McKinsey Final Round PEI--switching the first round episodes into different dimensions?

Question

Dear community,

I would really appreciate some advance regarding preparing PEI for the final round interview with McKinsey.

The situation is: In my first round feedback, I was recommended to revisit what 'McKinsey look for' in PEI to bring stronger episodes (without much detail beyond this). After reflecting on the episodes I shared, I realized that I really should have switched the experience I discussed for ‘drive’ and for ‘impact’. Both episodes involve initiating something ‘new’ and ‘changing the mind’ of key stakeholders, and can be told from both perspectives ----yet one episode is heavier on the “initiative" aspect while the other involves stronger conflict of interest. Unfortunately I didn't make the best call on the spot--and I speculate that this is the reason why interviewers feel I didn't I hit what they "look for" well enough.

My question is: do you think it would be okay if I reframe the story in the more appropriate dimensions that they fit into for the final round?

I'm aware that it would be ideal to prepare completely different episodes, yet within my most recent experience, these are really the strongest ones that comes to mind and I'm concerned about switching to experience that are quite old.

Thank you all in advance for kindly sharing your thoughts. I really wouldn't have been able to make it to this stage without all the valuable insights from this platform.

Answer 1

Hi there,

Q: My question is: do you think it would be okay if I reframe the story in the more appropriate dimensions that they fit into for the final round?

Sure, as long as the stories match correctly the dimensions that would be fine. From what you shared the issue seems to be on not perfectly matching the required dimension, not on the topic of the story itself.

You can find a few extra tips on PEI and case interviews at McKinsey below:

▶ 4 PEI Dimensions You Should Know

▶ 4 Ways McKinsey Interviews are Different

▶ McKinsey Final Round Tips

Good luck!

Francesco

Answer 2

Hi there,

The issue that interviewers have with providing feedback on the PEI is that they cannot go into any details that would spill the secret sauce. Hence, their feedback is usually only directionally useful but not very actionable.

My advice would be the following:

Read through the detailed article I wrote on the PEI, covering all 4 dimensions in detail with concrete and actionable content ideas: https://www.preplounge.com/mckinsey-pei
Create new stories for each dimension. You do not want to re-use the ones that have already been discussed and provided feedback on

If you follow the advice from the article and craft new stories, you should be good to go.

Alternatively, also happy to discuss your stories in a session as none of the stories I worked on with my clients has ever been rejected.

Cheers and all the best,

Florian

Answer 3

Hi there,

Congrats on passing the first round!

In short, any story that you've used, you can consider as ‘burned’, so don't attempt to adjust it or re-frame it and use it again. Often times the interviewers connect after each round and discuss your performance and it might not bode well if you happen to have used the same story.

Also, based on the feedback you received, it sounds like your stories were sufficiently good, but they either weren't tailored enough to the question they asked or the example wasn't strong enough.

Best,

Cristian

Answer 4

It's really hard to answer this question on the specifics of your answer without talking through the stories with you. In general, McKinsey looks for three (or four - one is new) topics:

Leadership - when have you led a group of people to achieve something
Personal impact - when have you convinced someone to do something
Entrepreneurship - when have you gone above and beyond what was expected of you
Courageous change - when have you had to deal with an external factor which shifted how you could do what you were doing

Each of these areas require distinct stories. It could be that one episode in your life lends itself to many stories - it sounds though like you didn't frame your stories in a way which enabled you to demonstrate your attributes appropriately. You can use the same story between rounds (but never within a round), so you could reframe what you have, but it sounds like you need to go back to look closely at what the four attributes are and then recraft your stories.

Good luck!

Answer 5

That is not ideal. They are expecting different stories, and furthermore there's the risk that what they are telling you is that the story is weak, regardless of the dimension being testes. If I had an alternative, I'd go for the alternative.

Answer 6

Hi there,

While a story should cover different PEI dimensions, I suggest you don't reuse stories in different interviews, even in different rounds. All your stories are later debrief across all interviews and sharing the same ones might require an additional interview for proofing.

Best,

Alberto