Tips for McKinsey R1 interviews for non business background candidates

You don’t need a business degree to pass, but you do need to sound structured and commercially aware.

Focus on drilling case math, practicing structuring under pressure, and learning basic business logic (profitability, market entry, etc). IR majors have done well when they show sharp thinking and can translate qualitative reasoning into decisions. For MENA / GCC, make sure you’re familiar with sectors like the public sector, real estate, energy, and logistics. Most cases here are framed around government transformation, national strategies, or large-scale delivery. Get comfortable with vague prompts and learn to drive structure with limited data.

You have time, use it well.

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the invitation from McKinsey!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

• First of all, contrary to what other coaches have said, while you still need a basic understanding of business, in-depth business or industry knowledge is not required. PrepLounge has an excellent section called "Case Interview Basics", where you can find essentially everything you need to know in the sub-section "Business Concepts". You can find it here.
• Moreover, if you want to understand in detail where you currently stand in terms of your preparation and what your actual weak spots are, please feel free to book a case study diagnostic session with me as the most-recommended coach.

You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.

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

Best,

Hagen

Hi there,

non-business backgrounds are fairly common and nothing to worry about.

What you need now is lots of practice (and gladly you still have time). Try to go through lots of cases to get to know different business areas.

Pro tip if you don’t want to spend ages on each case: practice only the initial 10 mins of the case structuring for various problems.

If you’re interested, over the years I have gathered a large collection of initial approaches on how to structure various business problems.

Feel free to send me a DM or schedule a free intro call for me to walk you through.

Cheers,

Kevin

Hi there, 

Honestly, business knowledge is the last thing you should worry about. 

For generalist entry-level roles (not specialist / expert roles), consulting interviews care about skills (e.g., structured thinking), not knowledge (e.g., core cost levels in the airline industry). 

You will naturally absorb business knowledge as you do more cases.

What you should focus on instead, I believe, is building the core skill set that you will use in both the interview and the job itself. 

 Best,
Cristian