Thought you might enjoy a taste of my world for the day. Today, I spent 4 hours in a case study workshop and another 4 hours in a “CV Surgery” class (changing my resume to fit UK standards). Apparently, many large corps ask you to work through complex problems with them in order to determine your “cerebral” ability and mental math skills. My first class today gave us frameworks to tackle difficult questions while keeping our “cool”. Here are a couple questions to try your skills:
1. How many letterboxes are there in London(or substitute Washington DC, San Francisco, Raleigh/Durham, New York, etc)?
2. You’re in a room with three light switches. These switches control 3 light bulbs in an adjacent room (which you can’t see into from your room). You can enter the room next door only once to see the bulbs. How can you determine which switch goes to each bulb?
Here’s a hint. For #1, it’s not about getting the right answer…it’s about the process. #2’s about getting the right answer.
If you like these, go to these sites to see additional examples:
http://www.mckinsey.com/aboutus/careers/applyingtomckinsey/interviewing/index.asp
http://www.bcg.com/careers/interview_prep/Practice_Case/practice_cases.html
http://www.bain.com/bainweb/join_bain/case_interviews.asp
And here are a couple links in case you get stuck:
http://www.mckinsey.com/aboutus/careers/applyingtomckinsey/interviewing/casestudytips/index.asp
http://www.bcg.com/careers/interview_prep/interview_tips.html
When interviewing others, I sometimes found determining cognitive and analytical abilities difficult to judge. I’d ask folks to prepare a writing sample on the spot and asked lots of questions, but I’m now a fan of the case studies. Case studies will tell you if someone can think on their feet…a necessary skill for any good agency-side client contact.