Preparation Plan for Mckinsey

Hi there, 

What was the reason you failed in the first round? Make sure you prioritize your efforts and focus on improving these areas.

Approach

For the case interview, 

• practice with peers and coaches as soon as possible. This will help you to focus on the right areas. You get feedback and understand how you come across during the case problem-solving.
• don't learn and force random frameworks on cases. Rather create your own like consultants usually do on the job or make sure they really fit.
• learn structuring your approach and communicate very well.

For the PEI interview,

• prepare 2 stories per dimension in detail.
• choose the rights stories that demonstrate the skills the interviewer wants to see.
• allow the interviewer to understand your thought patterns. (e.g., Why did you act a certain way? Why did you think you could influence that stakeholder using this strategy?)

Time

It really depends on your current areas of improvement.

When preparing for the interviews, it is so important to do it strategically and prioritize well. There is no point in spending many months and weeks going through cases mindlessly.

Please reach out if you have more questions.

Good luck!

Hi there,

I would recommend the following steps to maximize the likelihood of an invitation and offer (you have probably covered already some of them in your previous prep):

1. Define a calendar for your preparation. Check the deadlines for the application (if any) and when you can reapply due to the ban. Then 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. Many candidates need 100+ hours to be ready before the interview so you can keep that as a benchmark. I would not limit the preparation to McKinsey only, unless you have very strong reasons, to maximize your chances to get at least an MBB offer.
2. 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.
3. 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 insights. Try to read a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the information with constant learning.
4. 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. 
5. Keep track of your mistakes and see which ones you are repeating. If so, try to identify the source of the mistake (feedback from experienced partners would be particularly useful for this). Be sure to focus on both the behavioral part and the case part during the mocks. For McKinsey, you will have to prepare the PEI stories on the 3 usual dimensions. The case part should also cover market sizing (yes, in some offices they may ask estimation questions also at McKinsey, contrary to what is sometimes mentioned online), math and graph analysis.
6. Before your application, be sure to review your CV and Cover, so that they are in the required format for a consulting application and you can emphasize the learnings from the previous one.
7. At least 3 weeks before the application deadline, start networking to find referrals. You can find some tips here: 
8. In case you have to prepare for the Imbellus/Solve/PSG game, you can find a video simulation + pdf guide on how to crack every game in the most efficient way here (full disclosure: I am the author;) ): 
9. Before the interviews, be sure to prepare your questions for the interviewer  – a great way to show you prepared in advance and to connect with the interviewer for a good final impression.

If you want to spend a few hours only instead of 100+ and cover everything mentioned above, I developed a program precisely for that. 

I can also share with you real McKinsey questions asked in your target office (I have a db with 1.400+ questions asked in 60+ offices you won't find anywhere else - you can check on my profile if I cover your particular office).

You can check the program at the following link to learn more:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/case-coach/profile/2433#coaching-package

If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.

Best,

Francesco

Hey there,

Many McKinsey consultants actually make it on the second try. :-)

As regards your re-application. The ban period for full-time positions is usually 24 months. This can be expedited with 

• a strong referral
• significant developments on your resume (work, school, extracurricular, experience abroad)

If you are currently employed, the sweet spot of preparing is 8-12 weeks. This gives you time to practice without burning out.

How would I approach it?

1. Read the 2 articles I wrote on the McKinsey interviews to get started.

1. Case: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-interview
2. PEI: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/mckinsey-pei

2. Conduct structure, chart, and math drills; work on your perceived areas of weakness and the areas you got negative feedback on during your previous application more so than on the other areas. Your goal should be to create a strong baseline performance across all question types and stand out in 1-2 specifically.

3. Practice with other experienced peers. Quality over quantity and I would recommend in total maybe 20 peer interviews

4. Read through McKinsey publications to get a feel for their language, phrases, communication, current hot topics, etc.

5. Draft your PEI stories as per the article linked above. Write 2 stories for each dimension and practice them out loud

6. If you want to speed the process up and know how a real McKinsey interview is done from start to finish with a clear process and all the tricks you need to know to perform at your best, let me know.

In total, I would invest between 100-150 hours over 12 weeks. That amounts to around 8-12 hours a week. Don't forget to include breaks to reset your mind.

If you are not working, you can decrease the prep time to 6-8 weeks.

All the best with your application!

Cheers,

Florian

Hi there, 

I would focus on the whole journey:

1. Prepare a very appealing CV and Cover letter, why this time you would be the right candidate (powerful stories, great achievements, etc.)

2. Ask on the feedback from your previous interview, what went well and what didn't to focus on improving on

3. Forget standardized frameworks, understand them, but learn to create your solution (as the consultants do)

4. Practice with peers

5. Get a good coach to teach you how to structure problems but make sure you don't learn framework or phrases by hard without understanding why. This is an important point, it is why many people fail interviews, trying to use standardized frameworks and applying what someone did. The case is your journey, your solution. 

I am a top BCG trainer, teaching newly onboarded BCGer consulting skills including problem-solving, if you want to find more, please feel free to reach out. 
Good luck!

Lucie

Was this answer helpful?

Hey there,

So there's two elements to this:

1. Re-applying: There is indeed a ban period for those who failed the interviews. Depending on your case, this ban could be between 1 and 2 years. After this period, McKinsey expects you to have added some impressive items on your CV that provide evidence that you have what it takes to pass the interview this time around. Question to you: when did you last apply, for what role, was there any kind of feedback, and what have you been doing since then?
2. Interviewing: If you have a basis already and want to commit to a really solid preparation, I would set aside at least 8 weeks full time to prepare. The actual time it will take you to prepare depends on details that we are not aware of, so take it as a very rough estimate. Also, consider starting to prepare prior to applying. Worst case scenario would be an invitation for a 2nd shot and you don't have enough time to prepare.

Hope this provides some perspective. Let me know if there's anything more specific you'd like to discuss!

Your question is not a proper one. 
In order to assess how much time you need to prepare, you need to understand where are your weak spots. 
Passing an interview for the sake is not the goal. The goal is to mature and become a better person THANKS to the interview process in order to be ready as a future consultant.
Therefore, I suggest that you should list the areas in which you are weak, and devise a plan for each of them. Be conscious that our brain cannot work on several things at the same time. So focus on the most complex issue first.
If you wanna discuss it, feel free to schedule a meeting with me.

Hello!

It´s great that you are focusing on cases, but don´t forget about FIT! It´s actually the reason many people are rejected in consulting unfortunately.- 

If you want to deep dive on the topic, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB" has been recently published in PrepLounge´s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34)

It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Furthermore, you can find a Expert Article on PreLounge fully dedicated to Behavioural questions, one of the key building blocks of FIT: 

https://www.preplounge.com/en/behavioral-interview-questions

In adition to that, you can find 2 free cases in the PrepL case regarding FIT preparation (motivational quesitons and Intro & CV questions:

Intro and CV questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/introduction-and-cv-questions-fit-interview-preparation-200

Motivational questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/motivational-questions-fit-interview-preparation-201

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the Integrated FIT Guide, since we still have some left from the launch

What you have to do depends on what you did wrong (or didn't do) last time. You should already know the basics at this point, so your plan needs to be focusing on those weaknesses areas, rather than spending a lot of time in a “generic” effort. 

You need “purposeful” / “deliberate” practice at this point to improve - so make sure to develop a customized plan.

I was told by McK recruiters in Germany that McK does not consider re-applications when your CV hasn't substantially changed in between. They aim for about a year between applications in case you apply for the same position.
The idea is that it takes time to improve to a level they would like to see.

Hi there,

The short answer is you need to identify what you did wrong, what your weaknesses were, and look to address them. Ultimately a coach would be well-advised and going it alone didn't work the first time.

When you think about EV (Expected Value) there are huge returns on coaching…even a 5% increase in odds is worth $8,000…in one year (5% times 160k salary).

Do it right this time - get someone to show you how :)

Here's some material to get you started: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/interviewer-led-mckinsey-style/advanced/mckinsey-digital-bcg-platinion-oil-gas-upstream-technology-196