Hey there,

This is usually possible. Every McKinsey office handles this a bit differently, however. I can tell you from the DACH region that it is no problem at all and happens quite frequently because candidates

• feel they are not prepared enough
• have a cold / the flu

While in the first case, it is a bit questionable since you probably knew that you are not ready for the interview already last week, being sick is outside of your control...

I would just call HR and ask them about the process for your specific office and situation.

If you want to prepare for McKinsey, have a look at the following articles I wrote:

1. McKinsey Case Interview
2. McKinsey PEI Interview

Cheers,

Florian

Hi there,

Congrats on getting an interview!

1. is it ok to ask to reschedule the Interview, and for how long is it appropriate, and is “not having enough time to prepare” a valid reason?

If you are recruiting via school channels (i.e. interviewing at the same time as your classmates), you cannot normally reschedule. If you are recruiting outside of a recruiting channel, then you can often reschedule (you just need to ask). When asking, yes, you can essentially say you would like more time to be properly prepared.

2. what is the best way to nail it, in preparation, as there are so many materials?

The BEST way? Coaching. Hands down. If you really want to maximize your odds, coaching will get you there. (Think about what a 20, 30, 40, 50% increased offer chance is worth to you).

If you're not going the coaching route, then you need to case frequently with peers, and pick the right online resources to help you. Be careful, lots of resources are helpful, but lots are not (and are misleading). You need to come up with a plan and be smart! Again, a coach can help you avoid these mistakes and use your time optimally.

3. How to expand my knowledge in business, industries, etc in order to understand cases better.

I recommend to my candidates daily reading (Robinhood Snacks, The FT, BCG insights). Additionally, I have 20+ industry deep-dives - feel free to message for these.

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

And some fit reading as well: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question

Hi there,

1) Is it ok to ask to reschedule the Interview, and for how long is it appropriate, and is “not having enough time to prepare” a valid reason?

It is totally fine to ask to reschedule. 

You should estimate the extra time needed and ask if that’s fine – no reason to ask for 1 week if you think you need 3 – worst case they will say what you asked is not feasible. 

You can ask if for personal reasons it would be possible to postpone – no need to provide extra details if not specifically requested.

2) what is the best way to nail it, in preparation, as there are so many materials?

I would recommend this:

▶ How to Prepare for McKinsey

3) How to expand my knowledge in business, industries, etc in order to understand cases better.

If you work with a coach he/she may have material on that – personally I provide my candidates with a 62-page Industry Cheat Sheet with the info they need on the different sectors. 

If you don’t work with a coach, your best bet is to do cases related to the industries you are not familiar with to improve your knowledge of those sectors.

Good luck!

Francesco

Hey there,

Congrats on securing your first round of interviews! I'll add below some thoughts against each of your questions. 
 

1. is it ok to ask to reschedule the Interview, and for how long is it appropriate, and is “not having enough time to prepare” a valid reason?

It okay to reschedule as no candidate is ever rejected or penalized because of interview logistics. Regarding the reason, you can mention that it's a busy period and that you will need more time to get properly read.

2. what is the best way to nail it, in preparation, as there are so many materials?

I think the simplest way of breaking this down is:

A- Theory: here I would recommend reading ‘case in point’ or going through Victor Cheng material. The goal would be to understand the typical interview structure, the types of cases and the frameworks for each. 
 

B- Practice, practice, practice: I can't stress enough on the importance of switching from theory to practice. Through books and articles, you will learn a fraction of what a real life mock interview teaches you (with peers and coaches). It's only when you are put in these real setups than you'll know exactly how it feels to be in the actual interview. The interviewer can test your behavior, your conceptual skills, your analytical skills and more, all under the pressure and pace of a real interview. 

3. How to expand my knowledge in business, industries, etc 
 

You don't need to know the details of each industry as long as you do some high leve readings online to cover the basics. Typically, McKinsey case studies are not very technical from an industry angle. You should however get more familiar with business terms and frameworks which is the purpose of the theory phase mentioned above.

Once you get to the practice stage, or even in parallel, I highly recommend you train with coaches as well. 
 

Happy to chat more and wishing you the best!

Mario

1. Is it ok to reschedule?

Yes, you can reschedule. Consulting firms want you to be prepared when you go for the interview, otherwise it's a waste of time for everyone, and also a missed opportunity. They'll be crossing a potentially great candidate…

So yes, you can ask for more time. Stating that it is because you want to be 100% prepared and you know that takes time is perfectly fine.

2. How to prepare 

You should start by getting familiar with what a case interview is. Go to the resources section in this website, and you have a lot of material in there, including frameworks, relevant concepts and tutorial videos. You should at least skim through those. 

Going through Victor Cheng's videos and book (Case Interview Secrets) is also a good primer, with one MAJOR CAVEAT. Case interviews are not about knowing a few frameworks. Having a structured approach is not the same as having a framework. As such, you can look at frameworks, they are good food for thought when considering your own structure, but they are a fundamentally wrong way to approach cases (or at least not the best one, as it actually is more labor intensive and has lower probability of success). You need to think about what are the questions that need to answered in order to make a sound decision, not the “investigation areas” you need to explore.

You should do the above quickly - your first 2 to 3 days, and then quickly jump into doing a few cases on your own. Target the best cases in the library here. There are some MBA case books out there, but look for the ones with real cases and beware of the recommended answers (if it is quantitative, they are usually correct, but often wrong in coming up with structured approaches).

Also please do a fair ammount of market sizing exercises, as these will necessary cross your way!

After a couple more days on the above, you are ready to move on to live cases. You can use the peer case practice in Preplounge, but even better is to network a bit and find someone who was actually succesful at getting into consulting (ideally who's been on the recruiting side) to give you a few cases.

Finally, the real accelerator here is (good) coaching. Please understand I am not trying to sell my services here, but telling you what is the fastest and most efficient way to get ready. But having someone to guide who knows this stuff is definitely a good accelerator. People who were successful in passing the interviews don't necessarily know how to give you highly actionable advice nor what a recruiter is looking for. Having said this, please note that what you need is a coaching session, not (just) an interview simulation. These are different things (validate what you're getting before you book a session).

3. How to expand knowledge in business

This is a tough one, as it is more like a marathon and not a sprint. Reading business paper (focus on business not on financial topics), browsing through MBB articles and reading a few of them that catch your attention can be useful. But to be honest, doing cases might be the best shortcut here, as it exposes you to a strong degree of situations and may give you the basics to later on better understand any articles. Another good option is to read the information available on MBA Case books. For example, the ones from Darden usually have a slide per industry explaining its basics.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your preparation!

Hi there, 

Congrats on approaching the interviews! 

Many candidates struggle with a similar problem, so let me take your questions one by one and discuss what has helped others:

1. Basically, there are 3 main ways of asking for a postponement, going from the least likely to work to the most likely: a) I need more time to prepare b) I'm struggling personally and professionally and I don't think I will be at my best by the suggested interview date so I need more time or c) I am sick / got Covid and will not be able to attend the interview in the next few days. None of my candidates which have used b) or c) have yet been denied a postponement. 

In terms of how much time to ask for, my suggestion would be not to ask for time at all. Instead, just tell the interviewer that you're very excited about the role, and if they don't mind, you'll be the one reaching out in a couple of weeks so you find a new date. Again, this tends to work quite well. 

2. Not surprisingly, learning by doing is a great day of getting better at casing. Coaches can help accelerate the path and increase significantly the possibility of securing an offer. 

3. I advocate for an organic way of developing knowledge. As in, don't go around trying to read random papers, academic articles or business journals unless you are actually interested in the topic. Instead, just do cases and with time you'll learn more and more from them. The interview itself isn't assessing your knowledge, but your skills, so that's where your self-development focus should go as well. 

Best,

Cristian

Congratulations on getting the interview! 

You can absolutely ask to reschedule, but saying that you're not prepared is not a great reason. Other reasons can be: 

• I can't make that date as I have a work / school commitment that I cannot get out of (you'll have to say what the commitment is and why you can't get out of it);
• I am unwell (I recommend for the sake of karma not using this one if this isn't the case!)
• I'm am under a huge amount of stress at the moment which will pass by x date for y reason, is it possible to reschedule

In terms of prep, I recommend:

1. PEI

• There are three categories of PEI questions - leadership, personal impact (when have you done great things and how did you do them); and entrepreneurship
• You want to develop at least 2 stories for each area and be prepared to talk about them in depth

2. Cases

• You'll want to have a few high level frameworks in mind so that you can easily structure your answers - Case in Point is a good book to give you a few high level ones. That being said it's a bit convoluted - I can share some simpler ones that I've used if that'd be helpful.
• However, don't get stuck on frameworks! You need to be able to answer the questions without giving a generic answer. The McKinsey website is a good place to go for a few high level practice questions.
• You need to be able to do basic mental maths - 12 times tables, be comfortable multiplying and dividing big numbers (e.g., lots of 00s), know how to calculate percentages
• You then want to practice a few cases. You can link up with other candidates here to do that; or for more targeted and experienced feedback hiring a coach can be really helpful (obviously I'd say that, I'm biased, but I think it is!)

There are many other tips and tricks but I won't make this answer any longer - let me know if I can help at all. And good luck!