Hello!
To the people here that have been an interviewer at MBB themselves; what happens usually after an interview? Is the performance being discussed with HR or is based on the notes etc. that the interviewer took? And is being benchmarked/ graded to other candidates that day? (R1, virtual)
Thanks a lot!
Hi there,
After a McKinsey R1 interview, the process is fairly structured and consistent, especially from the interviewer’s side.
Each interviewer writes up their own evaluation independently right after the interview. This is based on the notes they took during the case and fit portion and is scored against McKinsey’s standard criteria (problem solving, structuring, communication, personal impact, etc.). Interviewers do not usually discuss candidates with each other before submitting their feedback.
Once those evaluations are submitted, HR and the recruiting team review them together. They look at the overall signal across interviewers rather than any single comment, and they assess whether the candidate meets the bar for the next round. Candidates are evaluated against an absolute standard, not ranked or directly benchmarked against other candidates interviewed that day.
Only after the written feedback is in might there be a short calibration discussion if the signals are mixed or borderline. In clear pass or clear no cases, decisions are typically straightforward.
So in short: decisions are driven primarily by interviewer notes and scores, reviewed by recruiting, and not by informal discussions or same-day comparisons to other candidates.
Best,
Evelina
As soon as your interview is over, the interviewer sits down and writes their notes about you. They rate how you did on the case, your fit answers, how clearly you communicated, and the overall impression you left. At McKinsey, the rating is simple. They mark you as strong yes, yes, borderline, or no.
Those notes go into a system. HR can see them. Other interviewers can too, but usually only after they've done their own interview with you. They don't want to be influenced before meeting you.
Are you compared to other candidates that day? Officially, no. You're judged against McKinsey's hiring bar, not against whoever came before or after you.
But interviewers are human. If they've seen five weak candidates and then meet you, and you're decent, you'll naturally look better. It's not how it's supposed to work. But sometimes it does.
After all first round interviews are done, there's a debrief. Interviewers and HR sit together and discuss. Clear YESes move forward. Clear NOs are out. The interesting part is the borderline cases.
If you got one yes and one uncertain, they'll talk about you. Sometimes an interviewer really pushes for you. Sometimes no one does.
Bottom line: your result mostly comes from your own performance. But for close calls, there's always some discussion behind closed doors.
