What FIT questions have u seen in McK interviews ? Trying to make a list .Thanks

Hi,

1. When the consultants ask you to provide an example of leading others or working in teams, most probably they are looking for a leadership story

For those of you applying for junior positions, leadership does not necessarily mean being a supervisor. Organizing various stakeholders, being in charge of a study project, leading your team in a competition - all these examples will make a good story. Leadership is about finding an opportunity and managing people to achieve it

2. 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. 

3. When you have to provide an example of Overcoming challenges, Achieving a personal goal, Failing something, Creating new approaches or doing something innovative - these are the stories about your achievement and entrepreneurial drive

What can be a good achievement? First of all, the achievement should be important for you personally. It should prove that you set ambitious goals and achieve them, very often over and above than planned with innovative solutions

Best

Hi mate,

     Just went through 4 interviews with McKinsey and here are 4 top level questions they asked as well as some detailed drill-down questions based on the top level questions.

1. (EM) Tell me about a time either at work or outside where you had a critical disagreement with your stakeholder and how you navigated this.
2. (Senior EM) Tell me about a time where you faced a difficult team related problem and how you navigated this.
3. (Partner) Tell me about a time where you had to demonstrate your leadership capabilities to convincing a team on an approach.
4. (Partner) Talk about your leadership capabilities, but I want you to imagine you are on the front page of the newspaper, I want to see your 5 word Headline, and three dot points that are 10 words or less that described what you did.

The final question was definitely unique, and I think it was an interesting way for the partner to see how well you can synthesize and summarise your stories.

Some deep dive questions included:

"Why did you choose X place to talk to Y?"
"What reactions were you looking for?"
"What was your actual quote?"

I was offered the position at McKinsey as well so if you have any specific questions let me know.

Cheers

Hi Anonymous,

in general, the most common fit questions are:

• Tell me about yourself (personal overview)
• Why consulting (motivational)
• Why McKinsey (motivational)
• Give me an example when you led a team (leadership)
• Tell me about a time when you had to convince someone not agreeing with you (impact)
• What has been your major achievement so far (drive)
• Why should we hire you (motivational)

For McKinsey PEI, there is a particular focus compared to other companies on the leadership, impact and drive areas. Many candidates think PEI is less important than the case, since it’s shorter, however they actually have equivalent importance – if you are not convincing in your stories you won’t move to the next round.

The best way to prepare is to complete the following check list:

1. Understand the difference between, leadership, impact and drive areas. You can find a link with their differences here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-pei-difference-drive-and-personal-impact-918#a1780
2. Identify good stories for each area. Ideally you want to have at least two stories for each area. Three would be even better.
3. Use a structure for your story. Both STAR and PARADE structures would work well
4. Identify for each story one sentence clarifying what you are going to discuss and start with it. Think of it as the title of a journal article.
5. Practice live, collect feedback from people listening to you, reiterate till when you get fluent and convincing

Best,

Francesco

Hi,

The typical questions are:

1. “Tell me about yourself” or “walk me through your resume”- this is how Consultants usually begin the interview. It's an opportunity for them to learn about you and to pick some interesting facts.
2. “Why consulting?”, “Why McKinsey” questions are used to assess your motivation to be a consultant in general and to work in that particular firm. 
3. Next, the interviewer will also ask you to provide examples from your background to assess how good you are as a leader or a team player; how you can create impact and persuade people; or how you can achieve your goals. You'll have several dimensions

• Personal impact
• Leadership
• Entrepreneurial drive
• Achievement (asked in some countries instead of entrepreneurial drive)

Take into account that the questions may sound differently, however they will mean the same story. For example, there may be the following variations in the personal impact story:

• Team conflict
• Personal conflict
• Conflict with the boss
• Changing someone's mind
• Overcoming difficulties
• etc

Finally, don't forget to prepare your questions to the interviewer.

If you have time I would recommend to have 1-2 backup stories per question:

1. "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.
2. 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 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.
3. 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.

Best

Hey anonymous,

Please see below a non-exhaustive, but already quite comprehensive, list of potential questions

Entrepreneurial drive

What was a situation where you set a major goal and been able to achieve it?

Tell me about a time when you achieved a difficult goal

What has been your major accomplishment so far?

Tell me about a time that you did something innovative

Leadership

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

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


Tell me about a time you lead a team through a conflict

Tell me about a time you lead a team to achieve a difficult goal

Tell me about a time where you were leading a team and you needed to force someone to work when they didn't want to do it

Personal impact

Tell me about a time that you persuaded your boss to go along with an idea you had

Tell me about a time that you managed upwards

Tell me about a time that you changed someone's mind

Tell me about a difficult situation where you had to rely on your communication skills

Tell me about a time where you dealt with a conflict/crisis/difficult member in your team

Best

Bruno

Hi Anonymous,

the PEI at McKinsey is structured around three key dimensions, leadership, impact and drive. I have provided a description for them below:

1) Leadership is about leading a whole team in a challenging situation and showing 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.

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

1. Tell me about a time that 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.

3) 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.

Besides the previous dimensions, common questions also include:

• Tell me about yourself
• Why consulting
• Why McKinsey
• Why should we hire you

Best,

Francesco

Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership?

Tell me about a time you resolved a conflict in your team?

Hi there!

The good news is definitely that most of the time, it will be quite clear which dimension the interviewer is looking for. And most of the time, the question will be quite straight forward. However, sometimes the interviewer will make the one or the other twist to make it a bit more difficult for you to answer - please bear in mind that the interview is no one-way street, so you can clarify the dimension by rephrasing your understanding.

Some of the most basic starting questions for the McKinsey PEI are:

Leadership: „Can you think of a situation where you led a team through a difficult situation / conflict / crisis when you still needed to achieve an important goal together?“
Personal impact: „Please tell me about a situation when you needed to change someone's mind.”
Entrepreneurial drive: „Please tell me about a time when you achieved a difficult goal.”
(You can find many more typical starting questions and additional inside information on the McKinsey PEI in The Ultimate McKinsey PEI Prep eBook).
Hope that helps!

Hey anonymous,

Francesco already gave you some ideas on how to prepare...so let me just address the following point: "how important is to perform well at them?"

It's critical, really crucial (as important as the case itself), and you would be surprised with the number of people that arrive to the actual interviews underprepared for this part...and fail due to it

Best

Bruno

Hi,

The interviewer usually asks 3 sets of questions:

1) “Tell me about yourself” or “walk me through your resume”- this is how Consultants usually begin the interview. It's an opportunity for them to learn about you and to pick some interesting facts. Don’t lose this opportunity since the 1st impression is usually the strongest.

2) “Why consulting?”, “Why McKinsey” questions are used to assess your motivation to be a consultant in general and to work in that particular firm. They will check how you have done your homework and what you’ve learned about them. They also want to make sure that you have a clear intention to work in consulting. "Why consulting" is a question about you and your career path. "Why McKinsey" is more about a particular company and even particular local office.

3) Next, the interviewer will also ask you to provide examples from your background:

• Leadership
• Personal impact (How you persuaded someone)
• Achievement / entrepreneurial drive (depending on the office)

At the end of the interview, you will also have an opportunity to ask your questions to the interviewer. Most of the candidates disregard this part in the preparation, while it is a great chance to demonstrate the intellectual capacity and build some relationship with the interviewer.

Best!

Hi there,

Here is a quite similar thread: https://www.preplounge.com/de/consulting-forum/typical-mck-pei-question-for-each-dimension-1502

In addition, I wrote a more exhaustive blog post on that subject here:https://pei.consulting-case-interviews.com/blog/typical-mckinsey-pei-questions/

Hope that helps!

Robert

Hello!

On top of the insights already shared in the post, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB" has been recently published in PrepLounge´s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34)

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.

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes, since we still have some left from the launch!

Hope you find it useful!

Best,

Clara

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

Hi,
 
They will be asking the following:
 Tell me about yourself (Walk me through your resume)
 Why consulting
 Why McKinsey
 The story about leadership (How you've taken an initiative and led the people
to achieve something)
 The story about Personal Impact (How you persuaded people)
 Entrepreneurial Drive (Innovative solutions that you are proud of most)
 Your questions to the interviewer
In "Tell me about yoursef" you should be talking about your career path till now.
You can finish this story with an argument about why consulting is the next logical
career step.
 
I would recommend the following structure:
1. Start with a 1 sentence summary of your background, why you are relevant
for McKinsey and what's your unique selling point

2. Talk about 3-4 of your roles (may be professional, education,
extracurricular), 3 sentences each. The more experienced you are the more
you should speak about professional roles. It can be also the distinct roles
within the same organization.

Typical structure: 1) What was the company 2)
What you were responsible for 3) Greatest achievement in that role, that will
stay in the memory of the interviewer (E.g. While working at Adidas supply
chain I was personally responsible for the delivery of soccer balls to the
Worldcup in Africa)

3. The main reason why consulting (or this firm if you were a consultant before)
is the next logical career step for you

Best,

André

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