Alle Fragen zum Tag Interview Experience - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Agree with the other coaches.

A key thing to note here is also that the question the interviewer reads or present is not necessarily the core question you need to answer. There are cases where you need to rephrase the question to be successful in the case. An example:

The interviewer asks: "Should your client purchase a private jet for their business travels?", whereas a few clarifying questions on the motivation and objective for buying the jey leads you to the the insight that the main underlying question is: "What is the most cost efficient means of business travel logistics?"

Hi Anonymous,

this indeed seems to be a preliminary phone screening and not a full-blown phone interview. So couple of points for you to consider:

• Put together a quick 2-minute "elevator pitch" on your background and why you are in the conversation with McKinsey; flesh out highlights specific to the exact position you (intend to) apply for (functional focus? sector focus? etc.)
• Establish natural rapport (don't do anything "special"!) and just project a professional, well-rounded, and positive picture of yourself
• Prepare for a "Why McKinsey vs other options?" question and have a strong answer prepared!
• Spend some time beforehand to think about what is unclear to you regarding how the Firm can help you achieve your career (and maybe personal) objectives; then distill this into one or two clear questions, asking for a senior perspective

​Best of success!

Sidi

Hi,

One of my friends had the following experience in McKinsey India a few months ago (copy pasting from the email she sent me):

Round 1 - Case Interview:

The client is a thermal power plant located in India, and is concerned with about coal procurement expenses. The client has no other plants or business interests. Explore this issue and suggest some methods to resolve any issues that you encounter.

Round 2 - Case Interview & Fit questions:

A well-known local retail bank in the Middle East is losing market share in a growing market. Its technology and service levels are as good as any of its foreign competitors. The CEO wants to know why this is happening and what else they can do.

Fit questions:

1. Tell us something about yourself.

2. Why consulting? You have work experience in logistics and supply chain - why not continue more in that direction?

3. Why McKinsey?

Round 3 - Case Interview (????)

How should India ensure that it wins the field hockey world cup in 2018?

(This was the toughest one for me and I was really confused, but managed to say something. Not sure how it went, but the first two rounds were good and so I got the offer!)

What do you think? How would you approach these cases? I am particularly curious about the third case. @Experts - your opinions are welcome!

Sorry for going anonymous, but I just want to ensure that my friend's identity is not compromised. :)

Hi,

It greatly depends on your role and the office. Accenture has 2 types of interviews:

1) Case interview with the manager / partner

• No clear guidelines for cases, so the case depends on the manager.
• 60% chance that it will be marketsizing
• 40% chance - profitability and general frameworks
• Interviewers are less demanding than at Big3. unless you meet an ex-big3 consultant as an interviewer

2) Assessment center

• You will be in a group of 6-10 other candidates
• You'll have a case (general business problem though with various aspects to look at, i.e. marketing, supply chain, finance)
• The main goal is to discuss the case together and come to a collaborative solution

My advice for the assessment center:

• Don't take a leadership role trying to organize and manage other people unless you are a 100% natural leader
• Act rather like a contributor with: a) frameworks to structure the problem b) rough calculations c) Industry / functional knowledge (it helps to be a background in marketing or supply chain) d) creative ideas
• Be nice and friendly with everyone and don't try to show that you are better than others. Rather impress with contribution and impact

Best

Re: travel —> it’s possible but would say 10-30% if weeks of year at most. On interview process: in BCG is different than from consulting positions. For entry level is a typical corporate interview: they want to see how you think, your ability to be a self starter and independent contributor, the ability to work in team and ability to communicate things clearly. If position is experienced, they will test your specific knowledge of function/topic/industry to which you will provide support.

hope this helps,

andrea

Hi,

It's really hard to say without knowing the context. But if the interviewer said you lack the ability to COME to the point, it could have meant several things:

1) You lack the ability to dig deep enough to find the root cause and you switch too fast to the other parts of your framework. For example, if after the calculations you find out that the product mix has changed, you say out loud something like this: "We found a problem - our revenues has declined because the product mix has changed. I see several solutions how to fix this problem"

In reality, you still don't know the root cause - what has led to a change in the product mix? Was it a shift in the customer demand? Or maybe there is something going on with our sales department? You always have to find the root cause first and only after that generate the recommendations.

2) You are not straight to the point in your questions. For example instead of asking: "Could you please tell me what is the market size and the growth rate?" you ask something like "Do we know how is the market doing?". In other words, your questions are not asking for something specific and are too broad. Several questions like this in a row may be irritating for the interviewer since it's becoming extremely hard for him to give you the case.

Best

Hi Aurelie, the case interviews are quite similar to what you find in case books (for example ESADE with BCG cooperation). The link is here: https://issuu.com/marketing_esade/docs/esade_casebook. I got a market sizing and a market attractiveness case. The market sizing case was the one from case in point where you had to estimate the size of the European diapers market. For the other case, you had to determine what criteria you want your decision to be based on and then rank the business segments of the client according to attractiveness. There was nothing unexpected so I think they really look for how structured you approach a problem. Personal fit: Almost 50% of the interview was about your personal experiences, why you want to work in consulting and why BCG. You should have a good answer to this and be honest - you don't want to lie just to find out at a later stage that you actually do not fit together. Again, nothing unexpected in this part of the interview. The online test was somewhat difficult, I can only give a general advice to first read AND understand the question and then read the text. Doing it the other way round will cost you too much time. Best of luck to everyone :)