McKinsey Alumni Case Assessment

airline Case Interview McKinsey
Neue Antwort am 27. Sept. 2021
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Anonym A fragte am 25. Sept. 2021

UPDATE: Thank you, PL experts, for the insightful feedback! I made it to the final round. 

I had a 30 min Case Interview over the phone with a McKinsey Alumni as a part of my interview process for a generalist consultant role at the Firm.  I enjoyed the interview but am not sure what to make out of it. I am hoping some of the experts could comment on my chances of moving forward. Underneath is my brief recap of how it went:

Structure: I am not sure if I did very well here.  It was an airlines profitability case. After the prompt, the first question was, “What are some of the specific opportunities that can be pursued to improved profitability”. I customized the increasing revenues and/or reducing cost framework to drivers relevant to that airlines. After 90 sec or so, the interviewer interjected and said your structure is fine but what are some specific opportunities that can be pursued, like how can they increase ticket prices, improve occupancy or reduce fuel costs (these were part of my structure).  I gave more specific examples after that but am not sure if he liked them (since his tone of voice of same throughout). 

Brainstorming: I felt I was structured and creative in my answer - it appeared straightforward. Though thinking back I could have provided more ideas.

Quantitive Part: I did well here. Laid out my equation and walked him through the logic and arrived the correct answer. I put the answer in context of the question asked. This part did not start until the last 8 min, and once it was done, there wasn’t any time remaining for any further questions.

Overall, it wasn’t my top notch performance though it was not a disaster either.

My questions to people who have been McK interviewers in the past or any recent interviewees :

1. What are my chances of moving forward to the next round? Is this round to select top notch candidate only or to weed out candidates far off from their expectations.

2. Should I spend time preparing for Imbellus assessment - I am scheduled to do it early next week. I am going to find out the result of phone interview  a day before my Imbellus assessment. 

(editiert)

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Ian
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antwortete am 26. Sept. 2021
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi there,

1. What are my chances of moving forward to the next round? Is this round to select top notch candidate only or to weed out candidates far off from their expectations.

10%. Just kidding. 70%.

Truly, we don't know! We were not there to observe!

That said, it sounds like you did just fine.  The process is always to select top-notch candidates. The moment they think you might not be top-notch, you will be cut.

It sounds like you did well and should move on - but we really never know.

2. Should I spend time preparing for Imbellus assessment - I am scheduled to do it early next week. I am going to find out the result of phone interview  a day before my Imbellus assessment. 

Yes. You need proceed with the assumption that you're on to the next round!

This includes casing and fit/behavioral preparation.

Good luck!

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Francesco
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antwortete am 26. Sept. 2021
#1 Coach for Sessions (4.500+) | 1.500+ 5-Star Reviews | Proven Success (➡ interviewoffers.com) | Ex BCG | 10Y+ Coaching

Hi there,

From what you mentioned, the issue seemed to be mainly on the details of the structure. It seems overall you did fine. On the other hand, it is difficult to assess the exact performance without more details on what exactly you presented.

In terms of the Imbellus: is this part of your initial evaluation to move to the next round? If that’s the case, yes, I would prepare for it. 

If interesting for you, I create a 2h+ video course explaining step-by-step how to crack the Ecosystem Management in 70% of the time required and resist 25+ turns in the Plant Defense. Plus explaining the exact strategies to crack all the 5 possible games.

https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/imbellus-combo-guide-videos-68

Spoiler alert: the price is going up next week, so if you are interested I would recommend buying it now ;)

Best,

Francesco

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Florian
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antwortete am 27. Sept. 2021
Highest-rated McKinsey coach (ratings, offers, sessions) | 500+ offers | Author of The 1% & Consulting Career Secrets

Hey there,

I believe your chances are good:

 

  1. Those alumni phone screenings are usually not as harshly evaluated as the real round 1 and 2 interviews with active consultants.
  2. The interviewer is trained not to show too much whether your performance was good or bad. They stay neutral throughout
  3. I would definitely start prepping for the Imbellus right away based on that.
  4. For your future case and PEI prep, check out these 2 articles I wrote for PrepLounge

McKinsey Case Interview: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-interview

McKinsey PEI: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-pei

 

Cheers,

Florian

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Udayan
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Content Creator
bearbeitete eine Antwort am 27. Sept. 2021
Top rated Case & PEI coach/Multiple real offers/McKinsey EM in New York /12 years recruiting experience

While no one can predict the outcome of the interview aside from the interviewer, the way you described the interview seems like it went decently well. At this point you only need to wait a few days and you'll know the outcome either way. 

Of course spend time preparing for imbellus in the meantime as you will need to do reasonably well in it if you are invited. 

For the actual first and final round interviews however you will need to be very strong with your structuring to make it. 

 

Udayan 

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Sofia
Experte
antwortete am 27. Sept. 2021
Top-Ranked Coach on PrepLounge for 3 years| McKinsey San Francisco | Harvard graduate | 6+ years of coaching

Hello,

To answer your questions:

1. Unfortunately it is impossible to say, because it depends on too many different things. From your description of the interview it certainly seems like you had a solid performance, and it definitely doesn't need to go perfectly for you to get to the next round - but naturally you are not an impartial observer in this scenario. I wouldn't read into the interviewer's tone of voice or their interjection - these are professional interviewers and they are not going to give you much of an indication of their assessment of you in the interview itself. It will also depend on how the other candidates in this cycle performed, how many people they are looking to hire, how your behavioral interview went, etc. At this stage you have done all you can do, so fingers crossed you succeed, but there's really not much point in trying to calculate your chances of getting to the next round.

2. Yes, definitely! You don't want to be unprepared for it in the case that you do get an invite into the next round. 

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Ian

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