McKinsey Operations -- Specialist, Logistics and Transportation (FINAL ROUND)

Hi there,

I was part of McKinsey's TTL (Travel, Transportation, and Logistics) practice and have helped quite a few people in this area so I might shed some light on this.

My advice would be not to fully trust HR here. They have your best interests in mind but are not necessarily in the know on each individual interviewer's cases.

In general, your chances for practice-related vs. non-domain relevant cases are 50/50 since

• the McKinsey case is all about your approach and thinking, not about domain-relevant expertise
• interviewers, who usually build the case on their job experience, have had a time before they joined the practice or even while working in the practice might do non-practice related engagements
• even if its an industry-related case, there are tons of different functions within that industry that could be quite far away from what you might expect

Focusing only on one segment of cases usually leads to bad experience and performance. Rather focus on how to solve McKinsey cases, regardless of context and industry.

Have a look at this article to learn more: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-interview

Or reach out if you have specific questions. Happy to help! :-)

Cheers,

Florian

Hey Patrick,

Ok, so yes you should be prepared for generalist cases, but honestly I would definitely index more heavily on Ops.

I've found that Ops specialist interviews are less likely to have generalist cases than other specialist interviews (like Energy, Healthcare, Tech, etc.).

I've supported heaps of candidates in Ops roles/interviews so feel free to reach out for support!

Good luck!

Hi there, 

Definitely don't prepare only Ops cases. Interviewers are under no obligation to give you cases from within the function that you are applying to. Some come up with the case on the spot. Aim to train across both industry and topic combinations so as to build integrated knowledge. 

Dear candidate,

the short answer is be prepared for all cases but obviously prep for operations topics as well as given what HR said, you will get at least one more Ops case and they expect you to have industry knowledge. A great way to do this, is to practise all the ops cases on preplounge and then scan the other free case books and pick out cases of this topic. So for example when practising with a peer on Preplounge, give them the case to practise beforehand and that way you will get a lot of training. Many peers will be willing to give you a specific case, if it helps you. Alternatively you can ask them to prepare any ops case they know, whichever they are fine with.

Best of luck :) well done for having made it already so far.

Best regards,

Hi Patrick,

I helped several candidates to land offers at McKinsey Operations.

Most likely you will have at least one case related to Operations. However you could have other types of cases as well. It is difficult to predict how many exactly - I helped candidates that had 1 case out of 3 on operations and candidates who had all of them on that vertical.

In case you have other questions please feel free to PM me.

Best,

Francesco

I would approach all cases in the same manner you would a regular case, irrespective of the role or specialization you are interviewing for. 

The core fundamentals do not change: (1) ask clarifying questions,  (2) address how you are going to tackle the problem, (3) take your time and guide and engage your interviewer through your logic, asking questions where applicable, (4) highlighting your insights as you walk through the case, (5) summarize the case and outline next steps. 

I did not interview candidates for specialized roles myself when I was at the firm, but it would surprise me that they would expect anything different in terms of how to approach the case. 

All the best!

Daniel. 

(edited)