How to balance "random talks" and "structured business talks" in an interview?

Hi there,

I had the same experience with a senior director in one of my OW interviews. We studied at the same university and did the same course, and we mainly had a conversation about our common experience. The interview went really well as we naturally connected with each other. There was no “formal” fit or case.

These situations are relatively rare (and lucky – in the end, you skip a case interview!). It just happened to me once in 20+ interviews.

In terms of your questions:

1) How should I balance being structured and being client friendly, especially in partner rounds 

If you are well prepared for case interviews, you will probably be “naturally” structured, even if regular conversations. The following are some of the things you may do to structure a conversation without being too rigid:

• Present the first level, then the second level: “So given XXX, I think we could look at 3 main areas: first ABC, second DEF, third GHI”
• Use numbers/clear bullets when presenting levels: “In the first area I would like to look at the following: First…, Second..., Finally..."

The exact degree to which you should use it also depends on the question.

2) Could you provide some advice on how to improve communication with seniors?

Besides what was mentioned above, there is one thing I saw that repeatedly helped the candidates I coached when they had “less structured” interviews: knowing something about the publications of the partners.

Most senior interviewers write research papers on the topics they focus on. If you can refer to something they covered, you will definitely score points as: (i) you will show you have done your research and (ii) you will be able to naturally connect more with the person on one of his/her favorite topics.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hello, this is a good question! 

One of the things I always say to people I coach is to think of the interview as a conversation, and behave like that. 

All of your answers should be structured. Regardless, you should face it as a conversation and explain your toughts structured but also in a light way, no need to be extreme formal or serious, remember that the interview is also there to evaluate if you would be pleasant to work for long hours with. 

Specially for McKinsey, interviewers adopt a posture to show that they want you to suceed it, so it is almost like you are solving the case together, it is important to keep this in mind for when they make suggestions along the case, this is not a trick or set up for you to make a mistake, but they are actually helping and you should be coachable in those situations.

At last, regarding the brainstorm vs. structured answers, sometimes you will feel that the interviewer does not want you to take more time to think through your answer, so a tip here is to ask something like “can I take some time to prepare a full structure or should I just brainstorm it out loud?”, this usually helps. However, even if it is a small question during the case you should always try to put at least in a simple structure, such as “positives and negatives aspects”  or “financials and non-financial aspects”.

Hope this was helpful, for further advices on this I am available for us to schedule a session. 

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on (presumedly) passing the first interview round!

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

• Generally speaking, I would always advise you to be both structured and client-friendly in your communication, even outside of work for the simple reason that it is always well received to have a polite, concisely answering counterpart in a conversation.
• Moreover, as you already mentioned correctly, especially final partner interviews tend to be less standardized yet they should not be mistaken as superficial chats. If you have a strong feeling you are still in the warm-up phase, I would advise you not to over-do it with structuring. Yet, in any other case, I would highly advise you to be aware of the fact that the partner is there to assess your performance, not to have a superficial chat with you.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to be structured and client-friendly in any situation and to what extent the final interview round differs, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

No need to overthink this..go with the flow. Keep the conversation relaxed, ask questions & use your body language (tone of voice, facial expressions etc) to build rapport. Most partners want to have a “real world” discussion and not get bogged down too much by formal interview setup. The idea is to connect and get to know each other better.

Check out these very helpful links:

• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-create-chemistry-with-the-interviewer-8271
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/job-interview-stress

I can see why this throws you off but it really shouldn't. Here's the deal: Partners can run the interview any way they want. Technically, they're supposed to follow protocol, but they ultimately run the show and have that freedom.

If they don't guide you towards a case, fine. If it's random business chit-chat, go with it. Read the room and use the same conversational style as the partner. Don't start forcing structure and frameworks if you can't pull it off so that it comes across natural.

However, do try to be top down at least and avoid rambling. This is the extent to which I would treat this as anything other than a casual conversation.

Lucky you I'd say for dodging the case :)

Hi there,

There's a lot of nuance to this that is hard to explain in writing - if you like, reach out to me and I'll try to explain this during a session.

That said, ideally you always have structure AND be client-friendly.

Being structured doesn't automatically mean you're robotic/rigid. Answering right away and brainstorming doesn't take away the fact that you need to be structured.

You always need to answer in a structured, natural, client-friendly way regardless of the topic! How to do this is all in delivery - again, happy to show you what this looks like.