Thank you for taking part in the On-Line Ca Study. You will note tha t this exerci does not have the kind of latitude necessary to develop findings. Rather, we cho to focus on next steps in respon to question eight. In a live ca interview, however, you will be expected to derive specific findings bad on your analysis. Interviewing techniques may vary depending on the office or practice you are applying to, but we hope this exerci has been uful in helping you prepare.
To get a full copy of all the questions and answers (including yours) from the ca study, click on the print icon.
You can learn more about the possible exercis you may be asked to perform at your McKiny interview by clicking on the Ca Study Tips item in the navigation to the left.
Good luck.
On-Line Ca Study Questions and Answers
Question 1
Client Goal: Double the number of recruits while maintaining their quality with minimal increa in resources expended
Our client recruits graduating college niors for entry-level positions in locations around the world. It currently hires and places 500 graduates per year but would like to triple in size over the next ten years while maintaining quality. Assume that the increa must all come from hiring graduating niors. (In an actual ca, you may not be given this and other assumptions unless you ask.)
The client's current recruiting budget is $2 million annually, and while it is in a strong financial position, it would like to spend as few additional resources as possible on recruiting. McKiny is advising the client on what steps it will need to take in order to meet its growth targets, while staying within its budge t constraints.
Q: What levers does the organization have at its disposal to achieve its growth goal?
A: Some possible levers are given below. It's terrific if you identified veral of the and perhaps some others.
∙Attract more applicants at the same cost
∙Review the list of campus targeted (e.g., optimize resource allocation across schools). The review may result in adding certain higher potential campus and
eliminating other ones tha t appear to have more limited potential.
∙Review recruiting approach at each campus (e.g., optimize cost-effectiveness of messages and approaches at each school).
∙Extend offers to a higher percentage of applicants while maintaining quality (e.g., reduce the number of people who are turned down who would have performed equally well in the
job)
∙Improve acceptance rates among offerees (e.g., better communicate the benef its of the job relative to alternatives or improve the attractiveness of the job relative to alternatives)
Question 2
For the remainder of the discussion we'd like to focus on the two specific levers involving attracting more applicants at the same cost.
∙Review the list of campus targeted (e.g., optimize resource allocation across schools).
The review may result in adding certain higher potential campus and eliminating other ones that appear to have more limited potential.
∙Review recruiting approach at each campus (e.g., optimize cost-effectiveness of messages and approaches at each school).
Plea note that if you identified different but equally valid levers, the interviewer would be able to asss them. But for the purpo of this ca study, we a re going to focus on the two levers.
Q: Ho w would you initially approach determining whether the client can increa hiring by adjusting the list of campus targeted? What sort of analysis would you want to conduct and why?
A: You might take the following approach, where we've outlined two avenues of analysis:
∙Estimate the hiring potential across schools
∙Analyze the number of hires by school over the last veral years
∙Develop a comprehensive list of schools that meet our requirements and a minimum t of standards for recruits
∙Survey niors at the schools to determine interest in an entry-level position with the client
∙Consider the size of the graduating class at each school, determine how that class might be gmented (e.g., each class could be gmented by discipline or
gmented bad on career interests in respon to the survey), then calculate
the size of each gment
∙Estimate the optimal cost-per-hire across schools
方加偏旁
∙Compare the current cost-per hire across schools
∙Identify opportunities to decrea the cost-per-hire at each school
凉拌波菜Helpful Tip
You may have a slightly different list. Whatever your approach, we love to e candidates come at a problem in more than one way, but still address the issue as directly and practically as pos sible. In giving the answer, it's uful if you are clear about how the results of the analysis would help to answer the original question pod.
Question 3
Twenty-five percent of the annual recruiting budget is spent on candidates (i.e., attracting, asssing, and getting them to accept). Twenty percent of hires are categorized as "most expensive" and have an average cost-per-hire of $2,000.八年级数学
Q: What is the average cost-per-hire of all other candidates? Remember that the client hires 500 students per year and its annual recruiting budget is $2 million (information that we hope you noted earlier).
A: The answer is $750 per hire (or less than half the cost-per-hire of the "most expensive" candidates).
Amount spent on the less expensive candidates:
25% of $2 million budget = $500,000 spent on candida tes
20% of 500 student = 100 students categorized as "most expensive"
100 x $2,000 cost-per-hire = $200,000 spent on "most expensive" hires
$500,000 recruiting budge t - $200,000 = $300,000 remaining for all other hires
The number of less expensive candidates:
500 hires - 100 = 400 "other hires"
Cost-per-hire of the less expensive candidates:
$300,000/400 =$750 per hire
Helpful Tip
While you may find that doing a straightforward math problem in the contex t of an interview is a bit tougher, you can e that it is just a matter of breaking the problem down. We are looking for both your ability to t the analysis up properly and then to do the math in real time.
Question 4
Q: In order to decide whether to reduce costs at the least efficient schools (i.e., tho with an average cost per hire of $2,000), what el would you want to know?
A: Some of the possible answers are given below.
Basic questions:
∙What are the components of costs at the schools (why is it so expensive to recruit there)?
圣诞树英文∙What opportunities exist to reduce costs?
∙How much cost savings would result from implementing each of the opportunities?
∙What conquences would implementing each of the opportunities have on recruiting at the least efficient schools?
寂静流年遍开花
Questions demonstrating further insight:
∙Why is the cost lower at more efficient schools, and are there best practices in resource management that can be applied to the least efficient schools?
∙If we reduce costs at the least efficient schools, what will we do with the cost savings (i.e., what would be the benefit of spending the money elwhere vs. where it is currently being spent)?
Helpful Tip
We would not expect anyone to come up with all of the answers, but we hope some of your answers head in the same direction as ours. Yours may bring some additional insights. In either ca, be sure that you can clearly explain how your question will bring you clor to the right decision.
Question 5
The McKiny team conducts some analysis that indicates tha t increasing spending on blanket advertising (e.g., advertiments/flyers on campus) does not yield any significant increa in hires.
Q: Given that incread blanket advertising spending ems to be relatively ineffective, and the client doesn't want to increa overall costs, what might be some other ideas for increasing the candidate pool on a specific campus?
A: We are looking for at least a couple of answers like the ones given below:
∙Improve/enhance recruiting messages (e.g., understand target candidate group, refocus message on this group, understand competitive dynamic on campus) ∙Utilize referrals (e.g., faculty, alumni)
鼻梁上有横纹怎么回事
∙Come up with creative ways to target specific departments/clubs of the school
∙Rethink advertising spending - while increasing blanket ad spending doesn't em to work, advertising might still be the most efficient and effective way to increa the number of candidates if it is deployed in a more systematic, targeted way
Helpful Tip
This question is a good one for demonstrating creativity becau there's a long list of possible ideas. Additional insights into how a given idea would be approached and how much it would cost are helpful.
Question 6
For simplicity's sake, let's say we've conducted market rearch and found that there are two types of people on each campus, A and B. Historically, our client has also ud two types of recruiting messages in its advertising. The first, called "See the World," gets one percent of type A students
to apply, but three percent of type B students. The cond, called "Pathway to Leadership," gets five percent of Type A students to apply, but only two percent of type B students.
The chart below lists the breakdown of types A and B students at some of our major camp us, and the message our client is using on campus.
Q: Assuming there's no difference between the costs of each message, what can you tell me from this information?
A: According to the numbers, the client should u the "Pathway to Leadership" message across all four universities. The "See the World" message is preferable only if more than 80% of the students at a given university are of type B.
Helpful Tip
An even more insightful respon would mention that the ultimate answer depends on the cost of each message, whether the cost increas depending on the number of students at the campus, and how interested we are in students of Type A vs. Type B (e.g., will one type be more likely than the other to get an offer and to be successful on the job). One could imagine using both messages on some campus if the additional cost were justified by the resulting increa in hires.
Question 7
University 4 graduates 1,000 niors each year.
Q: How many new candidates might be generated by changing the recruiting message at University 4 to Pathway to Leadership?
A: The answer is 20 candidates (i.e., an increa of over 100%).
Number of each type of student at University 4:
1,000 niors x 60% = 600 Type A students
德莱文怎么玩
柿子酒1,000 niors x 40% = 400 Type B students
