Hi there,
In terms of what to expect in the final, the structure of the rounds is the same (fit + case+ your questions); however in finals there is usually more emphasis on communication and fit.
Specifically, the main differences you may find in a final round with partners is that at that stage they:
- Spend more time on fit questions and your alignment with the company
- Check more closely your communication (eg how you react to challenging questions)
- May not have a “proper” structured case to present – during one of my finals I had one interview which was made by two market sizing questions and a brainteaser, without any business case. That's because during the final they know you can structure and crack a case (you passed 1 or 2 rounds already) and are more interested in your logic, personality and fit with the company. Having said that, cases at McKinsey are quite standard in finals in many offices.
So in order to prepare I would concentrate on the following:
- Review in detail your fit stories. Be sure to review your PEI stories with experienced candidates or consultants and to have at least a backup for each dimension
- Work on your communication (reaction under pressure, how to gain time when you do not have a structure ready, connect with the interviewer, etc). This is something you can do almost exclusively in interviews with peers.
- Prepare cases as you did for the first round. If you got feedback on a specific area such as creativity, focus more on that part.
In terms of creativity, whenever you get a question on brainstorming in the case, I would recommend the following:
- Ask for one minute of time to structure your thoughts
- Present a first level of the structure with MECE buckets
- You can do that even if you have never seen that question before. If you have no idea on how to structure a first level, you can use a structure as X vs Non-X.
- Potential examples include: Long term vs short term; Current vs New; Financial vs Non-financial.
- The more you practice cases in the right way, the more you will be able to derive appropriate MECE buckets fitting a case.
- Brainstorm options in each bucket
- Your creativity in this area is directly correlated with the number of cases you have done.
- If you are weak in creativity for one specific industry, the most effective strategy is to go through cases of a good consulting MBA casebook for that industry.
- There are many casebooks available for free online – although not all are good. Screen the list for the industries interesting for you and work on them. MBA casebooks are not good in terms of the structure of the case but can help to develop creativity.
Below you can find an example of how to brainstorm in a structured way.
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Interviewer. So, generally speaking, how would you decrease the cost of raw materials?
► STEP 1: ASK FOR ONE MINUTE OF TIME
Interviewee. That’s an interesting question. Do you mind if I take 1 minute to think about it?
Interviewer. Please take your time.
► STEP 2: IDENTIFY MECE BUCKETS
Interviewee. Thanks; I believe there are two key areas to decrease the cost of raw material; we may decrease the cost of each unit, or we may decrease the number of units we buy. I would like now to go a bit deeper into these two components.
(Note that even if you are brainstorming, you are first presenting a list of the MECE areas. This is fundamental to brainstorm correctly)
► STEP 3: BRAINSTORM OPTIONS IN EACH BUCKET
Interviewee. Well, in order to decrease the cost per unit we may do a couple of things, keeping in mind we want to maintain revenues at the same level:
- we may negotiate a lower price;
- we may look for other suppliers.
In order to decrease the number of units, we may do the following:
- we may start to use a more efficient technology for our raw material, so that we have less waste;
- we may use a new kind of raw material for which there is less waste.
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If you want to learn how to brainstorm and structure all the major common questions, please feel free to PM me – I do a session exactly on that.
Best,
Francesco