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Call with a McKinsey partner after a Zoom Event. How to prepare for it.

Hello! I reached out to a partner after a Zoom McK event for an informational interview. He agreed to have a call. How to interpret it and how to prepare for it. Thank you very much!

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Top answer
on Jul 11, 2020
#1 Coach for Sessions (4.500+) | 1.500+ 5-Star Reviews | Proven Success (➡ interviewoffers.com) | Ex BCG | 10Y+ Coaching

Hi there,

Well done in securing the call.

It is difficult to know why the partner opted to have a call. Anyway, this is a great opportunity to land a referral, if you follow the right steps.

The key things you have to prepare before the call are:

  1. Your own pitch – prepared in the right way
  2. The proper questions to create engagement
  3. The correct closing to get a referral

You can find some tips on referrals here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hey-everyonehope-all-is-well-3176

Please feel free to PM me if you need more information.

Best,

Francesco

Robert
Coach
on Jul 11, 2020
McKinsey offers w/o final round interviews - 100% risk-free - 10+ years MBB coaching experience - Multiple book author

Hi Anonymous,

The answer to your question mainly depends on the specific context you gave when reaching out for a call.

Based on the current information available, obviously we can only give you generic advice. The main idea is definitley do NOT ask any obvious questions which you can gather from other sources as well - there is definitely a better way than that to use valuable partner face-time. Needless to say, be prepared concerning the partner's background and expertise, and prepare yourself to have an engaging natural conversation (focusing too much on a direct referral usually backfires for most candidates - apart from that fact that it's a turn-off without having yet build a solid case for yourself, it makes the conversations not really that natural and interesting...).

In general I like candidates asking "personal'" questions, since this really gives unique and interesting insights from the specific person. Some questions I am thinking of are e.g.

  • Where exactly do you see the competitive advantage of [company] vs. their competitors?
  • Which three things turned out to be differently after joining [company] than what you anticipated in advance?
  • ...

Concerning interpretation of that - nothing particular, business-as-usual to spend some face time with potential hires.

Hope that helps to guide your thinking into the right direction - if so, please be so kind and give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

Giulia
Coach
on Jul 11, 2020
McKinsey | 6+ years in Consulting + Health Tech |Certified High Performance + Systemic Coach | Women Empowerment

Wow! That's great! So you must have really impressed him professionally or you have directly connected personally.

From the outside, it is really difficult to say what convinced the partner to speak to you on the phone.

In order to give you a better recommendation, it would be very helpful to better understand the context of this event, your performance during this event, your relationship with this partner, the role including the background and the personality of this partner.
 

Nevertheless, I think it is very important to have good answers to the following questions:

1) Who are you? What's your story? What have you done so far? What's your why? What are personal facts that can be really interesting / impressive for this partner due to his background?
2) What are your goals? What is your connection to McKinsey? How do you see yourself at McKinsey and why?
3) What do you want to take out of this call? What was your original intention? How can he help you on your career path? What do you want to know about him?


If you answered the above questions well, define a clear storyline / agenda for your call based on the duration of the call:

1) Short small talk, be thankful for taking the time to call him and give him an overview of this call including the intention
2) Go through your (personal) agenda, including your story and questions
3) Complete the call in time and pay attention to a farewell with a lasting impression

I hope it helps. I wish you all the best
Giulia

Anonymous
on Jul 10, 2020

Hi Anonymous - good work securing the call. It is a good sign that they have agreed to it. Before giving precise advise, we would need to understand 

1) what is your objective here? Do you have a McK interview secured or would like to secure one? If you would like to secure one then have you already applied?

2) what context did you give the McK partner when you requested the call? Did you say you want to learn about consulting in general or was it to discuss something specific related to the Zoom call

But as a general rule - use the time to share your story with this partner (make it interesting/wow). Also take the time to learn about the McK partner themselves and then end the conversation with a discussion of your future aspirations. I would be wary about asking for a referral directly as if the partner was happy to refer you then they would do this without you having to ask at the end but there is an element of reading between the lines as to how your call with the partner goes

Best of luck

7
Anonymous
on Jul 11, 2020

Hi A,

On the  top of what was being said:

- Short impressive presentation of yourself

- Use it for networking opportunities. 

Best,

André

4
Clara
Coach
on Jul 13, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

To add on top what has been shared, try to think about it as if you were meeting your partners parents. 

On the one hand, for sure you want to impress them. However, you also want them to like you, hence, you need to avoid being too showy and make an effort on being likeble!

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

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