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Many organisations today require their employees to possess business acumen and strategic thinking in order to tackle the challenges thrown at them every day. Sectors like consultancy and analytics especially treasure these traits because their projects center around improving business and solving problems for their clients. As a result, such firms adopt case study interviews to test candidates by giving them a real-life business case; the case can range from estimating the potential customer base for a new product to why the cost of a manufacturing plant is going up. How a candidate structures the problem and attacks it is what the recruiters observe closely.
Prateek N Kumar, CEO and MD, NeoNiche Integrated, tells us what case study interviews aim to test in a candidate, “Case study interviews are an initiation of thoughtful dialogues about potential approaches to solving a tough business problem. These are the kind of questions that a candidate will face in his/her job and aim to evaluate how a candidate processes information, reacts to challenging situations, solves problems, and the kind of team dynamics a candidate possesses.”
Pankaj Minglani, principal consultant and director, Career Shapers HR Consulting Pvt Ltd, elaborates on the kind of questions asked in such interviews, “Case interview questions are generally related to scenarios like profitability, market entry, revenue growth, mergers and acquisition, technology changes, etc. Some examples of such questions include:
- If a company is planning to launch a new product line, should they buy an organisation to do so or develop the technology in-house?
- What business plan should a company adopt if it is growing well but is unable to reach its profitability goals?
- If a company wants faster expansion, should it be organic or inorganic?
- What could be the potential reasons behind the market share increasing in one geography but decreasing in another?”
Shankar Viswanathan, principal, ZS India, explains why this method of testing candidates has become important today, “Case interviews help differentiate between candidates who know a concept vs those who know and can put it to practice. Organisations are drowning in data today; firms look for candidates who can rapidly derive insights from this huge amount of data and support business decisions. Through case interviews, one can effectively judge a candidate’s decision support abilities.”
Satya D Sinha, CEO, Mancer Consulting, give some tips as to what a candidate can do to perform well in such an interview:
- Practise cases extensively from books and websites before undergoing a case interview. Consider a case-interview workshop;
- Listen carefully to the question. Paraphrase it back to the interviewer to ensure your complete understanding;
- The interviewer expects you to take a minute or two to collect your thoughts, so don’t be afraid of silence;
- Rarely is there one right answer for analysing a case. Your process for reaching your conclusions is equally important to the interviewer as is the conclusion itself. In fact, the interviewer wants to observe as much of that process as possible, so it’s important to ‘think out loud’ as you’re working through the case;
- Questions are expected from the candidate as the information provided about the case is generally incomplete. The interviewer will be looking at your resourcefulness in collecting information in a logical — not random – progression;
- Construct a logical framework with which to explore the critical issues of the case. Make sure your conclusion is grounded in action, not just theory. Be able to explain and defend your reasoning.