Case study interview (2nd round after HR screening call) was very poorly conducted. The case question was on Revolut launching a trading product but have seen decline in gross profit. The interview was 45mins and the first 10-15mins was already used for introductions. This resulted in the actual case being only 30mins or so, for a very broad case topic. I had a consulting background and am currently in a strategy team of a tech company, so I believed I could hold my own during this case. However, the interviewer did not give any room for broad structured discussions and seemed intent on driving the ‘correct’ answer, constantly citing that time was limited. A ‘normal’ case study is typically used to gauge candidates’ creative thinking and structured analysis to ultimately zero down to root cause. However, I was abruptly shut down again and again while presenting my thoughts, which threw me off a lot. It seemed like the interviewer wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, and was already writing me off at the start for not generating the correct answers off the bat. The interviewer constantly prompted me to ask for data, which I could have done at the start when breaking down the problem, but I chose to explain the whole universe of potential issues before getting to where the problem was (and I did make my methodology clear at the start before presenting). Seemed like they only score candidates better for simplicity and lack of breadth. This was quite annoying as I felt I didn’t get an opportunity to showcase my knowledge at all, and had to just solve the case in a rather rudimentary level.

I was contacted through LinkedIn. The process went as follows: 1. HR call: positive experience. Mix between understanding my background deeper and giving HR information regarding the role. Recruiter was helpful, professional, and friendly. 2. Online test: positive experience. Went as expected and felt relatively easy. 3. HR call: positive experience; was briefed on next steps. 4. Take-home exercise: skipped this step 5. Business case: positive experience. Interviewer was professional, friendly and collaborative. Case was simple in design but allowed for extensive discussions. 6. Bar raiser interview: terrible experience. Stone-cold interviewer who wasn’t agile between questions and shortened the interview to a ridiculous duration. No follow-up question asked. Interviewer didn’t bother answering questions regarding his experience/the firm with any full sentence. Very confusing experience that felt like a loss of time…