Consulting Q&A - Ask questions around your career in our consulting forum

Hi,

First of all - there are no purely strategic roles at McKinsey. As a consultant, you are working on all types of projects and only 0-30% of them will be strategic. Please make sure you understand what the consulting work is really about

Secondly - nobody will really read the project descriptions in your resume and split them into "strategy-aligned" and others

Thus the whole question is about adding the Management Consulting experience to your resume, which makes a lot of sense. However, why don't you apply directly to MBB companies now? TS work is more than enough for your resume to pass. You can only make it significantly stronger if you switch to something that is in high demand (e.g. digital at Accenture).

Best

Hi Anonymous,

it is really difficult to provide an answer without knowing what you actually said. There could be several elements that could potentially be improved in terms of communication, for example:

• Defining a structure before starting with brainstorming
• Using numbers to present the steps of your analysis ("As a first step, I would like XYZ and as a second step at ABC..)
• Using a shorter answer to convey the same message

The fastest way to improve your communication skills is to receive feedback after a mock interview from an experienced candidate/consultant/coach that could pinpoint the specific parts you should communicate better, in this way you should be able to identify the real potential improvements and then work on them.

Best,
Francesco

Hi!

The first thing to recognise is why interviewers ask this question. Ultimately, they want to know how aware you are of your development areas, how you feel about you "weaknesses", and whether those "weaknesses" are red flags :)

I advise my clients to:

1. Answer honestly & directly... but not too honestly (this is not a confessional :)). Interviewers can tell if you're being ingenuine and know when you're trying to cover up your weaknesses. For example, "I work too hard" is not a weakness so don't say that. And don't say something that will obviously be a complete deal-breaker.
2. Pick a "weakness" that is important for consultants to have. i.e. it should be relevant to the role. Saying you want to be a better investor is not relevant to the role. However, saying you could be better at managing your time is something that is relevant to being a consultant
3. Show that you have already worked on this "weakness" and have a plan to improve it even more. Interviewers want just want to see that you have "weaknesses" (they already know you do because we ALL have weaknesses). They want to see that you're the sort of person who is doing something about it to improve yourself because as a consultant, you have to be open to feedback and take steps to address that feedback.

Here's an example of what this might sound like (remember, this is just an example that demonstrates an example that is direct, honest, relevant, and improvement-focused. You will need to cater this to yourself:

• "A weakness of mine is my ability to present confidently in situations where I'm less familiar with the topic. This stems from a complete fear of presenting just a few years ago, which I worked on through the support of my colleagues and by putting myself in situations where I had no choice but to present, get feedback, and then refine and try again. So I feel like I've already come a long way. The work I'd done preparing myself for these interviews have helped me gain additional communication skills to improve how I feel presenting less familiar topics, but it is still an ongoing effort, which I continue to work on."

Hope this helps! Get in touch directly to get some specific practice in.

Best!

Hi,

HPV vaccines are recommended for boys and girls in the US (https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/who-should-get-the-hpv-vaccination-and-why.html) and before they become sexually active. Majority of vaccines are given ages 11 and 12, and the remaining to older teens and some to adults.

Assuming 320M in the US population, 80 yrs life expectancy and uniform distribution this gets us to 4M for each age.

Assuming all boys and girls should get the vaccine, the market size is as follows :

1. For boys and girls currently aged 11 and 12 that is 8M

2. For ages 13-18 - assume that only 50% got vaccinated before 13. Now obviosuly this is an over-simplification, you can also assume a declining ratio (60% at 13 and going down to 30% at 18 yrs who need to get vaccinated).

Total Population 13-18 = 24M and 50% of that is 12M

3. For women adults up to 40 - assume 80% have been vaccinated and 20% need vaccination (if you want a gold star you can take into account that most women have got the vaccine but almost no men have given that previosuly only girls were required to do so and that number now climbs to 80% of women and 0% of men as having the vaccines so 20% of women and 100% of men in this age group are not vaccinated, but this is something you can check with the interviewer)

Population of women only 19 - 40 = 44M, 20% = 9M

Total market size - ~ 29M

Hope that helps,

Udayan

Hi, it is a classic "pressure interview". In the second round, it sometimes happens that the interviewer act as impelling and hostile, to test your under-stress response. My advice is always to maintain the calm, take your time to correctly structure your responses and know that it is only a role-play.

Best,

Antonello

A,

I would suggest you to apply for one position at a time, even if the system would allow you to apply to more than one. Go for the one where you think you have the highest chance of getting an invite for.

Best, Aws

This question is usually asked in the very beginning of McKinsey interview and does NOT strictly constitute a part of personal fit questions (which are situation-based). In contrast to business cases and personal fit questions there is also no exact system for evaluating your answer to this question. The “tell me about yourself“ question during McKinsey interview serves just one purpose – to actually help you relax, let you talk about something you are familiar with and to help your interviewer to get to know you a bit better (sort of to put a face to whatever she read in your CV).

So, I would use it as a chance to make yourself memorable and to leave a positive impression. What do I mean by that? I mean, of course, do say a few words about your studies and work experience, but also say what you are passionate about and what you want to achieve in life. Are you passionate about swimming? Say it! Are you passionate about singing? Say it! Do you want to eventually build your own business? Say it! It’s important for an interviewer to understand what kind of person you are and for you to leave a memorable mark, so make sure you highlight those things which throw a bit of light on your personality.

Hi,

I have uploaded both test samples here (Online test is about airlines). I've also added BCG written case sample (Next round) and Bain written case:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zor4m49eyx5qxal/AABeUN6mtiGkWhEklRjszX2Oa?dl=0

(PM me for a password)

As for particular recommendations for online test:

1. Try to find as many people in your country as you can who have done the test. Ask them for the topic, industry, and questions they remember. For example in one of the countries there was a test about airlines and reading a couple of articles / company reports / wikipedia articles with industry terms could significantly improve performance
2. Try to practice tests with strict time-management. McKinsey PST from the official web site and all mck and bcg -like tests you can find online
3. Additional resources can be GMAT Integrated reasoning from the official guides and apps if you feel that you are not p[erforming well
4. As far as I remember calculator is allowed on BCG test. Make sure you know how to simplify calculations and use it fast

Best!

I assume you gonna have at least two interviews each at least half an hour but usually it takes longer. Normally, they’d provide you with two ordinary case studies and, in addition, an online-case. Be aware of brief math tests since they are very popular there. And what your interviewers love to ask you in order to throw you off the track is whether you remember having a huge problem in your life and how you managed to solve this specifically.