to (i) prepare for other interviews/ apply for other companies and/or (ii) wait for the results.

Good luck!

Francesco

In most cases it will not be a deadly mistake. It depends on how obvious the mistake was and how many times you've looked at data that should have made you realize that something was off. 

If it was something like a single calculation / reading mistake, most interviewers will treat it as a minor mistake… as long as you don't make similar mistakes again.

Dont speculate. 

Important thing is this:

1. Did you give your best?

2. Do you know the areas you can improve next time?

Fingers crossed for you.

Hello!

Sorry to hear about that! It´s not great, this for sure, but doesn´t mean game over either. Sometimes, more than the precise answer, we are satisfied as interviewers with the overal logic, how you process and communicate, etc.

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Dear candidate,

the answer is you can still pass, simply wait for the interviewer's response. The reason is that you are evaluated along several dimensions and you do not need to do every single thing correctly in order to pass.

Best regards,

Most probably yes.