I believe that the best way to prepare for those questions is to have a solid and well-thought story of your CV and be ready to twist it to address the prompted “angles”  (e.g. inclusive leadership, impact, entrepreneurial drive etc.). 

You cannot respond to the question with a story you know “by heart” -  the conversation has to be natural during the interview. 

Hi there,

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

• In the rich experience of my coachees, McKinsey interviewers don't usually limit your answer to a specific experience, so I would advise you not to stress about it.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming McKinsey interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

You can find the consulting salaries report 2024 here!

(edited)

It is unusual for interviewers to define where the specific PEI story needs to come from [i.e., never heard of a situation like that].

What sometimes happens is that [for highly experienced candidates] they start doing a deep dive on a specific experience / role / project and keep asking questions around that situation. But if that is the case you are usually allowed to steer to a story on a different project.

It is unlikely that such specificity can happen.

You can take it 2 ways I think:

1. Either politely redirect the interviewer to a leadership story leadership that you have prepared, OR
2. Evolve your story from the asked-workplace on-the-fly to bring out the leadership aspects in greater detail.

Happy to discuss how you can do the tweaks on-the-fly. Let me know.