Hi all, I have a final round with ATK coming up, which is a 1 hour partner interview which "incorporates a mix of behavioural fit questions as well as a spoken case study". The previous rounds were regular fit/case interviews and a written presentation case.
There is next to no information about this online - any tips/thoughts? Have you been through it? Help is appreciated!
Hi there,
final partner interviews vary depending on company, region, office and the individual partner of course. However, it is not uncommon that partners won't go through a case exercise with the candidate again but rather test their suitability in terms of business competence, team fit and perceived presentability to clients.
At the partner stage, candidates will have gone through a series of successful case interviews already. Partners still need to “validate” this pre-selection. While some might like to do brain teasers or small cases, they also tend to favor talking about the industry/functional area they are active in. They try to see how the candidate is able to engage with those topics and often even try to sell the candidate on the firm during the final round.
When preparing for such interviews, it makes sense to research the interview partners up front (if their names are provided) and check what recent publications and/or conference contributions they might have. It is also good to know about the main trends and drivers in their respective industry/functional areas. Other than that, everything you did to prepare for the previous rounds still holds true.
Hope that provides additional perspective.
Agree with Vlad. Format may just be a little more flexible because partners own the company so can do what they want... and they are just darn good at reading people.
Same set of skills apply though. Do a couple of mock cases to stay sharp, and review the fit questions as you would for any final round. Good luck
Dear A,
it's very similar to the first round, although partners will pay more attention to cases and your personal fit to the company.
Wish you best of luck,
André
Hi,
It's the same as the previous round, just with a partner.
Best
Hi,
I have broad experience in preparing candidates specifically to the final round, so I want to say the following:
•. Final round is about 'depth' and not about 'breadth'. Initial round interviews are broad. Several fit questions, cases with multiple analysis etc. Because the intention is to test the candiate on as many aspects as the interviewer can. Final round is different. It is about testing the depth. Partners typically ask very few quetions but probe every answer to a great depth.
• Candidate needs thorough preparation to tackle 'why-how-translatability' probing questions by partners. Candidates need to be ready to justify their answer in a consulting compliant way.
• Final round is 'unpredictbale'. Final round interviewers, Partners, are known to throw curve balls. There have been interviews where Partners have just taken fit questions and business discussion, on the other hand there have been interviews where Partners have given detailed cases to the candidates. You never know what Partners can pull out of their hat.
Candidates need to be extra prepared. Especially, for question formats that they have not encountered in earlier rounds viz. Partner converting project from candidate's CV into a case, partner starting discusion on recent business event, advice seeking on business issue that the Partner says he is facing. Through all these variety of discussions, Partners try and test the candidature thoroughly.
Was it helpful for you?
If you need any further help, feel free to reach out.
GB
There is not much difference between first and final round. At least in theory. In practice, the more senior interviewers in the later rounds are a bit more lax, but you should approach the interviews in exactly the same way.
Hello!
Congrats for moving to final round!
As it has been outlined, its very similar, but :
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