3 Weeks post Mckinsey final round and No reply

Question

It has been almost 3 weeks since my last final interview with Mckinsey for a specialist role with no feedback.

I contacted the recruiter last week and they apologized for being late due to some structuring issues about the role they needed to sort out first and told me to expect a call from one of the interviewers for feedback and hiring decision. The application status is still “in-progress”.

But week 3 is almost done and still nothing, I haven't received that call yet. Is that a “No”? shall i call the recruiter again?!

Note: Maybe it is worthy to highlight that the whole process had a slow pace, it took 2 months to do all the interviews

Answer 1

Hey there,

In your case I would definitely step on the gas and call HR again, stating that you have another offer lined up and need to decide soon…

Usually, I urge people to wait but

two months in the process
3 weeks out from the last interview

definitely warrants some pressure from your end.

Fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

Cheers,

Florian

Answer 2

Hi there,

before offer decisions are communicated, they have to be aligned between HR and the interviewers in the process. This can sometimes take time for various reasons. A few common ones are listed below for a general overview:

internal scheduling conflicts between HR and the interviewers, especially when partners need to be involved
the firm is still conducting more final round interviews with other candidates and they might want to wait for that to play out to look at the full candidate picture before extending final offers
offers have been extended to “first choice” candidates and the firm is trying to keep “backup” candidates on hold until they know who accepted and who declined their first batch of offers
holidays or year-end shutdown delay the decision-making and communication process
there is uncertainty internally around budget and the exact headcount they can actually hire so they are trying to buy time

I know that this is unsettling and every candidate wants to have clarity on the status sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, you'll always have to wait for the official word.

However, it is best to just assume a rejection and continue with the recruiting efforts with other firms until you have a written offer in your hands. That way you at least won't lose time.

Best

Answer 3

Hi there,

First of all, I am sorry to hear about the poor experience with 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, as long as you have not yet received feedback, there is no indication for either a positive or a negative result. I know this must be nerve-racking yet I would advise you to distract you from thinking of this too much as there is nothing you can do in this situation.
Regarding another follow-up, I would advise you to maybe wait another week. The process seems to be very slow thus changes are high they might come back to you either way soon.
However, in case you have time pressure for whatever reason, I think it would be OK to state and explain it and ask for more timely feedback. While in general, I would not advise you to pressure the (non-consulting) colleagues too much - especially since you have not even started the work with McKinsey - there might be instances where it might nonetheless be required.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare your (alleged) career entry with McKinsey, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Answer 4

Hi there,

This is unusual as McKinsey is usually quick to provide feedback.

From your side, the only possible way to put pressure is to get another offer (probably unlikely in the short term unless you have another process already in place).

In terms of the next steps, I would follow up 2 weeks after the last attempt if you still have no news, calling HR.

Best,

Francesco

Answer 5

Hi there,

What a pain - sorry to hear it's taking so long!

You are definitely not out of the running. As a general rule HR has been slammed so I really wouldn't read too much into this.

I would wait another 2 weeks before reaching out again (hard to do, but just remember there's very little in your control here)

Answer 6

We're getting these type of questions almost on a daily basis now, so it seems that HR processes are chaotic. Given what I've been seeing in consulting right now, it's not surprising.

The “great resignation” + a ton of M&A related work are putting a lot of pressure on hiring more people (and less people to interview candidates).

Having said this, this is actually very strange because in your case it's just about making the decision. They are shooting their own foot. So it is not a rejection, it's really just a “no decision yet”.

You don't need to say you have another offer, but you can call them and state that you were approached by other companies…

Good luck!