Written by Hassan Shafi
Case competitions sound scary. The thought of getting a week, a day, or even a couple of hours to read a 10-page problem and make a presentation sounds bad enough, and then you add the actual presenting and questioning period, which makes it sound worse. I am here to tell you that yes, it is kinda intense, but the benefits outweigh the 20 minutes of uncomfortableness and unknown. Working with a different team in stressful conditions and presenting to judges gives a taste of what is expected in real life. When deadlines need to be met, and your group members are not your best friends, it prepares you with the feeling of being uncomfortable and not knowing what will happen. It gives you the tools to think quickly on your feet, while your heart races.
I got into case competitions when I attended KPU (Kwantlen Polytechnic University) when my professor asked me if I wanted to be a part of one. Of course, I said yes as I could not let go of an opportunity. I heard many people talk about “case competitions,” and to be honest, it sounded like a cult. But I was ready for it. A couple of weeks of training and I did my first competition, and to be honest, it was stressful, but it made me want more. The thought of actually winning one was on my mind, and I was ready to put my time and effort into working for it.
Now, you are asking, how do I even do a case competition? Well, the good thing is that case competitions are not only open to business students, but target them because most of the issues talked about are related to businesses solving their problems. This is not to say other faculties can’t try them. I believe everyone should try, especially if you are going into group work and a communicative work environment. Usually, clubs will do smaller versions of case competitions (you just have to look for them), and SFU will do big ones. SFU’s most popularly known case competitions include PEAK and/or ELITE, as they are only open to SFU students with a $5 entry fee and a 1st place prize of $500 per competitor. These are worth a shot if you want to know what they are like and want to experience the case competition culture.
For me, case competitions have made me the person I am today. It brought confidence in my speech and taught me how to keep my cool when the pressure was on. It gave me an opportunity to work with multiple team members with different ways of thinking and experiences. Everything benefits me in the end. But as with everything, all things come with a price, and the price for these skills was uneasiness for 20 minutes at a time, which I would say was a trade-off I would give time and time again for what I learned in this journey.