Tips on ow to be structured in a case intervew

Hello,

I am just hypothesizing here, but perhaps you did put out your framework, but you did not follow it while solving the case? It is important not to jump around through the different parts of your structure presenting your points, and rather go through them one by one in a fashionable manner. That is my primary thought; that you were not really structured enough while presenting your theses.

Also, when you get new questions, you quickly switch between different frameworks, and that could lead to some confusion for some perhaps; do not necessarily stick to the old one, but go over to a new framework, of course.

Another thing could be how you presented your math calculations. These needs to be as structured as a framework, if not more, and just as easy to follow, if not easier. Perhaps you did not explain sufficiently your steps and just ran through the math quickly?

Concerning Bain, they have candidate-led cases apart from McKinsey, which is a different type of interview. You lead the interview and decide where to dig in, but as I mentioned earlier; cut off each possible branch as soon as you can by digging as deep into one branch as possible.

Hope that helped!

Hi Cilene,

it is difficult to answer without knowing the details of what happened during the interview, however, as also mentioned by Filip and Vlad, the following points are potential reasons for which you may have not appeared structured:

• Poor communication of the framework
• Jumped around in different parts of the framework
• Not properly presented second and third layer of the framework when dig in a particular area
• Not structured when having to analyse graphs, math and final sum up
• Not MECE in the framework – you presented hypothesis not mutually exclusive

In my experience, the first round with Bain was very similar to the one with McKinsey, with the only difference that was more interviewee led. The skills and preparation required were the same though.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi,

Agree with the previous on.

1. Never stop using the structures. Make an initial structure and then dig deeper with the new structures
2. Present the structure (literally, rotate your paper and show your structure)
3. Use the structures for math / marketsizing / creativity questions
4. Use the structure while communicating (i.e. top-down approach) and synthesis
5. Use relevant structures (Industry / functional knowledge). For each industry, you should understand:

• Revenue streams
• Cost structure
• Margins
• Key performance indicators
• Key revenue drivers
• Industry trends

I strongly recommend practice drawing structures for each industry - profitability, value chain, etc

Hi Cilene,

Generally, there are 4 key steps you can take to improve structure for case interview:

Use a MECE framework: group your thoughts in buckets.
Prioritize: hypothesize where the issue might be and decide on a vertical/leaf node to test.
Contextualize: your issue tree/framework should not be cookie-cutter. It should be specific to the case in question.
Be creative: this is the cherry on the cake. Incorporating some creativity when structuring your case is definitely a differentiating factor. Very few people/resources talk about this.

More specific information you can find on the Internet.

Best,

André