All questions tagged Final Round - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

1. He's looking for the exact same things that a case is setup to test - he just wants to do it in a quicker/different way. You want to stay structured, clearly articulate your thinking, and drive to a clear answer.

2. Sounds positive, but you never know. Just focus on everything else in your life and don't think about it too much.

Nothing really specific about Strategy& compared to other consultancies. Probably a case but not always, definitely a huge portion of fit (higher weighting than in the 1st round). Partners want to make sure they can put you in front of the client without making the company look bad, or that you can build rapport with various types of people.

Remember, they invite you back because your profile & potential is of interest to them - and you have now proven that you can do a case.

Congrats on 2nd round, good luck.

As an ex-Mckinsey consultant and part of recruiting team, here is my perspective:

How do these interviews with the partners differ from the first round interviews?

Every partner discussion is different and the direction the conversation takes depends on role that you are interviewing for, feedback that the partner has got from earlier rounds and of course the Partner’s personality.

However, generally it is advisable to keep the following things in mind.

1) Are the cases delivered with the same style of precision and structure as the first round?

- A lot of times, the Partner round case discussions are less structured. Partners tend to give real life case from their experience or sometimes they can also pick a situation from the candidate’s CV, make a few changes and turn it into a case.

2) Is the Fit format consistent with the PEI, or do the partners take these conversations in different directions?

- Generally, Partners will hit fewer topics but will go much deeper. So they will ask you about something and then you should expect a lot of follow on questions. They really want to understand the full story

3) Generally, what portion of the hour-long session is dedicated to the case study?

- approx. 30-40 minutes

3) What personality traits are most important to demonstrate with the partners?

See the answer below.

Keep the following things in mind while preparing for the Partner interview:

Better synthesis – Your analytical mindset has already been tested in earlier rounds. Partners would like to test your client readiness. Partners pay more attention to how you draw your conclusions, communicate your conclusions, how you synthesis etc.

Comfort with less structured case discussion – Partners love to test your creativity, out of the box thinking. Multiple times in the discussion they can ask you your opinion on the data point/clarification that you had asked, to check your business acumen e.g. you asked, what is the growth rate of our client; partner responds what number would you want to assume? or open ended questions e.g. tell me more, is there anything else?

Consistent stories and deep dives – Partners would want to know your story. They want to see whether your decision to join McKinsey is consistent with your career story. Whether the achievements you have mentioned on the CV are consistent with your project stories. Partners will drill down into your experiences and achievements to the extreme. They want to understand how you react to challenges and how you think and communicate about your past work.

Feel free to get in touch with me in case of further clarification/advise on this topic.

All the best!

Hello, and congrats!

In a nutshell, the structure should be the same one as the one you have seen so far in the 1st round. However, this is the theory, and in practice some things may change:

• 2nd round is much more "unstructured", driven by the fact that is conducted by much more senior people than the 1st round. Given their wide experience, they can go off the normal "script", which translates into creative FIT and Business cases.
• FIT is very important, and sometimes it´s given even more time than in the 1st round. In line with my 1st point, FIT can be a bit more "improvised" and with questions that are not the classical ones. However, it should go in line with the 3 main leadership principals tested:
  • Personal impact: Developing and implementing sound recommendations requires the involvement and support of many individuals. Skills interacting with people, sometimes in tough situations, are critical to driving distinctive client impact.
  • Entrepreneurial drive: We look for people with an entrepreneurial spirit: innovative by nature, always creating new approaches, products, services, and technologies.
  • Leadership Abilities: We seek people who strive to lead themselves, their teams, and their communities, and who can foster effective teamwork to drive results.

To prep for it, I would recommend you to work with experienced candidates -who have been at least once in a Round 2 interview- or with a coach, to tackle the off-the-guidelines questions.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi,

In general, the interviews at Accenture are not that structured:

• Pls double check - I believe you might still have a case
• No clear guidelines for cases, so the case depends on the interviewer
• 60% chance that it will be marketsizing
• 40% chance - profitability and general frameworks
• Interviewers are less demanding than at Big3. unless you meet an ex-big3 consultant as an interviewer
• For fit I would prepare: Story about yourself; Why consulting; Why Accenture; Leadership; Team work; Your questions to the interviewer

Best

Dear A,

it's very similar to the first round, although partners will pay more attention to cases and your personal fit to the company.

Wish you best of luck,

André

Hi,

First of all, they don't share the feedback before the final round.

Secondly, in the final round, I would expect a bit more structured and demanding approach to the fit part. The partners in the last round are more experienced and they will challenge every single detail of your story. So make sure that you have a couple of backup stories.

Third both in Mck and BCG I would expect some partners to give interviewee-led cases, so you need to be prepared for that approach

For all the companies "your questions to the interviewer" is an important part. Basically, it is a chance to ask questions at the end of the interview after the case. The last impression is always important. It's a free chance to demonstrate your smartness and curiosity to the partner of the company. It is also an opportunity to express your interests and mention extra-curricular activities beyond the fit interview topics.

Here are some recommendations on how to build a business sense since you got that feedback:

Building Business Sense is actually about building industry and functional knowledge.

Focus on the most common industries in the following priority (sorted by probability of getting a case): 1-retail and CPG; 2-airlines; 3-Telecom; 4-banking; 5-natural resources; 6-tech

There are several sources of info to develop business sense:

1) Cases - you simply solve 50-70 cases and get a broad knowledge of different industries, common pitfalls and questions. The key here - find good partners who already had case interviews with MBB companies

2) Company reports, equity reports, IB roadshow docs - usually have a good overview of company and industries. One of the best sources to prepare

3) HBS cases - quite useful, but not sure if lot's of them available publically. Probably worth buying

4) Books - one good book about airlines with numbers and industry analysis can give you all needed industry knowledge

5) News, Industry blogs

For each industry, you should understand:

• Revenue streams
• Cost structure
• Margins
• Key performance indicators
• Key revenue drivers
• Industry trends

I strongly recommend practice drawing structures for each industry - profitability, value chain, etc

Then I will switch to getting functional knowledge and key concepts in:

• Marketing (Brand and trade marketing tools, etc)
• Supply chain (Ops metrics like cycle time and throughput time, distribution and delivery specifics, etc)
• Finance (Basic Accounting and Valuation)

Good Luck

Hi there,

the structure of the rounds is the same (fit + case+ your questions); however there is more emphasis on communication and fit.

Specifically, the main differences you will find in a final round with partners is that at that stage they:

1. spend more time on fit questions and your alignment with the company
2. check more closely your communication (eg how you react to challenging questions)
3. may not have a “proper” structured case to present – during one of my MBB finals I had one interview which was made by two market sizing questions and a brainteaser, without any business case. That's because during the final they know you can structure and crack a case (you passed few interviews already) and are more interested in your logic, personality and fit with the company

So in order to prepare I would concentrate on:

• Review in detail your PEI stories – they will matter more than in the first round. In some finals I had almost exclusively behavioral questions
• Work on your communication (reaction under pressure, how to gain time when you do not have a structure ready, connect with the interviewer, etc). This is something you can do almost exclusively in interviews with peers.
• Prepare cases as you did for the first round. More market sizing practice may be useful to think outside the box if you get unusual questions.

In case you need help with unusual cases please feel free to PM me, I do a specific session on them (eg How would you estimate the effect of the Coronavirus on the economy in China)?

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

Everything you have learned in classic casing applies here. This means:

1) Be very clear on the objective

2) Form several hypothesis

3) Figure out which informations matters - ruthlessly eliminate any data/charts that don't matter. What matters = what presents the strongest argument to support your hypothesis

4) Wireframe/storyline your presentation first - Before you start making your presentation, what ar ethe headers? What is the flow? What data will you use?

If you want to practice for this, feel free to reach out to me. I can provide you with a simulation whereby I provide you with a prompt and few dozen charts/exhibits, we timebox your response, and then we evaluate + talk through what you could have done better.

Good luck!

Hi there,

Final rounds are generally less technical and more into general business sense and getting to know you better.

The partner can choose to have a standard case or can choose to go for something out of the box - the thing you need to remember is that handling curve balls and the ability to stay composed are crucial to passing these rounds.

I hope this helps

Khaled

Hello!

Sorry to hear about this, I can imagine your frustration.

I had not heard about any of these cases happening in MBB, but we just had one of these in Amazon.

The candidate interviewed just fine but the position was filled, hence you have a candidate who should have an offer but no vacant job.

I would trust them, and I believe should be solved in a matter of weeks. For Amazon at least, when they say something like this, they mean it, it´s not one of these cases in which you will never hear back.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi,

It has no difference with the final round McKinsey interviews in any other country.

In the final round, I would expect a bit more structured and demanding approach to the fit part. The partners in the last round are more experienced and they will challenge every single detail of your story. So make sure that you have a couple of backup stories. Thus:

1) Make sure that you've prepared everything: A story about yourself, motivational questions and the main FIT stories. Also, don't forget about your questions to the interviewer - you'd rather have an interesting conversation and score some point instead of a simple Q&A session

2) Then go through each story and think of the additional questions the interviewer may ask. It’s important since additional questions will take up to 50% of the interview. Try to remember the main details and facts and make sure that you know how to explain the key concepts quickly. Test your stories with your friends, ideally consultants, and ask for their feedback. There can be multiple groups of additional questions:

• The interviewer may be interested in details about the context
• He may want to check whether this was your effort or more sort of a team effort.
• “Have you faced any difficulties while implementing your solution?”- Typically an interviewer would like you to tell him how you’ve overcome those difficulties.
• Your interviewer will check how real your story is. You should be ready to provide even more granular actions, key milestones and a breakdown of potential effects.

3) Now work on 3-6 backup stories. During your interviews, you can then use these stories or adapt these stories to the additional questions your interviewer asks you.

You may be interested, why you need to prepare several stories for each question? At the end of the day, it's not that easy to come up with all of these stories. I've answered here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/repating-fit-interview-stories-927#a1813

As for the cases - Partners and Directors have their own favorite cases and may even want you to lead the case. The key difference:

1. You ask clarifying questions in the beginning and make a structure
2. You lead the case through the structure you've prepared a) asking questions and trying to identify the root-cause of the problem in the branch of your structure b) making a transition to the next branch c) proactively calculating the data and making data-driven conclusion from the data they give you d) Making a conclusion when they ask you to finish a case

It may seem to you that these 2 types of cases are different, however, the interviewer-led type is just a simplified version of the interviewee-led case. My advice is to always prepare in the interviewee-led format so that you could solve both easily.

Best

Hi mate,

I've recently accepted an offer for McKinsey Sydney so I can give you a more recent assessment of the differences.

I'll breakdown my assessment into the Case interview and the PEI section.

The case interview differred in pace and content. Pace wise they moved quicker, didn't waste time on you rambling and will interrupt you more often. Be prepared of this, the key quote was "if it felt like I was moving quickly, it's because I felt you were doing well, so don't feel flustered as I interrupt and keep moving through the questions." The conversations are fast paced and you should feel ready to quickly outline your hypothesis and start spitballing with your Partner.

Content wise as you would know there is a large packet of case information available to the interviewers. My two Partner interviews barely touched the case information, in fact the Senior Partner just started talking in a very conversational manner, his exact words to begin the case. "Oh that's interesting, hey since you're interested in the services sector I've got this interesting problem that I hope you can help me with..." It was very fluid, the whole case lasted 15 minutes because it wasn't a structured Q1 Q2 structure.

I think the 2 key take aways from my interview experiences are that while real case practices are the gold standard, having the mental ‘muscle memory’ from talking out loud and being able to critically assess problems was also critical in my success. Furthermore being able to treat the interview as a friendly conversation helps in being more comfortable with the pacing.

Finally, the Personal Experience Interview were different in two ways, weighting and content. Firstly the PEI had more weighting than I expected during my interview rounds, especially the partner interviews. My preparation during first round for PEI was fairly light, writing down a few ‘head line stories’ on a notebook and hoping to be able to discuss the details as the interviewer asked. In reality the PEI section was literally 50% of your 60 minutes, going up to 60-70% in your partner interviews.

The feedback from my round 1 interviewers was that I should brush up on my stories to be more structured and detailed.

Secondly in the partner interviews they structured the questions differently, my final Senior Partner interview went like this:

"Talk about your leadership capabilities, but I want you to imagine you are on the front page of the newspaper, I want to see your 5 word Headline, and three dot points that are 10 words or less that described what you did."

They would ask questions such as “why did you choose to talk to X in this location?”, “what reactions were you looking for when you said that?” Unless you had really thought about your stories, these details would be hard to remember on the spot.

The key take away for the PEI section is that it is definitely a 1:1+ ratio for Case interviews to PEI, and your preparation should reflect this.

Good luck with your prep.

Cheers,

Lucas

Hey there,

Well done on McK final round! I think your plan sounds reasonable - you certainly don't want to burn out by over doing it for 5 weeks.

Some ideas:

• Practice maths a couple times a week - keeping sharp on your mental / quick written arithmetic is important so you shouldn't under estimate this - division, multiplication, percentages, etc. I would also suggest that you review your long divisions - though cases with long division are rare, you don't want to get stuck on a case because you forgot how to long divide!
• Read through cases online - There are hundreds of case books out there. You definitely shouldn't be actually solving all these cases, but reading a couple of cases a day will help you increase your knowledge of cases and types of problems/questions that might be asked.
• Consider scheduling 1-2 sessions with a PrepLounge Expert: I don't just say this because I'm a PrepLounge expert myself - you can choose any expert on the site with a good recommendation rate. No matter how many cases you have done, if you haven't had someone who really knows what they're talking about help you, you will keep making the same mistakes. Additionally, experts can provide a lot of expert tips for how to "shine" in an interview and stand out from the competition. Therefore, with this level of time on your hands, I believe it is a worthy investment to make.
• Last but not least, the day before your interview, don't look at cases anymore - instead try relax, make sure you eat well, and get plenty of sleep!

Good luck with your interviews and your prep!

Alessandro

Hi Anonymous,

the structure of the final round is the same as the first one (fit + case+ your questions); however, there is far more emphasis on communication and fit.

Specifically, the main difference you will find in a final round with partners is that at that stage they:

1. spend more time on fit questions and your alignment with the company
2. check more closely your communication (eg how you react to challenging questions)
3. may not have a “proper” structured case to present – during my final at BCG I had one interview which was made by two market sizing questions and a brainteaser, without any business case. That's because at the final they know you can structure and crack a case (you passed 1 or 2 rounds already) and are more interested in your logic, personality and fit with the company

So in order to prepare I would concentrate on:

• Review in details your fit stories – they will matter more than in the first round. In some finals I had almost exclusively behavioral questions
• Work on your communication (reaction under pressure, how to gain time when you do not have a structure ready, connect with the interviewer, etc). This is something you can test almost exclusively in p2p mocks with peers/experts.
• Prepare on cases as you did for the first round. More market sizing practice could be useful to think out of the box if you get unusual questions.

Cases may be different in terms of geography. My experience in Italy is that final rounds are often related to market sizing, profitability and M&A/Valuation questions. As for the feedback, sure, feel free to ask - as Guennael said, the worst that could happen is that it is not actionable.

Best,

Francesco

Hi,

Congrats on making it to the final round at McK! Quite an achievement already. With regard to your questions, please find here some elements to put you on your way:

- What really changes now compared with the first round? Is it the intensity/complexity of the cases, is it more invoved PEI, etc.?

The cases tend to change a little bit in the sense that they become a little less structured. Principals and partners interviewing for the last round have often more experience in interviewing that EMs / managers during the first round, so they stick a little bit less to a scripted case. The cases can also become a little more conversational. I don’t think this changes the preparation all that much, but you have to get comfortable to receive cases that are a little less conventional. I got one case in the last round at McKinsey that was “Where do you expect health care in Europe to be 10 to 20 years from now”. So it become more a conversation than a case. Now this might not apply to you, but the message is be a little bit more expecting of the unexpected. (ps. This doesn’t require practical knowledge of an industry or special preparation… They still evaluate your thinking process / answer structure / … more than the actual content). Actually, the case and fit blend a bit more together into one hybrid.

- Will the notes from my previous performances be shared with my interviewers for final round?

Often you receive a call of one of the first round interviewers with a summary of the feedback that came out of the first round interviews. If this doesn’t come through, don’t hesitate to contact HR or of the interviewers with a polite email requested feedback for preparing your decisive round. It also shows investment in the process and a willingness to improve!

- In other words, will they try to test me on the specific feedback points that I received to see if I'm showing improvement on those points?

The answer is – as often in consulting – “ it depends”. If there was a particular soft spot(s) during the first round interview and you receive explicit feedback on it (e.g. weak maths, structure, etc.) there might be some more focus on this. If they look for confirmation on a point of doubt, they will pay attention. Alternatively, if the interviews were generally strong, and there were no obvious weaknesses, the interviews will be a bit more balanced and nothing in particular will be tested.

- Any other tips to keep in mind, outside of PEI and Cases?

What I think is important to keep in mind is that – in the last round – the interviewers already know that you’re likely a strong case performer and generally a clever person (otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten through the earlier stages of the recruitment process). So this point of view is yours to lose, in the sense that the default is that they expect strong case performance already. However, to get all the way to a final offer, it becomes more about the assessment of fit within the culture of the company, being generally a professional with client-facing skills, etc. So my advice would be to act like a consultant already, like a professional who is at a problem-solving session with another professional (the interviewer). Don’t approach it like a student-professor exam-situation, where there is always the imbalance between how’s the grown-up and who’s the youngster (figure of speech). So act like you would in that job, with some confidence (watch out: don’t become arrogant!! Big red flag) and a certain gravitas. The more your interview looks like a nice and balanced conversation between two colleagues, the better the odds are to take it all the way!

Good luck!

Wouter*

P4S Expert

Hello,

Depending on the firm the format of the second round may vary (sometimes first round is computer based assesment), but for the sake of this discussion let's assume that second round will be a standard fit interview + case study.

Overall we could sum up the difference with the previous round to a higher level of expectation :

- in many cases, you will be interviewed by consultants with higher seniority (manager/principal), and therefor higer expectations

- while first round is litteraly a first filter, some candidates are invited to second round with a performance that would not be accepted on secound round. The feedback receiced from first round is then valuable to know what area will be specifically tested. In your specific situation its would be a good sign according to me.

- the dimensions tested in particular in secound round would be : confirm there is a real fit with the firm and the candidate has demonstrated a strong presence / and test case study performance especially on structuring and leadership abilities.

Don't hesitat to reach me out if you have more questions

Best

Benjamin

For the fit questions part, you may want to be ready for answering the following questions:

Serhat

Cheers

1. Tell me about yourself
2. Why MBA at that point of career?
3. Why Your school?
4. Why consulting
5. Why Our Company?
6. What would you be doing as a consultant?
7. What is the most important consulting skill?
8. When did you demonstrate it?
9. When was the time when you demonstrated team skills or team work?
10. What was the most important thing you learnt in your earlier job? What skills did you gain in your earlier job which would prepare you for consulting?
11. When did you have to work with data? How are your data analysis skills?
12. Why should we hire you?
13. Have demonstrated all 4 skills that you look for (use examples above)
14. What is the most important thing I should know about you that I cannot learn from your resume?
15. How would a friend or professor / colleague who knows you well describe you?
16. What serves as your biggest motivation? What are the key metrics for measuring success?
17. When did you receive constructive feedback?
18. What are your weaknesses?
19. Which boss / mentor has had a clear influence on you? What do you admire about your previous boss?
20. Follow-up: Constructive feedback –
21. How do you work in a pressure situation / short on time / short on resources
22. What has been your biggest achievement?
23. Link this answer to leadership / problem solving
24. Tell me about a leadership experience
25. Tell me about a time when you had to analyse data
26. Tell me about a time when you had to analyse financial information
27. Tell me about a time when you had to face a challenge
28. Tell me about a time you have failed
29. What are your short term and long term goals?
30. Tell me about a time when you set a goal for yourself and what steps you take to achieve the goal?
31. Describe a situation when you were unable to reach a goal?
32. Tell me about a time when you overcame failure?
33. Have you ever had to change your priorities to meet another person’s expectations?
34. Tell me about the time you had to compromise
35. Tell me about a time when you didn’t meet a deadline
36. Tell me about a time when you had to multi task
37. Tell me about a time when you had to adjust to a project schedule because you did not have enough resources
38. Describe a situation in which you used different communication styles to influence stakeholders with differing perspectives 
39. Tell me about a time when you had to be assertive to get your point across
40. Difficult situation that required careful communication (Crisis Management)
41. Describe most rewarding customer experience
42. Tell me about a time when you had to accept an unreasonable request from a client
43. Dealt with a customer that tested your patience
44. Tell me about a time you took a difficult decision and had to explain it to others / Tell me about a time you took an unpopular decision
45. Tell me about a time you took a quick decision
46. Tell me about a time when you identified a problem and then solved it
47. Tell me about a time when you built a rapport with client / colleague
48. Tell me about a time you resolved a conflict in a team
49. Have you led a team where different members of the team do not work well together? How did you deal with this situation
50. Describe a time you gave constructive criticism to someone
51. Tell me how did you determine priorities / Handling multiple deadlines at the same time? How did you handle the situation
52. How did you deal with ethical dilemmas?
53. Team experience that you found rewarding / Tell me about you had to work in a team to accomplish your goal
54. Team experience that you found disappointing
55. Describe a situation when you were a member of a team (not leader) of a team and conflict arose. What did you do?
56. Team member not pulling his weight. What did you do?
57. What is important in a job environment?
58. Why do you think you can put up with long hours?
59. Tell me about your college experience
60. What else do you do at school apart from studies?
61. How do you manage stress in your life?
62. Favorite Class and grade you got in it
63. What do you read?
64. Fun fact
65. What do you hate the most?
66. Favorite website?
67. Tell me full names of people who interviewed you before
68. Do you have any questions?

Hi there,

If it is only a week, then I'd say it is quite normal. Like Reka mentioned, getting alignment amongst 3 partners could take time. Plus, with the COVID situation still going on, it could take a bit longer than usual.

Best,

Emily

Hi!

There is a whole lot of great questions you can ask. My best advice is to really think through what interests you most about the job, the firm, or the industry! If you have a particular interest (industry sector, nonprofit area, social engagement, etc.) you can ask if there are touch points/adjacent areas in the firm you could explore. Also, make sure to relate your interests and questions to your background and/or career/life objectives.

That being said, here are a couple of example questions – but by no means exhaustive:

1. "Can you tell me about your background, and in particular how you ended up as a [company name] consultant?" (if the interviewer has a rather exotic professional/educational background)
2. "I’d be interested to hear what your most challenging case has been thus far in your career?"
3. "What do you think are the biggest misperceptions that applicants have about consulting?"
4. "I’m really interested in [particular interest, such as public sector consulting or renewable energy]. I’d be interested to hear what you know about that area at [company name]"
5. "I’ve heard from various people who say your firm is [something good about the company] but also that [something bad about the company]. To what extent is this impression accurate?"
6. "If the interviewer has enough tenure: From your position, how do you think the economic cycles have affected the consulting business over the years?"
7. "What was your perspective on [company name] before you came in, and how was that changed in your time there?"
8. "If you could recommend 2 books that all prospective management consultants should read, what would those be?"
9. "When you think back to your university days, what would be the 2 or 3 things that you wish you’d learned that would have better prepared you for the job today?"

Cheers, Sidi