I have an interview coming up and it consists of a structured case interview, an unstructured case interview and a behavioural interview.
What is the difference between a structured and unstructured case interview? Is this simply interviewer vs interviewee led or is this something different?
Thank you.
Hi there,
First of all, congratulations on the invitation!
This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for a lot of users, thus I am happy to provide my perspective on it:
In case you want a more detailed discussion on what to do in your specific situation, please feel free to contact me directly.
Best,
Hagen
Hello,
Here are my thoughts:
1) A structured interview is a typical interview that you must have ideally prepared for: a detailed prompt, exhibits with charts and graphs, very clear and detailed information available throughout the case
2) A structured interview thus tests among other things a) data interpretation skills b) analytical skills
3) An unstructured interview is one where the prompt is vague and open ended. It requires the candidate to thing big picture and requires a lot of creativity and brainstorming in addition to other skills. There are rarely any exhibits, and the interview heavily relies on the candidates to drive the case forward.
4) An unstructured interview is very popular in the middle east to simulate real life cases that are also very big picture and greenfield.
I specialize in giving mocks for unstructured cases based on the real interviews I have received from interviews. Happy to give you mocks if you're interested.
Feel free to reach out to me via chat!
All the best!
Rushabh
Hi there,
What firm is this with and did they tell you anything else?
I never heard either term and it doesn't make much sense to me, either. After all, all cases are somewhat unstructured from the outset and you're the one expected to bring structure to the table.
I also don't think it refers to interviewee-led or interviewer-led because companies don't typically mix these approaches. There's McKinsey (interviewer-led) and the rest of the consulting world (interviewee-led) and they generally stick to this.
My advice is to directly ask them what this refers to. It's a fair question and they will appreciate your diligence and wanting to prepare well for the occasion.
Hope this helps a bit. Best of luck!
Moritz
Worth checking exactly what they mean by unstructured, and whether it varies from interviewee led.
They may mean an interview where (usually someone senior) asks you a series of questions, where the conversation is case-like. For example, a partner could ask “what do you think of my business landline?” and run a whole case on the business of leased lines for corporate clients.
