What to do if the interviewer speaks too fast in the case prompt part?

Hi there,

I agree with Moritz, it depends on the degree to which you can’t follow the interviewer.

• If you are completely lost, you need to politely interrupt the interviewer and ask if he/she can repeat as you could not understand properly. If you don’t, you won’t understand the following part either
• If you missed a few details only which don’t impact your general understanding, you can clarify them once you repeat the prompt

Below you can also find a few tips on how to take notes, which could help to understand better the prompt.

I would suggest to divide the first page into 4 parts as below:

• Top-left: client type
• Bottom left: initial information
• Top right: objectives
• Bottom right: structure

Landscape format in general works better. Sometimes you will have to go back and forth, as you may get information, objective 1, additional information, objective 2, etc.

The vertical line should be closer to the left border and the horizontal line should be closer to the top border so that there is more space for the structure.

After the first page, you can structure it as reported below:

• Top-left: question asked
• Bottom left: structure to answer
• Top right: question asked
• Bottom right: structure to answer

The vertical line can now be in the middle so that the left and right parts have the same distance.

Besides that, you can also improve your notes with the following:

• Ask the interviewer to repeat in case you missed information. If this impacts significantly your understanding, as mentioned you need to interrupt the interviewer. If possible try to avoid to do so several times
• Do a recap after the prompt. This ensures you took notes correctly, the interviewer will correct you if you repeat something wrong
• Use abbreviations. Eg, for revenues use R, for costs use C, for increase use ⬆, etc.
• Write down essential information only. You won’t have time to write down everything, therefore you should focus on key info only. If you have a client that produces steel with four plants with a revenue problem, your notes could be something as Steel producer, R ⬇, 4 plants
• Keep a separate sheet for math if you tend to be disorganized when you perform calculations

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi there,

Please don't interrupt them!

Rather, put and x, underline, or question mark in that spot and quickly move on. Do not let that distract you from capturing the rest of the information.

Then, as you summarize the prompt back to him/her, gracefully ask for the piece of information you missed. The smoother you do it the better.

Finally, try to prevent this from happening in the first place! Practice with fast prompts prior to the interview.

Hi there,

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

• I would highly advise you not to interrupt the interviewer since this will be regarded (not just in consulting, and not just in professional life) offensive.
• Instead, I would advise you to note every information down you understood and when summarizing the prompt for the interviewer, politely ask him to repeat the missing part of information. This approach will be a lot smoother and respectful.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best behave in tricky case study situations, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Best strategy is to listen as intently as you can, capture notes and play back your summary and then validate.

Now, if you are unable to understand at all them for whatever reason, dont suffer and politely interrupt. Its okay. You dont want to pretend to understand and then work of wrong information.

Hello!

The worst that can happen in this situation is that you miss some critical piece of info that is needed to crack the case. 

Given this worst case scenario, it´s always best to kindly ask them to repeat if you have missed something. Even better, you can rephrase it and add some questions in there, for the gaps that you still have. 

All in all, don´t be shy! It would be a pitty not to be able to crack a case due to not hearing the info right!

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Hello!

As pointed out by other coaches, I would not suggest to interrupt him. Be sure that you don’t miss a significant part of the prompt just because you missed an initial information that you can ask at the end. The summary of the prompt is meant exactly for this.

A good strategy could be to say out loud where you are with your notes (e.g. repeating key numbers while you write it), if the interviewer wants to be nice, he will slow down consequently :)

Hope it helps,
Luca

The real issue here is whether you are understanding the context / question but not the details, or if you aren't even understanding the context.

If it is the first case, you should wait until the end and then go back and get the data right. 

If it is the latter, then you have no alternative but to interrupt and ask them to state again - ideally you would repeat what you were able to understand (just like in a normal conversation). 

Honestly, you have nothing to lose here. If you don't get the question right, you won't get the answer right. Most consultants actually have decent people skills and will get the hint and go a bit slower when repeating again.