Hi Alice,

As you said, McKinsey follows an interviewer-led approach in most cases:

• This means that after presenting the answer to a question, the interviewer will ask you the following question he/she planned, irrespectively of where you want to move the analysis.
• When a company uses a candidate-led approach, instead, you have to propose a plan of action and the interviewer will leave to you to follow that approach, only occasionally correcting you (meaning you have to lead the case).
• The interviewer-led approach is easier to follow for most candidates, meaning that if you know how to manage a candidate-led case you should not have issues with it (the opposite instead is not true - if you only know how to navigate interviewer-led cases you may have issues driving a case in a candidate-led case).
• In final rounds, you may occasionally get candidate-led cases also at McKinsey.

Q: Where should I fit in my framework, ask clarifying questions, etc.

• Structure: They will ask you an initial question, then you have to present your structure for it. At McKinsey your structure should have several levels and expand all the possible drivers to answer the question.
• Clarifying questions: You can ask so after the initial prompt. Usually at McKinsey the prompt is pretty complete and provides most information already but you can still ask in case anything is missing.

You can find more on the differences between McKinsey and BCG/Bain interviews below:

▶ How a McKinsey Interview is Different from the Rest 

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi Alice,

Congrats on the interview!

How soon is it? If it's within a week I would highly recommend a coach to get you ramped up quickly.

That said, here's a few pointers:

1. Think of this like riding a bike. With candidate-led you have no training wheels. With interviewer-led, you have training wheels but they push you down a hill really fast and throw rocks at you
2. In general, they will drive “everything” for you and tell you what you need to do next
3. The general flow still applies (i.e. prompt, clarifying questions, framework, then the case i.e. charts/exhibits/math)

Here's some general reading on fit interviews: https://www.preplounge.com/en/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question

And some about casing: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

(editiert)

Hello Alice, 

This is a question that turns many people crazy, and I understand why, since there are so many places where the interviewer and interviewee led cases are described like parallel universes. 

I deeply disagree with this and always give my coachees the same advice: you are in front of a business problem that you need to help with. Forget about who is leading and find the solution proactively and collaborating with the interviewer, this is the only thing that matters. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara