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FIT questions?

FIT MBB
New answer on Aug 22, 2020
6 Answers
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Anonymous A asked on Oct 24, 2018

Hi I'm preparing for my final round at an MBB now and would like some advice on key FIT questions to prepare for. Thanks!

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Francesco
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Oct 24, 2018
#1 Coach for Sessions (4.000+) | 1.500+ 5-Star Reviews | Proven Success (➡ InterviewOffers.com) | Ex BCG | 10Y+ Coaching

Hi Anonymous,

the most likely fit questions and topics you will find are:

  • Tell me about yourself (personal overview)
  • Why consulting (motivational)
  • Why our company (motivational)
  • Give me an example when you led a team (leadership)
  • Tell me about a time when you had to convince someone not agreeing with you (impact)
  • What has been your major achievement so far (drive)
  • Why should we hire you (motivational)

Although the company that emphasizes more the fit part is McKinsey, following a preparation including the key areas of leadership/teamwork, impact and drive will have you covered for the other consulting companies as well.

The best way to prepare is to complete the following check list:

  1. Understand the difference between, leadership, impact and drive areas. You can find a link with their differences here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-pei-difference-drive-and-personal-impact-918#a1780
  2. Identify good stories for each area. Ideally, you want to have at least two stories for each area. Three would be even better.
  3. Use a structure for your story. I would suggest using the STARR model (Situation, Task, Action, Rational for Action, Results)
  4. Identify for each story one sentence clarifying what the story is about and start with it. Think of it as the title of a journal article.
  5. Practice live, collect feedback from people listening to you, reiterate until you get fluent and convincing

Best,

Francesco

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Egor
Expert
replied on Oct 31, 2018
Collected McKinsey & BCG offers/ Ex-McKinsey consultant/Harvard/WBS/MSU

Hi A,

FIT- questions depend on values of a target company. Values are similar, but check corporate web-sites for each.

I attach a comprehensive list of questions for PEI for the most common values.

Personal impact

  • Tell me about a time that you persuaded your manager to go along with an idea you had
  • Tell me about a time that you changed someone's mind
  • Tell me about a difficult situation in your team
  • Tell me about a time where you dealt with a difficult member in your team

Entrepreneurial drive

  • Tell me about a time when you achieved an unachievable goal?
  • What has been your major accomplishment so far?
  • Tell me about a time you did something innovative
  • What was a situation where you set a goal and achieved it?

Leadership

  • Give me three examples of a time that you led a group.
  • Give me three the most effective ways of inspiring people 

  • Tell me about a time you led a team through a conflict/hit a target on smth
  • Tell me about a time where you were leading a team and you needed to force someone to work when they didn't want to do it

Hope, this was helpful.

All the best,
Egor

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Anonymous updated the answer on Oct 24, 2018

Hi Anonymous,

the best preparation you can do is to ask yourself these questions and be honest with yourself when answering them.

So:

  • WHY do you want to go into consulting? Is it the money, the social prestige, the resulting career opportunities? The job itself?
  • Why do you want to join McKinsey? Because they are the most prestigious? Because they pay best? Because your parents/ teacher/ school buddies said it would be a good idea?
  • Are you ready for the sacrifices you need to make? Being constantly away, most likely neglecting personal relationships, maybe being frowned upon by people that are important to you but think that consultants are [insert expletive of choice here]?
  • ...

If you have a bit of time, I highly recommend to read the blog post by Tim Urban on Wait But Why: https://waitbutwhy.com/2018/04/picking-career.html

Best of luck,

Elias

(edited)

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Clara
Expert
Content Creator
replied on May 01, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

On top of the insights already shared in the post, next week will be pusblished in PrepLounge´s Shop material related.

In concrete, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB". It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Hope you find it useful!

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Anonymous replied on Aug 22, 2020

Dear A,

Here are some tips on how you can structure these questions for your interview.

The Chronological structure for your FIT question might take a lot of time for you to reply and thus it's very difficult to take the necessary things. So, I would recommend you to start with a summary of your background, why you are relevant for consulting (or some specific company).

Next, talk about 3-4 of your roles (maybe professional, education, extracurricular). The more experienced you are the more you should speak about professional roles. It can also be the distinct roles within the same organization (Company, your responsibilities, your greatest achievements there), and also your main reason why consulting or this company.

Best,

André

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Vlad
Expert
replied on Oct 25, 2018
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

1) Make sure that you've prepared everything: A story about yourself, motivational questions and the three main stories - one for each of the skills the company wants to test you on - Personal Impact, Leadership, Achievement. Also, don't forget about your questions to the interviewer - you'd rather have an interesting conversation and score some point instead of a simple Q&A session

More details here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/typical-mck-pei-question-for-each-dimension-1502#a3294

and here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/why-consulting-why-mckinseybcgbain-questions-770#a1762

2) Then go through each story and think of the additional questions the interviewer may ask. It’s important since additional questions will take up to 50% of the interview. Try to remember the main details and facts and make sure that you know how to explain the key concepts quickly. Test your stories with your friends, ideally consultants, and ask for their feedback. There can be multiple groups of additional questions:

  • The interviewer may be interested in details about the context
  • He may want to check whether this was your effort or more sort of a team effort.
  • “Have you faced any difficulties while implementing your solution?”- Typically an interviewer would like you to tell him how you’ve overcome those difficulties.
  • Your interviewer will check how real your story is. You should be ready to provide even more granular actions, key milestones and a breakdown of potential effects.

3) Now work on 3-6 backup stories. During your interviews, you can then use these stories or adapt these stories to the additional questions your interviewer asks you.

You may be interested, why you need to prepare several stories for each question? At the end of the day, it's not that easy to come up with all of these stories. I've answered here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/repating-fit-interview-stories-927#a1813

4) Next step is talking to consultants. I recommend doing a couple of mock interviews, both case+fit. You can connect with consultants via friends, company events or even LinkedIn. Consultants are entirely opened to share their experiences, but the biggest problem will be the lack of time. Sometimes you’ll need to send a kind reminder to your request, but it pays off.

Feel free to reach me - I have a separate session for working on PEI and crafting your stories with a lot of tips and consulting tools.

Best,

Vlad

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