McKinsey PEI - Personal Impact

Hi there,

There are some great prior Q&As for this. One example is here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-pei-number-of-stories-6842

Personal Stories

Step 1 - Categorize the main stories

There are 5-10 "themes" you need to prepare for. i.e. Leadership, teamwork, challenge, etc. Figure out this list and make sure your stories cover this range (PM me and I can provide you with a template for this list)

Step 2 - Create FLEXIBLE stories that cover a range of categories

You need to create 4-6 stories that each cover a range of topics. They need to be powerful stories that can be adjusted and adapted based on the question asked.

One of my "core" or "killer" stories was usable for Initiative, Achievement, Leadership, Challenge, Change of direction, AND Persuasion.

Write down these stories along STAR or similar format...use bullet points

Step 3 - Organize these stories so you know which ones can be used for what and PRACTICE

Make sure you cover the whole gambit. Then, practice getting asked a question and thinking of which stories apply. I can assure you, no-one is coming up with full stories in a few seconds. Rather, they have practiced how to adapt an existing story to the question asked.

The golden rule when you talk about yourself is to be sincere and follow your gut. You would not be at that stage if you were not a smart person with the right CV, so don’t be afraid to pick “the wrong” story. There is not “right” or “wrong”. Talk about something that made you feel proud because you really think you changed the course of the events that mattered to YOU at that point in time, Nobody will ask you why you did not change the course of human history...  When I asked these types of questions during recruiting what I wanted to understand was the real character, the intensity of the feelings, the passion, regardless of how truly impactful the story was.

I hope it helps...

Hi Anonymous,

I will quote below a previous post I wrote on PEI at McKinsey:

Personal Impact is mainly based on persuading someone about doing/not doing something. Questions include:

1. Tell me about a time when you persuaded your boss to go along with an idea you had.
2. Tell me about a difficult situation where you had to rely on your communication skills. 


Here you want to emphasize your influence on someone else, usually in disagreement with you.

To compare with the other usual topics in McKinsey interviews:

Entrepreneurial Drive is about implementing something overcoming major difficulties. Examples include:

1. What was a situation where you set a major goal and been able to achieve it?
2. What has been your major accomplishment so far?

Here you want to emphasize the achievement you reached and the process that led you there.

Leadership is about leading a whole team in challenging situation and team management skills. Questions include:

1. Give me three examples of a time that you lead a group. 

2. What are some key lessons you have learned about motivating people? 


Here you want to emphasize how you overcome a difficult situation leading a team (not necessarily as the official leader).

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hey there,

The McKinsey PEI is by far the easiest aspect of the McK recruiting process IF you know what you are doing.

UPDATE

I have written a detailed insider perspective on the PEI that covers all aspects and will help you prepare strong stories here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-pei

-----
1.In an ideal world, you would prepare 6 stories (2 for each dimension, which are entrepreneurial drive, personal impact, and inclusive leadership). You do not need to prepare stories for any other dimension or character trait, even though it often pops up here. Waste of time and distraction!

2. McKinsey has very specific keywords/ phrases/ elements they want to hear for each dimension. You can guess some via their website or learn more about it in this longer article I wrote: https://strategycase.com/mckinsey-personal-experience-interview-the-only-post-you-need-to-read

Also, in terms of presenting your story, I recommend the SCORE framework, which I developed (also available in the article link above)

3. My main tip is to work with a coach to draft and feedback your stories (someone with interviewer experience at McKinsey) since they know exactly what constitutes a good story (content) and how a good story is told (communication). From official sources, you can only guess what is important for each dimension, and there is a lot of rubbish floating around about the PEI. The easiest and most effective is to book one hour to go through one story for each dimension. Afterward, you can be sure that this part of the interview will work out.

Let me know if you need help with your PEI story content and delivery! Never had a candidate fail that part of the interview... :-)

Cheers,
Florian

McKinsey is super transparent where they list down what they look for and the question they will likely ask you for each on their website: https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing

Just like the case, they look for three things where each will be tested in an individual interview. If you want to be well prepared, it's always good to have two stories per dimension so that you have a back up but often times, your final round interviewers are ok with you using the same story from first round. 

In terms of structure, you will see that the fourth dimension is problem solving which is tested in the case but McKinsey has a strong problem solving culture too. As a result, using the PARADE method does exactly that and also ensures you have suitable details prepared for your story. Since McKinsey only asks one fit question per interview, it's a good idea to recall the details about who was involved, what they said, how did that make you feel, etc, etc.

Good luck!

Hi,

Concerning your question what "Personal Impact" is all about: in short, it's mainly about convincing another person about something.

The most basic ingredient for a strong "Personal Impact" example is a strong underlying conflicting interest between you and the other person. Both parties need to have a strong interest in the outcome of the situation – without this, it will never become a strong Personal Impact example, since if there is nothing at stake, it's not difficult to convince someone.

Furthermore, it's good if your Personal Impact example is going on at least over several days, even better for weeks, since your interviewer is interested in understanding your approach to convince someone from a more strategic, and not only operational/tactical perspective, having candidates clearly laying out a strategic masterplan on how the other person could be convinced. And that's something which usually doesn't happen in one meeting or over night, but requires time to "design" and execute this process of convincing someone.

Concerning your question if your "Personal Impact" example should be focused on 1 person: yes, for sure. And here is why.

As soon as a third party gets involved, it’s immediately immensely more difficult to communicate your example in a structured and clear way in the very limited amount of time within the PEI.

As long as only two persons are involved, it’s easy to follow the situation and know who is you and who is the other person you are trying to convince, and it’s also quite easy to follow what are your interests as opposed to the other person’s interests and concerns. As soon as a third person gets involved, it’s already a triangular relationship and it’s much more difficult to follow the situation since now the interviewer needs to clearly understand what are your interests as opposed to the interests of other person A and other person B, how your interests  are conflicting with those of other person A, how your interests are conflicting with other person B, how interests of other person A and other person B are going along with each other or how they are conflicting. Very very difficult to communicate such a situation in a structured way in a short period of time.

Hello,

It's great that you've been preparing for your McKinsey interview, and it's normal to have questions about the Personal Experience Interview (PEI) aspect. Your experience with the student initiative can indeed be relevant for the "Personal Impact" part, as it demonstrates your ability to influence and lead in a real-world scenario.

In the context of McKinsey's PEI, "Personal Impact" typically refers to situations where you've made a significant difference or had a notable influence. Convincing a group of people to join a new initiative is a valid example, as it showcases your leadership and persuasive skills. However, it's essential to provide specific details about how you achieved this, the challenges you faced, and the results you obtained.

For a more in-depth understanding of the PEI and to refine your storytelling, you might want to check out the PEI Fit Guide (https://www.preplounge.com/de/shop/fit-guide/pei-fit-guide). It should provide you with valuable insights and examples to help you better prepare for this part of the interview.

Best of luck with your McKinsey interview! Feel free to ask if you have more questions or need further assistance. Warm regards, Frederic

Hi,

I will tell you a little trick here, structure is important in any personal stories but also remember that we are human and recruiters listen to the same structure and more or less same answers every day.

My tip is to turn your question on its head - are the 3 reasons part of a story, that can get an emotional response? I strcture the answers around a story. I will give you my example to help you understand - I talk about my relentless need to be challenged that goes way back to living in Ukraine and starting a business selling pens and Britney Spears stickers.

The more 'colourful' and personal - the more the story is memorable. I don't know what your 3 reasons are, I have not heard the answer, but I always have this filter when I approach interviews:

1. What is the main point I am trying to make (in my case, that as an industry - strategy is well suited for my personality)
2. Is the story interesting / engaging / can get emotional response (I bet you still remember mine)

Hope this helps and good luck!

Hi there,

Two things on your question:

1) Always focus your PEI stories on the outcome / result. They might be fantastic stories but if you have not fantastic results and impact as well, they might not be the best to choose

2) Personal Impact stories at McKinsey should focus on situations where you persuade someone or a group of people with a different pespective

Best,

Alberto

What tends to stand out when I used to interview and looked for personal impact was:

• The scale and nature of the impact, meaning a story which show what you endeavoured on changed something in a positive way. I find it easier to think of the most “impactful” things you did first,
• The rationale and ability to drive change. Out of those impactful stories, find the ones where you really struggled to convince people or where you contribution was large. These tend to be those experiences where not everything goes right but, with some effort, you managed to achieve something you are proud of.

Hi there,

Your stories should be dynamic and interesting. Make sure it's not boring, like "nobody wanted to join, but I convinced them and everything was fine". Introduce some drama, and showcase how YOUR actions led to a positive result.

Just as a reminder of the PARADE method:

P roblem
A nticipated Consequence
R ole
A ction
D ecision-Making Rationale
E nd-Result
(source - caseinterview.com)

I usually tend to advise candidates of the more straightforward STAR method:

S ituation

T ask
A ction
R esult

Remeber that Action should be about 60-70% of your answer.

Good luck!
Michal

Read this somewhere helped in my fit prep questions...

Here are the main five themes for PEI:

1. Leading others (22%)
Tell me about a time you led a team through a difficult challenge

2. Managing a team conflict (22%)
Tell me about a time you worked in a team and had to manage a conflict

3. Managing a personal conflict (21%)
Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with a colleague / your boss

4. Influencing others (17%)
Tell me about a time you changed the mind of a group of people / an individual

5. Overcoming challenges (11%)
Tell me about a challenge you had to push yourself hard to overcome

Hi,

When the interviewers ask you to provide an example of resolving a team- or personal conflict, Changing someone's mind, Developing and implementing a solution or overcoming difficulties - it means they want to hear a personal impact story.

Personal impact is a story of influencing people and persuading them to follow your solution. Think of the consultants - in a similar way they have to present their solutions to the client and unite the stakeholders with various opinions.

How should you approach the personal impact story?

1. Start with a project / job description and mention the conflict
2. Then provide the particular details of the conflict: Who was involved and what was exactly the problem
3. Continue with a list of actions you took - Details on how you developed the solution, arguments you used to change the minds of people and people you attracted to support you
4. Finish with a measurable impact from your actions

Best,

Personal Impact is all about influencing other people, which is why I put this question in the same bucket as Persuasion and Conflict Resolution.

 In essence they want to know if you’re able to change people’s minds. 

There are thousands of nuance to have a great answer, but this rough guideline will help you in that:

1) Describe the situation and your goal. 

2) Describe the other person.

3) Describe what you did to persuade them. 

As always, include the why you did it. You want to show a balanced persuasion approach that is thoughtful but not manipulative. Ideally, your solution made everyone in the situation better off (even the “opposite” side of the argument).

Was it helpful to you?

GB

Hi,

Personal Impact does not necessarily mean 'so many things.' There is a very clear emphasis when it comes to personal impact stories.

PEI questions on personal impact have the following two components

• They talk about instances where you have had to influence and convince either an individual or a team (group) to go with your way of thinking vs their way of thinking

• The focus is on situation where convincing is difficult (someone more senior than you, or a client or a group setting) and NOT on situations where this is relatively straightforward (someone more junior, your peers, your friends)

With this in mind, you will have to focus on stories where you have a different opinion to others and the steps you took to convince them to come around to your way of thinking.

Best,

Udayan

I strongly recommend you to read the PARADE method for PEI. You will be able to easily structure your stories and add more layers while you are sharing your uniqueness.

Hey anonymous,

As other have referred, Personal Impact is mostly about influencing or motivating others, but you can also try to follow the wider definition offered by McKinsey itself: example where you have demonstrated impact while working with a wide range of individuals in difficult settings.

Btw, be careful not confusing/mixing Personal Impact and Leadership examples, as that's one of the most common mistake in the PEI stories - swapping examples which almost kills your chances.

Best

Bruno

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

Dear A,

The story is good. The most important is also how you tell it and you practice it. So, please, apply  the tupical structure, which consists of 5 components:

1. Situation 

2. Problem

3. Your approach 

4. Your results which you have delivered 

5. Your learnings

This will help you to sound really convincing. 

Good luck,

 André 

Hi there,

So, the goal for the fit part is to show the interviewers your critical thinking and problem-solving skills and how suitable you are for the job.

Behavioral questions might be like:

• Why consulting? / Why company XX? / Why are you the perfect fit for this position?

• Describe a time when you disagreed with a team member

• Tell me about your biggest mistake at the workplace

• Name three improvements you made in your most recent position

You can find other questions online; just pick some of them and start answering them in a way that makes sense:

• Keep it short (1.5 minutes max)

• Use storytelling techniques (Structure your speech!)

• Try to get the interviewer to participate, e.g., while telling about your experience in place XX, ask them whether he has been there

The more questions you practice, the easier it becomes for you to come up with a friendly and suitable answer. 

Personal Impact at McKinsey is all about influencing other people. In essence, they want to know if you’re able to change people’s minds.

The questions are structured into three parts. So by being prepared for this kind of questions, you can crack similar questions in any other company:

• The Entrepreneurial Drive / Drive and Achieving Question

• The Personal Impact / Persuasion / Conflict Resolution Question

• The Leadership / Teamwork Question

As always, include the why you did it. You want to show a balanced persuasion approach that is thoughtful but not manipulative. Ideally, your solution made everyone in the situation better off (even the “opposite” side of the argument). 

Hope that helps! Hit me up if you need any advice, happy to help.

GB

Hey there,

I have written a detailed insider perspective on the PEI that covers all aspects and will help you prepare strong stories here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-pei

Cheers,

Florian