Practice with Coaches

Hi there, For a second round with the same interviewer, you don’t want to repeat everything word-for-word from the first round — that can feel stale. At the same time, you need consistency: your story should match what you said before. Here’s a practical approach: Brief recap, not full repeat – Start with 1–2 sentences summarizing who you are professionally (e.g., your background, key experience). Highlight new angles – Focus on aspects you didn’t emphasize the first time or that are especially relevant to this round. For example, a particular achievement, skill, or motivation that ties into the role. Connect to the role – End by explaining why this background makes you a strong fit for the current role or the next step in the process. Think of it like giving an updated “highlight reel” rather than replaying the entire first round. Keep it concise, smooth, and confident. Good luck!

Hey! Hope all is well First of all, congratulations on getting back to the interview stage — that's no small achievement, you should feel great about it! Your situation is not uncommon at all. In fact, a much younger version of myself was once there :) I do not think they will generally ask about this much (i.e., this is not a topic they will stress on for a lot of the behavioral portion of the interview). But if they do, I would stick to your first two points  On point #1: I'd focus more on rectifying actions, rather than highlighting the gaps. So be brief on the gaps, and double down on your experience in casing with MBB consultants (even mentioning some names that the interviewer would know may help soften the interview!) Point #2: Aligned on that  On point #3 — I'd leave it out. Sometimes less is more :) Bust most importantly, don't overthink it. The fact that they've invited you back means they already see something in you. Go in confident, trust your prep, and go make the most out of it! Feel free to DM me if you have any questions Best of luck! Karim

Hello! Hope you're doing well! Great to see you've started your journey; brings back memories :)  First and foremost, and this is something I always tell to those starting off: this journey is long, and it is hard Some people nail it quickly, but for most, myself included, it took real time to scale up. So before anything else, manage your expectations. Give yourself permission for this to take the time it takes That said, you've clearly taken the right first steps. The structured approach, the honest self-diagnosis, the coaching sessions; good on you for that On timelines for each gap, my honest take is that nobody can give you one, because it's person-specific. For example, comms took me far longer than I ever expected to fix. Someone else might flip that entirely. Trying to map your progress empirically may mess with your expectations What I can say is that two months is a great timeline, with the right schedule and the right people But, the routine and who you case with are really crucial for progress. The routine builds the case "muscle", but who you train that muscle with consistently is equally as importnat; you need to ensure that you have built a pipeline of individuals that you are casing with that can give you actionable feedback to help you (i.e., think friends and colleagues from your network that are already in the industry, that can case you every now and then - build a pipeline with those if you can to supplement your peer cases) Let me know if you have any questions, happy to catch up over a quick chat! Best, Karim P.S. It does not hurt to start networking now and introducing yourself to representatives in the companies you want. This will take time anyways so might as well get started in parallel. My two cents :)

Hi, Great that you’re preparing early; that’s exactly the right approach. Here are my 2 cents: 1) Preparation I would rehearse the main types of fit questions directly. You don’t need a different story for each question you can reuse the same 3–4 stories and adapt them slightly depending on the angle. That said, not preparing specific questions is not great advice; the set of questions is actually quite predictable, so you should be ready for them. 2) “What if I don’t have an example?” In most cases fit questions cover very general skills (leadership, teamwork, influencing, failure, ...), and interviewers expect you to have experienced them somewhere; if not at work, then at university or in extracurriculars. That’s why it’s important to prepare your stories in advance rather than improvise. If a truly niche question comes up it’s perfectly fine to say you haven’t faced that exact situation yet; but that’s rare. 3) Difficult questions In theory they can ask anything, but in practice the pool is quite limited. There aren’t really “difficult” questions; what makes them difficult is lack of preparation. A classic one many candidates struggle with is: “What’s your biggest failure?” not because it’s tricky, but because they haven’t thought it through beforehand. 4) Practicing AI can help you generate questions, but it’s limited for actual prep. You should practice answering out loud and get feedback from a real person (friend, coach ...). That’s where most of the improvement comes from. Hope this helps and good luck! Franco

Hey, This is not an easy market sizing, so you have to always consider the context: the interviewer is not looking for a precise answer (not even in terms of a ballpark number), but they want to see a consistent, MECE logic.  Two things to keep in mind before diving in (vs. a more standard market-sizing): Frame everything as "this is my thinking, let me know if this makes sense to you, I am not an Oil&Gas expert" -- especially since this is a technical, O&G-specific topic Before jumping into Price × Quantity, take a step back and propose your approaches first Step 1: Proposed Approaches I would manage this first step by setting the market context (30-40 seconds) to avoid costly misunderstandings.  "Sure! I am not an expert of the O&G sector, but I assume we are talking about Oil & Gas pipelines that bring these materials from Uzbekistan to its border, and that we are trying to size the market for the manufacturing of the pipeline itself -- not maintenance or anything else, but please redirect me if my assumptions are not aligned with yours" I would take 1-2 minutes to think. Then, I'dquickly propose two approaches (max 1 min).  "I can think of two main approaches, I'll describe them in general terms to see if we are aligned.  The first is Bottom-up, starting from the number of sources / extraction locations, where:  Price is the cost per km of pipeline Quantity is the annual kms of pipeline built: number of extraction sites × avg kms of pipeline per extraction site × replacement rate (e.g. every 20–25 years). Of course, this can be adjusted based on how many sites are active, expanding, sharing the same pipeline, etc.  The second is Top-down, where: Price is the same as above. Quantity could be derived as: (Total yearly volumes exported by Uzbekistan / Capacity per pipeline) × avg km per pipeline × replacement rate.  [Note for you: the parentheses give us the number of pipelines from a top-down perspective!] I would go with bottom-up because it seems easier in terms of data requirements, but I would like to actually understand if we have data on extraction sites and avg kms of pipeline." Many interviewers will stop you at this point and say something like "We have data on X, Y, Z". They have a solution already in their mind, and will redirect you to adapt your strategy to their logic. In a purely interviewee-led setting, with a very hands-off interviewer, you might not get a hint and have to proceed with your own proposal. Step 2: Recommended Approach & Calculation Either case (assuming Bottom-up works for the interviewer), I would then quickly get deeper and start discussing numbers.  "I'd go with Bottom-up since we have some estimates on the number of extraction sites. Let me start setting the P*Q equation. Price -- cost per km of pipeline.  [Note: most interviewers will give you a price at this point; if they don't, my intuition would be the one below   Steel quantity: I am thinking we might need around 1000 tons per km (roughly one ton per meter -- numbers are directional, not the point here) I will assume $2,000 per ton for raw material, getting me to $2M per km in raw material. We can estimate, for sake of time, an uplift that considers labor, installation, and engineering -- I think this is roughly 1x the raw material.  --> This way, total price gets to 1,000 tons/km * ($2,000/ton *2) = $4M/km] For Quantity, I can estimate around: 25 active extraction sites in Uzbekistan An avg km of pipeline per site of ~200 km, if this makes sense to you. This would give us a total network of ~5,000 km. Lastly, we apply a replacement rate of 1/20 years = 5%. --> This way, Q gets to 250km (25 * 200km * 5%) of annual pipeline built. If the market is growing, we might revise this upwards Market size: 250 km/year × $4M = ~$1B/year." Takeaways Focus on the process, not on the numbers -- nonetheless, always check that your result makes sense. Such a complex market could not have, say, a $1M size, that's smaller than a local supermarket! To reduce risk, propose two approaches Try to make this conversational, so you can get hints/tips from your interviewer. They'll help you much more in these cases vs. a standard "tell me how much money Netflix makes in a year" Hope this helps! PS: I'll be brutally honest: I have no "real-life" clue about the O&G market in Uzbekistan, so I built the answer above first and then messaged a friend (former consultant) who works for a global O&G leader.  He told me that their market sizing exercises work roughly like this, but the real complexity is the pipeline requirement/design, which determines factors such as (i) the avg km you need from your extraction site to the border, (ii) the existing pipeline infrastructure you can leverage -- you might just need to build a few kms to get to a shared pipeline. I had briefly mentioned (ii), but I didn't fully integrate in the answer because it would over-complicate the structure. Does this matter? No!

Hi there, The expectations are indeed different (no matter what anyone says). You are expected to truly know/understand your field and to be able to talk professionally/knowledgeably about any related topic that comes in. While analysts/associates are often hand held through a case, you won't be at all. Furthermore, you can indeed expect less "structure". Interviews are more likely to be a rattling off of pointed questions ("How would you handle x", "How do you see x changing within the industry" etc.), than a formal case. Furthermore, if a case is given, it might be more flowing. So, they may give a quick prompt, rattle off some numbers/conclusions, and call it a day. There may not even be exhibits. On the other hand, you may get a full "formal" case as well! In essence, be prepared for anything and everything (sorry!), BUT be 100% certain that the bar is higher and your expertise needs to show through. I have 20 Capital One cases plus a broader repository of banking and financial services cases. Happy to case you through them and provide the full set with coaching. Shoot me a message: book a session here. Worth reading on the mindset shift for these types of interviews: How to Shift Your Mindset to Ace the Case. I also have industry deep dives across 20+ sectors including financial services. Shoot me a message and I'll send one over.

You typically won’t get a new Solve invite for every application McKinsey usually reuses your Solve score for a certain period of time (often around 12 months, though it can vary by region and role). So if you’ve already completed it for the NGWL event they will most likely use that same result when you apply to a full-time role. Only in some cases (e.g., expired score, different recruiting track, ... you might be asked to retake it. Hope it helps, Franco

Hi Anonymous! Yes, it is totally fine to send a follow-up email later this week. Just keep in mind that the recruiting team is definitely aware of the timeline and is likely swamped with similar emails from other candidates. Because of this, you want your follow-up to be as frictionless as possible for them to read and reply to. Always be gentle and make sure to thank your recruiter for their help so far! :) Here are a few quick tips for your follow-up: Keep it brief: They are busy, so get straight to the point without sounding demanding. Acknowledge their workload: A little empathy goes a long way. Reiterate your interest: Briefly state that you are still very excited about the opportunity. Good luck! Tom

Hi! The core criteria—initiative, ownership, resilience, and the ability to push through challenges—remain the same.  “Drive” is not limited to situations where you independently identify an opportunity; it also applies to cases where you are given responsibility and actively take charge to move things forward.  Your example can fit with what McKinsey is looking for, as long as you clearly highlight your proactive actions and meaningful impact.  Happy to chat further and good luck!