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McK interviewers discussion BTS

McKinsey
New answer on Jul 22, 2021
4 Answers
1.4 k Views
Anonymous A asked on Jul 20, 2021

I was curious what happens behind the scenes when interviewers discuss your performance. If you made some math mistakes in one interview and aced qualitative aspects but had the reverse situation in the 2nd interview (aced the math but not so great with brainstorming)..would they let you pass? I hear they look for patterns, so if you messed up math in both interviews then clearly it's a pattern and math needs to be improved but if you don't have a pattern of mistakes then do you have a greater chance of passing?

(edited)

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Ken
Expert
replied on Jul 21, 2021
Ex-McKinsey final round interviewer | Executive Coach

If there were clear concerns in more than one section of the case across the two interviews then you will not progress. If you had a blip, say in the maths for one interview but did exceptionally well in your other and assuming everything else met the bar, they would discuss whether it was a one-off or whether there are intrinsic concerns.

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Antonello
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jul 22, 2021
McKinsey | NASA | top 10 FT MBA professor for consulting interviews | 6+ years of coaching

Hi, I confirm there is a detailed valuation grid that assesses both fit parts and problem-solving ones

Best,
Antonello

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Ian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jul 21, 2021
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi there,

Florian has given a good explanation below.

I would just add the following: Don't worry about things you can't control (rather: one should ask "What do I have to improve on and make sure I do in order to success in the case")

That said, if you met the "table stakes" across all categories and shone in a few others, that's promising. If you shone everywhere, and didn't do great in 1 area in 1 interview and a different area in a 2nd interview, that's also still promising (particularly for 1st round).

^This is a risky answer to give though because this is seriously situational, contextual, etc...it really truly depends on so many more factors than just your above question!

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Florian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jul 21, 2021
Highest-rated McKinsey coach (ratings, offers, sessions) | 500+ offers | Author of The 1% & Consulting Career Secrets

Hey there,

Overall, you need to show consistent performance across all interviews. There are a variety of factors to think about when evaluating your specific situation and information, for instance:

  • How severe was the math mistake you mention? For example, you could not figure out the approach to the question at all vs. you missed a 0 in our final answer due to not paying attention. Two math mistakes with very different impacts and consequences
  • How much was your structure lacking in the second interview? Did you provide a proper top level and then failed to work on depth or was it the other way round? Did you - based on your structure - provide insights and hypotheses on where to go next? Again very different weaknesses with different implications.

To summarize, its a bit more nuanced but in general, you should make sure to 

  • meet the bar at every question (can be balanced with strong answers in a second try with the same question type = one-off vs. actual issue)
  • show some spikes in a few questions

If you made mistakes in different question types across cases this would mean that you could struggle with meeting the bar in the eyes of the interviewers, however, again this depends on the severity of those mistakes. Hard to say without actually being there.

Cheers,

Florian

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