Hi! Anyone able to shed some light on the McKinsey Private Capital interview process (specifically in london)? Will the cases mainly be PE-focused, e.g. M&A, growth strategy or can it be anything, e.g. non-profit, cost optimisation, etc. Thank you in advance!
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Hi there,
If you're interviewing for a specific practice then the case interviews are more likely to be of that practice.
Specializing in Private Capital changes the flavor of your interviews somewhat especially for the second round.
Here is the reality for the PC track, which is heavily focused on Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) and portfolio value creation. You should expect the overwhelming majority (70-80%) of your case work to be commercially driven: assessing the attractiveness of a specific asset class, testing the viability of a target company's growth plan, or identifying post-merger synergies. Frame your preparation around investment committee thinking—can you rapidly size a market, identify key risks, and structure a decisive recommendation?
However, you cannot ignore the foundational consulting skills. The firm still needs to ensure you possess the rigorous, structured thinking required for any complex problem. It is highly common for McKinsey to throw one standard, complex case (like a challenging operations bottleneck, a cost optimization exercise in a foreign market, or an organizational restructuring) into the mix. This is their way of confirming your analytic engine is sound, even if you’ll mostly be running DDs on the job.
Your best strategy is to prepare primarily for transaction-focused cases but use standard, tough generalist cases (from firms like BCG or Bain) to stress-test your structure and synthesis under pressure.
All the best!
Hi,
I would focus on your fundamentals and not try to over-index on anticipating a specific case type.
You may get a PE case, but you may also get a generalist case... because well if you can't solve the generalist case, then it would show you dont have the core consulting toolkit the firm is looking for.
Back when I was an interviewer for BCG's PE practice, we gave a mixture of cases across the 4 rounds for each candidate (assuming they made it through R1).
You may also find my article helpful about understanding more about PE consulting and what's needed to succeed there:
What is Private Equity Consulting?
All the best!
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