Hi all,

It is my first post here in PrepLounge and would like to share my recent interview experience and seek your insights/opinions.

1. My Background

 I graduated from a university in Singapore with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with specialization in energy and sustainability. Until today, for 7 years of my work experience, I intentionally joined engineering consulting firms (the first one, Danish, the next/present one, British) working on energy and sustainability field like green building and infrastructure, and renewable energy (offshore wind and solar PV).

Unlike typical EPC, R&D, or ‘real’ engineering companies, I worked and am working as ‘generalist’ acting as mostly project/interface manager, client liaison, business development and with some technical expertise. This technical expertise is unlike those mechanical, electrical or structural but more of permit/license & regulatory review, feasibility study analysis from both technical and env.& social aspects (not heavy engineering I believe).

2. My Career Goal

Since my university years, I have been very careful with what kind of work I would like to do and how I would like to eventually land onto consulting like MBB. I believe this is why I tried to join the industry that is ever-growing, building on my capabilities in the area that I am interested, have technical knowledge (tip of the iceberg) and kind of “consulting”.

Also, I have 3 principles since 20s to choose my career and that is 1) to work to deliver positive aspects/results to the society, 2) to work in the area that I am interested in (sustainability and energy) and lastly 3) at least make money.

3. Recent McKinsey Interviews

I made through all the way to the final interview for which I had an interview with a senior partner. I had 30-min long FIT and short case study. For 30-min FIT, with questions posed by the partner, I explained from what engineering consulting is, introduction myself, what I want to do in the future, an experience in persuading the client and others.  As there was also a question on my career goal and thus, I described that in the future, I would like to lead the company to work on decarbonization plan and etc.

I explained those described above as well as why I applied.

“With over 7 years of technical consulting experience, I have delivered due diligence works to lenders, developers and PEs. Though the project is attractive (in terms of technical aspects) from my perspective, there are times where eventually, the project is not acquired by the clients. I believe and understand that it is not always this technical side that is important but there are political, commercial/financial, etc aspects that are also considered and perhaps considered more when it comes to full acquisition. I would like to explore more on the broader aspects/considerations on these and therefore, applied to McKinsey to learn from the perspective of the client.”

The paragraph above is what I explained during my 2-2 interview but at this time, the senior partner noted to me that there seems to be a weak link between what I want to do/learn/grow to Why McKinsey (at least this is how I understood). The senior partner mentioned that for this explanation, if I applied for BA, yes acceptable, but with my experience and application to experienced consultant, not strong enough.

In retrospect, I think I kind of understand what the partner meant as this can be something that I can learn from Big 4 or other BB? Maybe I did not explain enough that why it has to be McKinsey to convince the partner. I did not mention that McKinsey pays well, has great team, etc as I believe those are quite junior-level answers. I should have shared my first-ever McKinsey live presentation that I attended and found out the extensive information, data and insights that McKinsey has delivered end of last year. (more personal link to Why McKinsey?)

I did prepare long for McKinsey and the result did not come out as what I expected. However, I do not believe this is the end and would like to apply again sooner or later.  I also applied to Bain and are expecting the first interview to take place soon.

Therefore, I would like to seek your in-depth insights on my experience and views on my experience above, what I should have explained further and also to questions below.

1)    Should the last aspect (to make money) from my three career aspects not have been explained/mentioned during the interview?

2)    During the interview, I kind of felt that although I described above as generalist under engineering consulting (but I did not really described myself as generalist but described what kind of work I supported – regulatory, E&S, etc), should I mention that I worked as generalist and more on PM?

3)    Shall I described what kind of work experience/work skills (soft, hard) that I performed in more detail and if so, what are the aspects that MBB would like to hear from “experienced” hires?

4) As an experienced consultant, would it have been a mistake to talk about my career goal out of McKinsey - McKinsey as a stepping stone and thus, need McKinsey for my personal growth? As I did not even join, the interviewer may find it 'strange' in some sense?

Thank you very much for reading above and much appreciated!