All questions tagged McKinsey PEI - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Hi Anonymous,

the PEI at McKinsey is structured around three key dimensions, leadership, impact and drive. I have provided a description for them below:

1) Leadership is about leading a whole team in a challenging situation and showing team management skills. Questions include:

1. Give me three examples of a time that you lead a group. 

2. What are some key lessons you have learned about motivating people? 


Here you want to emphasize how you overcome a difficult situation leading a team.

2) Personal Impact is mainly based on persuading someone about doing/not doing something. Questions include:

1. Tell me about a time that you persuaded your boss to go along with an idea you had.
2. Tell me about a difficult situation where you had to rely on your communication skills. 


Here you want to emphasize your influence on someone else, usually in disagreement with you.

3) Entrepreneurial Drive is about implementing something overcoming major difficulties. Examples include:

1. What was a situation where you set a major goal and been able to achieve it?
2. What has been your major accomplishment so far?

Here you want to emphasize the achievement you reached and the process that led you there.

Besides the previous dimensions, common questions also include:

• Tell me about yourself
• Why consulting
• Why McKinsey
• Why should we hire you

Best,

Francesco

Hi Justin,

PEI section.
Prepare the stories for each of the sections listed below. Make sure you use top-down approach, where you tell the result first. Be proactive and make sure your stories are worth listening, use body language and eye contact.
Record yourself in a web-cam and look through the recording to see how you can improve.

Please see below a non-exhaustive, but already quite comprehensive, list of potential questions

Entrepreneurial drive

1. What was a situation where you set a major goal and been able to achieve it?
2. Tell me about a time when you achieved a difficult goal
3. What has been your major accomplishment so far?
4. Tell me about a time that you did something innovative

Leadership

1. Give me three examples of a time that you lead a group.
2. What are some key lessons you have learned about motivating people? 

3. Tell me about a time you lead a team through a conflict
4. Tell me about a time you lead a team to achieve a difficult goal
5. Tell me about a time where you were leading a team and you needed to force someone to work when they didn't want to do it

Personal impact

1. Tell me about a time that you persuaded your boss to go along with an idea you had
2. Tell me about a time that you managed upwards
3. Tell me about a time that you changed someone's mind
4. Tell me about a difficult situation where you had to rely on your communication skills
5. Tell me about a time where you dealt with a conflict/crisis/difficult member in your team

Case Interview

Structure your preparation into 2 main blocks: theory and practice

Ist stage. Theory

• Wharton casebook 2010- you can check how all industries work there (airlines,

  retail etc)

• Case-in-point – you can check what frameworks exist, try to practice and learn

  them (product launch, M&A etc.)

• Check how former business consultant approaches different cases with best

  interviewers – listen to at least 3 cases of LOMS

• Check out MECE principle, top-down, bottom-up à pyramid principle (book

  Barbara’s Minto Pyramid) IInd stage.

Practice

• Create your own case schedule (solve at least 1 case per day) with partners in local groups, universities/preplounge (extreme case)

• Structure everything you do (how to go the shop, structure articles you read)

• Solve at least 1 case per each case type you found in case in point

• Learn how to analyze graphs (practice looking at graphs and asking so whats out of them)

• Brainstorming is a must = generate at least 10 ideas on an topic in 30 seconds

I am sure you will make it. You should remember that it is not about the talent, but a practice.

Link to a fulll guide: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DwUwqUu6OwRd1bCVTzRA-6dcvPL2_p91/view?usp=sharing

Pls text me if access is not granted automatically.

Kind regards,
Egor

Hi,

This may be a "cheap" answer but just be prepared for anything! It could be a "quick" case that doesn't have a ton inside it. It could be a couple "framing" questions. It could also, as you mentioned, be a market sizing.

Just be prepared to go with the flow! If they seem to want to skim through the beginning of the case, or they don't care about thorough math, take their direction! As always, expect to 1) Be able to say why consulting/McKinsey and 2) Be tested on your ability to think logically, frame+present thoughts clearly, etc.)

In regards to the PEI...are there any major moments in your life? Did you ever work on a very hard project with many phases?

Hi!

It should have all the things that you've mentions:

1. 1 sentence summary what's the story is about
2. 2-3 sentences of context
3. What was exactly the problem
4. HOW you solved it - 3-5 actions that you've taken
5. IMPACT - should be ideally measurable and impressive

Best

Hi there!

It's a typical question and unfortunately most candidates do not prepare accordingly for the PEI, even though it contributes to ~50% of the overall evaluation - so I am glad that you are proactively tackling this topic!

Definitely, the McKinsey PEI is an interview format of it's own, and there are many many specifics to consider - it's not just talking 'something' about leadership etc.

In order to avoid copy/paste from other sources, you can find on my blog many short articles on the McKinsey PEI to get a much better understanding of this interivew format (https://pei.consulting-case-interviews.com/blog/). For a structured, complete guide to the McKinsey PEI I have summarized everything you need to know for PEI prep also in an ebook (https://pei.consulting-case-interviews.com/).

Hope that helps to get you started!

Robert

Hi,

I recommend the following approach:

1) Start with "Case in point" book - you can download this book for free everywhere. It's not the best guide on how you should approach the cases, however, it will give you the basic understanding.

2) Start practicing cases with partners here or find them locally. !!! Find experienced partners or coaches who can provide a good feedback!!!

3) Purchase and read Viktor Cheng Book (Amazon Kindle store) and listen to LOMS (his website). I recommend to reread the book and listen to LOMS every 15 cases. Every time, having more experience, you’ll be finding something new.

4) Practice fast math

• Learn how to multiply double digit numbers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ndkkPZYJHo)
• Learn the division table up to 1/11 (i.e. 5/6 = 83.3)
• Learn how to work with zeros (Hint: 4000000 = 4*10ˆ6)
• Use math tools (Mimir math for iOS), Math tool on Viktor Cheng website to practice

5) Below you can find a list of the most common case types and some high-level recommendations on structuring:

• Market sizing - structuring from the supply or demand side. Structuring using a formula or using an issue tree
• Profitability - basic profitability framework. Remember about different revenue streams and product mix
• Market context cases (Market Entry, New product, Acquisition, etc). Always start with the big picture "market". Finish with something specific to the case (e.g. How to enter?"). Structure it as if you are defining the work streams for the real project.
• Operational math problem (e.g. Should we increase the speed of an elevator or just buy a second one? How should we reduce the queues? Etc.) - Structuring as a process / value chain, with inflows, operations, and outflows
• Cost cutting - I provided the recommendations on structuring it here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/operations-cases-mck-1105#a2134
• Valuation - Purely financial structure with cash flows, growth rate, WACC / hurdle rate, etc.
• Synergies - revenue synergies (price, qty, mix) and cost synergies (value chain).
• Social / economics cases (e.g. How to improve the quality of life in the city? How to increase the revenues of the museum?) - huge variability. Practice 3-5 social cases before the interview

6) Also, I would try to 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

7) ! Important: don't forget about the FIT interview part. Crafting you stories and backups stories will require a couple of weeks!

PS

Here is a good list of articles regarding the different parts of the case:

1) Start with clarifying questions:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/clarifying-questions-1786#a3956

2) Communicating while structuring. Here is a long post by me on how to communicate the structure during the case study:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-communicate-its-structure-for-the-case-study-1313#a2806

3) Using hypothesis. I made a post about hypothesis here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-state-a-hypothesis-and-match-to-the-structure-1156#a2268

4) Communicating while making calculations:

• Always tell the interviewer your approach
• Check with the interviewer that your approach is correct
• Come to the interviewer with some preliminary answers
• Check your assumptions with the interviewer

5) Communicating during the analysis of graphs / tables

• Take a minute to look at the graph. Read the graph title. Look at the graph type and define the type (pie chart, line chart, etc). Look at the legend (ask for clarifying questions if necessary). Identify whats going on on the graph. Look for: Trends, % structures. Look for unusual things - correlations, outliers,
• Make 3-4 conclusions from the graph. Think out loud on potential hypothesis on what could be the root cause / what are the consequences
• Prioritize the most important for your current analysis and move forward with the case

6) Communicating while having questions on creativity

• Ask an interview for a minute to think
• Think of several buckets of ideas (e.g. organic growth / non-organic growth / differentiation). Remember to think as big as possible
• Narrow down to each bucket and generate as many ideas as possible
• Present the structure (buckets) and then your ideas

7) Communicating your conclusion. You can find a good example I've posted here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-much-answer-first-should-the-conclusion-be-1231#a2493

8) Communicating your FIT stories

Use the top-down approach while communicating your stories. "The Pyramid Principle" is the must-read by ex McKinsey on this topic.

I recommend using the STAR framework:

• In Situation, you should briefly provide the context, usually in 1 or 2 sentences
• Task usually includes 2 or 3 sentences describing the problem and your objective.
• Then you provide a list of specific actions you took to achieve the goal. It should take 1 or 2 sentences per action (Usually 3-4 actions). Note that the interviewer can stop you any minute and ask for more details.
• The results part should have 1 or 2 sentences describing the outcomes. This part is finalizing your story - make sure it can impress the interviewer and stay in the memory.

Best!

I'm not very impressed with the idea either. I understand what you mean, getting an interview at MBB can seem like an achievement (and isn't easy by any means) - but you got it and are not interviewing it so basking in that glory isn't very constructive... and would even come off as brown nosing.

I'd be much more excited about your story if it applied to getting into a selective university program for example.

Here's my list of topics and # of stories per topic I send to my clients specifically for MBBs:

2 for influence

2 for team

2 for adversity

2 for problem solving

2 for initiative

Hi,

I believe you worry about a phantom here! This is really not what is on the mind of ANY interviewer at McKinsey! They want to know why they should hire you NOW, and will not be interested in why or why not you may have applied to McKinsey several years ago. My tip: please focus on the important parts of the fit interview! These have been discussed at length here in this Q&A section.

Cheers, Sidi

I'd argue both, since these are the same behavior hidden under two general concepts. Mentoring means helping someone perform something they didn't know how to do / do well. Unlike a traditional classroom teaching however, mentoring is more akin to taking you by the hand and showing you the path. The meentee will be coached, trained and the behavior will change as a result

Hi Cloe,

The best way to prepare for McKinsey PEI is PARADE method. The best way I suggest my students is EOfit:

1. Write down all the stories in a given format (link to format is below)
2. Use your webcam to record yourself
3. Watch your videos and find out the weakest parts of them/send them to friends
4. Improve your stories/presentation based on the comments

NB: Your stories should be interesting and you should be full of enthusiasm while telling them.

I attach the link to a file:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jck_fQA0FVF3LdxU8teXAvoAsy6-8OSM/view?usp=sharing

All the best,

Egor

1) I have done 1000+ interviews and I can remember probably 50 or so PEI stories. Every single one that I remember are personal stories. I can't remember a single one about a work situation. So, absolutely feel free to tell personal stories. In final round decision meetings (not usually in first round decision meetings, which is what most, if not everyone on PrepLounge have been exposed to) Partners love to recount the personal stories. However, your going to work in a business environment helping business clients. So, a majority of your stories should be business based. Sprinkle in 1 or 2 personal stories if the opportunity arises.

2) The short answer is YES, as long as it is a great one.

Hi,

Don't think about the time, since the interviewer will be interrupting you with the additional question. I recommend the following approach:

1. One sentence summary to give the interviewer the idea of what the story is about. Thus if it's not the right right story - he will tell you up front instead of interrupting in the middle.
2. In Situation, you should briefly provide the context, usually in 1 or 2 sentences
3. The problem usually includes 2 or 3 sentences describing the problem and your objective.
4. Then you provide a list of specific actions you took to achieve the goal. It should take 1 or 2 sentences per action (Usually 3-4 actions). Note that the interviewer can stop you at any minute and ask for more details.
5. The results part should have 1 or 2 sentences describing the outcomes. This part is finalizing your story - make sure it can impress the interviewer and stay in the memory.

It is important that the Interviewers will drill down into your story to understand the dynamics, your reactions and decisions and most of all the rationale behind them. They will follow up with other questions as you tell your story to make sure they understand it in enough detail. I recommend preparing for these additional questions in advance.

Best,

Vlad

Hi Anonymous,

I have replied to your questions below:

- is it done before resolving the case?​

Yes, the PEI is the starting part of the interview and includes the first 10-15 minutes.

- how many questions are asked? one main questions? A big question (e.g., tell me about a time you had to convince someone) and some follow-up questions based on my answer? or different questions not related to each other?

Normally 2 to 3 different questions, according to the level of details the interviewer wants / followup questions he/she will ask

- how much does the PEI part last? 15 minutes?

The range is normally 10-15 minutes.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi Anonymous,

in general if you are unable to answer a PEI question – even mentioning you did not have such experience - you will lose points in the fit part. That’s based on the expectation that an appropriate candidate will have:

• Sufficient leadership experiences
• Sufficient impact experience
• Sufficient drive experience

The questions in the PEI part are normally broad enough so that every good candidate should be able to derive a story. Eg if the ask you about an entrepreneurial drive experience, you don’t need to provide evidence of founding your own company – organizing an event in your university, managing a college club or leading some relevant extracurricular activities could be enough. In an equivalent way, every candidate is expected to develop a good story for working in groups and having to lead the group through challenges.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi,

The typical questions are:

1. “Tell me about yourself” or “walk me through your resume”- this is how Consultants usually begin the interview. It's an opportunity for them to learn about you and to pick some interesting facts.
2. “Why consulting?”, “Why McKinsey” questions are used to assess your motivation to be a consultant in general and to work in that particular firm.
3. Next, the interviewer will also ask you to provide examples from your background to assess how good you are as a leader or a team player; how you can create impact and persuade people; or how you can achieve your goals. You'll have several dimensions and the interview will ask you to talk about one of them:

• Personal impact
• Leadership
• Entrepreneurial drive
• Achievement (asked in some countries instead of entrepreneurial drive)

Take into account that the questions may sound differently, however they will mean the same story. For example, there may be the following variations in the personal impact story:

• Team conflict
• Personal conflict
• Conflict with the boss
• Changing someone's mind
• Overcoming difficulties
• etc

Finally, don't forget to prepare your questions to the interviewer.

If you have time I would recommend to have 1-2 backup stories per question:

1. "This story does not fit. Do you have another story?" - an interviewer can easily say something like this if he is not convinced that your story is good enough or the story does not fit his criteria for some reason.
2. It is essential for you to prepare at least three stories for each area so that in case you get the same question by a couple of interviewers you are not telling the same story. I personally had 3 interviewers asking me exactly the same story. Originally the three of your interviewers are supposed to ask the different questions. In reality, interviewers don't often have a chance to meet before the interview, and sometimes they are urgently replaced by the colleagues. Of course, you can use the same story, but it is much better to demonstrate a diverse experience.
3. Finally, the interviewer may ask you the questions you didn't even expect. It's always good to have some backup stories and adapt them to answer those unexpected questions.

Best

The golden rule when you talk about yourself is to be sincere and follow your gut. You would not be at that stage if you were not a smart person with the right CV, so don’t be afraid to pick “the wrong” story. There is not “right” or “wrong”. Talk about something that made you feel proud because you really think you changed the course of the events that mattered to YOU at that point in time, Nobody will ask you why you did not change the course of human history... When I asked these types of questions during recruiting what I wanted to understand was the real character, the intensity of the feelings, the passion, regardless of how truly impactful the story was.

I hope it helps...

Hi,

“Tell me about yourself” or “walk me through your resume”- this is how Consultants usually begin the interview. It's an opportunity for them to learn about you and to pick some interesting facts. "Tell me about yourself question" is similar to "Walk me through your resume"

1. This is not the story, so you don't need to have the story structure
2. This is not about the challenge, its about your career path
3. Depending on your experiences either start from the first or from the last role (the later you are in your career the more sense it is to start with last one)
4. You can mention your unique selling point and structure your lifepath around it
5. Add 1 memorable projects or experience with high impact / cool companies and brands involved that will stay in the memory of the interviewer
6. In the end, say why consulting is a logical continuation of your career path

Best

Hi!

I would recommend to have 2 stories per question that are rather different for the following reasons:

1. "This story does not fit. Do you have another story?" - an interviewer can easily say something like this if he is not convinced that your story is good enough or the story does not fit his criteria for some reason.
2. It is essential for you to prepare at least three stories for each area so that in case you get the same question by a couple of interviewers you are not telling the same story. I personally had 3 interviewers asking me exactly the same story. Originally the three of your interviewers are supposed to ask the different questions. In reality, interviewers don't often have a chance to meet before the interview, and sometimes they are urgently replaced by the colleagues. Of course, you can use the same story, but it is much better to demonstrate a diverse experience.
3. Finally, the interviewer may ask you the questions you didn't even expect. It's always good to have some backup stories and adapt them to answer those unexpected questions.

Good luck!