McKinsey PEI good points?

Question

Hi everyone,

In 2 weeks I have my McKinsey Personal Experience Interview and already picked a few stories, but I am not sure if they are really 100% fitting. Maybe you could say if you think the story is

a.) interesting

b.) tells the searched aspect

1 more point. The interviews are for an internship position during my undergraduate studies, so the experinece is not that far away.

The first story is about leadership. After I finished school I made my "Dive Masters Licence" and during holidays I travelled to a Hotel with a Diving Base and worked as a Guide for 1 month. The leadership experience would include topics like staying relaxed and calm even in difficult situations because this gives your team more confidence, planning the dive and briefing your team before the dive, look for your team the whole time and make sure they are fine, give them feedback after a dive when you see things they can improve and motivate a team when they are nervous. This would also include fast decision making in specific situations, working together with different people all the time and looking after the unexperienced people.

The second story is about drive/motivation:

This is about how I started to go jogging during my studies and always set higher targets for myself until I participated in a marathon last year. I could not finish the marathon the full distance but saw what I did wrong and improved this. Now I am training since a few months to prepare for a new marathon. This would show that I always set my goals higher and even if I fail, I make the best out of it and keep training until I reached my goals

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

Hi there!

It's good that you are preparing these in advance. You are right that your answers should be relevant and interesting. They also should be specific. So - more specifically :)

1. I wouldn't pick this story because it doesn't refer to a specific situation, more to a period of time/role. These questions usually want you to describe a story, and this is more of a generic description of your course. Was there a situation when a team member panicked and you needed to rescue him or her? Was there a shark around and you needed to take leadership in that situation? Make it more specific and as a result, it will make it more interesting.

2. Similar here - it's not very gripping. In McK every second person has run a marathon the first time they tried so this is perhaps not the best story altogether to tell. If you do choose to select it, make sure you describe the journey adding more drama and personal emotions to it, so that I can see what is motivating you to perservere.

Hope that helps a bit - good luck!
Michal

Answer 2

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.

Here I leave you the link > https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes!

Hope you find it useful!

Best,

Clara