McK PEI - Variation

Hi,

It does not depend on the round and may happen even with the managers. If you have time I would recommend to have 1-2 backup stories per question. For example, there may be the following variations in the personal impact story:

• Team conflict
• Personal conflict
• Conflict with the boss
• Changing someone's mind
• Overcoming difficulties
• etc

Other reasons to have multiple stories:

1. "This story does not fit. Do you have another story?" - an interviewer can easily say something like this if he is not convinced that your story is good enough or the story does not fit his criteria for some reason.
2. It is essential for you to prepare at least three stories for each area so that in case you get the same question by a couple of interviewers you are not telling the same story. I personally had 3 interviewers asking me exactly the same story. Originally the three of your interviewers are supposed to ask the different questions. In reality, interviewers don't often have a chance to meet before the interview, and sometimes they are urgently replaced by the colleagues. Of course, you can use the same story, but it is much better to demonstrate a diverse experience.
3. Finally, the interviewer may ask you the questions you didn't even expect. It's always good to have some backup stories and adapt them to answer those unexpected questions.

Best

Hey anonymous,

Just wanted to add a word of caution related with conflict stories (I'm commenting on this, as it's one of the most common mistakes I've seen people doing while at PEI interviews): a conflict story can actually be used to test two different dimension - personal impact and leadership - depending on the wording (with a peer/boss is for personal impact; with a subordinate/team you're leading is for leadership), so be really careful in order to make sure you address the right story and, especially, communicate the right skillset :)

Hope this helps

Best

Bruno