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

Hello!

I would not like to give "absolute" answers regarding PEI, since each story is different! However, there are very clear best practices, and specificity is for sure one of them.

Precisely regarding best practices and PEI prep, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB" has been recently published in PrepLounge´s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34)

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.

Furthermore, you can find 2 free cases in the PrepL case regarding FIT preparation:

• Intro and CV questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/introduction-and-cv-questions-fit-interview-preparation-200
• Motivational questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/motivational-questions-fit-interview-preparation-201

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the Integrated FIT Guide, since we still have some left from the launch!

As an ex-Mckinsey consultant and part of recruiting team, here is my perspective:

How do these interviews with the partners differ from the first round interviews?

Every partner discussion is different and the direction the conversation takes depends on role that you are interviewing for, feedback that the partner has got from earlier rounds and of course the Partner’s personality.

However, generally it is advisable to keep the following things in mind.

1) Are the cases delivered with the same style of precision and structure as the first round?

- A lot of times, the Partner round case discussions are less structured. Partners tend to give real life case from their experience or sometimes they can also pick a situation from the candidate’s CV, make a few changes and turn it into a case.

2) Is the Fit format consistent with the PEI, or do the partners take these conversations in different directions?

- Generally, Partners will hit fewer topics but will go much deeper. So they will ask you about something and then you should expect a lot of follow on questions. They really want to understand the full story

3) Generally, what portion of the hour-long session is dedicated to the case study?

- approx. 30-40 minutes

3) What personality traits are most important to demonstrate with the partners?

See the answer below.

Keep the following things in mind while preparing for the Partner interview:

Better synthesis – Your analytical mindset has already been tested in earlier rounds. Partners would like to test your client readiness. Partners pay more attention to how you draw your conclusions, communicate your conclusions, how you synthesis etc.

Comfort with less structured case discussion – Partners love to test your creativity, out of the box thinking. Multiple times in the discussion they can ask you your opinion on the data point/clarification that you had asked, to check your business acumen e.g. you asked, what is the growth rate of our client; partner responds what number would you want to assume? or open ended questions e.g. tell me more, is there anything else?

Consistent stories and deep dives – Partners would want to know your story. They want to see whether your decision to join McKinsey is consistent with your career story. Whether the achievements you have mentioned on the CV are consistent with your project stories. Partners will drill down into your experiences and achievements to the extreme. They want to understand how you react to challenges and how you think and communicate about your past work.

Feel free to get in touch with me in case of further clarification/advise on this topic.

All the best!

Hello!

I attach you a screenshot from the Guide, that precisely adresses this and other FAQ from candidates, from the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB", that has been recently published in PrepLounge´s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34)

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.

Furthermore, you can find 2 free cases in the PrepL case regarding FIT preparation:

• Intro and CV questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/introduction-and-cv-questions-fit-interview-preparation-200
• Motivational questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/motivational-questions-fit-interview-preparation-201

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the Integrated FIT Guide, since we still have some left from the launch!

Hi,

here are some examples of situations you can use where you might have disagreed with your boss to begin with and then worked towards a solution

• Approach to solving a problem - this is the most common type of issue that comes up. Sometimes people have different approaches to the same problem and usually one method is better than the other
• Methodology for analysis - similar to above but the focus here is on the analysis aspect of the issue at hand - e.g., which data set to use
• Team dynamic related - examples include things like not being allowed to present to senior leaders in meetings or not being asked to lead meetings when you know the content well

There are of course other examples of things that work as well. Avoid anything too personal here and stick to professional conflicts

All the best,

Udayan

Hi!

Managing conflict is a sub-topic within the dimension "Leadership". Leadership, for McKinsey, means "enabling others to overcome obstacles". So it is about showing how you analyzed the root causes of the obstacle (i.e., here, the conflict), and what you did in order to help the team members to overcome this conflict. It is extremely important to focus on how you analyzed the root cause of problem - this is the core of your story. (and this is why the often recommended "STAR" framework is not good at all for McKinsey PEI stories, since it jumps over this element).

Please also have a look at my ealier answers:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-answer-pei-questions-for-mckinsey-interview-6835

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/does-teaching-count-as-a-leadership-example-6327

Cheers, Sidi

Hi, great question! Leadership is one of the core characteristics that McKinsey tests for, great you're prepping for this dimension.

In answering this question, you'd want to talk to both interpersonal challenges, as well as the objective challenge in achieving the goal. The thing that surprises most people with McKinsey PEI stories is how much detail the interviewer wants to hear about the people and circumstances in the story. For example, I'd be ready to talk about the mindsets & motivations that led to the interpersonal challenges, not just the surface-level actions of the challenge. Similarly, explaning why the challenge existed (existing biases, ingrained ways of working, etc.) to achieving your goal will be important.

Hope this helps, keep up the good work!

Hi,

First of all, I suggest that you should you use STAR approach for tackling this question.

So, let’s break down that framework. STAR is an acronym that stands for:

Situation: Set the situation and give the necessary details
Task: Describe what your responsibility was in that situation
Action: Explain exactly what steps you took to address it
Result: Share what outcomes your actions achieved

By using these four components to shape your PEI, it’s much easier to share a focused answer.

Be aware that the most challenged letter is A - action. In order to impress the interviewer you would have to demonstrate a mix of conflict resolution and persuasion techniques:

1. Conflict resolution: Show a willingness to compromise or collaborate, prioritize resolving the conflict over being right, active listening. Manage expectations and, if needed, set limits, explain, don’t blame, detach and stay calm in conflict, find common ground.
2. Persuasion: build rapport, use multi stage persuasion strategy, etc

Hope it helps!

Anton

Hello,

I take this post as an opportunity to explain what an interviewer is looking for during the fit.

• Your experience and your motivations must be really very precise and specific (do not say generic things that could be copied pasted on another experience!)
• You must have back up: interviewers are looking to see if you get into the content, so you need to be able to give concrete examples (eg. on your role on a project when the interviewer decides to drill down on one of your experiences)
• Finally, the interviewer needs to see if your profile meets consulting prerequisites (you want to learn, you are a good team player, ...) and above all if you have already demonstrated these prerequisites during your past experiences.

In case it can help, you fill find attached a slide showing interviewer expectations during the whole interview. Please PM me if you want to have further details.

David

Hi,

1. When the consultants ask you to provide an example of leading others or working in teams, most probably they are looking for a leadership story

For those of you applying for junior positions, leadership does not necessarily mean being a supervisor. Organizing various stakeholders, being in charge of a study project, leading your team in a competition - all these examples will make a good story. Leadership is about finding an opportunity and managing people to achieve it

2. When the interviewers ask you to provide an example of resolving a team- or personal conflict, Changing someone's mind, Developing and implementing a solution or overcoming difficulties - it means they want to hear a personal impact story.

Personal impact is a story of influencing people and persuading them to follow your solution.

3. When you have to provide an example of Overcoming challenges, Achieving a personal goal, Failing something, Creating new approaches or doing something innovative - these are the stories about your achievement and entrepreneurial drive

What can be a good achievement? First of all, the achievement should be important for you personally. It should prove that you set ambitious goals and achieve them, very often over and above than planned with innovative solutions

Best

The brain teasers on this site are more like math problems or logic puzzles. You're not likely to encounter those in an interview.

More common in interviews (though not as much in case interviews) are brain teasers like, "how many golf balls can you fit into a passenger Boeing 747?" This question requires you to break down the problem area (the airplane's volume, which is made up of the cockpit, cargo hold, passenger area, etc.), make assumptions about it (the cockpit contains X cubic meters of space, the passenger area Y units, etc.) and do calculations (you can fit Z golf balls in X cubic meters, etc.). These questions test your ability to define a problem, break it down, and use math to solve it.

In case interviews, you more often see a business-oriented version of these, often called "estimation" or "back-of-the-envelope" questions. Though they often require similar techniques, estimation questions tend to focus on a market (e.g., the number of women's jeans sold per year or the vodka revenue in one night at a high-end night club) and are used to estimate the impact of a consultant's recommendation, often within a larger case.

For example, you may be completing a case with a clothing retailer and find that volume sales have declined significantly within a certain region where customers have turned to online shopping. You recommend the company invest in online retail platforms or form a partnership with an online retailer. Your interviewer sees your reasoning and asks you what the impact to the business's financials will be. You then have to estimate the revenue generated and compare that to the expected investment costs. Doing so allows you to take a recommendation ("partner with an online retailer") and actually calculate how much it helps you reach your client's goals.

As you prepare for your interview (and consulting itself), you can keep your skills sharp using the brain teasers on this site, but you'll want to really master estimation questions as they apply to business problem-solving and case interviews.

Hi Anonymous,

this question is very similar to “Why should I hire you”. I would structure the answer as follows:

• Step 1: Be ready for an immediate reply. You cannot show you have to think for this question. If you don’t know immediately why they should hire you / what you can bring, you cannot expect they will consider you positively. This not only means you should prepare in advance, but also that you should break the ice immediately. Something like the following would work “That’s a great question. I think you should hire me/have me in the program for a couple of reasons, related to [MENTION THREE SKILLS]”
• Step 2: Start presenting the first skill. “A first element I believe I can bring is the ability not only to work in a team, but also to bring a team to reach its goal”
• Step 3: Provide a clear example of the skill. “As you can see from my CV, I have played in competitive football in the last years; more specifically [EXAMPLE SHOWING LEADERSHIP]. “
• Step 4: Remark why that could be useful for the company. “I know consultants work constantly in teams and the team performance is what matters to achieve the final result. If you hire me/have me in the program, I believe I can contribute in the team to that, as I showed in my past sport experience”
• Step 5: Repeat Step 2-4 for other two skills

As examples of good skills, everything related to leadership, drive, impact would work well for McKinsey. At the link below you can find an explanation of the meaning and differences for each of them:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-pei-difference-drive-and-personal-impact-918#a1780

Best,
Francesco

Hi,

Tell the manager:

1. About the mistake
2. The correct version

Best,

Hi! From my experience, 8 weeks is a realistic time frame for covering all aspects of becoming "offer-ready" while still having to work/study. However, it varies for each person, also based on whether some flawed habits need to be "unlearned".

Cheers, Sidi

Yes, this is totally fine! If you exhibited the required qualities that McKinsey wants evidence form then this can be an excellent story! Leadership essentially means enabling the people around you to reach a common goal in the face of adversity/obstacles. This you can further break down by means of a logic tree - very similar to how you break down case problems.

Cheers, Sidi

Hi,

I recommend buying some great books on leadership that have all the relevant frameworks and go through them trying to assess where on that scale you are now. For example:

• The positive leader - John Muhlfeit
• High output management - Grove
• HBS articles on leadership

Best

Hello,

I believe the key here is to understand what is meant by 'entrepreneurial drive'. From my understanding, entrepreneurial drive is when an individual goes above and beyond what was required to deliver an exceptional output. This does not mean you have to of set up your own business (although that could be a good example). Completing an assignment during an internship to an extremely high standard where you exceeded all expectation, despite significant challenges, would be a great example.

Good entrepreneurial drive stories must include:

• New approaches

• Having an idea and implementing it despite a not helpful scenario

• Achieving a goal which is clearly outside your regular role and responsibilities

• You wanted to achieve something by yourself (and no one else imposed this task on you) and can explain a strong motivation behind

• Several big obstacles which you needed to overcome - Ideally, you have 3-5 major obstacles which you needed to overcome in this situation to be successful – while the obstacle as such is needed as general context information, the interviewer will be mainly interested in how you overcame those obstacles (your “actions”) and what your thinking was (your “decision-making rationale”

One final point, you highlighted that often PEI stories cover similar themes (e.g. teamwork or leadership). This isn't a problem (if anything it's a positive because you can use one story for answering several different PEI questions), however, it's critical to focus on the aspects of the story which answer the specific PEI question being asked.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Best,

Harri

Hi Anonymous,

in general if you are unable to answer a PEI question – even mentioning you did not have such experience - you will lose points in the fit part. That’s based on the expectation that an appropriate candidate will have:

• Sufficient leadership experiences
• Sufficient impact experience
• Sufficient drive experience

The questions in the PEI part are normally broad enough so that every good candidate should be able to derive a story. Eg if the ask you about an entrepreneurial drive experience, you don’t need to provide evidence of founding your own company – organizing an event in your university, managing a college club or leading some relevant extracurricular activities could be enough. In an equivalent way, every candidate is expected to develop a good story for working in groups and having to lead the group through challenges.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi Anonymous,

I agree with Robert, taking such a long time before any fit questions is not recommended. That’s because there will be expectations that you have prepared for the questions in advance. Having said that, it is definitely better to take some time rather than give an immediate weak answer, although you may not get full score if you wait for 60 seconds.

Best,

Francesco

I personally think (for what its worth) that you have the opportunity to strength your answer using the same example (despite it being more akin to disagreeing with your boss rather than your team).

1. The context is a bit too long. You need to be brief and to the point. This will give you more time to speak about what you did.
2. Speak about the brain storming session. Did you sit in a dark room for 3 straight days or did you enage with other team members? How did you ellicit their grievances? How did you arrive to the final solution?
3. During the presenation, how where you challenged by your boss/colleagues? What did you say to address their concerns?
4. With respect to the result, was the solution adopted? How did it influence future work? Did you take on other projects/responsibilities since? How did your boss' view of you change since introducing this new process?

Again, this is merely an opinion. I hope it offers you some help and possibly some starting points to begin thinking from.

The golden rule when you talk about yourself is to be sincere and follow your gut. You would not be at that stage if you were not a smart person with the right CV, so don’t be afraid to pick “the wrong” story. There is not “right” or “wrong”. Talk about something that made you feel proud because you really think you changed the course of the events that mattered to YOU at that point in time, Nobody will ask you why you did not change the course of human history... When I asked these types of questions during recruiting what I wanted to understand was the real character, the intensity of the feelings, the passion, regardless of how truly impactful the story was.

I hope it helps...