Final round with partner interview

Hi there,

final partner interviews vary depending on company, region, office and the individual partner of course. However, it is not uncommon that partners won't go through a case exercise with the candidate again but rather test their suitability in terms of business competence, team fit and perceived presentability to clients. 

At the partner stage, candidates will have gone through a series of successful case interviews already. Partners still need to “validate” this pre-selection. While some might like to do brain teasers or small cases, they also tend to favor talking about the industry/functional area they are active in. They try to see how the candidate is able to engage with those topics and often even try to sell the candidate on the firm during the final round.

When preparing for such interviews, it makes sense to research the interview partners up front (if their names are provided) and check what recent publications and/or conference contributions they might have. It is also good to know about the main trends and drivers in their respective industry/functional areas.

Hope that provides additional perspective.

Hi Eric, congratulations to making it this far! It depends on the firm and office you are applying. At McKinsey I have led multiple final round interviews and we typically decide before as interviewer group which areas to focus on in the final round for that specific candidate. So depending on your previous round performance you might only get few personal fit questions from a partner but you can also get a full blown case + PEI interview with required performance dimensions that you need to meet in order to get the offer. Either way, I wish you the best and keep my fingers crossed. 

Hey there,

Congrats on passing the first round!

95% of partner rounds are just as standardized as the first round, yet be prepared to expect everything. Sometimes they are more conversational and friendly, only with light-touch evaluation, other times they are more challenging. Usually, they are the same. 

The reason why you read about freestyle partner experiences is that they deviate from what people expect, hence they post about it more frequently online, hence giving others the impression it is much more common.

Additionally, partner rounds are often perceived as more challenging, just because it's a partner sitting across the table rather than a more junior colleague. It is purely based on the impression and not on the content. :-)

If there are any deviations from the standard interviewer guidelines, expect them to be in the following realm:

• Focus on one or two areas where you were perceived as not as strong in round one, which can be specific case questions or fit questions (or PEI for McKinsey)
• Only doing a case, only doing fit instead of both
• Doing two shorter cases in quick succession
• Challenging your answers more
• Not providing any time for you to think about the answer, making it more conversational

In any case, the most important thing is not to be startled by this and just keep working on the case and fit in a calm manner. 

For McKinsey, have a look at the following two articles that I wrote:

Case: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-interview

PEI: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-pei

All the best for your second round!

Cheers,

Florian

Hi Eric,

You can't expect anything here.

If could be easy or the hardest interview ever. It could be all market sizing, or all fit, or all brainstorming questions.

It could be on the Partner's industry or something completely random.

You should train yourself to be agile/adaptable and react well to anything that comes your way - that's how you optimize your odds of success!

Here's a bit of reading to help: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

Hello!

Although every experience can be a little different, overall, your friend is totally right. That was my personal experience too, and the one of most of my coachees. Cases are simpler and less conventional, and FITs importance increases. 

If you want to deep dive on the topic, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB" has been recently published in PrepLounge´s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34)

It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Furthermore, you can find 3 FREE Expert Articles on PreLounge, in a sreies dedicated to preparing for the different parts of FIT:

1. https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/cv-interview-questions

2. https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/motivational-fit-interview-questions

3. https://www.preplounge.com/en/behavioral-interview-questions

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the Integrated FIT Guide, since we still have some left from the launch

Hope it helps! 

It's too hard to generalise.  You're right that final round interviewers have a tendency to focus on what they think is most important but that can vary.  At McKinsey, I saw two camps in terms of focusing on problem solving/IQ vs. fit/experience.

Hi there, 

suggest you don't expect anything - be open to any case type and question.

It is true that more senior interviewers tend to be a bit less strict about detailed structures, quant etc - however, don't take it for granted, it's really case-by-case.

Cheers, Andi