Mckinsey Round 1 Interview (PEI + TEI) - Had a very strange interview. Your Thoughts?

Question

Hi All,

I recently completed my McKinsey Round 1 interview for an experienced role in Implementation (PEI & TEI). The interview was quite different from my expectations, and I’d appreciate your thoughts:

PEI (Connection): I prepared my story using the STAR method, but less than a minute in, the interviewer interrupted and asked me to summarize the opposing opinion and all my actions in under a minute. He then interrupted almost every 30-60 seconds with questions—some not really relevant to the story, such as asking me to explain a client process in detail—and jumped between situation, actions, and results in a haphazard way. This made it difficult to structure my story.

Time Allocation: Coaching sessions suggested ~15–20 min for PEI and ~30 min for TEI. Mine was ~35 min PEI and only 10 min TEI. The TEI felt smoother but still fragmented, with frequent jumps across situation, result, and technical points, and once again, I felt I never really got the chance to structure my story.

Repetition in TEI: After I explained the client context and problem statement, he asked questions I had already answered (“who was the client,” “what was the problem”), which felt like he wasn’t paying attention. He also seemed to read pre-prepared questions from his laptop.

Bundled Questions: The questions were often complex and multi-part. He would ask part 1, then say “this is a multi-part question” before moving to part 2 or 3, sometimes totally unrelated to the first. It almost felt like a memory test, since by the time he reached part 3, I often couldn’t recall the exact framing of part 1. Because it was a PEI + TEI, I didn't take notes while he was speaking, since I expected a discussion.

CV Drill-Down: In the final 5 minutes, he said, “I have gone through your CV in detail,” then asked me to list all projects I had worked on specifically with my current employer of the last 2 years (not sure why), giving 1–2 sentences on each. He then randomly stopped me on one of them and asked for deeper technical details. While I don’t mind CV deep dives, this was quite unexpected.

Overall, the interview felt very unstructured. Given McKinsey’s emphasis on structured communication, I was surprised at how chaotic the discussion was.

Do you think this was just a tough interview style, or does it sound like a very bad interview? Appreciate your thoughts.

Answer 1

To me, it does not sound like the best interview experience, or a fantastic interviewer. I am sorry that your interview felt this unstructured and haphazard in nature.

With regards to the PEI, it is actually very common in McKinsey interviews that the interviewer interrupts often. They do this because there are certain core traits they are trying to unearth about the interviewee, which may not come out in sufficient detail during the version of the story the interviewee narrates.

That being said, the interviewer would ideally notify you of this fact up front, and assist you in maintaining your structure as they interrupt for specific deep-dives. It should be the interviewers job (to at least some degree) to make the interviewee feel comfortable, so they can display their skills (my humble opinion at least, and my modus operandi).

Hope this helps, and hope you nailed the interview regardless,

Thor

Answer 2

Hi there,

What you describe is not uncommon in McKinsey Implementation or experienced hire interviews. A few thoughts:

Interview style: Some interviewers prefer to interrupt frequently to test how you stay calm and structured under pressure. It’s less about letting you deliver a polished story and more about seeing how you respond when pushed off script.
PEI length: The 35/10 split is unusual but not unheard of. Experienced-hire interviews sometimes put much more emphasis on PEI, because they want to probe deeply into leadership, influencing clients, and resilience, which are critical in Implementation.
Repetition and bundled questions: Often, this reflects the interviewer following a checklist of mandatory questions from their laptop. It can feel chaotic, but they’re making sure they cover required angles (decision-making, stakeholder management, technical grounding).
CV drill-down: This is fairly standard for experienced hires. They want to confirm technical depth and breadth of your recent projects, since Implementation roles often hinge on real operational know-how.

So overall, it doesn’t sound like a “bad” interview, but rather a stress-test style. McKinsey sometimes uses this approach intentionally to see if you maintain composure and structured communication even when the discussion feels fragmented.

Your best takeaway: don’t worry too much about the style. Performance is judged on the content of your answers and how you handled the interruptions, not on whether the conversation felt smooth. If you’re through to next round, expect a similar dynamic and practice summarizing crisply, handling bundled questions by writing down keywords, and resetting structure when interrupted.

Happy to help you prep for next stages – feel free to reach out.

Best,
Evelina

Answer 3

This sounds like a tough interviewer, but nothing completely out of the ordinary.

Re your first two points (PEI connection and Time Allocation) - this often comes down to the style of the interviewer. Candidates should expect these sort of variations.

Re your next two points (Repetition in TEI and Bundled Questions) - honestly, these sound odd. This either was an inexperienced interviewer, or an experienced one that was not paying attention, or an experienced one that was role playing and pressure testing you.

Re your the CV drill down - that also doesn't happen often, but it's more common for interviews that have a TEI component because they want to understand the extent of your technical experience.

All in all, it sounds like despite it being challenging the interview went well. I hope you hear back from them soon.

Best,
Cristian

Answer 4

Hey,

what you describe doesn’t sound “bad” so much as just one of the tougher interviewing styles. Some interviewers prefer very structured back-and-forth, others deliberately interrupt and pressure-test to see if you stay calm and focused. The constant interruptions and bundled questions are stressful, but that’s also part of testing how you think on your feet. Also, the CV drill-down is quite common at experienced-hire level, especially in Implementation.

The imbalance of time (long PEI, short TEI) happens too, since interviewers manage their time differently. It doesn’t mean you performed poorly, just that this person ran their process in their own way.

In short: it was a challenging style, but not abnormal. The key is to stay concise, flexible, and clear under pressure.

best, Alessa :)

Answer 5

This does not sound abnormal. It was a tough interview, I admit, but not necessarily a bad one nor an unprofessional interviewer (though one, possibly less experienced, but he was following the process).

I will add that one likely reason you were interrupted in your PEI is because the STAR method doesn't work at all in the PEI, as it doesn't show you follow a structured problem solving approach for behavioral situations... also you have to be addressing the right things the interviewer is looking for and being precise enough on certain details on the situation (related to what the interviewer is looking for). The issues you mention are quite common problems with candidates regarding PEI preparation.

If you have a second interview, please do reach out. I can really help you improve on that front and come to the interview prepared to go directly to what the interviewer is looking for.