Darden Case Book - Darden School of Business

STRUCTURE OF THE CASE INTERVIEW
Structure / Framework Building and Explanation
At this point of the interview, you should ask for some time to sketch out
your framework. It is sometimes a good idea to rewrite the objective on top
of your framework, and then structure a couple of areas of analysis, with
some drilldown where appropriate. Please see the following section, “The
Framework” for more detail. After you finish structuring your framework (do
not take more than 2 minutes to do this), present your framework (and a
hypothesis) to the interviewer.
Problem Solving and Analysis
After talking through the framework with your interviewer, immediately
point to the area of analysis that you’ll like to start for. Do not wait for the
interviewer to prompt you with “Where would you like to start?”. Choose an
area that is more general (eg. market sizing) or that get right to the heart of
the issue (eg. for a case that is exploring profit decline, and your hunch is
that it’s a revenue issue vs. a cost issue, start off with revenue). At this point
your interviewer will present you more information, especially data. In
general, the analysis will start off with some calculations or chart-reading,
and then will move into a more qualitative/strategic direction where you’re
asked to come up with some ideas. Keep in mind that this whole interview
should be conversational in nature and listen carefully for hints.