Mckinsey PEPI practice and call with recruiter

1. What do consultants do in PEPI? Ideally an existing McK person from the office of your interest is best suited to answer this. However, in general in consulting - PEPI practice involves long-term portfolio strategy, projects for portfolio companies, target evaluation DD (but not hard-core DD since consults don't have the required license), and finally any transformation work for the funds
2. Interview timing: Ideally no need to reveal your ongoing processes. It is to be done when suppose you have an offer from Bain and want to accelerate the McK process. However in your case - I would suggest no need to fret. Once you receive interview invitations, you can negotiate the interview dates with the recruiter - in general there is a high degree of flexibility. You can even say that you need a few more weeks to perfect your prep.

1. They do more Commercial Due Dilligence work (buy side). Although there's not a lot of difference between buy side and sell side.

2. What I read between the lines is that you prefer to have an interview with Bain first, and don't want the offers at the same time. I know this may not be your intention, but if you convey that you have an interview and instead of wanting to have both at the same time you want to wait on the McK one… it doesn't sound great. 

Of course, if they ask if you have an interview already scheduled, you can say the truth. That will increase your chances of getting an interview… but also of them wanting to have the interview as soon as possible.

Hi there,

One quick note: I would highly recommend you start networking a bit to better understand this yourself - nothing beats a call with someone at the company!

1 - What exactly do the consultants do in Mckinsey PEPI practice as in more of DD, VDD, portfolio work, etc?

Per the McKinsey website:

(PE Side) "We create alpha for private equity investors across the deal life cycle, ranging from preinvestment diligence through postinvestment..."

(PI Side) "We help institutional investor clients, including pensions, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, to drive long-term performance..."

They are very much in the PE/Investment space.

2 - On the call with the recruiter, can I tell them that I have an interview scheduled with Bain for the PEG position, or I should not tell them as it will look bad? I want to have time between my Mck and Bain interview so is it wise to tell them that I have an interview scheduled with Bain?

I would honestly only offer this up if they ask. If they do, say you're interviewing with Bain but re-affirm that McKinsey is your top choice.

Only pro-actively pull out the Bain interview card if McK agrees to interview you but is taking a long time to schedule interviews.