Recency of PEI Examples

Question

Hello,

I have some doubts about my story for the Personal Impact area in the PEI at Mckinsey. I am graduating undergrad this year from the UK (3-year degree) but the story I have prepared goes all the way back to my time in high school. I am confident the context works perfectly but given that this is the only time that I really convinced someone senior regarding a major issue, I am limited in my option of stories. Would this be looked down upon (i.e asked for a different, more recent story) or would interviewers understand my lack of interaction with more senior people in this specific setting (convincing them of my viewpoint) given my age and non-professional background?

Answer 1

A common question that I once faced as well. In 2017 during my McKinsey interview, I asked to use an example from 2010 because it was really relevant and I remembered it like it was yesterday (which I explained to the interviewer). I was allowed to use it and got the job.

Maybe 7 years is a bit of a stretch, but this does not have to be a problem, especially if you don’t have a ton of experience.

However, it is true that McKinsey interviewers are generally instructed to go for recent example, because probing goes deep and you need to be able to recall the smallest detail upon being asked.

Best practice is to give a one-liner summary of the situation, combined with why you believe it’s relevant despite the time gap (very top down).

They may or may not let you choose the example. In any case, you should always have a backup to your preferred story!

Hope this helps. Best of luck!

Answer 2

Hi there,

Honestly, given that you're just graduating a 3-year degree, I think that this story is fine.

Ideally, you have internships, projects, etc. that you can lean on for all of your other stories. Additionally, if you can “avoid” flagging that the experience is from High School (i.e. provide context, just without saying the words High School), then do so.

Answer 3

Hey there,

The more recent, the better. High school stories would not leave much of an impression in the best case and will likely be rejected in the worst case.

Unless you interview for an experienced hire or more senior position, your stories should not date back more than 2-3 years.

To read in more detail about the PEI, check out the article I wrote about it here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/mckinsey-pei

Cheers,

Florian

Answer 4

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the invitation by McKinsey!

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

Generally speaking, if this is such a clear case in your perspective, I would advise you to share your rationale with the interviewer when presenting the PEI situation in a brief pitch. Chances are high that if your rationale is pursuasive, he/ she will let you present the situation (without any discount).
Still, I would advise you to closely think and maybe even discuss with friends and family about situations in the past years where you had to convince someone from your perspective (the same accounts for the other two dimensions). Normally, university is one of the best life stage to practice such skills with group projects, internships, volunteer experiences aso.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare both the PEI and the case study part of your upcoming McKinsey interviews, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Answer 5

Hi there,

The general rule of thumb is to use a PEI story max 2-3 years old. However if:

The story is particularly relevant and/or
You don’t have other alternatives

you can use an older story.

I would recommend to keep a backup for each dimension (so 6 stories overall) so that if the interviewer asks for an alternative you have another story ready.

Best,

Francesco

Answer 6

Yes, indeed it's best to come up with stories that are from within the last 2-3 years.

I understand that can be tricky.

But the point is that they want to get a sense of your recent experience and what you stand for. So a story from 5-6 years ago might reflect a very different person than who you are now.

For anybody who is looking into the PEI topic, I recently released this end-to-end course covering PEI. More on it here:

Video Course: Master the McKinsey PEI

Best,
Cristian

Answer 7

Any experience that had a profound impact on you in terms of learning, maturity etc should not be ignored even if it goes back 5 years + in time. Speak with passion, tell a good story and it will land.