First-year MBA students to compete in case competitions at Kelley school

From 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Friday, graduate students in the Kelley School of Business will be able to practice case interviewing skills in the 2006 "March Madness" Mini-Case Competition. The event, which the Consulting Club of the Kelley school planned, will take place on the graduate side of the business school. Gayatree Jain, a junior MBA candidate, directed the competition.\nFirst-year MBA students will be participating in head-to-head cases given by faculty and second-year MBA students will serve as judges. The cases will pit two students against one another to try to find the best solution to the cases they are given. Any first-year student can participate, not just members of the Consulting Club. \nStudents participating will have 15 to 20 minutes to come up with their best solutions, and the panel of judges will then review the proposals and select the winner. Contestants will compete head-to-head, one case at a time. \nThe program is sponsored by Simdesk Corporation, an on-demand computing service. Simdesk provided prizes winning participants will receive. First place in the competition yields an iPod and $2,000; second place wins an iPod Shuffle and $1,000; and third place gets $500. In addition, all participants will get a free account with Simdesk's Web site, where they can store information like phone numbers, calendars and e-mails. \nMangesh Ingle, a participant in the competition, said one of the major advantages of such a competition is that it gives students hands-on experience in handling case interviews. Such experience can prove invaluable when preparing for interviews and being recruited for jobs coming out of college.\n"The essential thing is that this format ... is used by management and consulting companies to hire students," Ingle said. "A lot of other companies are also using case interviews to recruit students."\nThe competition is viewed not only as a way to prepare for interviews, but also to simulate the kind of climate students might deal with when they enter the job market, Ingle said. Overall, the program is meant to better prepare students for business life after college.\n"This is something which brings everything together," Ingle said. "It is not only useful in recruiting, but in real life as well"