Differences in preparing FIT for McKinsey, Bain and BCG.

Hi Clemens,

I recommend you prepare for McKinsey PEI and you'll be ready for the other. Be ready in 4 dimensions:

• Entrepreneurship: focusing on how you delivered impact out of your comfort zone
• Leadership: focusing on leading a team towards a challenging goal
• Personal impact: focusing on persuading an individual or group with an opposing opinion
• Courageous change: focusing on dealing with ambiguity

Best,
Alberto

Hi Clemens!

From a top-level perspetive, you need to differentiate McKinsey from the others.

While Bain, BCG and other top consulting firms have their personal fit interviews as you know them from any other company with structured recruiting processes, McKinsey took it on a completely different level with the dedicated McKinsey Personal Experience Interview (PEI).

That's really an interview format of it's own and requires in-depth prep. The good news for you is that most candidates severely underestimate the complexity and time required to get the PEI right, so it's an awesome opportunity to really stand out from the crowd for those who take the time and energy to prepare accordingly (and it contributes to ~50% of your overall interview evaluation). Specifically for the PEI, I have a separate blog with loads of FAQs on that (https://pei.consulting-case-interviews.com/blog/); of course feel free to contact me for one or several coaching sessions on that to really excel on the PEI part.

For the remaining consulting firms, the most important general idea is to present yourself in a structured, top-down approach and highlighting those aspects which potentially make you a good fit for the respective consulting firm. So from a global perspective, I'd recommend having a story line ready on why the next logical step should be consulting, based on your previous experience, and for each experiences you should be able to highlight your achievements and learnings which are relevant for consulting.

(Note: I leave away BCG real life, because it's not really a personal fit interview from my perspective, but also covers subject-matter related topics)

Hope that helps - if so, please give it a thumbs-up with the upvote button!

Robert

Hi Clemens,

Don't think there would be any notable difference when it comes to your past experiences and stories. But do make sure you prepare for the question "Why this company", and if asked, have an answer for why you prefer that one company over the other two in the "MBB".

So suggest to do some study on the firms. It could be the culture and how a particular culture might fit you better; it could be the industry focus in a particular region/city; or it could be the type of case work that the firm specialises in...

Cheers,

Emily

Hi Clemens, fit in McKinsey has a higher weight but it's similar to the other firms. Personal impact, leadership, and entrepreneurship are the 3 main aspects assessed by the interviewer. I recommend preparing impactful stories about your background.

Best,
Antonello

Hi Clemens,

the main difference is that at McKinsey you will always receive questions on impact, leadership and drive as part of the Personal Experience Interview during the interview process. At BCG and Bain, you may not necessarily have questions on that part.

If you are prepared for McKinsey, you are most likely prepared for all the others as well (of course you should always personalize “Why Company XYZ”)

You can find a description of the three dimensions of the McKinsey PEI below:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-pei-difference-drive-and-personal-impact-918

Best,

Francesco

Hello!

When you are prepared for one of them, you are prepared for all of them. This said, it´s best to prepare for McKinsey, since their PEI is the most structured of all of them, based on the 3 key dimensions: 

1. Entrepreneurial drive: We look for people with an entrepreneurial spirit: innovative by nature, always creating new approaches, products, services, and technologies
2. Personal impact: Developing and implementing sound recommendations requires the involvement and support of many individuals. Skills interacting with people, sometimes in tough situations, are critical to driving distinctive client impact.
3. Leadership: We seek people who strive to lead themselves, their teams, and their communities, and who can foster effective teamwork to drive results.

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Hello there,

Typically, MCKinsey is more structured and cleare in terms of fit question. They would likely ask 3 primary questions:

• Leadership experiences
• Conflict management
• Motivation

Mind you that BCG and Bain will likely ask similar questions, but the depth of conversations being grilled might be different with McKInsey asking the most detailed description in general.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan

Dear Clemens,

Basically, being prepared for one of them, you will be ready for any. 

Agree here with Clara, that having McKinsey structure as a basis will help you to make your preparations more complete. 

All the best,

André