Hi there,
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1) Can a great performance in my last interview still land me an offer with the assumption that I messed up the first one?
To pass the final you need to have both interviewers agreeing on the fact you should get an offer. If there are doubts, you may be offered to have a third final round interview. If you then do well with that, you will get the offer.
2) Another thing that worries me is that I needed 3 sets of first-round interviews to progress to the second round. Could this factor negatively when the decision to extend an offer is being made?
I can’t see why that should be the case, given you moved to the final. If anything, they will address any weaknesses they noticed in the first round in your other final.
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In terms of the self-evaluation: I know a lot of candidates who self-judged themselves too hard and were sure they would have not passed. The same actually happened to me.
I thought I bombed my first final round at BCG. I got a stress interview and the interviewer challenged every single assumption I made.
It was also very unusual as it consisted of two market sizing and a brainteaser.
I was so sure I would have been rejected I thought about leaving after the first interview (I already had another offer) without waiting for the second one. I stayed just because I thought it would have been too stupid to do something like that.
I did the second final totally relaxed as I was sure it didn’t really matter and I would have not passed. In the end I got the offer.
So my recommendation is: forget completely about the first interview. Concentrate on doing 100% in your other final.
If you do excellent and they still have doubts, they may ask for the additional round. But that doesn’t really matter, as you should focus just on doing your best in your next step now – your next interview. That’s what you can really control at this stage.
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Good luck!
Francesco