Deloitte Case Demonstration Workshop Wrap-Up

Few things are as deliciously entertaining as an evening with Deloitte Consulting, especially when Eric Mark is doing some sort of performance and Martin Burns is running the show.

Tons of hilarious moments went down, including a “bad” case interview in which the candidate answered his ringing cell phone and Martin’s revelation that British corporate events are just like American ones, except people don’t send follow up emails in the U.K. and the Brits serve beer instead of water.

Honestly, you have to come to Deloitte’s campus presentations.

But there was a ton of valuable information that Martin and his colleagues shared, and I want to include one of the simplest but most poignant ones we heard. Martin stresses that every interview decision comes down to three main questions:

1. Can you do the work?
2. Do you like the work?
3. And do you fit in here?

That’s it. That’s the rubric.

In other words, it comes down to whether you are competent, enjoy the work, and fit in with the firm’s culture.

As far as case interview prep goes, the main takeaway from the demonstration was PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Grab a friend, grab some cases, and go at it over and over until the entire process — structuring your thoughts, crunching the numbers and developing recommendations — is entirely natural.

And how can you supercharge your case? By learning about real-world business.

Deloitte and BC recommend reading the newspaper every day (The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times are superb) and competing in the BC case competition. Deloitte endorses it as one of the best moves you can make at UCLA and uses it as a main way to recruit talent.

So as you think about which firms to apply to and how best to prepare, remember the three elements of the interview and these concrete ways to supercharge your recruiting.

A big thank you from BC to Deloitte for a valuable and entertaining event! It’s always a pleasure learning more about this awesome firm and meeting its terrific consultants.