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Best Practices for Interview with McKinsey Digital

Hi Team,

i will start with my 1st interview with McKinsey Digital for expert (equivalent to EM) role next week.

Does anyone of you have insights related or best practices in terms of Do's/Dont'ts?

I'm currently do the prep with more focus on requested expertises and experiences...many thanks!

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Top answer
edited on Nov 02, 2019
#1 Coach for Sessions (4.500+) | 1.500+ 5-Star Reviews | Proven Success: ➡ interviewoffers.com | Ex BCG | 10Y+ Coaching

Hi Anonymous,

I recently helped a candidate for an experienced hire digital role in MBB. You can expect:

  • Questions related to your knowledge/problem solving in digital projects. This will likely be part of the fit questions at the beginning
  • Business cases related to digital
  • Business cases related to other sectors

I would recommend to prepare in the standard way for PEI and cases, trying to (i) have good stories related to your experience in digital and (ii) cover cases related to the digital sector in your preparation.

As usual, for EM roles you should expect more questions related to leadership and client interaction compared to a new graduate application.

In case you need more information please feel free to PM me.

Best,
Francesco

Anonymous A
on Nov 17, 2019
It clarified something from my side, what does Fit Question mean? What's PEI?
on Nov 18, 2019
#1 Coach for Sessions (4.500+) | 1.500+ 5-Star Reviews | Proven Success: ➡ interviewoffers.com | Ex BCG | 10Y+ Coaching
Hi Anonymous, the PEI is the personal experience interview, involving questions on leadership, impact and drive. Fit questions include the PEI plus additional questions related to your CV and motivation. You can find more at the following links: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-pei-difference-drive-and-personal-impact-918 ; https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/what-are-some-typical-personal-fit-questions-in-a-mckinsey-interview-3195
on Nov 02, 2019
McKinsey | NASA | top 10 FT MBA professor for consulting interviews | 6+ years of coaching

Hi,
it will be important to show expertise in Digital trends and Digital transformation of large companies, but you will be also assessed with classical business cases of generalists.

Best,
Antonello

Vlad
Coach
on Nov 02, 2019
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

There will be a mix of regular and IT cases. For the regular cases on preplounge will be most helpful. For the IT cases, I recommend reading the articles of the consulting companies about these topics on their websites (Hundreds of them if you google by key words "agile", "Digital", at McKinsey, BCG or Accenture)

Feel free to reach out if you need help with digital case prep.

I have not seen any digital cases online. But here is a list of potential topics you need to know. It is a full list and looks scary but they test a lot of these concepts depending on the particular role:

  • Basics (computational thinking, sorting, data structures) - they never ask directly but understanding will help with the other topics)
  • Database design (Centralized vs decentralized, sharding, factors influencing the number of replicas - the volume of data, future scale, growth, data structure, desired speed, etc)
  • Technology stacks (front, back,api, database, etc)
  • Cloud (cloud vs own servers pro and cons, uptime % SLAs, load balancing, etc)
  • Server storage - major cost buckets - remember about additional replicas and cooling electricity costs
  • Security (encryption basics, public keys, password change policy, cloud security and encryption on your computer)
  • Agile and development (Agile principles, Environments: Developing, testing, production, Native apps / web apps / hybrid apps, etc)
  • M&A and IT (Will it be one system or two systems? Is it "Adopt and go" approach or we take the best of both systems and create a new one? Integrate now, innovate later? Or Innovate now, when you have time?)
  • IT strategy and Digital transformation (Similar to M&A)
  • IoT (Mainly the use of IoT in operations - Process steps completion, measuring temperature, maintenance measurements, other measurements, predicative algorithms, etc)

Good luck!

Clara
Coach
on May 12, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello, congrats for the interview!

  • Regarding the cases you will have to face, they will be "normal" ones, similar to candidates interviewing for this a generalist position. Normally, each interviewer has his/her own case that they repeat candidate after candidate. Hence, it is completly regardless of who you are and what your background is. However, in your case, probably you will get at least one interviewer from Mckinsey Digital.
  • For prep, I would continue with your approach of leveraging the materials from the page. Finally, having guidance from a coach would save you time and point you directly into the DOs and DONTs.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Deleted
Coach
on May 13, 2020
Professional full-time coach|50+ happy clients in 12 months|Ex Roland Berger PM & Recruiter|Networking to get interviews

Dear A,

Here, on the Preplounge you will find many useful information and cases for preparation in your specific field. 

In case you need any assistance or stuctured feedback on your cases, feel free to reach out

Best,
André

Ian
Coach
on May 11, 2020
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi,

I have dozens from a range of case books and would be happy to case you in some!

I also recommend 1) Looking through PrepLounge along search words such as "IT", "Digital transformation","Agile", etc. and 2) Scouring casebooks for those with a focus in IT.

Best of luck!

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