Imagine you are a McKinsey recruiter conducting final round interviews with 10 candidates. Each candidate has identical scores in both the case interview and the Personal Experience Interview (PEI). Given that you can only extend an offer to one candidate, how would you decide who to choose?
Hello,
This is an interesting hypothetical question! It is unlikely to happen in real life, but let's pretend it does. From being in the decision-making hiring role at McKinsey myself, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- McKinsey interview process is absolutely and solely quantitative. I am not sure why other answers are implying something else - it is misleading. Each candidate gets scored on 7 to 8 different components. Some scores are red flags. And some categories “weigh” more than others. But keeping it quantitative is the only way to keep it meritocratic: we ONLY judge the performance, not the individual.
- It is NOT necessarily true that every candidate would receive an offer. It depends on the position they are applying to. Yes, each office / department (also called “cell” in the Firm jargon) has a certain amount of seats available. It can be flexible, but if the cell has 3 seats available, they might hire 2-4 consultants but not 10. So, in this situation, if all candidates applied for the same cell, they would likely be asked to consider another cell (e.g., another office).
- The most likely outcome here is that we would ask all candidates to pass one more interview. I have asked several candidates to do so in the past. We typically do so when several candidates have a similar performance but we cannot hire them all. Please note: this is less common in college/MBA recruiting.
- Lastly, keep in mind that recruiters do not have any decision power whatsoever. They are assisting the hiring cell in the process, that's all.
Hope this is helpful. Happy to chat further if helpful!
- Thomas
Hi there,
I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:
You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.
If you would like a more detailed discussion on this topic, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.
Best,
Hagen
Actually, it might be worth making two clarifications.
First, interviews are not conducted by recruiters. Interviews are conducted by consultants.
Second, it's virtually impossible to have the same score. There is no ‘score’ to speak of in that sense. As in, it's not as mathematical as many candidates expect it to be.
Typically, if the interviewers are not sure about a candidate but they believe that candidate has a lot of potential, they organise an additional round.
But I've never heard of a situation of 10 candidates being literally the same in terms of performance.
Best,
Cristian
Hi,
I agree with the others that the situation you are describing does not exist in reality. It sounds like you are basically asking what the tie breaker is if all of the “objective” criteria are the same for all applicants. Other factors that might also matter in such cases are (in no specific order):
However, if a consulting firm has a situation where a lot of candidates are stellar, they are more likely to extend offers to all of them rather than stick to a monthly quota or so - since the hiring goals are typically on an annual basis. At the same token, it could happen that a firm doesn't extend any offer after the final round if none of the candidates was really convincing.
Best
Quite simple. First, consider that not all candidates accept the offer. The partner decides on whether she wants to extend multiple offers and how many, and to whom :)
Now more seriously, lot's of options there:
By the way, does it matter? How will this (or any other) answer change your preparation?
Hi there,
This situation would not occur in real life. :-)
On top of that, should it occur - staying in the hypothetical bubble - McKinsey is struggling to recruit enough people to pass the bar anyway (during normal times) so both would receive the offer. An offer is valid for 12 months so there is also a time-bound component to it.
Cheers,
Florian
Hi there,
I have done over 200 interviews at McKinsey and this never was close to happen.
You can check how the recruiting process works from an internal McKinsey perspective here:
MBB Hiring Hacks - Behind the Curtain Secrets
Best,
Alberto
Typically, final recruiting decisions are discussed at the Partner level and involve engaging with all the interviewers in the process. Hence, in cases of a tie - the parameters of taking a final call are not fixed. And having 10 people at the same score is a bit of an extreme possibility.
Hi,
I'm not quite sure what you're aiming for with this question. Consulting firms typically operate with annual recruiting targets rather than weekly ones. This approach allows them to hire any candidate who meets their standards without having to choose between candidates who interview on the same day.
Best,
Oliver
