Aleksandra Sem

1.       When were you an active case student at BI and at which campus?

I was an active case student from September 2019 to June 2021 at Campus Oslo.

2.       Why did you decide to join BI’s case activities?

Consulting was always an industry that intrigued me, and I thought case activities and competitions were the perfect way to get a better insight into what it involved and to develop my skills for future job prospects. Two of my close friends from the year above me at BI were a part of BI Case Teams, competing and winning a lot of case competitions and they always told me about the amazing experiences they had as a part of the BI Case Teams.

3.       What was the name of your case team and how did you find your teammates?

My case team was called Fischer Consulting and were brought together by Hilde and BI Case Alumni based on our complementary skills and ambitions.

4.       Did you have a specific role on your team?

I am a confident speaker and enjoy presenting so I was always eager to start and finish the presentations. By speaking eloquently, I was able to give the audience a clear understanding of our analysis of the case and kick our presentation off with a good starting point as well as rounding it up at the end and further elaborating in the question-and-answer part.

Aside from that, I would say that I am an all-rounder, I liked to contribute to everything from financial modelling to making the presentation look as good as possible, the marketing strategy and the analysis!

5.       Which case competitions did you take part in?

I took part in the JMUCC, UMCC and the BI Case Challenge. I would have liked to take part in more, however during the period that I was an undergraduate and part of a case team, there were a lot of disruptions due to the covid pandemic. Unfortunately, all the case competitions I took part in ended up being online, so I did not get to travel!

6.       What is your best memory from your case journey at BI?

The people! I made some great friendships with people who I might not have otherwise crossed paths with and learnt a lot from the talented people I was lucky enough to work with.

7.       What are your top three takeaways from case training and competitions?

Teamwork has to be the biggest takeaway from this experience. It is important to find people you work with well and a team that complements each other’s skills. You need teammates who will question and challenge you to help ensure the final presentation is rigorous and withstands questioning from the judges!

Time management is vital in case competitions, I’ve had as little as 4 hours to learn about a company and put together a solution! Generally, this involved good planning, allocating tasks, and checking in with teammates regularly.

Lastly, to have fun with it! If you enjoy spending time with your team, you are much more likely to do well. Spending 24 hours awake working with three other people leads to a bit of delusion and lots of laughter, but you have each other to help push through it!

8.       What skills did you learn from participating in case which were relevant to your development/career and how?

I developed some invaluable analysis skills from participating in BI Case. When you have to acquire in depth knowledge about an industry you previously knew nothing about in very short amount of time, you get pretty good at finding and analyzing information efficiently. This is something that is applicable to almost all industries, it helped me a lot both in my studies and in my professional career. I also greatly improved my skills in financial modelling and creating presentations.

9.       Do you have any advice to students who are curious about case?

The best advice I can give is to dive straight in! It is a big time commitment sometimes, however it is so worth it due to the people you will meet and the skills you will learn. It never hurts to try something new, and you never know where it can take you.