Fit Question - How competitive are you?

Question

Hi community,

I came across the following fit question: How competitive are you?

Do you have any suggestions how to approach this? I can image that consulting companies want to have people that enjoy a competitive environment to show the willingness to achieve the best result for a client, the company and the team. However, it should not be recognized as fighting against each other and working collaboratively as a team to achieve the best possible solution. Thus, what would you recommend for this interview question?

Best regards and many thanks in advance

Markus

Answer 1

Dear Markus,

Competitiveness to some extent is important for consulting environment, but cooperative people and groups are far more appealing to me than competitive ones. In this case it's also good to remember that there is always a person above and a person below.

You can take this thought into consideration and fit your answer in this common framework:

1. Situation

2. Problem

3. Solving

4 Result

5. Your learnings.

Good luck!

Best,
André

Answer 2

Hi,

Consulting is not a competitive environment, simply because you don't have enough time and energy to compete. In addition, you have very small teams that don't compete to each other.

So you can say that you are a high achiever but a team player and provide some examples

Best

Answer 3

Hi Markus,
I would answer to be competitive in sports but not in working environments, where I do not see any value added in it.

Best,
Antonello

Answer 4

I've struggled with being too competitive in the past and have thought about this questions a lot. I think it's important to recognize that you can compete against others, which is not good, and against yourself, or, rather, your past self. If you set goals for yourself and try to achieve them, doing so in a competitive way should be ok.

Or, to quote a good friend of mine: "Man, I hate past me!". He's very hard on himself but an absolute pleasure to work with...

Answer 5

Hello!

On top of the insights already shared in the post, next week will be pusblished in PrepLounge´s Shop material related.

In concrete, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB". 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.

Hope you find it useful!

Hello!

In these questions, try to be as honest as you can (e.g., if you indeed are very competitive, don´t say that you are not at all, but try to shape that anwer a bit -like being competitive in soccer, that I love, for instance-)

Consulting is not very competitive with other peers, more with yourself. They are looking for team players.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Answer 6

very strange question, never encountered it in McKinsey interviews. Overall, competitiveness is not a thing at MBB, you are really just competing with yourself. So, if question like this is asked (which I doubt) I would more go into the direction of you being a team player.