Is My Case Answer Too Detailed?
Question:
Today I got rejected because they felt I got a too detailed approach, in consulting you need to be creative, out of the box and be able to quickly change and think.
Could you please recommend some exercis for this or do you believe this can be trained by the practice you mentioned in your videos?
Response:
Let me translate the feedback. The problem with your answer most likely has nothing to do with being creative or thinking out of the box as one would typically think of it. The most likely problem with you response is that you answer was not data driven.
I've seen this kind of response a lot. The candidate jumps on to some idea he (or she) thinks is the answer. As he gets into things, he either doesn't ask for data to validate his theory/hypothesis, or gets the data but ignores it –persisting in the original approach even though the data indicates a different approach is needed.
I've never rejected someone for not thinking outside of the box enough. I routinely rejected candidates who 1) did not ask for data to test their working theory, 2) got data and ignored the implications the data had on their approach (which would indicate a change in approach that the candidate should have taken immediately, but did not).
I suspect you made one of those two common mistakes. If you watch the videos on the specific case types where I demonstrate the rhythm and tempo of a case dialogue, you'll start to get a feel for what I mean.