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Does interviewing later with McKinsey reduce your chance?

Hi,

I have options to take the final round interview with McKinsey this week, next week, or the week after. Does interviewing later create a disadvantage because they're filling more spots and would've hired more people by then?

This is for the business analyst role. 

Thanks! 

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Top answer
Clara
Coach
on Oct 26, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

No, not at all.

I am actually Exhibit A for this. 

I participated in one of the recruiting events from McK, in which they would get 24 last year students for a workshop over a weekend. We were all invited to apply, and HR insisted a lot in doing so as soon as possible. 

Out of the 24 students, 3 of us said that we could not do that in the next weeks, and that indeed we needed months. 

Guess what? We were the only ones who got an offer for McK. 

Despite HR pushing you to interview asap, if you have a good reason, they will push it back. You only have one shot to interview, make it count. 

Hope it helps.

Best, 

Clara

Ken
Coach
edited on Oct 26, 2020
Ex-McKinsey final round interviewer | Executive Coach

No, there's no disadvantage where if you meet the bar, you will get an offer. The only exception is 'calibration' cases where if you are on the fence, the final decision will be made at the end based on whether there are spots remaining and whether the readings have been high or low. Having done a few recruiting seasons of BA final round interviews (in the London office they are done over consecutive days), I have a biased sense that the bar goes down slightly as the interviewers calibrate based on how their readings compare to other interviewers (on the same candidate) where most interviewers will often find themselves slightly calibrating down. [Disclaimer: this was my own experience and perception]

Robert
Coach
on Oct 27, 2020
McKinsey offers w/o final round interviews - 100% risk-free - 10+ years MBB coaching experience - Multiple book author

Hi Anonymous,

Generally speaking, no.

If business environment changes massively during that them to the worse, then yes. Also consulting firms are profit-oriented companies and need to balance HR demand from projects with HR supply from candidates. If there is a huge mismatch and too little HR demand, recruiting activities will slow down as a logical consequence. And don't believe this BS that consulting firms are ALWAYS hiring strong candidates independent of their need - that was maybe true a decade ago, but not nowadays.

Hope this helps - if so, please give it a thumbs-up with the upvote button below!

Robert

Anonymous A
on Oct 27, 2020
Thanks. So do you think the business environment will change massively between now and a month for McKinsey in the U.S?
Deleted user
on Oct 26, 2020

Almost certainly not. 

7
Gaurav
Coach
on Oct 26, 2020
#1 MBB Coach(Placed 750+ in MBBs & 1250+ in Tier2)| The Only 360° coach(Ex-McKinsey+Certified Coach+Active recruiter)

Hi A,

Normally it doesn't matter whether you are interviewing this week or the next one, considering you have such options.

If you are concerned, I would recommend clear on that with HR. 

Was this helpful?

GB

Ian
Coach
on Oct 26, 2020
Top US BCG / MBB Coach - 5,000 sessions |Tech, Platinion, Big 4 | 9/9 personal interviews passed | 95% candidate success

It really does not matter. They accept the candidates that they view as being of the right calibre. If that's 5, they take in 5. If it's 1, they take in 1. There is not a rolling acceptance for offers.

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