All three different PEI questions?

Question

Hello Community,

I am having interviews at McKinsey.
Regarding the PEI, I and am wondering, if in the four interviews all three PEI categories will be touched upon and one doubled. - Meaning the interviewers or HR keeps track on what I was asked already.

OR

Is it very random and every interviewer just picks the PEI he likes most. - Meaning it is theoretically possible, that I have to talk about the same PEI-category (e.g. Personal Impact) up to 4 times and every time with another matching story.

Thank you so much and best regards from Munich,
Michael

Answer 1

Hey there,

The PEI selection is not random. Interviewers talk to each other and align beforehand.

Usually, this it how it goes for Germany:

The first three interviewers will cover one dimension each. For the fourth interview it could go three ways:

You are not asked any PEI questions. This can happen if your first three stories are extremely strong and cover different elements of your resume
You are asked the PEI question where the previous interviewers saw the biggest weakness
You might be randomly asked to talk about one dimension, e.g., if all your initial stories were great but from the same context or situation

If you want to know more about

How to design a McKinsey PEI story
How to structure it
What content to include

check out the article that I wrote on it here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-pei

Alternatively, happy to work with you on the stories as well. No story I crafted with my candidates has ever been rejected.

Cheers,

Florian

Answer 2

Hello,

This is difficult to answer because the follow-up questions will fully depend on the stories you tell the interviewer, so there are very many follow-up questions that the interviewers might ask.

Here are a few common examples, but feel free to message me if you want to go through some potential follow-ups to specific questions/stories that you have in mind.

1. In a story about your proudest achievement/difficult situation you had to overcome → Why was that particularly difficult for you?

2. In a story about your teamwork/leadership experience → Did you ever experience any conflicts while leading/participating in that group? What was the biggest achievement you accomplished there?

3. In a story about how you navigated a conflict → How did your teammate/boss react when you said/did that?

Answer 3

Hi there,

Here is a laundry list in no particular order:

You mentioned x, can you tell me a bit more about that?
How did you actually go about doing y?
How did you think through z problem/solution?
When you proposed x, how did y person react?
Were there any issues with z?
What ended up happening after x?
I don't quite understand why you decided to do y. Can you explain your thinking further?
Were there any repurcusions to doing x or y?
Why didn't you do z?
Who do you think was to blame for x?

Answer 4

Hey there,

As Ken said, there are no specifically defined FUP questions. All questions interviewers will ask have the purpose to elicit the information that they want to hear from the candidates.

Usually, it's in the direction of

What exactly happened in that situation?
How did the person react? What was said?
How did you tackle this? etc.

There are no trick questions.

If you want to learn about the PEI in detail, check out the article I wrote for PrepLounge on it: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-pei

Cheers,
Florian

Answer 5

Such a list can be mile long :).

If anything in your answer isn't clear or its hard to believe, interviewer will ask to clarify that. So, be ready to clarify & explain. As long as you are sticking to a clear structure in your answer you should be fine i.e. set the scene/context clearly, explain what happened and what did you do & provide the insight- what did you learn/what was the outcome.

Answer 6

There are no set questions where interviewers will ask clarifying questions to get a better read of your PEI story.

Answer 7

Hi Michael,

In your first round you will be asked two PEI questions (two out of the three categories of personal impact, leadership and entrepreneurialism). The interviewers are told what to ask and so they will not overlap. The questions may sound similar but they are looking for different things.

In your second round you generally have three interviews and again, generally you will be asked a different PEI question in each - to test different areas. Very rarely a partner ‘goes rogue’ and will ask you whatever they feel like - but this doesn’t happen often!

Sometimes these questions can sound sound similar. You want to make sure that you have a different scenario for each question (although you can repeat scenarios between rounds).

The PEI is really important - it’s weighted as heavily as the case. So make sure that you feel and are prepared!

Good luck!

Answer 8

Hi there,

Agree with all the below. I would add the following:

Sometimes in later rounds, partners/senior partners will assess the core tenants of PEI with non-typical story questions/a somewhat masked fashion (e.g., a client asks you for abc which is questionable/out of scope, how do you respond?)
There is a minimum bar you need to hit for PEI (alongside other elements of the interview)…
…but also it matters as much (if not more sometimes) as the case e.g., if you don't hit the bar on the case but nail the PEI (anecdotally from my experience talking to recruiters in a few offices) are less likely to make you sit a cycle out before letting you reapply (vs. if you nail case and don't hit the bar on PEI)--the logic here is ‘we like this person at their core, they just need a bit more time to prep cases’

Saying all this candidates invest minimally in PEI vs. the case.

We can jump on a quick call to discuss strategies to crafting amazing stories (again none of the stories I have helped structure and synthesise has been rejected).

Answer 9

Hi there,

Florian is absolutely right here!

But what did he really say? He said: You can't go in predicting these things!

He listed 3 outcomes….that could all happen.

In sum, you need to really go into all interviews with the statement you made “Is it very random” holding. The more you go in expecting a set thing to happen, the more likely you are to be thrown off!

Be ready with 2 PEIs for each story type…and be ready to be asked all the same questions OR completely different ones!

Answer 10

Hi there,

No, it's not random. The interviewers align beforehand on which dimensions each of them covers, so they don't all focus on the same thing. Usually, one of the dimensions is doubled in the second round.

It's best to prepare about 2 stories per dimension to make sure you have enough material for both rounds.

Best,

Cristian

Answer 11

Agree with the other answers that interviewers will align on which pillars to focus on.

However, I would prepare a detailed extra answer for each pillar just in case a partner goes rogue (they do!). You do not want to give the same answer twice.

Linked to that - a piece of advice around this is : don't answer each different PEI question in the different interviews with a story from the same part of your CV - it makes you look mono-dimensional. E.g. - if every story is about your previous job, the same internship, the same extracurricular, then you are not showing a diversity of experiences which is not a formal criterion, but is something that will def impact any discussions about your offer afterwards.

Answer 12

PEI is not assigned randomly, interviewers discuss or are told which PEI question to ask. The idea is to ensure they can get a holistic evaluation of you which cannot happen if they all ask the same question.

For a fourth round, they can pick any of the 3 questions - usually it depends on where they want to probe more depending on your previous answers, or they could choose to go with a different type of question entirely (e.g., presenting you with a scenario and asking for your thoughts or just assessing PEI elements using normal conversation)

Answer 13

Hi Micheal, I confirm interviewers are told beforehand what PEI pillar to ask (sometimes you can also find it in the event title).

Best,
Antonello

Answer 14

This is not random. However, you should be prepared to give multiple examples for the same PEI dimension.

Answer 15

Hello!

Congrats, that is the first step for all consulting carreers!

You said it, indeed, HR calls can be much more than just chats. However, if they literally told you that the target was to plan the interviews, most likely will be to know about availability and explain you a bit more of the process.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara