Hey there,

The usual application ban for McKinsey is actually 12 to 24 months. 6 months are offered to applicants who showed a strong performance, yet interviewers were not fully convinced.

Based on that you should definitely re-apply.

My recommendations on your resume:

Improve in 2 of the following 4 areas

• Academic records
• Work experience
• Time spent abroad
• Extracurriculars

My recommendations for your case prep:

• Work on your perceived weaknesses so that you do not have to worry about them anymore (e.g., math under pressure in your case). This is the baseline you need to cover for the case as a whole.
• Work on your strengths to create the spikes that make interviews want to hire you. This is the element that differentiates good candidates from candidates who actually receive an offer

Check out the two articles I wrote on the McKinsey interviews to guide your prep:

• Case: https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-interview
• PEI:  https://www.preplounge.com/en/mckinsey-pei

Cheers,

Florian

Hi there, 

Of course there are second changes. There are also third chances and more :) 

There's usually a freeze of 6 months or a year (depending on firm / location) but after that you can apply again. 

The important thing is that you know understand what you should've done differently and can put that into practice. Also, I'd recommend you apply to several firms in order to maximise your chances. 

Hi there,

First of all, this is good news!

Ultimately it can be because they saw something in you that they liked (and felt you were unprepared) and/or they have high demand.

Also, honestly of course you failed! It's almost impossible to succeed if you don't practice live. Next time around please please find partners and case (aim for 20 live cases or more!).

If you're shy/nervous, then get a coach! I help a lot of candidates get more comfortable with their first case (we do a “start-stop” case) so that they can go out and start swimming :)

Agree w/ other experts - “second chances” are common in big-3 interview processes (some after “freeze” period).

- An additional variable that strongly influence amount of “second chances” is supply/demand equilibrium in the single consulting firm office: e.g. if office XYZ has a huge lack of e.g. associates they could be a bit more flexible with freezing periods 

Hope this helps.

It's quite simple where the read from the recruiter is that you have a good profile but you weren't ready for the interview process.  Their role is to be a filter to ensure candidates are sufficiently prepared.  If you are still interested, I would practice (with partners this time) and have another try.  You should be doing so for the actual interview preparation either way and so there's not wasted effort going in!