Smith School Hosts Marc Cosentino for Case Interview Prep Workshop

The Robert H. Smith School of Business hosted a case interview workshop featuring nationally recognized case interview guru Marc Cosentino in Van Munching Hall, Sept. 8-11, 2009. Case questions are typically business related challenges presented by an interviewer to gauge how a candidate breaks down and solves the problem during a job interview. The MBA Consulting Club in collaboration with the Graduate Marketing Association and with generous support from the Office of Career Services coordinated the event to prepare the MBA community for upcoming internship and full time job interviews.

Marc Cosentino, is a renowned case question expert and author of “Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation.” Cosentino has over 20 years of experience with case questions and has written three books involving case interview preparation and consulting. He regularly gives workshops to students at top MBA. Cosentino is the president of www.CaseQuestions.com and the former associate director of career services at Harvard for 18 years.

Case interview guru Marc Cosentino came to the  Smith School Sept. 8-11, 2009

The workshop kicked off with a beginner’s session on Tuesday. For some first-year MBA students this was their first introduction to the case interview format and an eye-opening exposure to what they can look forward to as they prepare for their internship interviews. “As a first-year student I dramatically underestimated the amount of practice needed to compete with other top candidates for positions that use a case-based interview,” explained Bill Van Hest, Smith MBA Class of 2011. “Mr. Cosentino taught us how to approach a case question and how to avoid some common pitfalls.”

Advanced drill-down sessions gave students additional strategies for attacking case interview questions. “I will not be as hesitant to practice now that I have some frameworks to apply,” said Seema Setia, first-year MBA student. These sessions focused on individual types of case interviews and gave the attendees a feel for how detailed the questions can be. “I found the marketing drill-down sessions particularly helpful in educating students on how to tackle the specific types of questions that come up in marketing interviews,” said Tim Lewis, co-president of the Graduate Marketing Association.

Second-year MBA students who participated in case interview prep teams organized by the MBA Consulting Club last year were able to test their interview skills in one-on-one sessions with Cosentino throughout the week. Rishi Kumar, class of 2010, took advantage of the opportunity to receive valuable feedback from Cosentino. (for a video clip of Rishi describing his experience click here) “The one-on-one reinforced a lot of the great tips and techniques Cosentino talked about during his last three days on campus,” said Rishi.

"Case interviews are becoming more common outside of their original use within the management consultant or investment banking interview process," said Lauren DeStefano, MBA Consulting Club president. Recognizing that a much wider spectrum of companies are using case questions in interviews, the decision was made to invite Cosentino for four days of events to prepare the Smith MBA community for highly competitive interviews. Cosentino’s case interview prep workshop will prove invaluable to both first and second-year MBAs as they prepare for their upcoming interviews.

Scott Lewis, MBA Candidate 2010, Smith Media Group