Case interviews have been the norm in the consulting industry, but other companies are now adding cases to their MBA internship and full-time interviews. Amazon, for instance, conducts back-to-back case interviews with MBA students. (Example: Tell me whether there are enough trampolines in stock in this warehouse.) Case interviewing is actually a useful skill to have, if only because of the frameworks that can be applied to typical business problems.
Click this to see a sample case interview, from executiveboard.com.
I have gone through mock case interviews as a first-year MBA student, and have gone through zero actual case interviews in my internship search. Now that I look back upon it, I have been lucky having had only behavioral interview questions, though I must admit that I feel that I haven't had the full MBA experience when it comes to interviews.
Case interviews are pretty stressful, especially when you're not used to them, and my classmates who have gone through them say that it really helps going through case interviews with a second-year or one of your classmates. Sample case questions are related to:
- Pricing (ex. What is the ideal price for Amazon Prime membership?)
- New Market Entry
- Growth
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Increasing Profits
You have papers on which to organize your thoughts (and which the interviewer may ask to keep), and can ask as many questions as you want from the interviewer after a significant pause and a brief summary of how you understood the case. You have to appear in control -- not nervous or rattled. Whatever your answer is, you can expect the interviewer to find reasons why you should have chosen the alternative option. Practice really helps since your mind is able to jump into case frameworks more easily.
Case interviews are mostly challenging, but can be fun to those who like this kind of interview stress.
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