Round 2 fit questions: do I need different personal experience stories than in Round 1?

Question

Hello,

I've heard that you shouldn't repeat the same examples of stories in different interviews of the same company as the companies are looking for breadth of experience. If we covered several stories in Round 1, can I repeat some of the stories in Round 2 in case the interviewer poses a similar question or should I share different examples? Would your answer be different if the interviews are held on the same day vs with ca. 2 weeks break?

Thanks!

Answer 1

You should definitely provide a different example!

If an interviewer in Round 2 asks a similar "experience question" as in Round 1, chances are that they were not entirely satisfied with the example you provided earlier and want to probe deeper on one or two sub-aspects.

So what I am usually working out with my coachees are different examples per topic that might be under scrutiny during the fit/experience part of the interview.

Cheers, Sidi

Answer 2

Hey anonymous,

Definitely do not repeat stories between different rounds of interviews (or even within the same round), regardless of the time elapsed between them! Interviewers share feedback, and they will for sure notice that.

Best

Bruno

Answer 3

Hi,

At least at McKinsey interviewers do not share the results of the previous round and they don't share the stories you've told them. So I would not be concerned about repeating the stories between the rounds.

However, I recommend to always have at least one backup story per question for the following reasons:

"This story does not fit. Do you have another story?" - an interviewer can easily say something like this if he is not convinced that your story is good enough or the story does not fit his criteria for some reason.
It is essential for you to prepare at least three stories for each area so that in case you get the same question by a couple of interviewers in the same round you are not telling the same story. I personally had 3 interviewers asking me exactly the same story. Originally the three of your interviewers are supposed to ask the different questions. In reality, interviewers don't often have a chance to meet before the interview, and sometimes they are urgently replaced by the colleagues. Of course, you can use the same story, but it is much better to demonstrate a diverse experience.
Finally, the interviewer may ask you the questions you didn't even expect. It's always good to have some backup stories and adapt them to answer those unexpected questions.

Good luck!