Whiteboards = our coaches solving the cases onscreen in real time

In the early training sessions candidates need substantial hand-holding. Verbal explanations rarely suffice. Coaches routinely show candidates case solutions by presenting ideas, explaining concepts and designing structures on a whiteboard shared over the internet.

100% of case interview clients rated this as the single most important feature of the training program.

Subscribers get access to all of the whiteboard sessions. They can be found within the session videos as we train candidates. Think of whiteboards as an interactive lecture where you are the only student and the coach is presenting advice just for you. The content changes as the candidate asks questions or tries to understand NPV, cost curves, pricing etc.

Why do we do this: There are three main reasons we use whiteboards.

First, when you watch the videos of the candidates, you will notice some of the candidates struggle with communication. They struggle both expressing their views and understanding what we are saying. Samantha was an example of this. To avoid any ambiguity about the content, we like writing out major concepts so there can be no misunderstanding about what is needed. Even in this situation, we found some candidates struggled to understand concepts, so verbal-only explanations are inherently ineffective. It is painful to use them when learning the fundamentals. We do not teach fundamentals using audio  material. Learning is best achieve visually.

Second, we want candidates to see how we layout and solve the case ourselves. The whiteboard allows them to see about 50 different ideas a minute which they can intuitively process. Having to explain all 50 different ideas verbally would take a very long time and is not efficient. Moreover, we only explain what we think the candidate does not understand. We have learned that candidates may misunderstand other areas and by showing them a visual solution they can come back to us and ask for explanations to areas we thought were obvious, but clearly is not so to the candidate.

Finally, the whiteboard plays a psychological role. It places the coach and candidate on the same level since the coach is now solving a case. We find this tends to level the playing field and make it far easier for the candidate to engage the coach and ask questions. It introduces trust, increases communication and enhances the relationship.