I am a mechanical engineer with focus on energy. So I have never dealt with case solving before. It looks tough but doable. How can I ensure getting an offer?
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McKinsey interview in a couple of weeks with Full Time Job! How many hours needed per day to prepare?
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Hi there,
The number of hours depends on:
- Your current level of case preparation
- The material you use
Many candidates need 100h+ to land an MBB offer when they start from zero.
I would recommend the following steps to maximize the likelihood to land an offer:
- Define a calendar for your preparation. Identify how many hours you have before that and allocate a time slot for preparation in your calendar for each day, working on the points below.
- Read Case In Point or Case Interview Secrets for a general understanding of what a consulting interview is. Don’t focus on the structures proposed in the books, as they are not good enough nowadays.
- Start reading good MBA Consulting Handbooks – you can find several for free online (Insead is a good one to start). Read the cases and try to apply your structure to solve them. Whenever you see there is something missing, upgrade your structure with the new insides. Try to read at least a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the information with constant learning.
- After the first 5-10 cases in books/handbooks and basic theory, start to practice live. PrepLounge can be helpful to connect with other candidates for that. There is a relevant part of the interview score that is based on your communication, which you cannot practice at all if you read cases only. Keep track of your mistakes and see if you repeat them. If so, try to identify the source of the mistake (feedback of experienced partners would be particularly useful for this). Be sure to focus on both behavioural/PEI and the case part. The case part should also cover market sizing, mental math and graph analysis.
- If relevant for your target office: prepare for the Imbellus. You can find the guide I created for it at the following link. You won't need any additional material after it: https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/mckinsey-imbellus-game-secrets-48
- Before the interviews, be sure to prepare your questions for the interviewer –great way to show you prepared in advance and to connect with the interviewer for a good final impression.
If you want to spend few hours only instead of 100+ and cover everything mentioned above, I developed a program precisely for that. You can click on the following link to learn more:
https://u.preplounge.com/63phuq
After this program, you will know exactly what to expect in your interview, what to work on, and how to focus on the real differentiator to land a McKinsey offer.
Please feel free to PM me for any questions.
Best,
Francesco
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Hi A!
Here is my typical recommendation. Depending on the time until your interview, you can estimate the daily committment. If you have e.g. 4 weeks, you should plan ~ 1 case per day plus some reading, so maybe 2h on average per day.
I hope this helps!
In my experience, practicing 15-20 cases is sufficient, if you do it strategically. My recommendation is as follows:
- Read up on the typical approaches and standard frameworks to get the concept.
- Then, do 5-6 cases to get a practical feeling for what a case is like. Start with easier ones - e.g. market size mini cases, simple profit tree cases, etc. This will help you develop a rudimentary sense for how cases work
- The next 5-6 cases should cover cases from all major types and help you gain the experience and comfort with standard frameworks and the thinking required for solving the cases.
- Lastly, you will want to do 6-7 cases to hone your skills. Practice with people who understand what they are doing - experienced interviewers, coaches, etc. that can give you 1-2 main items of feedback after each case that you can then practice to apply and improve on in the next case. During this time, you should also practice to move away from off-the-shelf frameworks and tailor, or - even better - develop your frameworks specifically during the case.
The further you move towards the final interview, the more important it is to practice with experienced interviewers. While you can easily ask any friend or practice with peers for the first few cases, you should aim for qualified, professional feedback as you approach the finishing line.
However, keep in mind, that this requires a strong plan and strategic approach to the preparation. I regularly see people doing 30-40 or even more cases. While this can also lead to success, in my eyes, it is a bit of a waste of time, especially for experienced hires that often also have a regular job to do while preparing for the consulting interviews.
Let me know if this helps. I'm also happy to elaborate any of the above in more detail. DM me if you like.
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Hi there!
Usually, it requires a lot of time to be fully prepared. So I agree that if you can, you should better reschedule your interview.
Basically, to prepare you can use some mock potential test for Bain, BCG, PST (McKinsey), or GMAT, and after every test just look into a solution to see where you have gone wrong. 3-4 mock test it would be enough for you to prepare for the potential test.
Here there are 3 fresh real-live MBB Cases from different offices in the Library. Try to solve them, I think, they will be very useful for you!
For Beginner level:
Laundry Chain – Revenue Increase
For Intermediate level:
Grain Co-operative – Brand Launch
For Advanced level/the real one and used for final rounds:
Non-Profit Museum Revenue Increase
Have you tried to solve them?
What do you think - do you have any questions?
GB
Do you need any further help?
All the best,
GB
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Hi there,
If you can, you need to reschedule.
If you have 2 weeks to prepare, have no prior business knowledge/training, and have a full-time job, I just don't see you being able to get ready in time.
In your situation I would recommend 100+ hours of total preparation time...
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Hi,
Please reschedule your interview. There is absolutely no penalty for rescheduling and there is 0 chance that you'll get prepared in a couple of weeks given the full-time job
Best
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Hi,
I'm an aerospace engineering and after getting multiple offers and spending my experience in McKinsey I have helped tens of engineers in achieving offers. Feel free to text me to know how I generally support candidates.
There are 4 aspects of the application process you have to focus on:
- CV and cover letter: prepare impactful documents that highlight your achievements, skills, and motivation.
- Test: you should understand if your office assesses candidates with PST, SHL or Imbellus, since every McK office can use one of these 3 standards.
- Personal Experience Interview: fit and CV questions to assess your personal impact, leadership skills, and entrepreneurial spirit. You should prepare impactful stories about your experiences that cover these 3 main pillars.
- Case Interview: typical business case to evaluate your structure in approaching problems, problem-solving skills, and business sense. This is the most time-demanding aspect to work on. I recommend reading Cosentino's Case in point to fix the theory. Then, what will be really important is practicing mock cases with other candidates here on Preplounge.
Hope it helps,
Antonello
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