What are some typical personal fit questions in a McKinsey interview?

Hi Anonymous,

I agree with Guennael on the importance of the fit part; as additional details, the most likely fit questions and topics you will find are:

• Tell me about yourself (personal overview)
• Why consulting (motivational)
• Why McK (motivational)
• Give me an example when you led a team (leadership)
• Tell me about a time when you had to convince someone not agreeing with you (impact)
• What has been your major achievement so far (drive)
• Why should we hire you (motivational)

In general, you should always cover, the key areas of leadership, impact and drive for a McKinsey interview.

The best way to prepare is to complete the following checklist:

1. Understand the difference between, leadership, impact and drive areas. You can find a link with their differences here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-pei-difference-drive-and-personal-impact-918#a1780
2. Identify good stories for each area. Ideally you want to have at least two stories for each area. Three would be even better.
3. Use a structure for your story. I would suggest to use the STARR model (Situation, Task, Action, Rational for Action, Results)
4. Identify for each story one sentence clarifying what the story is about and start with it. Think of it as the title of a journal article.
5. Practice live, collect feedback from people listening to you, reiterate until when you get fluent and convincing

Best,

Francesco

Why consulting

Why McK

What do you think the biggest challenge will be when you join

Tell me a time you had no idea what you were doing

Tell me a time you failed

Tell me a project you lead that you are most proud of

...

To prepare, I suggest you put things down on paper at first; once you have a good idea of what you'll want to say, start saying it to someone else, outloud. One more thing: Yes, the case interview part is the most important; do not overlook the fit though, I am constantly shocked at how bad some of the candidates' answers are. It isn't complicated, but you still need to work at it and prepare a little bit.

Good luck -