Cornerstone Research Associates interview questions

This company can be very very tough to get in if you don't have a background in phd economics/finance. I worked in IB before but found the interview cases puzzling. Worst of all was that I didn't find the PhD associates/VPs pleasant. Some PhDs are extremely arrogant and hard to talk to. Granted, they may be very smart and good at their job. But I just found it very difficult to communicate with some of them during lunch/interviews. Many of them lack people skills and only give "yes/no" answers - it's hard to imagine how they manage to do well in a "client facing" role... Other interviewers were more "normal", shall we say. I felt that only a certain type of candidates will succeed here.

I had two rounds of interviews. The first round is two 45-minute phone interviews. The interviewers are both current employees. One of them of late and had to reschedule the interview. They asked questions about two cases, which were not related related to my major. Second round is on site. I met with 5 current employees, including two VPs and three managers. These interviews were also mainly case based.