Carotechs Junior Associate Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Be prepared on case interviews and case frameworks. Try to be MECE and structured

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Mainly PI with a small case let. This was a discussion primarily on technology.
General Gyan:

1. Resume: I do not come from a stellar pedigree (read ‘no IIT’), do not have a brand name company, do not have a stellar CGPA (above average). I still got a shortlist. I believe what matters is the way you show your accomplishments. Spikes are good to have definitely. At the same time, if you are showing consistently good work throughout your time till ISB, that will also work. You need to work hard on showcasing them on the resume. RESUME preparation is critical. Make sure to spend sufficient time (start 4th term onwards). show it to alums who are in these firms. Use the alums who come on campus to get reviewed. They are extremely helpful. (It also helps you establish a rapport). At the same time, no need to try and become best friends with the alums who keep visiting. They cant help you on interview day (thats my opinion). Only your performance will.

2. Case Prep: For these top 2-3 firms, you will get close to 4-6 weeks of time to prep. You can quickly glance through the Case in Point book in 3-4 days but don't spend too much time solving those cases. Start case solving with ISB casebooks. They are available all the way from 2005. I would suggest solving the later years while reading through the earlier years just to make sure you have covered most topics. One thing I did was focus on MCK cases only (only shortlist) as interview date approached. Try to form more than one group (3 people is sufficient per group) preferably after short-lists are out (otherwise incentives are misaligned). More than one group allows you to cover more case types, prevent lack of preparation due to time conflicts among members, etc. Try to understand the frameworks and use your own structure. This gives originality. Mock cases and buddy sessions are important. Use them as an opportunity to iron out your case solving abilities. get the buddy to have PI session also.

3. Interview: While cases are very important, the PI interviews made the difference. Cases could have been handled by any of the shortlists. the shortlist to conversion could be any where between 2:1 to 3:1. It is this discussion that will set you apart. If you are able to engage the interviewer in an intelligent manner, you are through. Read up on your area of expertise. Use opportunities to draw the interviewer to topics of your interest. Be thorough with material on your resume. Put a lot of thought into the PI qs and maybe try saying it out loud to one of your study mates. This will allow you to get a reaction, understand the time you are taking and give you better clarity. Finally, I think you should not be too rigid. Be calm, have fun, add humour if you see fit. Good Luck and feel free to reach out to me if you need any guidance.
Tips: I had met Somnath(Interviewer) during the dinner and had had a good conversation on the Internet of Things phenomenon. He remembered that and we were able to continue that conversation. This was more of a fit interview and whether I can hold my ground on technology discussions. It helped that Somnath also had a 2-yr old kid (like me) which allowed us to discuss non-work related concerns about consulting also.

DOs:

Be relaxed and have fun during this kind of an interview. As soon as you perceive it to be a generic discussion, I would suggest be confident and bold. Have strong opinions with sufficient backing (examples, data, experience, etc).


Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: This was a pure case round I didn’t had any PI. One small question was tell me about yourself and what does my name mean.

Recommended Approach
I started the analysis first with the branch experience. I laid down the steps in detail to identify all possible interfaces with the customers when he enters the branch Access to Branch (Location) >>entering the branch >>waiting/ self-service/no. of counters to attend customer grievances>>availability of the people at the counter/no. of breaks they take>>overall time and efficiency/how friendly the staff is etc.
He looked pretty satisfied with that and asked me if they should have the same branches for HNI as well as the masses. I told that some branches should be there. However, Economies of scale could not be achieved by keeping separate branches. Therefore, I suggested giving the HNI special treatment in the same branches, like a separate lounge to relax while waiting, a dedicated representative when they come to the branch etc. He then asked me how we can do the same kind of discretion in an ATM. I told that when a customer comes to the ATM and enters his ATM, we can use that info to check if the customers are HNI or not. After that the screen experience can be different based on better products offerings, more facilities etc. He seemed to be very impressed by this suggestion. After that talking to him became very easy.

Guesstimate: He asked me to estimate the no. of marriages that will happen in India next year I started by taking India’s population and divided it into rural (70%) and urban (30%) and solved for each individually with similar approach. I will elaborate the general steps ( Assumptions might vary based on your own discretion and also what the interviewer is comfortable with) Population>>potential age group for marrying >>removed the already married people>>filtered the one who want to marry >>filtered who will actually get married with some probability>> finally divided the no. by 2 as it’s a couple affair He seemed satisfied with this as well and said great
Tips: Developing a repo is very important. I was able to do that here. He seemed very interested in talking to me after that. My interview also got extended by 10-15 min because of the same. After this interview , I really had a very positive feeling.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: This round was with a very senior partner. He started by giving his introduction and told me that he has been with McKinsey almost for 2 decades. However, I was quite scared of him as he never smiled, was always looking into the newspaper. I realized that it would be quite stress full as I was not able to develop any repo with him. He asked me general questions about walk me through resume and a little bit about my work at Deloitte. One strange thing that I thought he asked me was that if my parents have given me enough freedom to travel, and work in a industry like consulting and we had a short discussion around that.

Recommended Approach
I started the analysis by drawing the whole value chain of these spare parts and tried to explore possible reasons at each step Supplier >>Manufacturing >>Dealers>> retailers>>Customers
After further questioning , I figured out that the problem of spare parts is directly originating from the Supplier itself

After that I started exploring the reasons as to why the supplier is not interested in supplying. I listed down the possible reasons 1. They are getting inputs from somewhere else – this cannot be the reason as the same problem would have otherwise occurred when they were supplying for the new vehicles as well
2. Set up time – Spare parts may be required less in no. and therefore, it takes a lot of time to do the whole setting again and again for such small nos. On this he said that’s not the issue. Assume no set up time needed
3. Capacity Issues, as most of the capacity goes in making parts for new vehicles. On this he said capacity is good enough. However, the supplier is just not interested in making just spare parts
4. After this, it clicked me that the supplier might be finding it expensive to just supply the spare parts. Therefore, I started listing down the cost elements
•Cost of raw materials - same as new parts, means parts for new vehicles
•Cost of production - Same as new parts
•Cost of Packaging - Eureka!! (I felt, when he said yes that was significantly different :)
•Cost of transportation also I asked for completeness sake but that was also not the issue

He then asked me to summarize the issue, and suggest a plan of action in 30 seconds as if I were to present the solution to the CEO of the company I told him that the manufacturer is facing this issue because the packaging cost is very high for the supplier in case of spare parts. Therefore, either he can share. those costs as it is important for customer satisfaction. Also, he can consider order pooling by ordering in bulk and keeping extra inventory so that the supplier can also package in bulk.
Tips: Developing a repo is very important. I was a bit stressed in this round as I was not able to. Don’t ask too many questions. Also, majority of the scoping should be done initially itself Even while leaving the room, I was not able to figure out much how have I done as Ramesh still didn’t give me any slightest of the hint of weather he is happy or not. Therefore don’t jump into conclusions if something like this happens. You can still get hired

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was a pure PI round and was very light and conversational.He was really sweet and kept me at ease for the whole of 20 minutes of our interaction. The only discussion I had with him was about my name, how it came, what’s the meaning, what are my likes, dislikes etc. I think the idea was to understand my communication skills and energy levels
Tips: Energy levels were really important. It became very important for me to be very lively, smiling and keep him interested in what I have to say because there was no case in this round


Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was the deciding round in my case. A mix of a bit of HR as well as a small eco concept.
I was a bit nervous as I also knew that this will be the deciding round. Also, I had read the previous casebooks in which I was really scared with people’s experiences with him. He asked me about all my academic achievement, the meaning of my name. I thought that this was it, when he suddenly said that lets do a case He asked me to draw the average cost curve of any industry. Initially, I was not able to understand what exactly am I supposed to do and asked a lot of questions to understand to that he got a bit annoyed and I thought, now I am gone !. To my surprise later, I had drawn the curve correctly. He said fine and after a while I got the offer .Life at peace. Restlessness over
Tips: I think in this case the make or break was to understand exactly what he wanted even if it meant for me to ask 10 questions and not give up. I think I was being tested on that here


Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)