Has anyone else gone through McKinsey's phone case interview - the one between the PST and the first round case interview? Do you mind sharing your experience, please? Thanks.

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Yes. The case has the same kind of structure as a normal McK interview, but without graphs since it’s via phone. So the interviewer will give you the case problem (in my case it was market entry) and you have to approach it like you would a normal case, so first of all elaborate your structure how to approach it (issue tree). You will have to do some calculations, but they are really not so difficult. And then at the end you have to give the recommendation and support it with the arguments as the closing statement, also including risks. As you see it’s really like the normal kind of case but simpler I would say. It is a bit weird not being face to face to the person, so maybe practice as well such kind of setting to get used to it. Hope it goes well!

Ben · Answer

its cake.  it will be given by a mckinsey alum, and is typically going to be one of the simplest cases you'll ever do... probably simpler and quicker than any of the ones here.  its simply there to weed out people who aren't going to advance early in the process without going through the trouble of flying them out, having current managers talk to him/her, etc.

Daniel · Answer

Hi Neil,

Wondering if you could please share your experience regarding the phone case interview? Key questions I would be interested in would be:

- Type of case you got (Market entry, profitability, etc)

- Level of difficulty relative to the sample cases on the McKinsey website

- Best practice advice and tips on preparation

Thanks,

Daniel