Hi everyone, I have an interview with an MBB in two days and I'm honestly feeling so anxious and hopeless about it that I want to turn it down. I've studied a non-business and non-quant undergrad, and although my quant skills and business knowledge are better than this info would suggest, they're still not great -- especially not the latter (business/economics knowledge).
I honestly don't know how the heck I got this interview -- what they've seen of me so far are my grades (college and high school exit grade), my cover letter and CV (high points include long involvement with a not-for-profit startup, whose operations I improved/basically built from the ground up -- but I did nothing really economic), and a cognitive test I did for them.
I'm just so worried that this interview will go so badly that I won't be able to stand it, and will end up crying, running out of the room, vomiting, etc. Obviously I've been 100% truthful about everything on my CV, and you can't fake cognitive test results -- but they must be expecting me to have studied way more business stuff than I have; they must just take for granted that anyone even applying for this position has way more knowledge than I do.
Rationally I know I should not turn down this interview, as
1) It would be rude; by (somehow??!!) getting this far I have deprived someone else of an interview slot.
2) I'm probably not as rubbish as I think I am, since I've gotten this far. Maybe there's something the selection process is seeing that I'm missing?
3) The worst-case scenario is I humiliate myself for 90 minutes (45 minutes if I run away between interviews 1 and 2!!) in front of some people I'll never see again -- why is this so scary? As against the best-case scenario, which is that I get cases I can figure out, my math is solid enough to get me through, I get a second-round interview offer, before the second round I work on the case types that I'm weaker on, I get through the final round, and end up working at an MBB.
3a) I've done other types of scary exams before, including in-person oral foreign language exams at the highest level(s), and managed to keep going without freaking out, even when I thought I was doing terribly.
3b) Maybe I am overestimating how bad things will go, even if I do something early in the interview that makes it clear to both me and the interviewer(s) that they won't be hiring me. Indeed, even if I do something egregiously and unusually terrible that is the most stupid thing they have ever seen, there's probably not any functional difference between that happening, and something happening that is just bad enough for them to be sure of rejection -- and the latter must happen all the time.
So logically, there's no possible reason to suddenly turn down, or not show up for, my interview.
But I am just so terrified of that worst-case scenario. What do they do to you if you're really screwing it up, and just don't know how to proceed at all -- especially given they'll be mad at me for wasting their time? Like what actually happens if you just can't proceed, they know for sure they're not hiring you -- and there's 30 minutes left in the interview time (and potentially another 45 minutes if this is occurring in the first interview)? Are you allowed to leave?
(edited)
GOT - Got your Offer Training 
Integrated FIT Guide for MBB by Clara 
Thanks Nathaniel, Udayan , Robert, Francesco and Vlad for your kind and helpful words. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed at the moment for reasons unrelated to the interview (as well as due to the interview) and nearly pulled out today, but then I remembered I have told about 12 of my friends that I have an interview at BCG -- they're very excited for me and of course not expecting it to go any further either, and they're not going to know what went on in the interview room even if I really screw it up. But they'll think I'm a wuss if I wimp out! So I am definitely going to do it. Interestingly, due to coronavirus, it might be replaced with a Skype interview -- which normally I consider more intimidating as I think I do worse on them, but in this case I find the thought more calming (which has also led me to isolate the cause of my anxiety as the actual fact of being in the room). I think there's a close to 100% chance I won't make it past the first round, but it could still be an interesting and even enriching experience. — Anonymous A on Mar 11, 2020
Hi everyone, thought you might be interested to know how it went. Well, as expected, it didn't go well and I got rejected, but it wasn't too excruciating at any point. Both interviewers were very friendly and basically (especially in one case) responded to my getting monumentally stuck and going silent by basically helping me, even though it was obvious to both of us that the amount of prompting/guidance I was getting had already gotten me rejected. I think I was pretty muted in my emotional responses, as yesterday -- Friday the 13th! -- was also the day that my country really started to sink into COVID-19 issues; in the space of 12 hours (during which my interview occurred), all of our state and federal leaders basically declared an emergency, every public event was cancelled, multiple public figures announced that they had tested positive, and right before my interview I was dealing with a family member who became convinced she was going to die due to a preexisting condition (thankfully I was able to use some of my recently-polished math skills to realise that there's no way 100% of people with her condition can be dying, given that 1+% of people have it and the death rate in many age groups, including hers, is 0.2%). So yes, the interview occurred in a basically deserted building during an hour in which the government -- whom I had involuntarily seen on a public TV right before the interview -- said that "things will change rapidly over the next hour". As a result, I kind of didn't care, and responded to getting stuck on cases by essentially going silent; knowing I had already blown it, I didn't even try recovery strategies such as recapping, etc. To other people, this is probably what I'd recommend if you do realise (and you're SURE) you've blown it completely -- at least in preference to other options like crying or leaving the room. However much you might hope for it, there's not an 0% chance that you'll ever see this interviewer in a professional context again. So to recap, interview went badly in basically the way I was expecting, thus ending my 160.5-hour foray into consulting interview prep. I think that the whole experience has made me a) more interested in consulting, b) more interested in business, c) more confident at maths and d) a whole lot more confident about interviews! Going forward, I have two applications progressing for grad programs at places where I successfully interned. Assuming the current economic structure survives until then, next year (or the year after, if I get into a grad program but don't continue with the same company), I'd definitely be keen to prepare properly and apply at other consulting firms. — Anonymous A on Mar 13, 2020 (edited)