Peer Career Consultant Blogs

A Superday is a type of final round in the interview process (for full-time and internship recruiting). Superdays are common in high finance roles such as investment banking, private equity, and management consulting but can be seen in any industry/role. While the physical format can vary as Zoom interviews have become the norm (and now are transitioning to in-person), the content and style of this final round will be similar. 

At its core, a Superday is a final culture-fit, technical skill, and critical thinking test all put into one set of interviews. They can span anywhere from thirty minutes on the low end to several hours of back-to-back interviews -- hence the name Superday. 

Schedule-wise, a Superday typically has a behavioral and technical interview portion. A mock example of this in the consulting industry may be: 
- Interviewer #1: 30-minute behavioral interview
- Interviewer #2: 15-minute behavioral interview, 45-minute technical case study interview
- 15 minute break
- Interviewer #3: 15-minute behavioral interview, 45-minute technical case study interview

As you can see, there is a lot of variety in the content of interviews as well as the interviewers themselves. You may feel some pressure from interviewers as they are trying to understand your thought processes behind answers. It is common for several follow-up questions to be asked -- be ready to be pressure-tested. Again, the specific breakdown of timing for your case may look different.

On the bright side, decision turnaround times after a Superday are quite fast and can even result in you receiving an offer just hours after your interviews!

What are the odds of receiving an offer after a Superday? 
Numbers will certainly differ per company and role but usually, 20-50% of candidates doing a Superday will convert into an offer. 

By the time they get to the Superday, candidates would have gone through phone screens and behavioral/technical interviews. By reaching this point, the firm you’re applying to now has serious conviction in you as a future employee and is looking to either confirm or reject what they know about you as a candidate. 

This is important to contextualize because to perform well, you need to highlight your strengths shown throughout the process thus far whilst showing improvement in areas you may have received feedback on (please ask questions in your earlier interviews to gauge this). Furthermore, your interviewers will now be the most senior people within the firm such as Managing Directors and Partners (who may oversee entire divisions within the company). You may have to tone your professionalism and communication style for this new type of audience.

I have a Superday, now what? Congrats! You’re only one stage away from securing your job offer. 

Your first step is to reflect on your past interview experiences to see where you can refine yourself. Maybe you didn’t have the greatest answer for a personal story or completely fudged a mental math problem. Make sure that you bring the best version of yourself into the Superday.

Secondly, make sure you do your research! Typically firms will provide you with the information of your interviewers a few days before (or, alternatively, you can reverse engineer from the emails cc’d on the interview calendar invite). This gives you the opportunity to research your interviewers. As I mentioned before, these will be very senior people in the firm. They may run entire divisions or be heavily public with their firm initiatives. This will give you many opportunities to do your homework and come best prepared with questions and context come your interview day. Become at least conversationally savvy about the things they work on as the technical interview will likely pertain to their industry specialization - or at least to ask more knowledgeable questions.  For example, if one of your interviewers is a Managing Director in the Technology group at the firm, they may ask you technical questions about semiconductors. On the flip-side, they may have really insightful answers to any questions you may have about their thoughts on AI and how the industry is reacting. 

Lastly, relax and do things that will help you stay at the top of your game. I know this can be an anxious time but you want to feel fresh and energized come the day of your interview. 

What do I do on the day of my Superday?

I’m sure you have your own best practices for preparing for an interview but here are some of the things I’d think about - especially given the longer format of interview.

- Block out your day so that you can have 100% focus on your interview -- professors will typically be pretty understanding
- Get very good sleep, cramming prep the night before has diminishing returns at this point
- Wake up at a time that allows you to calmly have a solid meal ahead of time
- Find a way to energize yourself (i.e., coffee, exercise, music) as the interviews may last a few hours
- Get professionally dressed (more formal is always safer)
- Practice your answers to questions you know you’ll be asked (‘tell me about yourself’, ‘why __ firm’, etc.)
- Use the restroom ahead of time 
- MAKE SURE YOU’RE IN A QUIET AREA WITH GOOD WIFI CONNECTION
- Do not worry about your past answers or performance within the Superday, focus on each session at a time 

What do I do after the Superday? Again, there are plenty of best practices for post-interview etiquette but here are some more of my thoughts:
- Send thoughtful thank you emails to all your interviewers
- Make sure your phone notifications are on (these firms will typically call you to deliver your decisions)
- ^ make sure you don’t have any embarrassing voicemail response messages
- Scan your email consistently

- Relax!

Conclusion A Superday will be the last hump to overcome before receiving a job offer. It is important to understand the executive audience and unique format of these interviews. Make sure to do adequate preparation based on your role and interviewers whilst setting yourself and your environment up for success.