McK PST for Engagement Manager Candidates

Question

For Engagement Manager level, experienced hire candidates who are interviewing at McKinsey, are Problem Solving Tests (PST) usually required to be taken by such candidates?

Answer 1

Hi,

MBB generally use written tests for entry-level candidates. I have personally gone through the McK recruiting process for a Senior Engagement Manager position (at a European office) very recently and I was not asked to take any test but I started straight with the case interviews. From my understanding, that is the general rule for experienced hires but exceptions might exist depending on geographies or your background (in my case I had previous consulting experience).

You could also confirm that by contacting the recruiting team of your target location.

I hope this helps,

Jacopo

Answer 2

Hi,

EM candidates usually don't have to write the PST test. But I don't know that many cases of direct EM hire. You should always be prepared that they may downgrade your application to the associate level unless you have tons of experience.

For experienced hires applying for the associate roles the general rule is the following:

Top MBAs with recruitment on campus - no PST test
Non-Top MBAs - PST test
Non-MBA hires - depends very much on your experience. I know the cases of the both. Also McKinsey may hire some of the experienced hires for a fellow associate if the candidate does not have enough experience bur applied for an associate. You should expect the PST test then.

Best