How much time should be reasonably spent preparing fit?

Hi there,

Q: How much time should be reasonably spent preparing fit?

It depends on a few factors:

• The resources you use
• The quality of the resources
• Your current level

Some firms like McKinsey use a specific way to assess the fit (the McKinsey one is called PEI). You can find more at the link below:

▶ 4 PEI Dimensions You Should Know

In most cases, if you start from scratch and want to include the PEI prep, I would consider a minimum of 5-10h.

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

I think this is an interesting question that may be relevant for many people. I would be happy to share my thoughts on it:

• First of all, it depends on your personal preferences, and the amount of preparation you have done for any previous application. As such, it is hard to provide an answer that is generally valid.
• While some candidates prefer to take a few notes per personal fit question and read through them once or twice, other candidates formulate the answers completely and practice them until they sound perfect.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Hi there,

7.25 hours.

Jokes aside, it drastically depends.

Someone with high EQ and previous experience interviewing? Just a few hours.

Someone with low EQ and no experience interviewing? Tens of hours and coaching is a necessity.

Ultimately, you need to get to the point where: A friend/colleague can ask you any question and you can respond in a calm, confident, concise manner to their question.

Here's some additional reading to help: https://www.preplounge.com/en/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question

Hi there, 

I would recommend candidates to start around 4 weeks before the actual interviews. 

The fit part is super important, especially in terms of getting the storyline right. So the earlier you start, the more time you have to calibrate it. 

Best,
Cristian

It really depends on whether you have any stories to hand which you can use in the interviews. If you do then you may be able to polish them up in a few hours, if not then I suspect it'll take a few days to find the stories, refine them so that they're saying what you need them to say, then learn them so that you're able to answer the question easily. 

Hi,

this depends a lot on the consulting firm that you are applying to. Some put more emphasis on the personal fit part, some maybe a little bit less.

I would not underestimate it though, as this is a crucial part and can decide over whether you get an offer or not, just as a case interview can. It is unlikely that you can just “wing” it. 

From my experience, you can encounter very deep and challenging personal fit questions and your answers are then followed up by the interviewer to get to the bottom of it. So I would take sufficient time to reflect upon your motivations, previous experiences, etc. beforehand. Depending on how far you are with that, the prep time can differ.

I am happy to support with that and share a selection of unexpected personal fit questions that I have encountered.

Cheers

Marvin

It really depends on the person. Also depends on how much thought and effort you've put when preparing your CV (a good CV is 50% of the preparation for fit interview).

I would say probably 10 to 20 hours of deliberate preparation are probably the correct range (a bit less if you are a good communicator and if your CV is well though).

But. This is not about the number of hours.