McKinsey - arrogant BSers?

Question

Recently I've been interviewed at Mckinsey as an experienced hire, 1st round, and it was terrible!

I had 2 back-to-back meetings, first one with Consultant and 2nd with EM.

The first one went quite well, but the second the interviewer (EM) was truly arrogant in his attitude. The entire interview he was wearing his airpods, intrerrupting me to check his emails, asking questions in a very arrogant manner, sometimes I felt like he is crossing the line to be considered as insulting. At the end of the meeting he just left and didnt say anything.
This is a real disgrace and shame to Mckinsey. I will never want to work in such a company. In the end, these are the people who never had worked in industry, created anything in their lives but they act like they are semi-gods.
I feel like I've just wasted 2 months for preparation for this BS.

Answer 1

Hi,

Sometimes they do it on purpose to see how you react to stress. In real life situations, a lot of the mid-management clients you will be working with as McKinsey consultants will not always be very happy that you are there, and try to make life difficult for you. This stems from many reasons, which I can explain separately. But this interview could be to mimic such a scenario and see how you react to it.

Or, the person just might be arrogant as you explained, which is an unfortunate situation. But, the hard truth is that you'll get some outliers in whichever company you go. But we should try not to make impressions about the company culture based on those outliers, and not deter from pursuing our ambitions if we truly believe in the value of the company

Thanks,

Nirmit

Answer 2

Hi, they might have done this on purpose, to see how you react in such a disturbing situation. . .

Answer 3

Hi,

There are several options:

he has done it on purpose
He is just such a person
something important was going on with his project and he was stressed about it himself

in any case — this does not mean that you did not pass the interview. I had the interviews that looked like a complete failure, but somehow it worked out

Also pls don’t judge the company by a single person - there are outliers everywhere

Best!

Answer 4

Sorry about that experience. I remember many years ago one such experience I had, different industry. I actually passed the interview, but reached out to the VP and explained I'd NEVER work there.

As Vlad said, this could be due to a few reasons - and yes, there are jerks everywhere. Still no excuse though. McK is an amazing company so I hope you won't have a knee jerk reaction like I did then, and accept an offer should they extend one.

PS: You did NOT waste your time. Even if you do not end up with a single offer at the end of the recruiting process, the skills you developed will serve you well for years to come in the corporate world.