Feedback after my interview n°1 (1st round McKinsey interview)

Question

Dear all,

Yesterday, I had my interview n°1 for the first-round interview at McKinsey, and I have a mixed feeling between: “it was okay” and “I am worried”.

Indeed, the interview began pretty well: question about my motivation to join the Energy Insight division + PEI on the Entrepreneurial drive segment.

I prepared very well these parts, so I think that it was quite good. My first concern is that the interviewer asked me a lot of questions to understand my process to face this PEI challenge. My first question to you is, is it a bad thing? I answered his questions “easily”, but I am worried that maybe I did not prepare well enough… (reasons why he asked many questions about my story).

The second part of the Interview: the Case. It has 3 questions: structure/brainstorming/maths. The structure was quite okay (entry market) + the interviewer challenged me about it, and I think my answer was pretty good because it was a part of the 2nd question. The second one, was also okay, but I think I could have done better.

However, the maths question was difficult. My logic was good, but 2/3 of my computations were wrong due to stress and fatigue! Unfortunately, we were running late, and he stopped before I could address my mistakes. Indeed, the case prompt was very long + I asked many clarifying questions because I did not know the industry and its English accent was difficult for me to understand (I often asked him to repeat the number).

In general, my feelings are quite mitigated. He challenged me a lot, and I kept my calm, serenity, and enthusiasm to give the best answers.

So, my questions are:

How do you think it was?
Do you think that he considers the prompt length and the fact that I was asking a lot of questions? In my opinion, it justified the fact that I was late.
Do you think I can move to the 2nd round interview if I succeed with all questions for the interview n° 2 first-round interviews? Or I can “allow” myself to make another mistake,…

Many thanks in advance for your answer

And sorry because my text is quite long.

Answer 1

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out, and my biggest advise would be to breathe out and forget about McK until you hear back from them. You cannot time travel, and dwelling on the past is counterproductive and damaging to morale. Even if you are not accepted, please know that there are many other wonderful consulting firms and - shockingly- many other great, challenging industries besides consulting. Now to address your questions:

How do you think it was? It's hard to say. If your reasoning was well-structured, logical, and well-presented, then you did fine.
Do you think that he considers the prompt length and the fact that I was asking a lot of questions? In my opinion, it justified the fact that I was late. It's always better to clarify than to assume and go off on a wrong premise. Consultants are always encouraged to ask questions - so no, it's not a bad thing.
Do you think I can move to the 2nd round interview if I succeed with all questions for the interview n° 2 first-round interviews? Or I can “allow” myself to make another mistake,… That depends on a lot of factors. For instance, if your degree is in Physics or Engineering, McK would assume that you made the calc mistakes because you were nervous, rather than because you had trouble with mental math. If your degree is in History, then you must absolutely ace the math in the second interview. I, personally, am not the strongest in mental math - I know how to approach a problem and what formula to use, but I often make mistakes in the actual calculation when I'm in a hurry. So I make sure to walk the counterpart through my reasoning and my formula in detail, so that they know that I would 100% get the right answer if I had a calculator or Excel open. So this is my biggest recommendation to all candidates: ALWAYS walk your interviewer through your reasoning.

Good luck and let us know then how it went!

Answer 2

Hi there,

I'm really sorry but we have no clue!

There are both positive and negative signs from what you've written. Ultimately however we were not in the room and you are not the best judge of your own performance.

In terms of whether you can move on to the 2nd round, the answer is yes. Will you? We have no idea!

Try to relax and just prepare for the next round. Keep submitting applications for other roles, working on your weaknesses, etc.

If you truly want an evaluation of your performance, hire a coach! They will do a deep-dive assessment (fit and case) and let you know exactly where you stand. A Q&A is pretty impossible to evaluate unfortunately!

Now, in terms of improving on fit + case in preparation for your next interview, feel free to read the following:

Case Reading: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

Fit Reading: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question

Answer 3

Hi there,

As you can imagine, it's difficult to give a definite judgement, but based on your description, it doesn't sound like a clear rejection.

On the PEI: it's totally normal to get asked many questions as a follow-up. This isn't a sign that something isn't working. It's just a sign that the interviewer is curious of your story and wants to understand more, as well as figure out how you react to these follow-up questions.

On the case: This is the part that concerns me more. One, it sounds like the flow of the discussion wasn't great - difficulty in understanding prompt, connecting with the interviewer and additionally you made a few mistakes. This isn't a total no-go, but it's not great news.

Regardless of the consequences of the interview, I suggest you ask them for feedback. This is going to help you regardless of whether you go to 2nd round or you end up reapplying.

Best of luck!

Answer 4

Hello!

As other coaches shared, so hard to tell, but fingers crossed form all us for you.

Cheers,

Clara