Hello!
Huge congratulations on getting an invite - that's a great achievement, especially in your first cycle!
Case studies are usually designed to test your commercial awareness, logical reasoning, and ability to interpret financial information. Whilst I haven't completed the case study interview at
A&O Shearman, here are a few general tips:
- Get comfortable with basic financial concepts: as you mentioned, I would have a look at thinks such as revenue vs. profit, market share, valuation, interest rates, and how macroeconomic factors can impact businesses. I would recommend sites such as Investopedia, as this is what I used when trying to digest all of the basic financial concepts for commercial awareness.
- Practice breaking down information / data logically: you might be given a short brief and asked to make recommendations or discuss implications. Focus on structuring your thoughts clearly - identify the key issue, explain the relevant factors, and conclude with a reasoned judgment. There won't necessarily be one 'right' answer, however, you should make sure to show your thought process and be able to defend your stance if questioned (although make sure you are also flexible if it is an aspect that you hadn't thought of!).
- Stay calm under time pressure: it can feel very overwhelming to be handed a bundle of documents and know that you have to go through it all under the time limit. I would start by reading through all of the documents, and then go back over and start highlighting the important parts and areas that you would want more information. They're more interested in how you think and communicate than whether your answer is 'right'.
- Brush up on A&O Shearman's key practice areas: if this is a finance-based case study, make sure to have a look at their finance, M&A, and restructuring teams. Have a look at recent deals, and see if you can link these to your reasoning in the case study.
- Practice: if you have time before your AC, I would try a few practice case studies online just to get used to analysing data quickly.
- Structure: I would go into the case study interview with a clear structure of how you have analysed the brief and what your conclusions are. How you want to structure this is completely personal to you, but I would make sure that you have a rough idea so that you can go into the interview and discuss all the most important points without missing something out. Some case study interviews have set questions, whilst others will be a conversation on the brief, but going in with a rough idea is a great way to prepare yourself and manage nerves.
There are also some amazing resources on TCLA that I used when I was preparing for the AC that resulted in my TC, so I would absolutely check these out as they were a lifesaver:
Overall, I would treat it as a conversation where they're assessing how you approach problems. If you show curiosity, commercial reasoning, and an open-mind - you'll do great!
Wishing you the best of luck, and I'm sure you'll smash it
