Mckinsey offered me session with coach

Hi Ardak, 

That's an amazing opportunity. You should definitely go for it!

Let me take your questions one by one.

It is polite to postpone it like that?

It's totally ok to postpone it. Nobody minds. If you feel like you're going to get more out of it this way, then definitely do it. 

Can you please give me some recommendation how to impress coach? I feel like if i make good impression, it will be huge help in interview? 

There's no point in impressing the coach and it has no bearing on your interview success rate. This is just a session meant to give you a realistic understanding of what to expect in the interview. They will not be too detailed with their feedback. And the coach will likely not communicate the feedback to the recruiter anyway.

Should i ask him more casual questions about his experience in Mckinsey? Or should i only focused on case?

Yes, be curious and ask them about their experience. Think of a couple of questions that you're genuinely interested in and cannot clarify via Google.

Best,

Cristian

Hi Ardak,

First of all, congratulations on the invication by McKinsey!

I think this is an interesting question that may be relevant for many people. I would be happy to share my thoughts on it:

• Postponing the session with the McKinsey coach is perfectly fine, as long as you let them know in advance. I completely feel that you want to have more preparation before a session like this, so they should understand your request. I would advise you to send an e-mail to the person who scheduled the session with you (I assume the recruiter) and let them know that you would like to reschedule for two weeks later.
• Still, please keep in mind that the aim of the session with the McKinsey coach is not to impress him/her, as they do not have any say in the actual recruiting process either way. The main goal of the session is to get the most out of it and to answer any questions you may have. With that in mind, again, I would advise you to postpone the session with the McKinsey coach and properly prepare for it.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for the upcoming McKinsey Solve and McKinsey interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Hi Ardak,

It is fine to ask for the session to take place 2 weeks later. The worst that could happen is that they decline that and ask you to do it earlier.

Your goal frankly should not be to impress the coach. Given where you are, your goal should be to use and leverage the coach as much to

1. Understand how the interview works
2. Understand what skills are needed and where you stand on that
3. Get concrete and objective feedback on what you need to do to make the cut
4. Only if you have time, would I ask questions about McK (assuming he is a McK consultant and not an external coach). I would prioritize #1-3 more

At the end of the day, you are only evaluated based on the actual interview performance itself. Please use the coach wisely :)

All the best!

Hi Ardak,

I highly recommend you do postpone! To take full advantage of the session you want to already be quite knowledgeable in cases.

If they've assigned you a coach for a case, then do a case! Regardless, you should be able to both do a case and ask questions.

Here's some reading to keep in mind as you do your case prep: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/pitfalls-case-interview-preparation

Hi there,

This coaching session is non-evaluative and the earlier you go through it in your preparation the better it is!

It is an offer that was introduced to avoid that candidates come completely unprepared to the interview.

Generally, the feedback you receive is directionally useful, however, not very concrete as these coaching callers are not interviewers.

Cheers,

Florian