Hi Sue,

Thanks for sharing your experience. Based on the super-short summary of the real situation happening in the interview I can only give you a general impression and assumption though.

Firstly, technically speaking the McKinsey PEI is a behavioural interview which is based on a real situation/experience from your past (as opposed to a situational interview). By definition, we therefore need some context in which you demonstrated your skills. However, this general situation/context is way to overrated - what really counts is your contribution in terms of actions, but even more importantly your decision-making rationale. I.e. how you systematically overcome challanges in a very conscious structured thinking process.

Secondly, based on your short summary I understand your main focus was on convincing the team. Usually I recommend candidates having 3-5 challenges at hand, so that the interviewer can also choose in which direction he wants to go in more detail. So not sure if you discussed multiple challenges, or if this was the only one?

Thirdly, assuming now the convincing part was the only challange which you discussed, this sounds much more like a Personal Impact examples, as opposed to Entrepreneurial Drive (which I assume based on your summary it was). So it might be that you focused on a different dimension/aspect - and it sounds more like a "to-do" to me than a real difficult challenge for which you firstly need to think clearly on how to overcome it in a structured way.

Hope that helps!

Robert

Hi Sue,
At least in Germany, McKinsey provides very detailled information on the PEI Interview part in advance. Most importantly, it can count up to 50% of your assessment, so the return on invested time into the PEI definitely is significant.

McKinsey tests 3 dimensions: Drive, Impact and Leadership.

Drive refers to something you did, against all odds, on your own.

Impact refers to a situation where you convinced someone else of your idea.

Leadership refers to a situation where you enabled a team.

McKinsey considers these 3 to be the most important traits of successful consultants, and so they will ask in detail to ensure (1) the story is real, (2) you are structured and take time to reflect upon your thoughts, emotions and decisions and (3) you created an impact, ideally a measurable one.

I recommend to prepare 2 (or even 3) stories per dimension, and train all of them.

Each story can follow the STAR framework or the PARADE framework. If you google them you'll find information in more detail. Hope this helps.

Hi there,

I see that our experts already mentioned great points. I would add one additional dimension. Most of the times it is not about which story you are talking but it is more about how you are telling your story. How well are you addressing pain points and your actions and their impacts? Happy to offer you free 10 min call to refine your answer to difficult challenge together.

Cheers

Serhat

Hello!

On top of the insights already shared in the post, next week will be pusblished in PrepLounge´s Shop material related.

In concrete, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB". It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Here I leave you the link > https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes!

Hope you find it useful!

Best,

Clara

Dear Sue,

I agree with experts, that it's not about store itself, it's mostly about you, how strongly you communicate your achievements there. For your future tries I would recommend you to use the following structure (and remember not to run trhrough these points, but to communicate them brightly and clear):

1. Situation (background)

2. Problem (Complication)

3. Your approach (how did you manage this problem)

4. Results (Outcomes of your approach)

5. Your learnings (what you take from this situation)

If you can apply this framework to every of your PEI stories and communicate in a top-down way, you would definitely leave great impression. For more details, feel free to approach me.

Good luck,

André