I'd like to share an informal study in New York City that confirmed that this approach is exactly what students of all business disciplines need.

Let me back up. With roughly 8,000 undergraduates pursuing a BBA in the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College is the City University of New York's premier public business school. Consistent with the diversity of New York's five boroughs, these students come from 160 nations and were called the most ethnically diverse for the ninth consecutive year in US News and World Report's "America's Top Colleges 2008." As one might imagine, diversity includes a wide range of mathematical abilities.

When Baruch began an initiative to improve undergraduate quantitative literacy [3], I interviewed 15 local employers and former students. What analytical skills do students need to be good citizens in a democracy and to enjoy productive, fulfilling careers? How are firms screening for quantitative skills? In short, most told me that such skills are assessed through brainteasers and case-based interviews [4], and once on the job, the most important quantitative skill is spreadsheet modeling. Spreadsheet modeling!

First, consider the ubiquity of case interviews, especially for financial services front office positions. A partner in a leading consulting firm was the first of many to articulate why cases are popular. They "look for good problem solving skills" and "test one's ability to structure business problems into manageable, 'trackable' components, then to take each one and apply analytical and quantitative rigor to determine solution for each component and then apply business judgment and good conceptual thinking to draw implications."

All About OR/MS Education


Wait. Read that quote again. Is this not what OR/MS education is all about? What's significant is that the statement came from a marketing guy, not a quant.

A risk and insurance consultant at another firm added, "The primary way we assess the quantitative/analytical/math skills of entry-level job candidates with a bachelor's degree is through two rounds of case interviews. ... Yet we try not to get too technical on our interviewing to avoid favoring economists and engineers." She implied that candidates with strong OR/MS training should excel in this portion of the interview.

Further evidence of the value of that OR/MS training appeared in printed materials another global consultancy gave applicants to explain the objectives of their case interviews: to identify a person with good problem-solving skills, or, in their words, one who "[r]easons logically, demonstrates curiosity, creativity, good business judgment, tolerance for ambiguity, and an intuitive feel for numbers." Granted, all business disciplines should reinforce these skills, but we in OR/MS (and operations management) provide crucial practice.

Most young alumni in the financial services — particularly those in front office positions — endured variants of the case interview and recommended the chapter "Brainteasers and Guesstimates" in the "Vault Guide to Finance Interviews "[5]. The chapter gives one newfound appreciation for the importance of estimation skills. What is the market for disposable diapers in China anyway?

To be honest, some well-known firms employ minimal screening for quantitative ability. An operations division manager at a leading Wall Street investment bank said, "In my side of the organization we tend not, in the U.S., to focus on quantitative assessment during interview — but that may change." (They do in Europe.) Similarly, an auditor at one of the Big Four told me, "To assess my quantitative skills, they asked me why I was interested in math. I guess my answer was good enough because they didn't ask any other questions." Likewise, a banker said, "I found my interview experience similar to most investment banking interviews: no case interview questions and no tests to assess my math skills. However, in every interview, I received a question like, 'Consider company X in industry Y. What metrics would you use to measure the value of the company?'"

Power of Spreadsheet Modeling


While OR/MS training may not improve every business student's interview prospects, evidence suggests that something else we teach does: spreadsheet modeling. Nearly every former student mentioned the importance of spreadsheet fluency in today's job market. And it's not only modeling, it's simple spreadsheet skills.

For example, an operations management major from the class of 2008 said, "The quantitative skill we need most is Excel — pivot tables, the WhatIf and SumIf statements, macros, vlookups, etc. I was tested on these skills in a recent interview for an asset management position" [6].

A former student at a provider of financial market intelligence told me their interviews focus on Excel. She explained, "Most of the interviews aren't really that structured. Almost all of our work is done in Excel so we base a lot of our questions on that." She said her division screens for a candidate's working knowledge, asking details about familiarity with specific Excel functions and shortcuts. It was the young alumni who brought to my attention that students who know Excel have an advantage over the competition. All else being equal, students with strong Excel fluency are more successful in interviews and are receiving faster promotions the first years in the work force, particularly at smaller firms.

One finance graduate said, "Baruch needs to make Excel more built into the classes we already take." Right now, there is no required BBA or MBA spreadsheet modeling class, but we are hoping to change this. When I mentioned this to Peter Bell, he replied, "How can you call yourself a business school without requiring that all students study modeling?"



Will Millhiser (william.millhiser@baruch.cuny.edu) is an assistant professor of Management at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College. Full text of his interviews are available at blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/millhiser/teaching.

References

1. Bell, P.C, 2007, "Marketing Our Profession — to Our Students," OR/MS Today, Vol. 34, No. 4 (www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/orms-8-07/frmarketing.html).
2. Bell, P.C., 2008, "Riding the Analytics Wave," OR/MS Today, Vol. 35, No. 4 (www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/orms-8-08/franalytics.html).
3. What is quantitative literacy? See Steen, L.A., 2001, "The Case for Quantitative Literacy," Mathematics and Democracy, National Council on Education and the Disciplines, pp. 1-22, www.maa.org/ql/001-22.pdf.
4. Unfamiliar with case-based interviews? See "What is a case interview?" and "Why the case interview?" at www.vault.com.
5. Bhatawedekhar, D., 2009, "Vault Guide to Finance Interviews," 8th ed., Vault, Inc.
6. I would argue Microsoft's Excel is a tool, not a skill, but this quote is representative of just how important the tool has become.

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