In addition to case preparation, I'm a certified McKinsey Assessor (I've done real interviews).
Here's the typical candidate I help:
- Been a while since MBA, or maybe they never went to business school - so rusty on cases or were never introduced to them
- Working full-time - so prefer early/late/weekend hours
- Need very targeted support - don't have time to read through lots of case books, etc.
- Hard to find case partners - not in the college roommate phase, can't talk to co-workers about it
While some candidates will also have “technical interviews” (e.g., data science, expert roles), I'm focused on the two "generalist" aspects of the interview: (1) Problem-solving case and (2) Personal Experience interview (PEI is McKinsey's version of a behavioral interview).
The amount of interview prep tends to vary from a few cases to more than a dozen if someone's very unfamiliar/struggling. Most candidates have benefited from one of two tiers:
- "Refresher" -- two mock case one PEI run-through plus feedback over three 60 minute sessions
- "Complete prep" -- four mock cases and two PEI run-throughs over six 60 minute sessions
