Hi there,
I have seen many people recommending having a journal while preparing cases and to write down the things that you didnt do well. Can someone give me a recommendation on what to write in that journal ? what level of details ? I find myself writing specific case detials while i beleive the objective is to be more generic. When i'm too generic, what I write seems basic (be more creative, think about the economy and not only the company, etc)
Thanks
Hi Rafic,
It is indeed a good idea to write down the main mistakes you make in a document.
You should keep details of all the areas you could improve. Some examples include:
For each area, you may recognize your own mistakes or receive feedback by peers pointing out what you could improve. Ideally you want to find peers able to provide detailed and relevant feedback – the more detailed the better.
Hope this helps,
Francesco
Hi,
I suggest that you should start using mind mapping tools (like Xmind) for structuring feedback from cases, different structures that you want to keep in mind as well as Fit questions/ answers.
This is how it works. XMind has five topic types:
Central Topic: Every map just has one central topic, which is built automatically with the map. You can call it’s “consulting prep”.
Main Topic: Main Topics are the first level around the Central Topic. You can note the direct ideas here. In your case you can call them Cases, Fit, other
Subtopic: Subtopics are added to main topics and main floating topics. You can record the details about ideas as this. So for cases you can have the following subtopics: structures, analytics/ maths, recommendations. And then you can map all other ideas and feedback against each of your subtopics.
Best,
Anton
Hi Rafic,
Absolutely agree - the specifics of a case documented might help you to remember the circumstances/scenario in which an issue occured. But you need to derive the root cause of that and have a clear picture of those to tackle!
Good basic framework I oftenly use for my candidates - just to cover the basics, even though my feedback in coachings goes far beyond that and takes usually way longer than the case itself:
Hope that helps - if so, please be so kind and give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!
Robert
(editiert)
Hello!
I would not try to leverage a recipie here, but better think of what would be the best tool for you to keep track of your key learnings.
For me, for example, would be an Excel with different tabs and a summary, but this is very personal!
Hope it helps!
Cheers,
Clara
Hi,
So, the first thing is: It's very very hard to evaluate yourself.
Ideally when you case with other preploungers or a coach, they are the ones providing this feedback. Then, you make sure to save it and/or reformat it to review later.
Personally, when reviewing canditates, I lay out my feedback like in the image below, specifically. I include a final "Summary" page of all pros/cons, which is the general feedback to which you're referring.
Of course, I do this across the key criteria of:
Form example, there could be 3 instances where math was a problem. I would write down all 3 instances according to where they occured in the case...this would be specific. In my summary page, I would write down, in general, what was wrong with the math (i.e. forgot numbers, didn't do math properly, need to understand context of numbers, ask to round, etc.)
Dear Rafic,
Actually ou can put there as a bullet points anything that you think valuable and help you better reflect on your preparation:
- your reflections
- ideas
-feedback from your partner or coach
Hope, it helps,
André
Thanks Francesco. I am doing a case about netflix closing DVD by mail service, and I focused on the customers but forgot about the warehouses, equipments, staff, the DVD's, etc. Where would this mistake fall under and what's the best takeaway here without falling into the trap of trying to memorise the answer
Hi Rafic, the issue you had in that case was related to the structure. You should work on creating a better structure with first and second level able to be able to brainstorm the points you mentioned. Please PM me if you have more questions. Best