got rejected after round 2 at Deloitte consulting about six weeks ago. recruiter was kind about it. said the behavioral portion showed strong experience but the case performance needed more structure. took some time to actually sit with that and now I want to post an honest breakdown.
what happened in the case round: I'm not a traditional case-interview person. my background is ops, not MBB consulting. I'd done maybe 8-10 practice cases total before the interview. I knew the frameworks but I was applying them too rigidly instead of adapting to what the interviewer was giving me.
the case was a nonprofit expanding services into a new state. I jumped immediately into a market sizing structure instead of clarifying what the client's actual objective was. the interviewer nudged me twice and I didn't pick up on it. that's what I think hurt me most.
on the behavioral side: I actually thought I did okay but the feedback suggested my answers were too long. I tend to tell the full story when a tighter version would land better. Deloitte interviewers seem to want: situation in 2-3 sentences, action that's specifically yours, result with a number if possible. I was giving 5-6 sentence setups.
what I'd do differently: 20+ practice cases minimum, and practice with someone who actually pushes back on your structure rather than just letting you finish time my behavioral answers. anything over 2 minutes is too long unless they're asking you to go deep treat the case clarification questions as real, not formality. what does success look like for the client? is this a cost problem or a growth problem? I skipped this and it cost me
reapplying in about 5 months. most recruiters say you can reapply after 6 months and they won't hold the previous round against you if you show improvement.