The first contact was very cordial via email by HR and an interview was scheduled. It was then postponed at the last moment by the hiring manager, who then took quite some time to respond and reschedule. When it finally happened, it was brief and was given a study to be submitted in five days. It was the lengthiest case study I have ever done, and I have done a fair share for consulting roles. I prepared 15+ slides involving a lot of research and framework building with scoring mechanism. Once I submitted it, I didn't hear for a long time and once I reached out. I just got a response that they have decided not to go ahead with my application. NOT EVEN A CHANCE TO PRESENT A CASE STUDY? never happened in my professional experience. Reeks of toxic culture and just using interviews for "consulting projects". The hiring manager already had a bit of condescending tone of "I and my boss are from consulting background". Good for you.

I had the first call in January with the HR. The call went fine and the HR shared me an elaborate market expansion case study which asked me to develop frameworks and strategies to analyze market and customer verticals to enter. I spent more than 40 hours to build a 23 page document as a solution outlining a scoring system, framework that can be used in any scenario and a sales funnel strategy. I submitted the case in a week which was the given deadline. Then the interview with the Hiring Manager was scheduled after following up twice. However, she postponed the call twice by 2 weeks. The first time was super last minute with a health excuse and the second time there was no excuse. It was straight away postponed on email without reason. I was motivated with the company's business, thus, kept pushing forward having a positive outlook. Then the call with manager finally happened. I have to say it was one of the weirdest interviews I have had. She was absolutely unprepared for the call. She did not even acknowledge nor check my solution. The HR has previously mentioned me that the call will be a discussion of my provided solution. This is the normal SOP for all companies. However, the manager asked completely different questions which were not in scope of the position and they were not related to the case study either. She kept emphasizing that this role needs an "Extremely smart individual". I still wonder what the reason was. I kept my composure and gave my best. After the call, I asked them on email why didnt we discuss the case. She replies me saying that it was my "responsibility" to bring it up during the call when I had the chance and she felt that my 23 page case study was just "satisfactory". It felt nothing but god complex stating things like this from the company's and the hiring manager's end. Such disrespectfulness for my time, skills and my talent. Then after the call there was no response on feedback for 10 days. Then they say that the position is on Hold. Stay away from this company and DO NOT START PREPARING FOR THE CASE STUDY UNLESS YOU SPEAK WITH THE HIRING MANAGER AND THEY SHOW COMMITMENT. They are just scamming talents at this point and they are not serious about hiring.