Hello,

Experiences during interviews can vary from firm to firm and even from one interviewer to another. It's not uncommon for interviewers to have their own preferred interview style and expectations. In your situation, where the interviewer urged you to provide answers more directly, there are a few things to consider:

Flexibility is Key: Different interviewers may have different preferences. Some prefer a structured approach with clear frameworks, while others may want concise, direct responses. It's essential to adapt to the style of the interviewer.

Ask for Clarification: If you encounter an interviewer who prefers direct answers, and you're more comfortable with structured responses, you can politely ask for clarification. For example, you can say something like, "Would you like me to provide a structured response, or would you prefer a quick, direct answer?"

Practice Both Approaches: During your interview preparation, practice both structured and direct responses to questions. This will enable you to switch between approaches based on the interviewer's preference.

Reflect and Improve: After the interview, take some time to reflect on the feedback and adapt your approach for future interviews. Each interview experience is a learning opportunity.

Stay Positive: Remember that interviewers may have different styles, but it doesn't necessarily reflect negatively on your performance. The key is to demonstrate adaptability and a willingness to meet the interviewer's expectations.

In future interviews, your ability to read the situation and tailor your responses accordingly will serve you well. Keep practicing and refining your interview skills to become more versatile.

If you have more questions or need further advice, please feel free to ask.

Best regards, Frederic

Hi there,

Don't worry! This is absolutely normal and it can always happen in an interview. If interviewers stop you because they believe you took enough time to think about the structure then you should follow their lead. 

It may be because they want to test your response in a stressfull situation or / and because they want to see if you are able to give a fast, yet still structured answer. 

In general, in order to build a connection with people you are talking to, it is a good idea to match their communication style. This means that if they tend to move fast and expect fast answer you should try to do your best to keep up with them. 

What you can do to handle this kind of situation is:

• If you are unsure about their communication style, ask if you can take some time to structure the answer
• If they still leave you some seconds to think, come up in the first 15-30 second wih a high-level structure that you can use in case they stop you (you can deep dive into the structure in the following 30-60 sec in case they give you more time to think)
• Ask relevant clarification question in order to gain some more info and time to think

Hope this helps,
Best of luck with your interviews,
Francesca

Hey,

This happens pretty often during the management consulting or any similar type of interviews.

Some interviewers will expect you to structure everything thoroughly, others will encourage a more conversation-based approach (e.g. brainstorm instantly) with minimum time for structuring required, as is in your case.

The ability to brainstorm mostly mostly depends on how developed your business sense is. The more cases you solve with other candidates, the more structuring patterns you start noticing and the more ideas come to your mind. 

The experience of working at management consulting or similar roles that involve problem solving certainly helps as well.

However, there are some life hacks that can make the brainstorming process easier for you. For one, try to break the problem into TWO high-level drivers and then try to break them down even further on the fly.

The examples could be:
“The problem can either lie in Supply or Demand areas”;
“To fix the profit decline we can work either with the Revenue or the Cost side”
“The problem with the production process can be either machinery related or employee related” etc.

Hope this helps,
Nick

(editiert)

Hi there,

There is no normal.

You need to be ready for any scenario. Just like in real life consulting.

Basically, train yourself in reacting to scenarios you don't expect. Period. Rather than saying x happened, now let me practice x. Oh no, now y happened, now let me practice y.

Make sense?

(P.S. In this instance, this is basically a brainstorming question, so make sure to practice that!)

Here's some reading to help:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/pitfalls-case-interview-preparation

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case
 

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/dos-and-donts-in-a-case-interview
 

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/candidate-led-cases-what-to-expect-and-example-cases

Hi there,

This might happen, specially when your interviewer holds a senior position. You should be prepared to be flexible, pay attention to the preferences or your interviewer and adapt your communication style accordingly.

Best,

Alberto

Hi there,

1) Is that normal or part of the drill?

Normally you can take time to structure your answer to a question. The only situation where you cannot do so is if the interviewer explicitly asks you not to take time. Sometimes this happens in stress interviews to see how you react – it seems this was the case in your interview.

2) How we best deal with similar situations in the future?

As a general rule, you can continue to ask for time and structure an approach.

If they urge you to answer right away, you can still present a first level which is MECE (if you cannot think about anything you can use a structure of X and non-X, such as long-term vs short-term or internal and external) and then brainstorm in each area.

You can find below some general communication tips:

▶ How to Be Structured in Communication

Best,

Francesco